This week's flower stand story:
I am an approachable person. These are weird times. People sometimes talk to me because they're lonely or hitting on me or forgot how to interact with others and are practicing. I've had people tell me stories about their deceased Mother's favorite flowers. Or how they're visiting the city because their adult child used to live here. College students who are homesick. Women who want to have a job doing exactly what I'm doing--"did you go to school for this?" (Girl, do you really want to hear that story?). Creepy guys who are trying to compliment me but instead cause me to have an escape plan in the event I feel cornered (I will climb over the banana stand).
Yesterday, a guy walked into the market, and his energy felt off. Most people have an obliviousness about them, they honestly don't see me unless I call out "good morning" or "hello". They're on vacation or lunch break or have some place they gotta be, someone they're meeting. This guy seemed anxious. I watch people's hands and his were moving strangely. He was adjusting his pants in back and I watched to see if he had a weapon (I don't think he did). I didn't see him for a while, and the next thing I knew he was standing in front of me talking. I didn't realize the import of what happened until I told the story to someone and pieced together the timeline. Maybe you'll figure it out in this retelling.
"I'm having a panic attack."
He began by telling me that he had just moved here from LA, and this city is not like LA. He is sober, and in Los Angeles there is an organization that he worked with to help the Grammys have non-alcoholic support for the artists. He had just taken a long bike ride and was really thirsty. And this damn town is all about drinking--he could easily get a beer or even a Bloody Mary with hamburgers and cheese curds hanging off of it. But he was trying to make a healthy choice, and ordered a beverage from the Juice Bar across from the flower stand. 20 minutes. He had to wait 20 minutes and he was so thirsty. It was maddening.
He told me about the musical instruments he used to repair. If he could just get a job repairing instruments, like on weekends, that would be good. He had just quit his job as a line cook because he had worked 11 days in a row, asked for his birthday off (age 56), and they wouldn't let him have it off (lazy essential workers, amirite?) so he quit. His dad had his first stroke at 56. Died at 62. Grandfather died at 62. Great-grandfather died at 62. "Don't do what I did, son." "I figure I've got six good year left, ya know?"
He rode his bike to the market from South Milwaukee. He doesn't drive anymore because ___ (a medication? I don't remember this detail) could cause him to black out, and he decided that was a risk he wasn't going to take. He told me about an acupuncture place in Bay View. I said I'd check it out.
I told him about the Bay View violin repair store I visited where they had more repair work than they could handle. I pulled out my cell to give him their number. Potential customers waited patiently for their turn to buy flowers, but after a few minutes wandered away. He was self-aware enough to notice this, and said "oh excuse me, please, go ahead" etc to one, but she said "no-no--just looking" (she came back later to say she really did want to buy some protea but realized she didn't have floral foam (? does one need floral foam to buy protea? I learn new things all the time) and promised she'd come back later in the week.)
I asked him if he was making music, and he lit up telling me about a song he had just written (I don't know anyone who repairs instruments who doesn't also play). He was telling me about this great new song when his order was called. As he walked over to pick up his juice he said "hey, thanks for the human connection."
To those braying about us lazy people on unemployment not wanting to work:
I made more in tips than I did in wages yesterday.
When I make more than $290 in a week (40 hours at $7.25), I don't qualify for PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance). That works out to about $15k per year. Us lazy people on unemployment only qualify for it if we make less than $290 per week. So far this year I have only made more than that 3 times. When I factor in tips, I make a higher rater of pay in this retail job than I did teaching with a salaried 12 month contract, with a masters degree and over a decade of experience. There are fewer full-time jobs like that now than there were in 2008. Some economists have argued that many of the new "jobs" being created in the past decade are "bullshit jobs", not meaningfully producing value for the worker or society, but as placeholders in a structure which sorts the employed from the unemployed, the worthy from the not, and you can guess how that plays out with other structures such as Whiteness, facility with English, maleness, access to inherited wealth and its markers, disability, age, citizenship status, queerness, gender-conformity. In addition, precarity is the standard for "freelancers" like myself: 1099 contracts (like my present employment situation with both the music lessons I teach and the flower stand work I do), adjunct teaching, volunteering. Contingent. Temporary contract. No benefits. No health insurance. No labor protections? No guarantee of anything. I imagine that the pandemic has either eliminated more of the full-time positions or transitioned them to these more precarious arrangements.
Asshole business owners who won't/can't raise their wages above $7.50 shouldn't be running a business. For every minimum wage job "created" by these assholes, TAXPAYERS pay about $6000 in welfare benefits for those who qualify, and poverty wages are what make people qualify for these things like food stamps and medicaid. So we're subsidizing these assholes mismanaging their businesses/relying on business models developed literally during enslavement.
https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2014/03/how-taxpayers-subsidize-low-wage-workers/
Unger, R. (2013). California To Wal-Mart: Enough! No More Taxpayer Subsidized Profits For You. http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/06/03/california-to-wal-mart-enough-no-more-taxpayer-subsidized-profits-for-you/
And regarding food businesses: if a restaurant owner flouts health department recommendations during a pandemic, they do it when it's not a pandemic too. Yes, it costs money to follow sanitation and food safety rules. Sometimes people have to throw out food that has been unrefrigerated because it might make people sick to serve it as if it had been refrigerated properly. That's how food poisoning happens. Connect the dots: if someone is willing to disregard the rules about masks or other safety protocols, they are the type of person who disregards rules that they disagree with or which impact their bottom line. They care more about their bottom line than their customers.
I know some food people who care about their customers. That's who I want to spend my food dollars with.
I felt a little bad about those potential customers who didn't get to buy their flowers. Maybe I was a bad employee for focusing on one non-paying customer so much. I made the error of treating a person like a person, rather than a mark for a sale. An hour later near closing, a person bought "all of the roses", my largest sales day to date, and gave me a generous tip too. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.
What I think happened in those 20 minutes: The guy was "thirsty" and sober and having a panic attack. He didn't have an AA sponsor yet in this new city, and he really wanted a drink, in a building with at least three bars, and a Juice Stand with a twenty minute wait time. It's possible that he was reaching out to me to prevent himself from drinking alcohol. And it's possible that my chatting with him enabled him to do that.
