Over the weekend, we shopped at our favorite locally owned, specialty store, Davis Cookware in Hillsboro Village. The store has the best selection of teas and coffees anywhere in the world. I developed a rooibos habit in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2006. This is the only store around town with a first class selection of rooibos teas. I had been without rooibos for a few months and decided that I couldn’t survive unemployment without it.
Davis Cookware is the epitome of the mom-and-pop, main street, all-American, small business. We don’t go there, if we have to meet a schedule, as the owners will talk to you forever about teas or whatever.
We mentioned that we were unemployed, but had to have our rooibos fix. Mr. Davis proceeded to tell us this story, possibly an urban legend, but he said that the man who told him the story would only tell the truth:
A professional man in his sixties has stopped by the same store each morning for his coffee for many years. The same woman has served him his coffee, and they often conversed on the news or weather of the day.
Recently, the server (who we will call Nora) told the gentleman (who we will call John) that she had turned in her two weeks notice. Nora told John that since Barack Obama had been elected president that she would be receiving a check each week and would no longer have to work. John was appalled and told Nora that he had never heard what she was telling him. He advised her to keep her job, as she had seniority, because lots of other people were currently losing their jobs due to the economic crisis. He advised Nora to keep her job until the checks started arriving in the mail.
Mr. Davis speculated to us where Nora had heard that she would no longer have to work when Obama took office. He suspected that the right-winged talking heads had started the rumor prior to the election.
Obviously the story bothers me because I know that it is not true. To hard workers such as Nora it will only cause disappointment and frustration.
