When I was younger in college I worked at Sears. Sears was a department store that had clothing, appliances, furniture, electronics, and stuff like that. They never got into groceries but they did have some snack items on the gift shelves. Fancy!
When I worked at Sears I worked in the Customer Convenience Center.
That's where we dealt with credit card payments and applications,
money exchanging with the cashiers, gift-wrapping, and general
customer service. Not so much returns thank goodness, but customer
service.
Because I was writing things all day I carried pens with me. Sears
had these skinny black pins with white tops and no clip for your
pocket. Being a cool teenager I didn't want to put it in my shirt
pocket anyways because that would look goofy and nerdy.
So I would carry two or three of these pens in the back pocket of my
pants. That way I could reach around with my right hand and pull out
what I needed to make a mark on a sheet of paper, application, or
whatever.
When I would get off of work I would take the pens out of my pocket
and leave them at work. The next day I would pick up a couple more
and put them back there. So throughout the workday I had the pens in
the back pocket of my pants but after or before work I did not.
I had a friend who bought a fancy older car. He was a manager at
K-mart and earned enough money to where he bought a Satellite Sebring
that was bright green with a white vinyl top, white leather seats and
interior, fat mag wheels, and booming sound system. Very cool for the
early to mid 1980s!
After he bought that car he wanted to show it off to me so I went over
to Kmart on a lunch break. He came running out because he had a car
alarm and shut off how he could turn the car along on and off. Then
we got in and the went for a ride. We went through the parking lot in
a road and went back. We didn't get any lunch because he didn't want
to eat in the car and mess up the white leather interior.
We had a lot of fun and when I got out we were about to close the
doors and he went all man! What did you do?
The black pens in my back pocket had scribbled black ink on the
passenger side white leather seat. Luckily it didn't poke a hole in
the leather but there were several butt scribbles on the seat.
My friend got really upset, and then he said no big deal and that he
would clean it off.
But I always felt bad about that incident. And now whenever I go to
sit in somebody's car I double check my back pockets to make sure I
don't have anything poking out.
And I carry my pens in my shirt pocket when I have a shirt pocket.
Otherwise I try not to carry a pen with me except for my wallet pen
hat I keep on me.
Fun memory!
