"I do not know Why yet I live to say 'This thing’s to do' . . . . ”
Hamlet
Act IV
Scene iv
Well, I do.
I've been meaning to write about McAlister's Deli for the past seven years or so.
But like many Important Things, it just kept slipping off of the radar. I'd think about it every Friday when I took Joe to work there, but by the time I'd picked him up an hour and a half later the thought was smoke on the horizon.
Which is shameful, really.
Because the people at McAlister's have been really good to my little boy.
He started going there with his high school special needs class. The kids did menial tasks and got a little bit of work experience and the odd job skill or two, and McAlister's got some free labor, so everybody benefited. After a bit of that, the McAlister folks asked if Joe would want to start working for pay. Just an hour and a half or two hours one day a week, but still. Real money.
At that was how Joe got his first job. And four years later he's still there, and he still loves it.
Not for the job itself. His main gig is filling little cups with sour cream or dressing. Sometimes he wraps cookies. That's about it. But the people there are so good to him. They treat him like a co-worker. They don't talk to him like he's an idiot or a baby, which many people . . . sometimes even family members . . . do. They ask him about what he's been doing and what he going to do. They answer when he asks them. They thumb wrestle with him. They greet him hello and bid him good-bye. They invite him to the Christmas Party.
And it's not just because I'm there . . . because I'm not there most of the time. I drop him off at the door and I only come in at the very end of his shift. And I know that there are times when they don't even see me.
Plus I've seen how they treat the other special needs folks who work for them.
I have never seen any employee be anything other than nice. Not even once.
Which says to me that there's decree that has come down from on high . . . at least at the local managerial level . . . that We Are Going to Be Nice to These Guys and Gals.
It's a beautiful thing.
So if you've got to eat lunch SOMEwhere . . . McAlister's would be a good choice, wouldn't it?
Besides, they make a killer Reuben sandwich.
UPDATE: https://songsofinnocenceampexperience.blogspot.com/2023/06/mcalisters-deli-retracting-paean.html
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