Longevity? It’S In The Bag
Clyde Tervo has brought his lunch to work every day in the same paper sack for 7-1/2 years.
“Everybody talks about my bag,” said the forklift driver at Basic American Foods in Moses Lake.
The long-life lunch sack has been patched up so many times with so much masking tape that it now stands upright on its own.
That’s a lot of rehabbing.
“It’s free company tape,” said Tervo.
The bag sports a fortune cookie message. It reads “More money and travel is in your future.”
The sack has become a fixture at Basic American, a business dealing in dehydrated potato and bean products for the food service industry. Tervo’s co-workers have wondered if the Smithsonian might be interested at some point.
He has about five years to go until retirement. And Tervo figures he’ll stick with his trusty lunch sack till then.
“Like I said. People seem to get a kick out of it.”
* Lemonade stand season (report No. 1): Last weekend, at the Thorpe/Westwood neighborhood yard sale, 8-year-old Adam Martin was open for business. According to his mom, he made about $15, some of which he spent at the sale.
He might have made more, but a free-refills policy cut into his profits.
* Just wondering: What did you do when you realized your mentor is an idiot?
* Unusual Sunburns Department: In 1997, Katherine Dallas of Newport vacationed in Hawaii. She would have had more fun if she hadn’t wound up with “blistered, oozing ankles that were approximately as big around as my knees.”
* Le Buffet: A man with an accent who said he was from Paris stopped Tuesday morning at Have Beans Will Travel — a mobile espresso stand operated by Scott Griffith and Mike McMahon.
This fellow said he had borrowed a car from a friend in Chicago and was headed to San Francisco. He said he was looking for a place in the West to locate a French restaurant.
Griffith asked if Spokane was on his short list. The visitor said it was not. But he added that this seemed like a nice town.
Yes, that’s fine. But it does nothing to address the Inland Northwest’s desperate shortage of subtle sauces.
* Warm-up question for temporary workers: At a new job site, how long does it usually take to pick up on the prevailing office politics?
* Today’s Slice question: What was your best/worst summer job?