SC - "Commander Charming" ( Was Passage East III - Part 1)

[CorwynWdwd at aol.com]

Strangely enough, to throw out another side to all of this, I had no problems 
whatsoever with "Sarge" aka "Commander Charming". We talked on the loading 
dock of the post the night before the event, while I waited for the steak 
dinners I'd bought for my Lady and I (They were having some kind of fund 
raiser or something, and were grilling steaks to order outside). Yes, he was 
rough and somewhat gruff, but I found him to be pretty amusing. Like the King 
in the Lion in Winter, I think he just wanted to show he could roar. 

He HAD tried to double the price of the hall early on and I'd told the 
autocrat to stand firm on the original deal. He eventually said she was the 
most obstinate young woman he'd ever known. When she told me that I told her 
she'd made an old curmudgeon (in this case me) VERY proud.

Then again, I adopt protective coloration when I'm among strangers... I was a 
good naturedly foul-mouthed as the best of the old soldiers that night <EG>. 
I also have a decade at least on either of the autocrats and the majority of 
the people doing set up. For whatever reason, I didn't have many problems 
with Sarge. I've dealt with people like him all my life.

I don't know that we'll use that hall again though, it's just not big or good 
enough for the price he ended up wanting, we'd have to up the event price too 
much. I'm also not happy he wasn't there to see how well we'd cleaned the 
hall, as they had another group coming in that afternoon (then again, maybe 
they stayed away on account of the snow). Pity.

As to cigarettes being a violation of health code in a kitchen... I did final 
clean up Sunday morning on the kitchen, which is usually a walk through, but 
I wanted to impress the VFW... trust me, smoking in the kitchen would be the 
least of any inspection worries. And our guys had been through there once.

Corwyn

In a message dated 11/22/2000 1:43:52 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
wandapease at bigfoot.com writes:

> Um....  Adamantius, I realize you probably meant this as a safety valve
>  comment (ah, yes.  If I had only said ...) but I certainly hope that no one
>  ever actually makes it under similar conditions.  As the daughter of a VFW
>  former Commander, I can tell you that when some young "snip" (young and 
snip
>  being relative terms, depending on the age of the person being spoken to)
>  makes a comment like that to a man who has been married for 42 years to the
>  same woman, they had best be prepared to pack their stuff and get out.