It's been nearly 35 years since I left my job in the personnel office of the Smithsonian Institution. Having a pretty much mindless job as a personnel assistant in the middle of so many museums offered a lot of perks. As a present-day teacher, I miss the lunch HOURS the most.
Warm days meant someone would grab the blanket stashed under Polly's desk so we could picnic on the mall in the shade of the old castle. Naps were common on those days and it was more than once that I or one of my friends slept past the end of our allotted time.
Wintertime meant the lunch gang would head out to a restaurant nearby or maybe to the ice skating rink. There were pizza-eating contests at the all-you-can-eat Armand's and plenty of laughs when we watched our buddy and Minnesotan, Ted, fall on the ice as he experienced toe clips on an ice skate for the first time ever.
I had a few different bosses during my time there and they were all extremely laid back. So when I found out they were filming a movie right in front of my office at the Arts and Industries Building I asked my boss, Pete, if I could go out to watch.
"Pete, can I go watch the filming?"
I was surprised to see him look so serious, afraid he'd say no, I upped my plea.
"C'mon, Robert Downey Jr. is out there," I pleaded.
No response.
I smiled, "Cybil Shepard is too!"
He stood up in a snap, "How does my hair look?"
With a quick glance in the mirror, we were out the door.
To paraphrase Abe Lincoln, "It's not the hours in our lives, it's the life in our hours." Chances Are that was a fun hour!
ReplyDelete