THE YFM WALL OF WISDOM
With nearly 50 years of produce industry employment under my belt, I’ve run into some fascinating characters. And fascinating characters usually say stuff worth paying attention to, so I started writing down memorable quotes on a wall in our file storage room (a fancy way of saying “an un-used hallway stacked higgledy-piggledy with banana boxes full of old check book registers, time cards and threatening letters from the IRS”).
The easily-reachable space on the wall is running out, so now you have to either write really tiny or climb over that box that’s stuffed with gunny sacks to find a fresh spot, and I just noticed that staff members have been adding their own observations as well.
The quotes reflect on the people and the circumstances, some are strong PG to R rated. In no particular order here’s a tiny fraction of the WALL OF WISDOM:
PEOPLE CHANGE BUT YOU CAN’T CHANGE PEOPLE.—Olivia S., staff member, and its very inspirational corollary:
NOTHING CHANGES UNTIL YOU DO.—From N.B., a staffer who made life changing choices that put her on a path to sobriety and wellness. N.B. was the first and last staff member I ever yelled at in anger, and it taught me a valuable lesson: don’t yell at people in anger! N.B. would be the first to admit that she pushed us to the absolute limit during her tenure here. We are proud of the work she’s done and all she’s accomplished since leaving YFM.
HANGOVERS ARE FOR AMATEURS—Kevin, 10 year YFM vet! Enough said!
THE POLICE ARE EVERYONE’S FACEBOOK FRIEND.—Detective Odegaard, former YFM employee who retired from the BPD, who let us know that whatever you post online can be seen by anybody with the gumption to find it, including the police. And sure enough, Facebook postings helped crack the case he was working on for us.
EVERYTHING WORTH HAVING GOES A LITTLE BIT WILD.—Gradeschool classmate, long time Bothell Parks Dept. staffer Bob Van den Akker. We were discussing plants and gardening. His parents owned a nursery in Bothell in the 1960s-70S. They propagated trees and shrubs themselves and have a cedar they developed, a cultivar of chamaecyparis nootkatensis, called the Van Den Akker weeping cedar, the absolute narrowest cedar you can plant!
DON’T GO WHERE YOU DON’T BELONG.—Richard F., who was a 1950s pioneering hotdog skier in the NW and worked on farms in Mt. Vernon to supplement his skiing habit. He spent winters working at a low key tourist resort in Mexico, and promised (threatened?) to take me “swimming with the sharks,” if I ever came to the resort. Unfortunately, the one time I was in Mexico, and found his resort, he had gone to the town 40 miles away, so I never did get to swim with the sharks. And the corollary to this is:
DON’T WEAR SHOES YOU CAN’T RUN AWAY FROM SOMEONE IN.—Practical advice from me, learned the hard way in the 1970s.
TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD IS EASY. COMING HOME IS A TRIP.—YFM staffer Bridget Kennedy who continues to travel the world, and returns home with fresh perspectives.
FAILURE IS A PROCESS, NOT AN OBSTACLE.—Catherine Hinken, YFM staffer who went on to earn degrees in viticulture and works as an agricultural advisor.
DON’T WASH YOUR HANDS IN MUDDY WATER.—Wise words from staffer Kyle.
ENJOY THE RIDE. IT DOESN’T LAST FOREVER. ENJOY THE MUSIC.—lifelong friend Timothy Cochran on appreciating the here and now.
THE BOYS DOWNTOWN AREN’T GOING TO LIKE THIS.—Julian Karp, first superintendent of Northshore School District. He said this to my father who was a junior high school principal, in response to a change my dad wanted to make. it referred to the “Main Street” business owners who really ran the town and all its doings in those days. And the modern corollary to this:
THAT SHIT WON’T FLY IN PORTLAND.—Evan Peterson on regional differences.
ALWAYS MAINTAIN YOUR WET EDGE.—Win, YFM staffer, on paint flow techniques for auto body restoration, but applies to keeping your attitude fresh for any endeavor.
IT’S ALL TITS AND CHROME.—Montgomery. Montgomery was a wholesale nursery fixture at several long-gone greenhouse operations. I don’t even know if Montgomery was his first or last name, but I knew him for several decades. He was speaking about the design motifs of 1950s cars and why they appealed to men. Whenever I have to ask if something is being marketed to me on the basis of superficial qualities, I think, well, it’s all tits and chrome!
THE FIRST AND THE LAST DAYS ARE ALWAYS HARD.—Alex, our egg man, said to console me during our Sound Transit fight.
DO YOU WANT TO SEE THE PARADE OR BE THE PARADE?—This is all me. I love being in a parade; it’s the essence of life, distilled into a bright and disorderly line, snaking its way through town in a beautiful spectacle.
THE WORLD IS PAVED SOLID GOLD WITH BULLSHITTERS. IF YOUR WORD IS NO GOOD, BURN THIS CARD.—J.S.—verbiage on the business card of a retired nursery owner. He’d been cheated a time or two in business dealings and was “over” shady people.
IF IT FEELS WRONG, IT IS WRONG.—Stuart, YFM owner gives this advice to every new hire about trusting your gut.
…and there’s plenty more where these came from ! You could do a lot worse than these aphorisms when looking for solid life advice!
Fruitfully Yours,
KARIN POAGE
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