No I am not going to talk about toilets or a hookers customers.I am going to talk about two men who had a big influence on my life.
The first one was John Szymanski, who I met at the end of 1957. He had just been assigned to the First National store in Danvers square. He had arrived to replace Henry Blaise, who was leaving to become manager of a new supermarket. Which was located on Cabot street, near Gloucester crossing in Beverly.
Although Henry had hired me in August of that year, I was not upset to see him go. Henry was very hyper and fidgety, and he made me very nervous. Although I had worked at plenty of little jobs, lawn mowing,paper route etc. this was my real first step out into the world of gainful employment. So with Henry constantly running around like a chicken with his head cut off, he made my start a FSN a very anxious one.
To this day I still cannot figure out what made Henry Blaise tick. I could name a long list of people who toiled for him and went on to become store managers or assistants. So in this case using a sports analogy."your only as good as your players" must apply.
John came to the Danvers First National after a stint as a regional manager. The scuttlebutt was that he was coming off a nervous breakdown. As I got to know John, I could see exactly what had happened to him. They had promoted him to a territory in east Overshoe Maine. As super markets were just coming into being at that time, most of the stores in his territory were still little one man operations. So it was easy to see why he became very frustrated with his input and the fact that his family was still back on Loris avenue in Peabody. So the fact that the company was trying to make it look like they were being compassionate and giving him a nice soft place to land. It was really a punishment detail. John was very out spoken and that's what got him into trouble. This I can say with certainty because the same type of punishment was doled out to me, more than once in my time spent with FSN. The fact that the Danvers stores went on to become the flagships for the Somerville division is a tribute to John. So you can see I never bought into that nervous breakdown crap.
Although John came to Danvers with the reputation of being a no nonsense disciplinarian. It was at that time one of the best thing to happen to me. At that time in my life I was a insecure teenager who had just started a new job and High school, all within a few months. I cannot down play how important this job was to me. As soon as I turned sixteen the bureaucrat who monitored the state wards in the Beverly area, was hounding me constantly to start paying my freight. This was a very annoying person. His clothes looked like he had swiped them from a wino and then slept in a mud puddle with them on. That plus the fact he did not have the aura of someone who was to swift! Common sense and tact were definitely not his forte. I just wanted to hold my job,pay my share of my keep. And avoid him at all cost.
Getting Back to John, I did not know it at the time but he became a father figure to me. He was the first adult male that I used as a role model. To this day I am guilty of quoting him. I clearly remember the first time I asked him what he thought of the job I had done. His reply, after looking over what I had done, was "it's expected" Well I did not know what to make of that. As time went by I became to realize that this was the most organized person I had met or would ever meet. John's reputation was that he had a system for his systems. As I said before, supermarkets were in their infancy and store managers ran their stores as they saw fit. How ever as the procedure manuals started to emerge any one who had worked for John would just shake their head and say big deal we've been doing that all along. The reason I managed to advance at FNS was I remained a disciple of John who's motto "Have a plan-work the plan" was exactly what I did. I only wish I had followed the same philosophy in my personal life. I busted my hump for John. I did not want to screw up,because I did not want him to become upset with me. That's how I think most boys probably feel about their fathers. And if anybody needed a father figure at that time it was me.
In a future blog I will talk about another John, a person who I dearly miss.
The first one was John Szymanski, who I met at the end of 1957. He had just been assigned to the First National store in Danvers square. He had arrived to replace Henry Blaise, who was leaving to become manager of a new supermarket. Which was located on Cabot street, near Gloucester crossing in Beverly.
Although Henry had hired me in August of that year, I was not upset to see him go. Henry was very hyper and fidgety, and he made me very nervous. Although I had worked at plenty of little jobs, lawn mowing,paper route etc. this was my real first step out into the world of gainful employment. So with Henry constantly running around like a chicken with his head cut off, he made my start a FSN a very anxious one.
To this day I still cannot figure out what made Henry Blaise tick. I could name a long list of people who toiled for him and went on to become store managers or assistants. So in this case using a sports analogy."your only as good as your players" must apply.
John came to the Danvers First National after a stint as a regional manager. The scuttlebutt was that he was coming off a nervous breakdown. As I got to know John, I could see exactly what had happened to him. They had promoted him to a territory in east Overshoe Maine. As super markets were just coming into being at that time, most of the stores in his territory were still little one man operations. So it was easy to see why he became very frustrated with his input and the fact that his family was still back on Loris avenue in Peabody. So the fact that the company was trying to make it look like they were being compassionate and giving him a nice soft place to land. It was really a punishment detail. John was very out spoken and that's what got him into trouble. This I can say with certainty because the same type of punishment was doled out to me, more than once in my time spent with FSN. The fact that the Danvers stores went on to become the flagships for the Somerville division is a tribute to John. So you can see I never bought into that nervous breakdown crap.
Although John came to Danvers with the reputation of being a no nonsense disciplinarian. It was at that time one of the best thing to happen to me. At that time in my life I was a insecure teenager who had just started a new job and High school, all within a few months. I cannot down play how important this job was to me. As soon as I turned sixteen the bureaucrat who monitored the state wards in the Beverly area, was hounding me constantly to start paying my freight. This was a very annoying person. His clothes looked like he had swiped them from a wino and then slept in a mud puddle with them on. That plus the fact he did not have the aura of someone who was to swift! Common sense and tact were definitely not his forte. I just wanted to hold my job,pay my share of my keep. And avoid him at all cost.
Getting Back to John, I did not know it at the time but he became a father figure to me. He was the first adult male that I used as a role model. To this day I am guilty of quoting him. I clearly remember the first time I asked him what he thought of the job I had done. His reply, after looking over what I had done, was "it's expected" Well I did not know what to make of that. As time went by I became to realize that this was the most organized person I had met or would ever meet. John's reputation was that he had a system for his systems. As I said before, supermarkets were in their infancy and store managers ran their stores as they saw fit. How ever as the procedure manuals started to emerge any one who had worked for John would just shake their head and say big deal we've been doing that all along. The reason I managed to advance at FNS was I remained a disciple of John who's motto "Have a plan-work the plan" was exactly what I did. I only wish I had followed the same philosophy in my personal life. I busted my hump for John. I did not want to screw up,because I did not want him to become upset with me. That's how I think most boys probably feel about their fathers. And if anybody needed a father figure at that time it was me.
In a future blog I will talk about another John, a person who I dearly miss.
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