Threshold to the Future

Dick Baynton
Dick Baynton

On my way home one night recently, I stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few items for our kitchen. Upon leaving the store, I opted to check out my purchases at one of the electronic stations near the front door. A young man wearing a name badge approached and asked if he could help me. I mentioned that I could get along quite well except for the bananas that required punching certain numerical or alphabetic buttons to arrive at the cost of the fruit. As he reached into the cart to grab the bananas, he said that he would take care of that problem right now. Placing the bananas on the electronic scale, his fingers darted around the lighted keyboard and in just an instant, the cost of the bananas appeared on the electronic screen.

This young man was a local high school student who was wearing his pants at waist level, and had no visible tattoos, lip, nose or ear studs. His cap was adjusted toward the front and his eyes were aimed at mine as he smiled during the brief contact that we had. He exuded confidence at what he was doing.

The same plaudits should be extended to those young men and women who toil inside the sometimes-sterile walls of fast food restaurants, also known as hamburger joints and other specious referrals. On a recent visit to one of these outposts of super calorie consumption a tall young lady that appeared to be in her teens met us at the counter. Her workstation consisted of a cash register, a credit card reader and a microphone. Her first words as we approached the counter were, “How can I help you?” Her soothing words from her smiling lips directed our gaze up at the lighted menu board above and behind her. She immediately fixed her eyes on us and watched my wife’s fingers searching for a discount coupon in her over-stocked purse.

Not familiar with fast food jargon, I turned away so my wife could communicate our lunch choices. That done, the young lady snapped unintelligible comments into the microphone to some person behind her who was wearing headgear that apparently picked up the coded message. We took a few steps to the side allowing the next customer up to the counter.

In almost no time, our order was placed on a tray, having been plucked from stainless steel bins under the lighted menu board. That person smiled and provided a brief explanation regarding filling the empty cups with ice and drinks. We sat down and enjoyed our food at a table that was bolted to the floor in the same manner that railroad tracks are bolted to the ties.

During our brief visit, it seemed as though skilled professionals had choreographed the entire process of ordering, paying for and receiving our food. These ‘hamburger flippers’ were mostly in their teens or early 20’s, they were both men and women, they were of different races and exhibited traits of skinny, overweight, frizzy hair, pony tails and buzz cuts. None of these distinguishing features seem to matter; their goal to provide friendly service to a wide range of customer types without delay.

It occurred to me that these young adults act more like adults than some people who parade around in big F-150’s and expensive imported cars. These teenagers have jobs being used as springboards to careers. These saplings are going to bloom into healthy trees (metaphorically) and will become electricians and plumbers, firemen, policemen, judges and juries. Some will become high school teachers and college professors while others become doctors and nurses.

These workers should be respected and admired for they validate our existence and will become the measuring stick for the culture we impose on them through inheritance, for better or for worse.

Note: This column is presented as a result of my wife’s request to write something nice in place of writing about the bad news that seems to absorb so much print. If you have topic suggestions, please let me know and I’ll try.

– Dick Baynton

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