All I Wanted Was a Pizza

In the era where I made five dollars per hour I took the bus to a used record store. That is how one subsides on five dollars per hour. Today's low salaries are more pathetic by comparison.

En route to the bus stop I decided to buy a pizza. There was a Little Caesar's over that way. They have cheap pizza. Inexpensive and they sell two pizzas for the price of one. As I placed my order the man behind the counter asked if I wanted a job.

My hours were strange at the time. Stranger than my current situation? Yes- there were midday shifts, day shifts into early evening and overnight once a week to process the weekly shipment.

At this point I was not searching for work. Be careful what you are offered out of the blue. It's not like I struck up a conversation and the man behind the register asked if I would be interested in a position. No, he was trying to transfer the pain of his vocational error to the first person who walked through the door.

I saw no reason to change careers abruptly. If he were frustrated to the point that he wanted out; wouldn't I end up in a similar place? I would find a position roughly six months later.

There was growth in the position held at the time. Part of what killed it was they were moving. Besides the fact the job three blocks from home would be roughly three miles from home; the stocking of back issues which was my niche and a long term goal was taken from me.

No matter how much is sold on clearance there is too much to move when the time comes. I was out of the company before the relocation. Would I have held the position at Little Caesar's that long? Probably not.

Now that I have a better job and more money I do not patronize Little Caesar's. Nothing wrong with it- I eat less pizza. That location was taken over by Papa John's. I cannot drive down that street and not think about when I was offered a managerial position sight unseen. The desperation of the man looking for an escape hatch was red flag enough to turn him down in the moment. All I wanted was a pizza.