Captain Crosby, to the Rescue
By the time Crosby caught up with me, the dining area was a sea of humanity. The frigid weather had caused all the guests to avoid waiting on line outside of the church for as long as possible, only to converge on it all at once. We had no choice but to admit as many of them as could fit to wait in the lobby and the Gray Lounge. It was like the Burning of Atlanta, and I was playing the pouting, privileged, Scarlett O'Hara.
If you remember the scene from "Gone With the Wind", Scarlett wants desperately to escape the besieged city for the comforts of her family plantation. Only her sister-in-law, Melanie's overdue pregnancy is keeping her at bay when the dashing Captain Rhett Butler appears to whisk both she and Melanie away.
Well, something of the sort did happen Saturday Morning. After all, Crosby certainly fits the definition of the newly created "Captains" title. Marilyn still runs the show, but, Crosby is her chief cook and extra pair of legs. And arms (those arms!) Also, among his duties is to look out for his temperamental best friends - or, semi-best friends.
Captain Crosby soon had me back in the storage room overseeing the restocking of the shelves. I had two assistants who completely ignored me for an hour and a half while they conferred among themselves like graduate students attacking a lab assignment. It was a classic triad in sociological terms, but, I was content to simply make sure they did not make any glaring mistakes. A new shipment of bottled bleach got moved several times because we could not agree on whether it fit better with the "food" or with the "dry goods". In the end it wound up pretty close to where I had put it in the first place.
By the time we all said our farewells, Captain Crosby was dragging like a broken muffler. I even got him to absently repeat, "Go Patriots!" on his way out.
If you remember the scene from "Gone With the Wind", Scarlett wants desperately to escape the besieged city for the comforts of her family plantation. Only her sister-in-law, Melanie's overdue pregnancy is keeping her at bay when the dashing Captain Rhett Butler appears to whisk both she and Melanie away.
Well, something of the sort did happen Saturday Morning. After all, Crosby certainly fits the definition of the newly created "Captains" title. Marilyn still runs the show, but, Crosby is her chief cook and extra pair of legs. And arms (those arms!) Also, among his duties is to look out for his temperamental best friends - or, semi-best friends.
Captain Crosby soon had me back in the storage room overseeing the restocking of the shelves. I had two assistants who completely ignored me for an hour and a half while they conferred among themselves like graduate students attacking a lab assignment. It was a classic triad in sociological terms, but, I was content to simply make sure they did not make any glaring mistakes. A new shipment of bottled bleach got moved several times because we could not agree on whether it fit better with the "food" or with the "dry goods". In the end it wound up pretty close to where I had put it in the first place.
By the time we all said our farewells, Captain Crosby was dragging like a broken muffler. I even got him to absently repeat, "Go Patriots!" on his way out.