A Storm of Horns...
Another very surreal day at work: I went to work this afternoon (after getting the vacuuming upstairs done), expecting I would punch in as always. Instead, I bumped into one of the supervisors on my way in and he told me straight up they really didn't need me to hang around. The store looked every bit as a dead today as it has all week: only one register open and barely a handful of customers in the store. Most of the cars in the lot belonged to the workers -- and a few customers! -- out on the lawn/sidewalk picketing. More receipts from other stores taped to the doors, now covering the inside as well as the outside door. Even a bag from a local farm stand. So, I went back out and joined the picket line.
This time it got interesting: a news crew from Fox 25 in Boston came through and interviewed my boss, who showed the reporters some receipts culled from the doors of the store, also filmed us waving signs, chanting ("Artie T.! Artie T.! Artie T.!"), yelling ("Honk for Artie T!"), cheering to the cars passing by in a "rolling rally". Found the news clip online over Here, and I can be seen about thirty seconds in, walking behind some people whilst carrying a sign with a picture of Artie T. (I'm wearing a blue shirt, a floppy green hat and shades). I'm also visible in a long shot toward the end, standing behind some people, holding the "Artie head" sign (that's what we'd called it all week amongst ourselves, as in "Who's got the Artie head sign?" "I think Connor has the Artie head sign." "Dammit, where's the Artie head sign??" - usual crazy mulling about and good natured teasing) over my own head and sort of swirling it. There's also a segment at the other store in town, at the Stadium Plaza, where I used to work the counter in the bakery years ago, with more receipts stuck to the front windows!
I somehow got in good voice today, but the size of the crowd might have had something to do with it: we had no less than thirty to forty people holding signs and cheering. At one point I crossed over to the other side of the street along with several others and... whilst doing so, I had a little fun, holding a sign so the cars lined up waiting for the light could read it and I sort of did this hopping-leaping walk that made people start laughing like mad and got drivers honking even more! I even got a bit vociferous in my cheering: "Hey, your mother called, she told you to honk for Artie T.!" "It's too quiet out here! I can't hear any honking!" "I can't heeear yooou!!!" "I need me some honking!" I brought along a vuvuzela and made a few blats to get people going: people get shy about honking, but if one person starts it, more will start chiming in very quickly, till it sounds like the archetypal rush hour traffic with horns honking everywhere... only this time, as a lovely sound of support.
All kinds of people honking: people in battered mini vans and compact cars, people in Cadillacs and Lincoln Towncars, bus drivers, town truck drivers, tow truck drivers, bikers, fire truck drivers, people in classic cars, people in a new car out for a test drive, people in convertibles with the tops down, even a Statie cruising through the area.
The news crew were not the only ones filming: Arthur S.'s goon squad showed up to film us on the sly, at least until we realized they were lurking conspicuously behind a skinny tree and when we noticed them, they scurried away. Not before someone managed to snap a picture of their licence tag, so if they try any funny business, we've got a bead on them. That put a bit of a damper on some of the shenanigans, but we didn't let those mooks take the wind out of our sails.
My throat still feels a bit hoarse from all the yelling and I've got a bit of a sunburn on the outsides of my forearms, nothing that some aloe vera moisturizer and a little patience can't handle.
Later in the evening, my dad and I ventured into the store to find some muffins to go with dinner (yeah, we're technically supposed to be boycotting the place, but it was a matter of convenience: my people are cool about it, even if circumstances keep people from joining in. As I told one customer, "You do what you gotta do to take care of yourself: you'll at least be helping toward the paychecks of the brave souls we got in here."). No muffins to be had: the tables in front of the bakery stood empty, only a few marked down day old cream cakes in the cooler case. Some squashes and a few bananas in the produce department. Even the dry goods shelves have started to look picked over. Said my dad, "This is unreal. This is sad." The four kids in the front end looked very happy to see us: they looked just as bored as I did the other day.
Keep praying and thinking of us and putting out positive energy, whatever works: we've only just started to weather the storm and we've got some rough going ahead of us....
This time it got interesting: a news crew from Fox 25 in Boston came through and interviewed my boss, who showed the reporters some receipts culled from the doors of the store, also filmed us waving signs, chanting ("Artie T.! Artie T.! Artie T.!"), yelling ("Honk for Artie T!"), cheering to the cars passing by in a "rolling rally". Found the news clip online over Here, and I can be seen about thirty seconds in, walking behind some people whilst carrying a sign with a picture of Artie T. (I'm wearing a blue shirt, a floppy green hat and shades). I'm also visible in a long shot toward the end, standing behind some people, holding the "Artie head" sign (that's what we'd called it all week amongst ourselves, as in "Who's got the Artie head sign?" "I think Connor has the Artie head sign." "Dammit, where's the Artie head sign??" - usual crazy mulling about and good natured teasing) over my own head and sort of swirling it. There's also a segment at the other store in town, at the Stadium Plaza, where I used to work the counter in the bakery years ago, with more receipts stuck to the front windows!
I somehow got in good voice today, but the size of the crowd might have had something to do with it: we had no less than thirty to forty people holding signs and cheering. At one point I crossed over to the other side of the street along with several others and... whilst doing so, I had a little fun, holding a sign so the cars lined up waiting for the light could read it and I sort of did this hopping-leaping walk that made people start laughing like mad and got drivers honking even more! I even got a bit vociferous in my cheering: "Hey, your mother called, she told you to honk for Artie T.!" "It's too quiet out here! I can't hear any honking!" "I can't heeear yooou!!!" "I need me some honking!" I brought along a vuvuzela and made a few blats to get people going: people get shy about honking, but if one person starts it, more will start chiming in very quickly, till it sounds like the archetypal rush hour traffic with horns honking everywhere... only this time, as a lovely sound of support.
All kinds of people honking: people in battered mini vans and compact cars, people in Cadillacs and Lincoln Towncars, bus drivers, town truck drivers, tow truck drivers, bikers, fire truck drivers, people in classic cars, people in a new car out for a test drive, people in convertibles with the tops down, even a Statie cruising through the area.
The news crew were not the only ones filming: Arthur S.'s goon squad showed up to film us on the sly, at least until we realized they were lurking conspicuously behind a skinny tree and when we noticed them, they scurried away. Not before someone managed to snap a picture of their licence tag, so if they try any funny business, we've got a bead on them. That put a bit of a damper on some of the shenanigans, but we didn't let those mooks take the wind out of our sails.
My throat still feels a bit hoarse from all the yelling and I've got a bit of a sunburn on the outsides of my forearms, nothing that some aloe vera moisturizer and a little patience can't handle.
Later in the evening, my dad and I ventured into the store to find some muffins to go with dinner (yeah, we're technically supposed to be boycotting the place, but it was a matter of convenience: my people are cool about it, even if circumstances keep people from joining in. As I told one customer, "You do what you gotta do to take care of yourself: you'll at least be helping toward the paychecks of the brave souls we got in here."). No muffins to be had: the tables in front of the bakery stood empty, only a few marked down day old cream cakes in the cooler case. Some squashes and a few bananas in the produce department. Even the dry goods shelves have started to look picked over. Said my dad, "This is unreal. This is sad." The four kids in the front end looked very happy to see us: they looked just as bored as I did the other day.
Keep praying and thinking of us and putting out positive energy, whatever works: we've only just started to weather the storm and we've got some rough going ahead of us....