Work Stories: Episode 31: Come Together

Previously on Work Stories, I wrote about some crazy squirrels that were extremely territorial and protective.  That was something I actually experienced and wrote about.  How much crazier could things possibly get than that?  Let me tell you, this week is crazy.

So this story didn’t actually happen to me.  It happened to a coworker on a night when I was not at work.  But he kept this story to tell me because most of the crazy things that happen occur when I’m on.  It was one thing that I missed and he knew I would appreciate the story.  If you follow me on Twitter, you probably read about it when he told me.  This isn’t Twitter, though, and I don’t mind repeating something.  As long as I’m not repeating something already in the Work Story posts.

I worked with this coworker less than a week after it happened.  The two of us don’t normally work together, so it ends up being a shift of us talking about strange things that have happened at work, and a few shows that we both watch.  About halfway through the shift he told me that he had to go get something to show me out of the back office.  He came up with it and it looked like this:

Of course, I blacked out his name to keep some anonymity to this.  Can you make out those other names?  They are two famous people that you might recognize.  Both were members of a popular rock band in the 60s.  They were members of the Beatles.  One name is John Lennon and the other is George Harrison.  Yeah, the two that have died.

My coworker had received this gift less than a week before we worked together.  You might be wondering how he got it.  I’m about to tell you.  There’s no need to worry that I’m going to skip over that part of the story.  I’m not that bad of a storyteller, though I sometimes think that I am.

He was manning the cash register, as we all do.  A man walked up to him and began to talk with a bad British accent.  I would try and place it, but I didn’t hear it.  It was also bad, so it was likely indistinguishable.  He talked about how famous he was and how there were displays about him and his buddy in our museum.  Did I mention his buddy was with him?  No?  That might be important.  Remember that for later in the story.  So the guy says he’s in our museum.  He says he’s famous.  My coworker, polite guy that he is, goes along with what the guy is saying.  The man then says that his name is John Lennon, and his friend is George Harrison.

Some of the talk had to do with why John and George were still alive.  If I am remembering this correctly, they got fed up with the spotlight.  The Beatles had done a concert with Gordon Lightfoot.  The crowd was too rowdy.  George and John didn’t like it and decided to fade into the background of the world by faking their deaths.  At least, that’s what I remember being told that my coworker was told.  Both of us know that this is complete bullshit.  All of it is.

After the talk, the man appears to not want to go into the museum.  Instead, he wants to sign his autograph for my coworker.  My coworker gets a pen and some paper.  John Lennon signed it, then handed the pen to his buddy George Harrison.  George couldn’t sign it, however, because he was just a stick wearing a hat.  John signed George’s name as well.  Then they left.

A few nights later, I worked with the coworker who this happened to.  When he showed me the autograph, I had to take a picture.  How could I miss out on a visual memory like that?  I couldn’t.  I will forever remember the day that I was told that Lennon and Harrison were still alive.

That’s this week’s Work Story.  If you didn’t like it, you can keep quiet.  I like this story, and I like my writing.  That’s something that doesn’t normally happen.  It happened this time.  Will it happen next time?  You’ll have to tune in next week to find out.

Until then, with every mistake we must surely be learning.