Where Credit is Due

Every time I shave I remember when I learned to shave. My older brother taught me. And for the next fifteen years I religiously used the micro gillette disposable shavers that he used that day.

And about the same time my stepfather taught me how to tie a tie. And I have never put on a tie since without remembering that first lesson.

And my older brother's first wife taught me how to drive. And I think about that experience almost every time I drive and especially when I'm teaching someone else how to drive.

What's really intriguing is how I learned the word "aversion." I had just moved to Chicago and was working as a bag boy in a grocery store named Dominicks. The nice guy who hired me was transferred and a new store manager took over... a jerk with an attitude. One day he told me to take my lunch break and to clean the bathrooms when I got back. I lived close enough to take my lunch at home, a fourth story apartment in Elmhurst, and took the opportunity to complain to Travis (the same older brother that taught me how to shave). I explained that I didn't think a bag boy should have to clean bathrooms. Evidently Travis believed in the power of a strong vocabulary. He advised me to tell the jerk~store~manager that "I have a personal aversion to cleaning up after other people's digestive waste" and could he please find someone else to do that chore. And it worked. It was almost like magic. The manager basically said "okay." And that was the end of it. Except I can never use the word "aversion" without remembering.