DEWAYNE'S CORNER: Memories of long-ago jobs

I was becoming unhappy with how my job was going at the auto parts store where I was sales counter manager. One of my friends I had worked with at Pratt's Grocery had a job at Kroger and told me to come out and talk with the manager as they were needing stockers. One Saturday morning early before going to the store, I went and saw the manager at Kroger. He hired me on the spot and asked me to be there Sunday night to start working night shifts.

I worked Sunday night at Kroger and went from there to the auto parts store and opened at 8 a.m. The manager was out of town but flew back and came in about 3 p.m. and told me to go. I would not let him fire me, I told him I quit.

This started my career at Kroger Foods. I was sent to Denton, Texas training with their stock crew for a week after being with the Duncan store a few weeks. I worked and carpooled with David Patterson from Marlow for a while. Five months later our grocery manager returned to Texas and I was promoted to grocery manager. I moved to evening shifts.

Store employees were union, managers were not, but when they got a raise, I got a raise. Working nights with a crew of three we stocked and faced up the shelfs each night. On truck nights I had a crew of six or eight and we had a quota of so many cases an hour to meet. The younger guys had to help this old man of 30 but we made it. We all worked the frozen food first then broke out to two on an aisle stocking. Working with that many, sometimes they didn't agree on everything. One night a couple of guys got into a fight and one ended up in the meat case. I separated them and sent each to different ends of the store. (Do you remember this SAM?) Kroger had an inventory every six months and I had one bad inventory and was demoted back to a stocker. Kenny Fisher was working there and he took the manager position. Another inventory and I was grocery manager again. They had their own private label and Duncanites didn't buy so we pulled when it was out of date and reduced. A lot of bag candy. Bread and sweet rolls after reduced three days we destroyed it. One manager gave some to a local charitable organization. Kroger flew me to Memphis, Tenn. training for assistant store manager. I left Lawton in a prop plane and they flew me back on a jumbo jet plane. I must have done something right. I was sent to Irving, Texas and shown the warehouse. Did you know they gas the bananas seven stages before shipping them to stores. In less than two years I was number two man in the store.

Being an assistant manager meant when the store manager wanted off, I was scheduled to work. Sundays were fairly often and holidays. Sunday's pay was time and a half, and holidays were double pay. One week with a holiday I took home close to a $1,000 paycheck. I also remember the shoplifters, including a teenage girl one of the workers brought to the office. I asked the female assistant cashier to the office and asked the girl her name and to show me what she had and was shocked. I called her father. It was one of my former school teachers, I told him that as she was a minor we would not press charges and turned her over to him. Another Sunday I had partied the Saturday night before and someone set fire to our dumpster out back that day and the fire department was called to put it out. All in a day's work.

About a year later they closed the store in Duncan. I had just bought a house, a new pickup and we were expecting our second baby. I went to Larry Martin at Martin's Grocery and asked for a job. He asked how much I was making and said he couldn't match. I asked if I showed him I could improve his operation would he agree to it in six months. He agreed. After three months he raised me to what I was making an hour at Kroger. We became best friends and he moved me up to manager soon after.

I love working in Marlow, Oklahoma my hometown!