I work in Gaffney, a small South Carolina town that has some lovely bits to it (I’ve tried to spotlight some of those), along with some serious challenges. My job involves near-constant interaction with the public and most of that is lovely. Oh, sure, there are days where I have to remind myself that the chances are very, very good that this particular person did not – despite all evidence to the contrary – wake up and say, “Yep. Today, I think I’ll go be mule-headed and raise my voice to a stranger over at City Hall.” People are people and everyone gets stressed out. Plus, I go home at the end of the day.
And sometimes my job lets me do some real good in the world.
Yesterday, for instance. A young woman came to our office to take care of some paperwork associated with opening a new business in town. While our office is pretty darned fast at turning paperwork around, it’s not an instantaneous process. She was told that it would take maybe twenty minutes and she could wait, but there was also a good coffee shop just down the street if she wanted to stretch her legs while we worked. She was happy with that suggestion – she had thought she was going to drop off the paperwork and have to wait a few days. She smiled and went down the stairs, but quickly returned and I could tell by the look on her face that she was worried.
The problem? If she was going to be 20 minutes or so, she couldn’t just leave her car in the space and she didn’t know how to pay for parking while she waited. She was concerned – she didn’t see a QR code on the wall to scan, there wasn’t a meter – could I help her?
With both patience and glee, I leaned forward and explained that parking was free – that in that one limited way, she was sort of in Mayberry.
The expression on her face . . . turns out she’s a transplant from metro Atlanta. She left smiling and I hope her coffee was just perfect.
Welcome to Gaffney!
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