This past summer, I worked at a baseball stadium. It was the best job I've ever had, and it was also the most challenging job I've ever had. As a former camp counselor of nine-year-olds, I don't say that lightly either. The roles typically filled by seven or eight adults were staffed by just three teenagers.
We sprinted at each home game, running up and down the stairs serving food and drinks and taking orders. We only worked through the seventh inning, and we only worked home streaks, which were typically every other week (the hours were incredible). But when we were working, we were sprinting up and down the stairs and sweating like crazy.Most games were at night, but the ones during the day were unbelievably hot. And, after a week of doing two-hour stair exercises while holding food and beverages, the sweltering Sunday day games were the worst.
It was always hot, always sunny, and always so much earlier than we wanted. Rather than our usual arrival time of 5:30 p.m., we were required to appear by 10 a.m., a difficult feat for exhausted college kids. We dreaded these games, and we were always exhausted. The week's work behind us and a too-early start time to eat much meant we were running on empty.
Enter Joe. Joe was the baseball team's historian, and he would find us and tell us fascinating stories about the history of the park. He worked in the air-conditioned media room and allowed us in when it was hot or just introduced us to people. As a journalism major, this was huge, and I was so grateful to make some connections at a serving job. When we got to participate in an event on the field, he even took photos for us and gave them to us on a flash drive.
Joe was incredibly kind, but the nicest thing he did was that he gave us something to enjoy on those Sunday games. One day he asked us our favorite donuts, and then that Sunday morning a box of a dozen appeared - with multiples of all of our favorites. Once, he even went to two different stores because the first ran out of Long Johns.These donuts made all the difference, and he was so kind. We insisted he did not have to do it, but he persisted nevertheless and gave us something to be glad for on those brutal Sunday shifts. I will never forget his kindness or the little extra joy he brought to the worst day of my week.
