I treated myself to a chai today. The coffee shop was busy and the workers were dancing around like they were choreographed in a dance movie.
That reminded me of my days as a veterinary receptionist. I worked at a busy vet clinic between 1988 and 1994 or so. It’s been long enough that I don’t exactly recall. But it was during a time when we still had phones cords. At the clinic, the cords were very long so if someone needed to speak to a person out of view of the reception area, they could. Or you could check on a chart in the back. Or whatever.
One afternoon, when the phones were ringing off the hook, I and the other receptionist as well as a tech were all on the phones. One of us came through a door and carried the cord over the heads of someone else. We stepped over the lower cord of the person at the computer. Twirled around the one that was going to wrap us up and keep us from getting back to the back.
When the phones were hung up, the woman sitting in the reception area waiting to see the doctor clapped for our ability to not get wrapped up in a cord or trip ourselves or run into each other.
She said we made it look easy. It was really just practice. It was, not, however, something that was useful in other parts of one’s life.
It’s a good memory, although I do not miss corded phones!
Now, we often don’t even have landlines and rely mostly on cell phones. Still, I have seen my local veterinarian’s office receptionists dancing around with their cordless phones and cell phones avoiding each other in small spaces, sometimes carrying a pet in a carrier or on a leash. They just aren’t avoiding a tether.
I both hated and loved working at the vet. I don’t think I could do it again, though but it was a good experience to have had.
Maybe that’s one reason pets so often seem to turn up in my books.
At any rate, happy reading people!