Halloween 1980

Halloween 1980. It was my first Halloween as manager of the records department and at 21 the youngest manager in the building, all eight floors of it. Insecure is an understatement when it comes to how I felt dealing with all of the incrusted dinosaurs that had been with the institution for years and for that matter should have been institutionalized. Close to one hundred percent of them had issues with my running my own department without having kissed all of the ass they had to in order to get their positions.

Protecting my flank was my number one priority and dealing with a staff that desired to work costumed on Halloween was not one I wanted to run by my boss. Much to my surprise I received a flier announcing that costumes wearing and a costume contest were part of the days design.

Somewhat reluctantly I informed the staff that costuming was in though in the back of my worried mind I expected dire consequences to erupt from Hallows Eve. Of course with about fifty sets of eyes on me there was no way I was going to risk costuming myself.

With the arrival of the big day my mind was fortunately more occupied by business matters allowing me to ignore the inner tension a bit of bubbling lava bubbling below the surface which, if history had taught me anything it had taught me that before five I would be apologizing for the inappropriate dress and/or behavior exhibited by a member of my crack staff.

The business at hand was the orientation and training of a new employee. She was a transfer from another office and I had yet to meet her. With my morning agenda at the forefront of my mind I opened the vault and did my best to prepare for the arrival of my costumed mob. To be fair my staff for the most part was dependable. However they were young, inexperienced and tended to test my patience on a regular basis.

Which as fate would have it the first two arrivals did. They arrived dressed as a male/female Siamese twin. Quite a bit of work went into the costume and I was for the most part impressed by the effect. That being said their job was similar to that of a library assistant. Rather than books they pulled and returned loan files. I could not see how they were going to get anything accomplished dressed in such a manner. Not wanting to remove their zeal for the holiday I agreed that they could stay clothed in that manner as long as it passed mustard with my boss.

The Siamese twins were the calm before the storm they were rapidly followed by a witch, a gangster moll, a Cyclops (don’t ask), Cinderella, a soldier, a pregnant nun (who happened to be a guy) and the best non-professional Groucho Marx I have ever seen.

Dispatching the crew to a mixed bag of tasks I returned to my desk to find notes informing me that two employees were ill and sitting in my visitor’s chair the welcome appearance of the new kid, because despite the costume party atmosphere it was going to be a busy day.
Sitting down with a sigh I introduced myself to Tawny Stevens she appeared surprised that I knew who she was (I snuck a peek at her personnel file cover as I sat) as her transfer was a last minute deal. Point in fact I was not expecting her until the first so to a degree I was just as surprised.

I found out almost immediately that Tawny was rather shy and not much for small talk. As I read through her file she kept her eyes on the floor in front of her. Only offering a clipped yes or no to my questions.

She appeared to be a bit more than ten years older than myself. Which would have made her around 32. Her hair was short, ash blonde in color and rather simply in style. Her make up to was simple. A little blush, a bit of lipstick and if she wore any fragrance it was undetectable to my nose. Her dress was a simple plaid, knee length with sensible black shoes on her feet. My first impression was that she was a no nonsense person who would probably be good at her job. As I introduced her around I considered asking if she could type, as I had to do all my own typing. No secretary in my budget.

I left Tawny in the very capable hands of my assistant and returned to the drudgery of paperwork. It was performance evaluation time, which could take awhile. Considering I had twelve employees all performing the exact same tasks but required to create twelve separate but equal reviews. In other words say the same thing twelve times while creatively finding a way to twist the words to say the same thing without being obvious.

With little effort the morning flew by. Few questions from my staff, even fewer interruptions from the phone I was not getting my hopes up but maybe just maybe the entire day would be this smooth.

About 12:30 Tom reminded me about lunch and we left for an all you could eat buffet within spitting distance of our building. Eating lunch there sometimes felt like eating in the employee cafeteria as more often than not more than half the employees could be found dining there. Tom and I exchanged greeting with a few people, grazed for some food and found a table where we could relax.

I was just about to dig in when I noticed the new girl Tawny in line. She came our way and before I could Tom offered her a seat. Apparently she was just as wordless outside of the office as in. Both Tom and I tried but we could not draw her into any conversation.

So we chatted quietly, nibbled at our food doing our best not to make our new coworker nervous. Before long I noticed that one of my softball buddies was sitting behind me at the next table. Turning in my seat I asked him about this weeks game schedule and post game beer and pizza fest. His response was almost immediately interrupted by the sound of someone calling my name. I recognized the voice and wondered what the hell he was doing here, as he was one of the employees who had called in sick.

Turning I received the biggest shock of my rather young and naïve life. It was Tawny who was calling me, except she was not Tawny he was Tony. My new employee was my old employee and one of my closest friends.

My jaw if it had been physically possible would have found itself floating in a bowl of cold (now congealing) chicken soup. I was speechless. Tom was red in the face from laughing so hard.

It was than that I flashed back to six months ago. Tony and I were eating lunch outside the building and he had mentioned a past Halloween where he had dressed in drag for a costume party and made it through half the party before someone figured out who he was. I had called him in on it. Telling him that it must have been people he did not know, someone like me who knew him would not be so easily fooled.

He had gotten this impish twinkle in his eye and swore that someday he would show up to work in drag and fool everybody. I laughed it off. Never expecting that he could fool me.

Well someday arrived on October 31, 1980 and just as Tony promised I was the fool.