Thanks for the job, Mr. Dierdorf!

While many of my high school friends went to work at various fast food restaurants, I was lucky enough to be hired at the Sears store in Chesterfield Mall. I was hired as seasonal help leading into the Christmas season in 1977. I remember asking the HR person who interviewed me if there was any chance that I could stay on after Christmas; only to be told that the store was already above the corporate quota for part time workers and I would be let go after Christmas. I figured that working for three months was better than not working at all, so I jumped at the job offer she made.

I went through a couple of weeks of training before learning that I was being assigned to the sporting goods department. It was a dream come true! Sears' sporting goods department at that time featured the standard baseball, football and basketball equipment, but it also had guns, hunting supplies, fishing supplies, pool tables and the recently introduced video game systems. The store added a display of ping pong tables and pool tables for the Christmas season.

It was there that I met Dan Dierdorf.

We had a small storeroom and locked gun room in the back of the department where we stored our jackets and personal belongings while we worked. I was cutting through the department to put my jacket away when I passed what had to be the largest human being I had ever encountered. He politely stopped me as I walked past and asked if I worked in the department. I immediately recognized him as Dan Dierdorf, an offensive lineman for the St. Louis Cardinals Football Team. I told him I would put my jacket in back and be right back with him.

Upon my return, Mr. Dierdorf told me he was interested in getting a pool table for his family for Christmas. I was able to answer all of his questions about the various models we offered (good thing I listened during my training sessions in the department), and he ultimately selected one of our slate-topped models. We took care of all of the necessary paperwork for the sale and delivery and he went on his way.

That transaction, though, contributed to me being allowed to keep my job.

Christmas came, and went, and all of the other seasonal help was gradually dropped from the schedule over the next several weeks, but my name continued to appear. I wasn't going to complain, of course, because it meant I still had a job. I kept quiet about it; hoping that my manager simply forgot that I, too, had been hired as seasonal help and was supposed to be let go once the seasonal rush was over. I finally worked up the courage to ask after several more weeks passed, only to be told that the store manager had given her permission to keep me on as a permanent part time employee.

Why?

Well probably not because of my dashing good looks or charming personality; although I'm sure that was a contributing factor.

No, I was kept on partly because I had the highest per-hour sales of any part timer in the entire store each month since I had been hired. My manager had apparently determined that I could sell pretty much anything to anyone. It didn't hurt, of course that I was passionate about the products in the sporting goods department. It also didn't hurt that I would go in to work pretty much any time the HR department called to see if I would be willing to cover a shift in another department for someone who had called in sick or just if a department found themselves short staffed.

I kept that job until I quit to head off to college, and I kept up my sales numbers and my willingness to cover shifts in any department at a moment's notice. Through the years I worked in hardware, paint, men's clothing, televisions, catalog fulfillment, the bike shop, deliveries and candy counter, among other things.

While Dan Dierdorf never gave another thought, I'm sure, to the sixteen year old kid who had helped him purchase a pool table; I always remembered him fondly as the guy whose big ticket purchase contributed to me keeping a seasonal job for several years.

Thanks for the job, Mr. Dierdorf!