Confessions of a TNT Employee

Over New Years Eve and the 4th of July, my brother Stevie and I run a fireworks tent. It's a lot of work and not always comfortable, but I always really enjoy it. A good friend of my family, Linda, is the regional director for TNT, so we also do some work for the company. My mom basically acts as Linda's assistant and Stevie and I do whatever Linda tells us to do; I make a lot of phone calls and Stevie does a lot of driving around and helping people get their tents set up correctly. After sales are done, we work the Return Center. People who worked tents bring their remaining product back and settle their account with the company.

I don't know which is more fun: running the tent or working for Linda. I'm not saying they are fun all the time, the fireworks season definitely has its moments of stress, but I always come out with some really great stories. I have always thought it would be fun to write a book about it, but at the moment I just done have time, so I'll write a blog posting. Here are a few of my favorite firework moments.

Working for Linda:
I really don't know where the company finds some of these people to run the tents, but they are interesting to say the least.

Phone Stalker
This New Years Eves we had a lady, we'll call her Jo, who was managing a tent for the first time. A few days before Christmas, I made several coordinating calls for Linda using my cell phone. My mom then used my phone to make a few calls. This was a bad idea because it meant Jo then had my number. Jo is the type of person who truly believes in persistence when it comes to phone calls. She kept calling my phone, so we politely told her that the number was my personal cell phone and asked her to contact either Linda or my mom. On Christmas Day my family went to a movie and when we came out my mom and I both had several missed calls, all from Jo's number. She had called my mom, then called back five minutes later, then called back another five minutes later and left a voice mail. Then, she repeated the process on my phone, leaving a message which asked if I was with my mom. She continued to call my phone with any problem throughout the season, even though I was constantly telling her that I had no authority. After the season was over, I basically forgot about Jo, until today. I was studying on campus when my phone started vibrating. I didn't recognize the number, so I let if ring through. A few minutes later, I noticed the same number had called several more times and finally left a message. I was walking to class, but decided to listen to the message on the way. Yes, it was Jo. She had received an email from Linda, so had decided to reply by calling me. Really?

SHE IS NOT THE BOSS!
There is a man who does a tent every summer, we'll call him Mike. Mike is legendary at TNT, and not just among those of us in Georgia but also at the corporate office. Mike is not exactly the brightest crayon in the box. My family started working with TNT while I was on my mission, so they met him before I did. The first story I ever heard about Mike was when my dad was helping at the return center the first summer my mom worked for TNT. Mike pulled up with the bed of his truck and his trailer full of fireworks, yet he had a lit cigarette hanging out of his window. He also has a huge gun rack on top. The first time I ever met Mike was last summer. He walks into the room (I knew who he was immediately because it was his appointement time and I had heard so many stories I could just tell) and the first thing ot of his mouth is "Were's the fooood? We 'ad food las' yeer!" We were running behind, so they boys outside weren't quite ready to unload his product and we weren't ready to process his paper work. What's a guy to do? He took a nap in the bed of his truck. Someone took a picture, but I couldn't find it to post. Mike's asleep in his truck, cigarette in one hand, gun in the other (about 5 feet from a trailer full of fireworks).

Mike was unhappy about something the next day, so he called Linda's phone, but she was in the middle of helping someone settle an account, so my mom answered the phone and tried to help him. That just made Mike even more upset. About 20 minutes later, Linda gets a text from corporate which reads, "That Mike guy is crazy." That was enough to spark curiosity, so she called corporate and put it on speaker phone. I guess he was so mad that my mom "wouldn't let him" talk to Linda that he called corporate. He said to them, "Kathy Roos is NOT the boss, and she thinks she's the boss! She is not the boss!" I want to have that made into t-shirts, along with the picture of him napping, for next summer.

I have so many more stories, but I have some homework to do and this post is already huge, so I will add the others tomorrow or Thursday.