PERKS
Jim Hite

Very frequently, I bring up the idea of "perks," those special extras that come unexpectedly from something that I am doing and that often have no connection to that activity.

There is a "perk" that comes from a long flight, although when traveling in economy, I am not sure it outweighs the pure discomfort of hours stuck in a too-small seat with little knee room. On a long flight or waiting between flights, there is plenty of time to read. Usually, we take enough books for the flights, the waits and the down time in our destination cities. Joyce always takes plenty of crossword puzzles!

Not only do I read my books, but I enjoy reading British newspapers which can be found in lobbies and onboard European aircraft. Recently, I had the opportunity to read through a copy of the Daily Standard. A letter to the editor caught my attention.

In it, the writer noted all the marvelous creature comforts and technical advances we enjoy today. She listed many we now take for granted: cell phones, CD players, iPods, HDTV, large discount shopping centers, large grocery stores, moneysaving self-service stores of all kinds, discount travel.

But she added that these advances have come at a price, that price being the loss of many items, places and even careers that made daily living pleasant. The writer provided several examples. Conductors on buses (remember, this is England), railway seating with attendants (available now only in first-class), butcher shops, bakeries, room for luggage when traveling, petrol pump attendants, cops walking the beat, phone operators who are much more pleasant than the recorded voice telling us we have the following seven options!

The list is almost endless, and you can add your own items at will. My dad, who managed an ice cream store during the 1930s and 40s with its attendant soda fountain and waiter service, despised the coming of self-service. While in high school, I had a job in a downtown department store selling shoes, a position which involved fitting each customer individually. Customers did not pull their shoes off a shelf, nor did they take clothes off shelves or racks on their own. Throughout the store were men and women who had made a career of fitting clothes to the individual.

That particular department store also had a full-time greeter, a very pleasant man in a suit, tie and boutonniere who greeted each person entering the store. He even spoke to the customer by name if he was a regular client.

Of course, in some towns and in some parts of the country and world, all is not lost. For example, there are still small bakeries without plastic-wrapped goods and other smaller businesses that are very personal and care about serving the customer.

However, the letter writer has a point. I know each of you has horror stories of punching buttons on a telephone trying to find someone to talk to, often not succeeding. And frequently, when personal contact is finally made, the individual has no idea who you are, nor even where you are. I know you have experiences galore of being "served" by employees who couldn't care less that you are there, who are unpleasant, who find it more important to play and joke with fellow workers than properly take care of the customer.

I write all this not just in a spirit of nostalgia, because so often the good old days were not always all that good. However, almost all of us who have a few years under our respective belts can agree that many things which once helped to make daily living pleasant are gone.

I guess it's up to each of us individually to do what we can to make daily living pleasant for those around us. Such an attitude could go a long way toward making our own daily living pleasant as well.