CURBSIDE ETIQUETTE

Through the Eyes of a Delivery Goddess



Below you will find links to dates when new entries are added. The stories will not necessarily be in chronological order, but rather as I remember them. I am dating them so that you can skip to new ones you haven't read since the last time you visited, and so that you are more easily able to find something you found humorous to share with others.
Harold


I've hesitated a long time, deciding if I should include this story or not. I think you're all ready for it, so, here it goes. This is TRUE. There is no embellishment included... I promise.

If you've been following Curbside Etiquette, you know I worked for Pizza Outlet (now known as Vocelli Pizza) on and off for almost ten years. The shop was originally in a free-standing building resurected from an old house where an older gent and his dog passed away years back. I'm told his name was Harold. For three years that I worked within that building, I worked the closing shift many nights. I know, that I know, that I know, that we had all countertops and prep tables spotless when we left. The cash register drawer was always left open so prying eyes figured we hadn't left any money out where they could break in and make off with it. One morning after closing the night before, I was bribed into opening for a gal who was taking off a few days to have a baby. The 17 year old assistant manager, NB and I walked through the front door to find a styrofoam cup on the front counter beside the cash register filled half way with cold coffee. We did not sell, brew or even have a machine to make coffee inside the shop anywhere. The cash register drawer was closed, and there was a spoon with a coffee puddle laying in the scoop-part sitting beside the cup. He laughed and said, "Many mornings when I get here, I find stuff Harold has for us." He elaborated by telling me that the building had been an old house where Harold lived with his dog. Harold had been found dead in the house one day, no one knew what happened to the dog. The house stood empty for years; was finally on the market and purchased as commercial property as Route 8 was "growing up". Pizza Outlet bought the building and turned it to a eat-in/carry-out restaurant. As the day went on, and other veteran employees came in for their shift, they added their stories about Harold - finding things left out - pans that had been cooked on, and so on. The senior manager ran another store, and was rarely around- he lived over a half hour away, which ruled out his presence during the late-night hours. Nobody else had keys, except him and NB, the assistant manager.

The property behind the building was purchased a few years later, and the land developer added a strip plaza. Pizza Outlet started to rent one of the new stores in the plaza right about the time the pizza chain changed their name to Vocelli Pizza. The original building was torn down and a KFC built in it's place. I took a break from pizza delivery about a year before the store made it's move, and by the time I returned, the original building was gone, and so were most of the veterans I'd worked with at Harold's House.

One night toward the end of my delivery career (so far), I was telling Harold's legacy to the young lady assistant manager who was about 24 years old at that time. She was becoming visibly worried about the store being haunted. Conveniently, a thunder storm was brewing outside. (You can see this coming, right?) I was making the statement that, to my knowledge, there were no signs of Harold at the new store as the two of us walked out the front door to see the lightning. It could NOT have been timed any more perfectly. Lightning hit the transformer on the pole at the corner of the parking lot and the entire strip mall went dark for about three seconds, flickered once, and then came back on. The young lady screamed, and I mean SCREAMED. I'd like to say I felt bad about making her "jittery", but... I didn't.

It's true. It's all true. Believe what you'd like. Perhaps someday, I should ask the employees at KFC if they think their store is haunted.