MY "AS PER SE" GUY

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SURPRISE! THE WEEK WAS FUN!
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Little did I suspect, that Sunday morning, when I left home for a dreaded week of "Account Executive" (insurance) training in Springfield, Illinois, that it would prove to be the most unusual and interesting such trip in my whole 25 year career!

My plane landed in St. Louis and six of us found ourselves at the airline gate, bound for Springfield on our final leg, having arrived there from all over the U.S. The good news was, that I, being an airplane aficionado since WWII, was going to get to fly in an unusual and most interesting plane---a two-engine turbo prop Fairchild Hiller FH-227B, with the wings on top! Yes! On top! Okay, I'll admit, it kind of seemed to lumber along when taxiing on the runway, as if it were a railroad boxcar, endowed with wings, but oh my, it could fly!

Arriving late Sunday afternoon at the Greater Springfield Airport (or whatever), we were met by a fine-looking young man whom we will call "Brad." His job, with the company, was to serve as our mentor, chauffeur, gofer, and general helper for the week---he would "squire us around" everywhere we went, making sure we were on time for classes and activities.

We hadn't been with Brad ten minutes until he had used his (evidently) favorite expression or phrase, "as per se," THREE TIMES! I thought to myself:  We have either got a PhD. in grammar on our hands or a "Pistol!"

En route to town, we passed an impressive steakhouse and Brad said something like: "If you guys behave and pass all your work in good form, and study hard, as per se, then we'll have a steak dinner celebration here on Friday night."

So Brad "as per se-d" us all the way into town and dropped us off at our hotel--an interesting old hotel named "HOT-- AVALON." (Not to worry, the "EL" on the neon sign was burned out.) It was, to say the least, not your upscale-looking neighborhood. You wouldn't write home about the area, for across the street from our hotel were---umm---I hate to say....adult bookstores and stuff like that, and a tattoo parlor. To a bunch of straight-laced guys, it was ...kinda scary. The main plus, I guess, was that it was a handy five block walk to our brand new home office building, which covered practically a whole block.

The hotel rooms, however, were clean..The whole airy feeling of the old hotel was that of a cozy country inn, somewhere out in the hinterland, with old fashioned bed spreads, sheer curtains swaying in the breeze coming in through the window. Sort of made you want to forget the meeting, prop your feet up, and just sit and watch old Andy Griffith re-runs, on tape. (But there were no tapes then---not for ten more years.)  

There was good news and bad news regarding a restaurant. There WAS a cafe of sorts downstairs in the hotel---that was the good news. The bad news was that there was only ONE courageous girl who was waitress, cook, cashier, and (I assume) dishwasher. It's true. We ate breakfast there, and a few burgers along, and tipped her well, whether out of admiration...or pity, I'm not sure.

Brad would often come by to be sure we were up-and-at 'em and maybe haul us the five blocks to our classes, "as per se-ing" life in general on the way.

I knew "per se" was a Latin expression meaning "in itself," but I didn't quite understand the "as" part. I tried to figure out what Brad's penchant ("pon-shon") for using it so much was,  and finally concluded this: He obviously really liked it and convinced himself that it had some sort of "universal" application; thus while speaking, if he felt a little uneasy about his sentence, felt a slight pause or sag coming on in his phrasing, or a place where his rhetoric needed a boost, he'd just add it right then and there---as per se---no questions asked! In fact, I'll have to say, he did sound splendidly articulate quite often.

As those sit-and-listen meetings usually were, this one was getting brutal by midweek! Luckily, someone had the foresight to give us one afternoon and part of another, off.

Here's where Brad, who must have been a tour guide in a previous life, went into action big time. For history lovers this trip got interesting in a hurry! This was Abraham Lincoln's home state and home town. Brad took us to Lincoln's home, about six or eight blocks east of the city square; then over to the railroad depot where he departed for the presidency that fateful day in 1861, never to return alive. Brad showed us Lincoln's law office, upstairs in a building just off the square. We walked across the street to the Legislature building in the middle of the square, where Lincoln helped make laws, and allegedly once crawled out a window.

Toward the end of the week, Brad drove us out to Lincoln's Tomb, a massive concrete edifice about five miles out of town. A bonus I should mention is that we saw the corner of the Springfield square where the "doomed Donner" wagon train, bound for California, formed up. We even became accustomed to Brad's expression and almost didn't even notice it.

Can you believe: We went into Lincoln's house, and we walked where The Great Emancipator walked. We went upstairs---the rooms were small and the hallway seemed narrow. The kitchen you wouldn't recognize as a kitchen. There were no white and no stainless appliances. Women today would not be happy with such a kitchen. There was a water pump for water. I guess it was the rather "drab" look that surprised me, not only in the kitchen but all over.

Being a history lover, this whole thing was amazing to me! The only other historical thing I would value that much would be to visit Monticello!

Brad hauled us guys out to that steakhouse, on the highway, on Friday night for our promised steak dinner...and wrap-up session. We were slated to leave the next morning early! It had been a better week for us than weeks of that kind typically were, as per se. Uh-oh, now I'm doing it!

Brad was no dummy. He was a sharp guy. I hope he rose in the company hierarchy until he became head of the "Department of Vans, Gofers & Mentors," and is living a well-earned happy retirement. But that was 42 years ago, and, if by chance, he has passed on, then I can almost see him now, driving a van-chariot up to the Pearly Gates to pick up a load of newly-arrived saints, for a familiarization and orientation swing around Heaven, all the while saying to them: "This is really a nice place; I know you're going to enjoy your stay here a lot."    ......"As per se."

                                                     Lincoln's Home

                                                  Fairchild Hiller, FH-227B

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BY MIL
6/14/12

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