Radio Shack - Meeting JD

I used to work for a franchise location for Radio Shack. It was a rundown little shack of a store in the ruralest of rural towns in GA. It was also the unlikely source for a world of entertainment.

My first day on the job started like any other. I got to work, learned how to clock in and was shown a few of the more popular items in the store's inventory. Things like diodes, resistors and batteries. The usual.

What I wasn't told about were the customers. Boy howdy, did I have some interesting people frequent that little ex-hotdog stand!

So anyway, it was my first day there and after the boss man showed me the basics, he left! Yep. Didn't stay with me for a full shift or anything. He just left. Had to go tend to his boat or something. He was a politician.

Anyway, that's when he came in. The star of more Radio Shack stories than I myself was in. This guy was such a character! He mozied in with the gate of a 97 year old man (though I later learned he was 63 or 64 - he couldn't remember) and the long face of someone with a lot on their mind. At least we all assumed he had a lot on his mind. No one really knew since he'd lost it many years before. 

This fellow walked in wearing dark blue sweat pants, a brown hoodie and a neon yellow vest. His beard was longer than my own at the time (I had a 7 inch beard). It was nuts!

So he came in and with the most Eeyore of voices he said, "Hey uh ..." Smacking his lips together. "Is ol' uh ... Doug here?" 

"No," I said. "Can I help you?"

"I have a question for ya," he said. "Just out of curiosity. Tell me what you think about this."

I just stared at him. Puzzled.

"Just gonna pick your brain real quick. Do you have $4 I can borrow?"

What?! This dude just came in and THAT'S how he asks to borrow money?! 'Just out of curiosity, let me pick your brain?!'

Obviously I told him no. So he did the only reasonable thing.

He went to sleep! Standing up! In front of my register! And asleep he stayed for half an hour! And it wasn't until a segment on Investigation Discovery came on talking about a woman who'd been kidnapped and raped that he jolted awake and said, "I gotta go!" And scurried out. And so began my first day at Radio Shack.