Unexpected Experiences in Greensboro

When I walked into my hotel room I noticed that the full length mirrored closet doors had fallen in, the bathroom doorknob had been destroyed and the normally locked door to the next room was not only unlocked but it looked as though someone had tried to escape using their spare crow bar.

I was concerned that there had been some sort of horrible event in the room just moments before I arrived. I called the front desk to see about getting a room transfer or getting the room fixed. The weary desk clerk forlornly explained that the hotel was reeling from the recent visit of thousands of middle-schoolers. Ah Ha- now the damage made sense.

The desk clerk assured me that someone would be up to fix the door lock. The repair man arrived late in the evening and I was already pajama clad and anxious to climb into the big fluffy bed to read. To be honest I was a little nervous about inviting a strange man into my room and wasn’t particularly happy to have to deal with the results of so much youthful fun.

I opened the door to an older, friendly looking gentleman, invited him in and described the problem. He too thought a twelve year old’s escape plan had been enacted here and found that he’d have to completely re-build the lock.

Over the course of the next hour or so that it took to fix the lock on the door; the third shift repair man and I had a fantastic conversation. I learned about his Creole heritage, his first and second wife, his wonderful children and grandchildren and a little about his political views. He told me of his long and varied career- from janitor and educator, to hotel handyman. We chatted about the different places we’ve traveled, all the people he had met at the hotel and also about the intricacies of changing a lock. As he left he smiled, shook my hand and thanked me for the conversation--he said that it would be one of his highlights for the year.

I went through the rest of the conference- spending four days within the halls of the hotel and I’d have to agree. It was the most unexpected highlight of my trip-- connecting with someone so different from myself who was so interested in sharing his experiences and observations about all of those that travel through his workplace everyday.