u/janmschroeder

Just saw on Facebook:

>Jason Carter

Greetings from England - more specifically a sunny day on the coast of Cornwall!

It's official: after 35 years in the U.S of A, I have moved back to Blighty!!

Culture shock- Much! I was used to standing out but EVERYONE here talks funny, not just me. Nobody here thinks I have a cute accent (except my American wife). We're all butlers. Ah, well.

Anyways, love to you all!

- JC

PS: I know I haven't personally posted much on social media for some time but possibly judiciously, as I can be and have historically tended to be a quite opinionated chap... You know, Green Card and all that

https://preview.redd.it/gr5vzi6z9k0h1.jpg?width=563&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b0327b06f771e6e19be67e14764ffd121e81d1ff

Best wishes to him and his wife!!

Anybody who's been in the hotel business for even a short time knows that the employees can be almost as transient as the guests. But sometimes they stick in memory, even decades later.

My most memorable co-worker was when I was very new to the Front Desk at a hotel in downtown Houston. We had a Head Housekeeper who was...just incredible. We called her either Miss Paula or Mamacita. Her staff would do anything for her, too.

Not that she was easy to work for! She expected every room to be perfect and as far as I remember, she got it. I don't every remember anybody coming back to the desk complaining of any cleaning issues.

She'd be right in with her staff, too. I remember this tiny woman in her 60s climbing a 25-foor ladder to personally clean the crystals in the chandellier in the lobby. One evening she helped me set up a banquet room for a function we hadn't been notified of. She even rigged some beautiful centerpieces, darned if I know how!

This part was an open secret but I didn't snap to it until the second hotel where we worked together. Mamacita was very much in favor of keeping & honoring one's own culture, BUT! she also arranged for anybody who wanted, to attend informal English classes. Twice a week, 8-10 of them would gather in one of the suite parlors for a couple of hours. And if the hotel was full, they'd have the class downstairs in Mamacita's office. Our General Manager knew, but I'm not sure very many others did. I heard later on that she helped tutor for Citizenship, too.

I'll never forget that wonderful, wonderful lady. She made a difference in many lives, including mine as a very wet-behind-the-ears Front Desk Clerk.

Would love to hear other stories of Memorable co-workers, bad ot good!

Night Audit shift. It was well after midnight, probably close to 2AM. The elevator around the corner from the Front Desk opens. Nobody comes out. "Hello?" "Can somebody help me?" Alarmed, I head that way. "No! You don't need to come over. I just need a key to my room, please. I got locked out when I went to the ice machine."

Okay, that's not unusual except for the part of him staying in the elevator. I got his name and room number and enough information to verify it was the right person (since people seldom get locked out of their room in the middle of the night carrying their IDs) and headed back over to the elevator.

"Can you just hand it around the corner, please?" Well, by then I knew why this was happening thanks to the very shiny-clean black marble wall across from the elevator. The guy was stark naked. Not a stitch. He hadn't even managed to find a room service tray to grab a napkin from for any cover at all.

That was the first time that happened to me on the audit but not the only time. I'll never understand why anybody would wander around a public place naked but it seems to be a thing that some adults do.

I've always told folks just joining the Hospitality industry that if something can happen in a small town, it can happen in a hotel. And that means all the joys and sorrows the guests are going through. This one still haunts me to this day.

This was in the very early 80s and I was working the Audit at a motel just off a major highway. A little after midnight a nicely dressed woman came in and asked for a room for one night. I'd've had to have been blind to miss the fact that she was exhausted and tense and had been crying-a lot. There were bruises on her wrists.

When she filled in the registration card, she asked if we could make sure that any calls for her would told she wasn't registered. No problem, we had a system for that. But then when I ran her card (Gold Amex back when that meant something), it wasn't just Declined, it was a Pick Up which meant that the card had probably been reported lost or stolen. I had no choice but to keep the card or the hotel could get in trouble with Amex. When I told her...she crumpled. Tried to keep it together but I was afraid she was about to pass out right there, she was so scared.

Turns out that she'd run away from an abusive husband and he'd canceled her card and reported it stolen. She didn't have enough money for the room and really didn't know what to do next. She was scared that he'd reported her car stolen, too.

The hotel was just finishing remodeling so we had some rooms that had furniture but weren't ready to be rented. I gave her a key to one of those along with a blanket and pillow and towels and told her she could have it until 7 AM and there'd be no record of her ever having been there.

When I went to the room about 8 that morning, she was gone. The supplies I'd given her had been used so I guessed she'd gotten at least a little rest. But she was gone and all I could do is hope that she got away from her husband for good and was able to use what little cash she had to reach people or an organization that could help her.