After graduation from college, I moved back to south Florida. Not a smart career move, for certainly had I wanted to break into the broadcasting industry to
pursue work using my degree, smaller markets would have been better
places to go. No, this was a move of the heart...the first of many. I suppose I could have had I opted to volunteer at a station or work for next to nothing, but those days were ones of independence and love and impetuous behavior. Living at home with my mother was out of the question. I needed my own place and a decent salary to pay for it. I scanned the want ads for a job.
The job I got was "teller" at American Savings and Loan Association. My first assignment: Century Village in Deerfield Beach.
It was one of the first self-contained retirement communities in Florida. Almost every need was available on site, including a bank...ours.
I had had some exposure working the public back when I was a cashier in a grocery store, but dealing with the little old ladies who insisted on double bagging and complained of high prices was scant preparation for what I was about to experience here. I had now moved into the big league.
In those days (1975-1976) S&Ls offered a variety of gifts for opening new accounts. Scales, cookware, alarm clocks, decorative pieces. I used to joke that people were decorating their homes in "Early Savings & Loan". Customers left happy when they got the latest addition to their home, but things didn't always turn out so well. Gift supplies sometimes ran out. Then happy turned to mad. Real mad. So it wasn't unusual to see the customers already lined up in the hallway when I arrived to work. You'd have thought we were handing out theater tickets for a Broadway show.
Sometimes, there were even fist fights. You read that right...physical altercations over a cheap piece of junk. I would watch in disbelief as the branch manager would go out to break it up. Then, with order restored, they'd come into the bank and acted as if nothing at all had happened. I was quite bewildered. By and by all these shenanigans became an ordinary part of my work day. I surmised that these seniors from NYC had fought for a seat on the subway all their lives and now, well now...they had just changed venues.
Post Note
Some of the people at Century Village ended up becoming like family to me. One time, I even got invited over for dinner. Of course, we ate on Savings & Loan dinner plates and drank from Savings & Loan glasses!
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