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2,137 Posts
Hey Guys,
I thought I'd just share something with everyone about reaching out to the community in our jobs/everyday life during the Holidays. So I'm a Chef in a strictly resort area in NE Wisconsin and besides running a restaurant we have a catering service that kinda carries us through the slow winter months. I had a gig at a assisted living home here in town last night and had the best time. Served Turkey dinner,sang songs, had wheel chair races(thats a blast) but the big one was meeting John Hoiska. John has lived at the home for 5 years now and is in his late 80's suffering from a series of strokes. He can talk but just doesn't seem to really want too. The subject of "What do you want for xmas came up and of courseI asked for Trains. Next thing I know John pipes up that he worked for the railroad for 30 yrs. The ladies at his table looked shocked and said,"John, you never told us that!" He talked about his route from Milwaukee to Escanaba hauling iron ore and coal and that people just don't care about the railroad anymore. I told him that there is a whole generation of kids who have no clue what raiilroading meant to the state and nation in general and that he should tell,his stories to his many great grand children and tell that story about sharing some Boiler coffee with the hobo's during the Blizzard of 55 on his Escanaba run. Now that was a hoot! Well it made Johns day and he thanked me for talking too him and winkeed at me saying Matt, see you next year okay. Makes you walk taller and hum a Xmas tune when you do someone good. Thanks guys for listening and god bless this forum. Merry Christmas!:thumbsup:
I thought I'd just share something with everyone about reaching out to the community in our jobs/everyday life during the Holidays. So I'm a Chef in a strictly resort area in NE Wisconsin and besides running a restaurant we have a catering service that kinda carries us through the slow winter months. I had a gig at a assisted living home here in town last night and had the best time. Served Turkey dinner,sang songs, had wheel chair races(thats a blast) but the big one was meeting John Hoiska. John has lived at the home for 5 years now and is in his late 80's suffering from a series of strokes. He can talk but just doesn't seem to really want too. The subject of "What do you want for xmas came up and of courseI asked for Trains. Next thing I know John pipes up that he worked for the railroad for 30 yrs. The ladies at his table looked shocked and said,"John, you never told us that!" He talked about his route from Milwaukee to Escanaba hauling iron ore and coal and that people just don't care about the railroad anymore. I told him that there is a whole generation of kids who have no clue what raiilroading meant to the state and nation in general and that he should tell,his stories to his many great grand children and tell that story about sharing some Boiler coffee with the hobo's during the Blizzard of 55 on his Escanaba run. Now that was a hoot! Well it made Johns day and he thanked me for talking too him and winkeed at me saying Matt, see you next year okay. Makes you walk taller and hum a Xmas tune when you do someone good. Thanks guys for listening and god bless this forum. Merry Christmas!:thumbsup:
