My first boss at my very first job (Gamble Robinson) was named Kermet Torgerson - a good name for Norwegian guy from South Dakota. He seemed pretty old - to someone right out of college. He was a WWII vet, and was probably in his early 60's at the time. (yeah, pretty young really!)
Through out my working career, several of my supervisors must have attended the same business school. The one where they teach you to leave the employee to be taught be others, or self-train for long periods. Then, when you feel like you need an ego boost, call the new employee in to "show 'em your stuff" - how adept you are at a skill, or how much "juice" you have with the company.
Kermet was much like that. I knew, when he called out "Leslie" clean through the Assistant Manager's office, through two doors, that I was to jump up and run in for a "lesson". He loved to pontificate and I was the sponge to soak up his knowledge. As I said in my last entry - I was a greenhorn when it came to buying and selling produce. But Kermet was teaching an existential level of fruits and veggies.
But the old boy was in the process of losing his marbles. It many ways, it was good for the company! He took made up discounts for was he perceived as bad fruit. As Office Manager, I reconciled the invoices with receipt tickets and wrote muy largo (very large) checks for loads of oranges. And sometimes we did have shipments arrive with a great deal of spoilage. In that case we would have to document what was not sellable.
Except for Kermet. Both he and I had to sign checks. One load of oranges could cost $40,000 - and Kermet would out of the blue just cross off the amount on the invoice and deduct, say $5,000 for "bad fruit". And he got away with it!
In South Dakota there was a sect of German Americans similar to the Amish called Hutterites. They could drive trucks - but only black ones. The Hutterites sold truckloads of sweet corn and tomatoes to Gamble Robinson. Kermet liked to get those 'ol boys in his office and put them through their paces.
One time when I was popping into Kermet's office for a signature, he whipped a pistol out of his desk drawer, showing it off to the Hutterite guy who must have drawn the short straw and got stuck taking the corn to market in Kermetland. Kermet said "This is what one of your German cousins threatened me with"! I didn't stick around to see if it was loaded or not.
It was shortly after that, Kermet was put out to pasture. I never heard what happened to the guy, since I soon transferred to the Omaha, NE branch of the business. Next up - the Omaha Chapter of Leslie's Employment Path. It's been a wiggly road!
3 comments:
Kermet is my great uncle. I enjoyed this post. Do you have any other stories about him?
Kermet was a very nice man - and as I said, was quite a character. He always signed checks with a flair, nice penmanship that he was proud of! Since I was so young then he liked to "school me" in the ways of the world - produce was interesting stuff. I learned a great deal from all the staff there in my 10 months there before transferring to Omaha - but Kermet had retired by then.
Nice to hear from you. How did you find my post?
Wow! I completely missed that you responded to this! I have done a lot of family research over the years and it has gotten away from me. (I guess I figured Google would have sent me a note when you responded.)
Anyway, I found your post simply searching the internet for Kermet's name. I did know that he moved to South Dakota, that he fought in WWII, and that he did have some after effects of going to war.
It is very interesting to hear stories from a perspective like yours rather than an obituary or something.
Great to read your stuff. Thanks for sharing!
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