Albie
The Core Belief
What did he do this time?” I responded to the GM’s question: “Have you heard about Albie?”
Booze and drugs are hazards of restaurant/bar industry so it wouldn’t be all that unusual if he’d been found asleep with his pants down on a restroom floor or boarded a plane bound for Omaha , where he knows no one, while blacked out on OC and booze.
“They found him dead yesterday.”
I felt like a schmuck. Then I was just shocked. Albie was a huge man, 6’3″ and 300 pounds . Was it his heart?
“They don’t know. His girlfriend found him on the bed when she got home.”
I didn’t know the man that well. He was a server and I am a bartender so I was my usual bastard self to him when he came to me with a question I “d heard a million times. Yes that Pinot is still on the menu and yes it has been there for a while and why the fuck are you asking me if the damn bottle of tonic is fresh. Bring up a new one. Like me, he was in the business a long time, a real pro.
Everyone on staff was shocked, but nobody seemed to know the guy very well because he’d only been with us a few months. We did what restaurant and bar people do a time like this: We started a drive to raise money to give to his people. Our GM pledged to match any amount we came up with.
The Bar Manager and I were put in charge of collecting the cash. (Who else but the bartenders would you trust?) We raised $1,500.00. Even Gary, a server known as a cheap fuck, pitched in. (A little West Side Street Hustler who might have been trying to get over on unsuspecting tourists with various Shell games back in ’82, Gary is a server in a well known Manhattan restaurant today..) Some of the other servers admire him for how he can rip a penny from the hand of a starving man. He came up to the bar as he was leaving on Friday, pulled out a $20 and gave it to me in a shaking hand. I was touched.
With Ed, a floor manager, I went to the funeral home in Washington Heights to deliver the money we’d raised to the girlfriend. Our biggest fear was that we would be alone in the room with Albie’s girlfriend and an open casket – and we’d have to stay until the joint closed. I was worried I’d miss my shift that night – ah, that Midwestern work ethic. All the funeral homes I’ve ever seen were beige brick and brown carpeting. This one was like all the others. I suppose the idea is to keep the bereaved calm.
Fortunately for us, there were over 30 people in the room when we got there, so westayed for the half an hour to the hour we had planned. What we learned about Albie gave me another jolt. He’d owned bars and was a male model in the early “80’s. How did he get lost in the service industry? When his girlfriend found him on the bed, left arm up, right arm across his chest, he lay beside an empty bottle of Absolut and the parents Death Certificates.
I can’t help but wonder about myself: no real girlfriend, freelancing articles and trying to sell novels, working my shifts with people who come and go. Will I end up like this? I don’t know. But I’m glad we did the right thing by Albie. He was one of our own.
Ads
Denizens of the Zola System
- A Visual Identity
- Ashley Morris
- Clip It Baby
- CNN
- Dennis Machinegun Thompson
- Detroit Free Press
- Detroit News
- e3 Your LIfe
- Fox News
- Henry Mena
- Hollywood Gem
- Jewish World Review
- Jimmy Fallon
- Mick Farren
- New York Daily News
- New York Post
- New York Times
- Open Salon
- Sacred Fools Theatre
- Scoop Momma
- Skip Williamson
- SPIN Magazine
- The Blacklisted Journalist
- The Choke
- The Financially Troubled Arizona Republic
- The Los Angeles Times
- The Nearly Famous Barry Young Show
- The Purple Gang
- The Wall Street Journal
- The Washington Post
- The Washington Times
Categories
- Alpha Female/Beta Male
- Assholes Anonymous
- Character Sundays
- Detroit Stories
- G-d's Guide To Home Appliance Repair and Sports Betting
- How Drunk Do You Have To Be To Get The Joke?
- Jimmy Fallon
- Overheard in a Los Angeles Bar
- Overheard in a New York Bar
- Overheard on the Subway
- Post Urban Culture
- Quotes from How To Fix a Horserace
- Rachel Kramer Bussel
- Skip Williamson
- Sleaze Culture
- The Best of the Zola System
- The Con
- The Core Belief
- The First Essential Scary Truth
- The Magic Bullet Theory
- The Martini Chronicles
- The Second Essential Scary Truth
- The Street Hustle
- The Summer Of 1992
- The Zola System In Action
- The Zola System On The Road
- Uncategorized
- What's in Your Fridge?
Archives
- February 2017
- May 2016
- May 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- March 2014
- January 2014
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008