fired the first time

John was getting comfortable chatting with me and we spoke about holidays and traditions. I found out that John never had a Christmas Stocking! I was shocked-how could you not have a Christmas Stocking! The next day I went out and bought a kit and hand sewed a sequin Christmas Socking with his name on it- 2,000 sequins. My eyes were blinded!
Hank had given up on decorating the bar for the holidays after the aluminum foil fiasco and Eddie, Hank best friend there, was the obvious choice to do the job. Eddie had, and still does, a traditional sense to his decorating. Eddie gave Feather’s its homey feeling, before Eddie’s touch the bar was just a bar. Eddie decorated like he was decorating his own house. Green garland with clusters of ornaments and twinkling lights, there was a romance in the air.
Aside from the employee holiday party and the gift given, we would get bags of gifts from not only the customers, but each other, we went out together. Groups of us would go to dinner, the movies, into the city. It was three days before Christmas and I was just getting ready to go out with Marty, Dominick, Casper, Sami and Tony when I got a phone call from Hank. He fired me. “Someone saw you take money from the tip bowl and none of the other employee’s like you so you shouldn’t come into the club.” WHAT! When the group got to my house I asked them about what Hank said and we got a good laugh over it. We went into the city and took a carriage ride down 5th Avenue to see the tree lighting. It was a light snow and the smell of Christmas trees on the street corners filled the air. As we got closer to the Rockefeller Center Tree we could smell the chestnuts roasting on an open fire. We got out of our carriage and went into the ice skating rink restaurant and ordered Hot Chocolate and watched the skaters.
Okay, so we went into the corner gay bar and ordered beers and shots and cruised the skaters for hotties. We were laughing and having a great time. Everyone was buying me drinks because I was unemployed. It was funny back then the staff did not hang out with management. Today everyone hangs together, back then there was definitely a line that was drawn. Eddie and Peter were the only ones connected with Hank and Oe, to the rest of us they were just bosses. The laughed continued until Casper mentioned that I would not see John for the Holidays. My night ended. No John, I could deal with anything but not that.
The next night I took the high road and went into the bar and gave Hank the gift I had made for him, it was a photo book of all the shows… I mushed it up a little by adding words to make him feel guilty. It worked; he invited me into the bar for drinks and rehired me out of the goodness of his heart.
The real story was that no one would work in the coatroom. I found out that he let me go because he was interested in a guy and the guy wanted to work in the coatroom. The guy ran when he found out that you couldn’t keep your tips. No matter how hot Hank thought a guy was he would never give up his tip money.
I didn’t care I had my john back in my life and I was able to give him his Christmas Gift.
I gave John his gift on Christmas Eve. He was touched and I could tell I made a dent in a heart that had been harden over the years. Casper had told me that John told him I was a special person. It was time to give him the letter…
Till tomorrow, be kind