Tribute: Sandy K. A Big Heart In A Little Package

 Some of you will know part of my story, some will not. This remembrance is for a young lady I met in the summer of 1975.  But she will not get to read it, because she has passed from this life, on to somewhere that pain and sickness and sorrow are no longer present.  Sandy left our world on August 19, 2021, after a battle with cancer.  

In 1975, I transferred to the North Business Office in Dallas, Tx., from the National Yellow Pages Office in Downtown Dallas.  I was going to be in a training class that would be about 8 or 9 weeks long but the other members of my class had not been released to the business office yet.  That meant that I had a designated job of doing everyone's junk work that they couldn't do because they were tied up on the phone with customers.  This is how I met Sandy.

Now, Sandy was not in the group that I would be assigned to, she was in another group but we all worked for the same manager, Jerry Brantley.  I was passed around like a box of tissues during flu season.  Everyone needed help so I went from desk to desk.  That is how we met.  

Sandy had a very strong Chicago-sounding accent, which was great for me because I too was a Yankee from Washington DC.  I understood her perfectly, her accent made me smile, it was almost like being home again.  In between calls, we would talk when we could, finding out little bits and pieces about each other.  She was married and had a young son named Troy.  She appeared to be very knowledgeable in her job.  People would loudly ask her questions, to which she would rapid-fire answer them.  The first time she had to get up from her desk, I realized that she was a "little, bitty, person." She was maybe 5' 2" at the most, I was 5'7'.  Sitting was deceiving.  And she was fast, like a brown-haired jack-rabbit, she sprang up out of that chair and whoosh, she was across the room and back super quick.  In fact, everyone was getting up and flying across the room, dodging each other, looking for what, I did not know, but they all seemed to be okay with it.  It was kind of crazy. 

Sandy had a group of friends that she went to lunch with every day and she invited me to go with them.  I wasn't sure if I would fit in and she said, "look, we are all close to the same age, you'll fit right in with us."  So, I went, she gave me a good intro and it seemed like I fit right in.  All of these girls, yes, girls, everyone was quite young, seemed very smart, they liked their jobs and there was no jealousy of one another. When I was upstairs working to help people out, Sandy always made sure to include me in their lunch plans, which was very considerate of her to do.

As I moved around the office helping people out, I started to take mental notes of who the exceedingly nice and smart people were.  That would help when I had questions, I knew who to go to that was willing to help and do it nicely.

My memories will be of a younger Sandy before she became management because then, she was just like all of us, but she knew a lot more.  She was funny, back before we had headsets and the office was a LOT noisier, if a rep was talking to someone who obviously could not hear, she would yell out, sell her a volumn control, and everyone would crack up.  Her wit was very quick.  And, she was also very kind.  She was constantly helping someone. There were eight newbies when our class finally started, so there was no shortage of questions for her to answer.  We were supposed to go within our own individual groups for help, but many times that was just impossible, and we would go to Sandy.  She never turned us down, even though we got the mean eyeball look from her boss.  And I have to say that some of the new people were less smart than others and needed more help, not that they were dumb, it was just a matter of "getting it" and it took some folks a lot longer than others.

So, at that time in our office, there were bells and gongs and lights that were always going off when it was busy, and it pretty much was always busy.  We had 3 different groups and each group had their own light signal and own bell or gong sound to notify us of busy conditions, like we didn't already know that, right?  Also, all of the customer records and files were on paper spread throughout a different corresponding desk all over the office, and it was a pretty big office.  We had what seemed like 100 different service measurements that we had to achieve on each call and when it came to finding them in less than sixty seconds, well it was a dang Olympic event. It was insanity.  It was like working in a disco insane asylum, it had everything, bells, lights, gongs, blinking lights, spinning lights. a ding, a ding dong, and a ding dong ding sound, constantly.  And it had mostly young ladies running across the floor to capture their records and be back on the phone in less than a minute.  People in jeans, people in short skirts or dresses, people in heels, people in sneakers, and zero carpeting on the floor to absorb any noise.  It seriously was bedlam.  I could not believe how fast short little Sandy could run, and she smoked, yes, we could smoke in the office, we needed some form of a fix to get through our day.  I was sitting there filing for 2 months before my class started, so I got to watch the show every day.  Sandy would kick her chair backward and take off like the Space Shuttle, little jeaned legs churning like they were a whirlwind, tornado legs.  I'm pretty sure she did not have one ounce of fat on her and could outrun every single person, male or female, in the office.  She reminded me of The Roadrunner, but with a brown, pixie haircut.  Whoosh!  Why wasn't one of the guys taking bets on those time trials every day, Lenny?  Or maybe you were.

And, I mentioned Sandy's kindness, her having the gift to help people every day, sometimes the same person asking her the same question she already answered at least twice for them, she never batted an eye, never complained or laughed about them or told them to figure it out for themselves.  She was always available when she was available.  That's why people went to her. And if you needed something, if you were short on lunch money, or your kids were driving you crazy, like mine, and you needed advice, she was there.  I broke a tooth one night and it was really hurting me, but, we had to go to work no matter what.  So, I went, and I was miserable.  Couldn't drink or eat anything without it being very painful.  At lunch, I told her I wasn't going with them and she asked me why.  I told her and she went to the phone and called somebody,  She came back and said, "This is my dentist, he will see you at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."  I thanked her but told her I couldn't go, being a single mom on a really tight budget I just could not afford to go.  "You are going, I already told my dentist that your budget is tight, he said he would work with you according to what you can afford, now go tell Mike you are going." (Mike was my boss, one of the nice ones.)   And so I went, and I had to have a root canal, very expensive even back then, but as a favor to her, the dentist let me pay it off over several months.  She was not only, fast, funny, kind, cute, and intelligent, she was a great asset to anyone and everyone that knew her.

And did I mention that she was athletic?  She was, very much so. We started a volleyball team and basketball team, (for the guys) and we played the other districts.  There was a lot of competition between all of our districts and we all wanted to be the best.  And our supervisors and managers wanted us to be the best, too.  We had a good group of girls that we enlisted for a team.  Now we had some girly girls, the kind that protects their face if a ball is coming at them, or just stand there if it was a smoking hot, fast, hard serve from the other team. You know the type, we all know the type.  We also had some killer beasts on our team, hardcore, no-nonsense girls.  They would punch a ball down your throat and never bat an eye, actually, we would all smile when we got the point, or worse. So when Sandy wanted to play of course she was welcomed.  We took non-paying bets on her.  She was so short and that net was so high, we thought she might be one of the girly girls. "Oooh, sorry, I thought it was going to hit me so I let it go."  Grrrr!  So when Sandy worked her way in, because we had more team members than the nine we needed, we were playing and watching.  No, we did not take bets.  Oh my gosh, Sandy had quite the serving arm.  And her short little body could jump high for netballs and run fast to catch a ball missed by someone else.  I know that all of her Olympic running through the office must have given her good sports legs and arms from running the indoor Daily Business Office Marathon, 88's and pen in hand. (yes, you have to be an OLD Timer to understand the 88's.) 

We also had an intra-office bowling league that Tim formed.  There were four people on each team, and most of the office participated in the league.  And again, that little girl was right there playing side by side with us.  Bowling for no dollars, just for the fun and sportsmanship of it.  Some of us only had girl teams, because at that time there were not many guys in the office, so they selfishly banded together, but our handicaps would frequently beat them.  Haha.  

But my point about Sandy is that she was always there, always nice, helpful, and fun.  She was an all-around great person, always giving a 110% in everything she did.  That is just the kind of person she was.  And, I think that is what she will be remembered for not the jobs she did, but for the person she was.

I knew her closely from 1975 until divestiture in 1984 when I transitioned to AT&T to work with a mixture of people from many districts and different cities in Texas.  I worked for 20 years between the two companies, 10 at each one.  I can say honestly that the years before I left North, the years from 1975-1981, even though I worked for Bell until the end of 1983, those years at North District were the best working years, working with the best people like Sandy, although many did not have all of her attributes, just a big group of fun, friendly, caring people, who worked well together even though the job was a difficult one.  Sandy is in the top 10 percent of fantastic people that I will always remember fondly.  I hope she's up there right now at that big Casino in the Sky hitting those bet buttons and spin buttons on her favorite slots.  And maybe she will toss down a few of her favorite drinkiepoos, hey, what not?  

Maybe some of us will be joining her soon, we are getting older and some of us, me, do love casino's just like she does.  We can tell her that it's okay, she doesn't have to run anymore or do anything she doesn't want to do.

And so, Miss Sandy, we, the temporarily earthbound people, tell you goodbye for now but warn you, you may see us again. Get ready girl, it's almost happy hour time. We all miss you and love you.