Posted on 07/24/2013 10:06:38 AM PDT by Errant
When Newton Murray — everyone calls him Mr. Newton — moved from his native Trinidad to Tampa, Florida, he went to Harry H. Bell & Sons cold storage facility and applied for a job as a janitor. He got the job, and began sweeping and cleaning 90,000 square feet of enclosed warehouse space, plus parking lots and loading docks, for minimum wage. That was 33 years ago. Since then, the now 99-year-old man has never arrived for work late, never left work early, never said no, and never asked for – or received – a raise.
In 2000, the two-block-long complex where he 99 Year Old Man Works For Minimum Wage...For Over 30 Years worked, and works, was sold, to Bama Sea Products. As this piece in the Tampa Bay Times details, the new owners were in the process of moving in when this old man showed up for work. The general manager said the building had been sold, and it was no longer Harry Bell’s.
“No matter, Cap’n,” John Jackson remembers him saying. “I come with the property.” Obviously Jackson let him stay. “What was I going to do?” The next day, Mr. Newton came back, bringing his own broom this time, and he has been coming back ever since, though he has cut his work week back to just three days.
What long days those are though. From the time his alarm clock goes off, at 3:30 a.m., it typically takes him 30 minutes to make his way to the kitchen to make tea. After dressing and packing some fried chicken for lunch, it’s a 20-minute, two-block walk to the bus stop. Finally, some four hours after waking up, he arrives at work.
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
exactly.
Maybe this man is John Galt??
What better reason to keep on living life than the motivation of being needed. It seems that many retired people take jobs for that very reason, not because they need money, but because they need to stay productive. Kudos to Mr. Murray.
I had the same thought at first. Pinging to Publius. You might find this story interesting.
Galt would never have let anyone write an article about him. Someone at 20th Century Motors would have remembered him, and the NSA and IRS would have been on him in minutes.
I would have given him significant raises.
I suspected you were from the South, probably rural South. I was raised to refer to my elders as Mister or Miss and their first name, all ladies 16 and up are Maam. Race didn’t matter.
What minimum wage is he getting? 2012 minimum wage or 1980 minimum wage?
Working for minimum wage means you get the prevailing minimum wage. BTW, that’s not a raise.
I would have to...for exemplary work ethic...loyalty to job...and I’d figure out a few more reasons.
Exactly, with a catch in my throat.
——when he arrived in Florida-——
As an illegal alien
Sounds like the rest of the private sector...
I read it in the paper, Mr. Newton is what made America great. Kudos to the seafood company to keep him working.
That’s a beautiful story. She was like a surrogate Grand-Mama to you. I can imagine Meryl Streep playing a colorful personality like that, only in the movie, she’d have an 83y/o boyfriend.
Actually, the minimum wage has gone from $3.10 to $7.25 per hour during the time he has worked.
This is a positive black role model.
Good point. (lol)
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