Here are two
stories I found clipped together in my story notebook which took place twenty
years apart but ironically have the same theme.
Story 1 – the Des
Soye family dinner table in the early ‘70’s. Mom is talking
Now Den, you
really need to find a way to pick up a few extra dollars while you are in
college. Think of a niche that needs to be filled – a service you can provide
better than anyone else.
College kids
are always busy – always in a hurry – running to classes, speeding off to their
own jobs. What can you do, Den, to help these busy people?
One idea that
comes to my mind is that of a porty-potty. College kids are just too rushed to
go looking for a bathroom when nature calls, but if the bathroom were to come
to them, how convenient would that be!
You have seen
those porta-potties used on construction sites or at festival locations. You
could get one of those and put it on wheels.
You could wheel it around campus and charge classmates to use it!
If you didn’t
want to put the unit itself on wheels, you could put it in a bathtub on wheels and decorate it with
pretty curtains. Everyone else would be jealous that they did not think of this
enterprising idea before you did!
And why stop
with the pretty curtains? You could put up a cutesy sign and play music to
announce your whereabouts, kind of like when the ice cream man enters the
neighborhood.
I think it
would definitely increase your popularity at college, and who knows, you might
even become a campus or cult hero!
We are serious about this! Why do you sit there
and look like we have to be joking? The porta-potty on campus is a very workable
idea, and for you not to see the potential in this only proves that you will
never amount to more than the lump that you are sitting there right now.
Story 2 – a meeting
at work, September 1995, a department manager is talking,
With the
Olympics coming to Atlanta next year, is there something that our company can
do to tap into a business aspect of the big event? Is there some niche that we
can fill that can provide revenue to the company?
Certainly
there will be a lot of drug testing needed. Labs will be needed to
provide that service. All of the athletes will have to be tested, perhaps
tested repeatedly. Getting tested on site would be a valuable service. Instead
of seeking a lab to go to for drug tests, we can go to them!
This is a
great idea. Someone look into what equipment would be needed to do the drug
testing. We can do some research to figure out how to promote the company and
let the Olympics powers that be know we are here to cater to all their drug
testing needs.
Hey! Maybe we
could set up porta-potties around town, and the athletes could give us the
urine samples when required, and we could get them to the lab in a hurry and do
the testing immediately.
Of course,
careful monitoring of the samples, the athletes, and the porta-potties would have
to be done. This would have to be top notch testing. And it could really
enhance the company’s reputation.
You know, I
bet all of this is something Denise could take care of.
Everyone think
about it and get some info together, we’ll talk about it again at our next
meeting next Monday.
End of Story 2
My notes say
that this second story was typed up in September of 1995. The ’96 Summer
Olympics seem like forever ago now. The porty-potty facilitated urine testing
was not brought up again at the next meeting. But as evidenced here, the memory
has lived on.
And so that is
how twice on my life opportunity knocked clearly and loudly and I just sat like a
lump each time - passing up my chance for cult status as the lady with the potty on wheels!
312 20151108 The Porta Potty Always Rings Twice
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