In 1962, we had three rooms of technical writers, analysts and clerk-typists in the Technical Lab building at Patrick AFB. We wrote documentation for the tracking stations on the eastern test ranghe.
We had a 100-cup coffee urn in one of the rooms. All of us drank coffee from that pot, including a few people from other nearby offices. One heavy coffee drinker in an adjacent office was the director above our department manager.
Every day his secretary came over many times to fill his and sometimes her cup. She always dropped money into the kitty to pay for their coffee.
When she was on vacation, a fill-in secretary was moved in from the secretarial pool on another floor. She started coming over and filling two cups several times a day, without putting any money into the kitty.
One of the men said something about paying for coffee and she replied, “This is for Roy. He doesn’t have to pay,” and walked out with her nose in the air. This continued for a couple of days and she repeated the same statement to others that questioned her.
One of the men mounted two or three large flashbulbs in the upper corner of the room above the coffee pot. He ran wires from the flashbulbs along the ceiling to his desk across the room and down to his desk, where he had a battery.
Just as the smart-alec fill-in secretary finished filling her coffee cup, the flashbulbs flashed. She jumped and threw her cup; coffee went everywhere and the cup shattered. She began cussing a blue-streak and stormed out of our room.
Within five minutes, Roy walked into our room, looked at the coffee pot and upwards to the exploded flashbulbs. He saw the wire along the ceiling and where it came down to Earl’s desk. He walked over to Earl and said, “Why?”
Earl bluntly told him what was happening about the fill-in secretary not paying for coffee. Roy looked at all of us and we were all nodding our heads and grinning.
Roy smiled and said, “I wish you had come to me, but it’s over. Don’t worry.” He walked out of our offic. Within an hour another fill-in secretary was in Roy’s office. She did pay for the coffee every time.
Roy had always given the secretary enough money to pay for both of their coffees. Apparently, the first fill-in secretary had been pocketing the money. She never worked for Roy or any department under him after that.
Copyright © Jerry Blackerby 2009