Meet Tony

A few years back, before going to college but after graduation high school, I threw myself into the workforce to buy myself some time. I really needed to think about what it was that I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I wasn't sure I'd make it long being a backroom truck unloader that holiday season at The Christmas Tree Shops, but I learned one thing for certain. That was who I was going to be for the rest of my life. Meet Tony.

Now, as I rewind time all the way back to the fall and winter of 2012, I was really dreading working the seasonal position I had found myself in. In late October, it was high time I found some work. I had been out of high school a few months and knew I wanted a break from the books before going to college. Where and when was I going back? I wasn't sure, but I was confident I would.

The town of Salina in upstate New York isn't necessarily known for its job opportunities, so growing up there, I knew I wouldn't have a lot of options to work with. My first job was at a small grocery and meat market in the next town over of Liverpool, and boy, I hated it. So, working in a grocery store or around food and people in the same spot was completely out of the question.

Job number two kept me in my own town, just down the street from my house this time. The old Northern Lights Plaza was surely not what it used to be. Most stores and shop closed up before we even lived nearby. All that was left was a hot dog place, Fed-Ex, an army recruitment center, a pizza place, a Party City, and some other odds and ends.

It's a Christmas-themed store, how bad could it be?

Out of all the places that were hiring, and as we know food establishments were out of the question, I settled for the newest installment in the plaza, The Christmas Tree Shops. It was basically a themed seasonal store. It stayed open all year round and sold fall, spring, and summer items, but when the winter and, more importantly, Christmas season rolled around... It was no joke.

Naturally, I was okay with the idea of a seasonal job. They only needed bodies for just before, through, and after the holiday season and that worked for me. I figured by then I'd be ready to head back to school anyway. So, I went for it. As a ready and willing kid who lived within walking distance, I was a shoe-in for the back of house stocking position. I didn't mind working with my hands (and back, in this case), so it sounded like gravy to me.

The first month was cake and some of the guys I got hired on with were pretty cool. The regular all year rounders were such a mix of personalities. They ranged from an older woman who had been there for years doing price tags, to a former operation: desert storm soldier named Bob who oversaw deliveries. There was also a guy named Ray, whose silver long hair was tied back in a ponytail every day and was the pillar of a good, loyal employee. He walked to work every day, and the wisdom and life experience that guy possessed was really something special. My boss, the foreperson of the back of the house, was a skinnier lady in her mid-forties named Lori, and when she spoke, she meant it.

My group of seasonal people was quite a collection, too. We had a few flunky girls that thought they were too good for the job in the first place... They didn't last. We had a drunk older guy named Chuck, undoubtedly a barfly. They got me. There was also this black kid named Tony. Needless to say, our batch left something to be desired.

I think Chuck came to work drunk every day, which had to be a hold over from the night before, as our shift started at six o'clock in the morning. He was slow and clumsy, but meant well. He lasted the whole season, surprisingly. As my memory fades, I do remember how you couldn't count on Chuck to get anything done correctly.

Lori stayed on her team and made sure we all were getting our work done. Once I asked Tony if he wanted to pick up one of my shift. Lori okayed it, but if Tony didn't show up, she threatened to dock both of our pays for it. I wasn't worried.

This Tony kid was like a machine. He had a sense of humor, but when it was time to work, he didn't fuck around. He got stuff done quick and right, making Chuck and I look like a couple of bumblefucks. When he could, Tony would get his jabs in on Chuck, never me. One of my favorite lines came as we were working as a team on a project in the full swing of Christmas prep.

We were all standing around a large work table, labelling and prepping merchandise to be put on the shelves and in order, it was me and Chuck on one side of the table and Tony at the head of it to Chuck and I's left. We were working, sweating after keeping a good pace and per usual, Chuck was smelling up the area with the stench of alcohol. And I mean strong.

Tony let out a big "Whew" and smirked as he said "Chuck be smelling like a brew!" out loud. Chuck didn't really get it and went along with it as I was held up from my work with uncontrollable laughter and Tony chuckled through his work. It was true, though. Chuck really did.

The old Hoffman's Hot Haus, known now as Salt City Dogs

I really began to hit it off with Tony, although we had nothing in common, he was working extra to provide a great christmas for his little daughter he planned on seeing soon. She lived far away, but he was getting the chance to really provide for her this Christmas with the extra money he was making at the Christmas Tree Shops. On breaks, away from the trucks, tables, crates, and boxes is when I got to know Tony.

On our half hour lunch breaks, I learned that this wasn't Tony's only job, he had two other ones in two other back rooms. He had just been laid off from his main job at Little Ceaser's Pizza down in the Valley area of Syracuse (a really rough area near the city, littered with crime) and needed the money. As Tony shared his reasons for being here, I explained my aspirations of going back to school and deciding what I want to do after getting some more work experience under my belt. I told him I wanted to write and he was really impressed with that.

We'd swap laughs and stories over lunch, often going across the parking lot to the hot dog place, on of the most famous in Syracuse, Hoffman's Hot Hous. Now, if you've never had a Hoffman's hot dog... They're a cut above the rest. I pretty much refuse to eat any other brand, which is tough being a Floridian now. Although, we have been able to snag a Publix that sells them in packs of eight down here! But back then, I took the delicious lunches for granted as we'd swap off paying for each other's lunch every week.

Tony was the man, and although he was a bit older than me and definitely more streetwise, we clicked. I'd try to keep up to his pace, so he'd slow down because he knew it. We got along and he really got me through another job that I could really care less about. Not Tony, this was life for him. You work to get by and you do what you've got to do to provide. I was just some dumb high school grad looking for something to do while living at my parents house still.

The holidays came and went and as February rolled around and our seasonal work was done. I secretly hoped they'd call Tony and I back if there were spots available to us. They did call me back, but a facilities position was not exactly the career I had in mind for myself, so I respectfully declined. I went to college and graduated instead.

I only found Tony on Facebook shortly after we were done at The Christmas Tree Shops, but we didn't really keep in touch. He wasn't too active on there, but I was able to see pictures of he and his daughter every now and again. He was still bouncing from back room to back room, getting things done. I believe I last saw he was working at Big Lots and Babies R' Us. He cut it down to a humble two jobs at once.

I never saw Tony in person again.

Tony and his daughter in 2015

I came across a news article after graduating with an associates degree in 2015. A man had been shot on his bike in the early daylight of the afternoon in November. This was nothing out of the ordinary for Syracuse, unfortunately. Small-time murders almost occur daily on city streets. However, this one was a bit different. The man who had been killed was riding his bike home from work with seemingly no connection to his killer.

In a feud between gangs, twenty-five year old Tony "TJ" Guyton was shot and killed after being misidentified as a rival gang member to the 110's. The gang member shot Tony twice causing him to pass away at a nearby hospital only twenty minutes later.

During trial, prosecutor Robert Moran would go on to say,

"It doesn't take courage to shoot from moving car or hunt someone down on bicycle. Courage is found in the little decisions in life, like victim Tony Guyton's commitment to waking up at 4:30 a.m. each morning on the city's South Side and bicycling to work at Babies 'R' Us near the mall."

The murderer went on to be convicted, facing forty years to life in a state prison.

It really is a shame I never got the chance to thank Tony, or even his family, for letting me get to know him. His laser focus on the important things in life and the commitment he made day-in and day-out to his immediate family stays with me. It's the little things in life that people do for others that need to recognize more; like a friend offering to buy you lunch, share a joke with you to keep your spirits up while on the clock, or setting a work pace that you can keep up with.

While at The Christmas Tree Shops, I was reminded that though was as people may not care as much about something we're doing in that exact moment, or take our current role in life that seriously, somebody right next to us is.

Meet Tony.