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August 1971
sorne airline passengers to a nearby ter–
minal from a downtown hotel, netting
somewhere in the vicinity of
LO
to
15
dollars ( depending on their foreign ac–
cents, dothing, the hotel they carne
from, or whether the cabbie was work–
ing for "flat ratc" or meter), and was
hopefully awaiting othcr arriving pas–
sengers for a return trip to downtown
Manhattan for a similar charge.
Don't Misunderstand
Each time
I
mention on
The
WORLD
TOMORROW broadcast, experiences with
people in the serving profcssions, a
smattering of "hate mail" arrives,
roundly decrying the cussedness of
"poor, poor ole Garner Ted" who used
radio time to complain about waiting
for room service, failing to induce pas–
sengers in hotel elevators to smile, or
trying to talk cab drivers into extin–
guishing cigars of doubtful age and
origin.
.My comments are not complaints.
They're intended to
edllrate
more of us
about more of us, to show, from the
personal, everyday point of view, the
changing attitudc of Jifc - the ap–
proacb to one's job, home, family, and
one's own self - tbat has become so
symptomatic of our deeper moral and
spiritual illncsses.
Who, me?
Complain?
What, pray
tell, about? I've been to Bombay - and
a few other equally "choice" places on
this sick, sick earth. Waiting an hour
for coffee in a Ncw York hotel hardly
compares with a Pakistani shrieking for
rice under an air rescue helicopter in
East Pakistan, o r searching the garbage
dumps of Rio's shanty towns for sur–
viva], or carrying "honey buckets" into
the terraced paddies of China.
I don't
complain,
then - I know
better.
But I do
comment.
I
observe
-
I
compare. I do so in the hopes change
can be effected; that peoples' lives can
become richer, fuller, more rewarding.
Perhaps it's equally symptomatic of our
sick age of discarded values that so
maoy fail to understand motive, and are
so quick to assign wrong motives to
well-intentioned commentary.
Facts do not constitute "attacks" on
professions as a whole, any more than
ooting the growing incidence of drug
The
PLAIN TRUTH
abuse among American soldiers dis–
credits all the rest.
Facts are facts - they speak for
themselves.
What I relate here really happens,
happens continually to practically every–
one who travels much - spiced with
those wonderful exceptions when ser–
vants serve, waiters wait, drivers drive,
elcvator operators smile, and busboys
don't need hair nets to avoid con–
taminating your tossed green salad.
T he Explosion of SERVICES
About two thirds of United States
workers (and a similar percentage in
most other industrialized countries) are
now employed in performing services
for others. Today, only one worker in
three produces durable "hard" goods
(cars, steel, minerals, etc.) or non–
durable "soft" goods ( food, clothing,
paper, etc.). In
1900,
the perccntages
were reversed.
Nearly half ( 1-1%) of consumer
spendiog is now spent for services, not
including the taxcd iocome which goes
111ain/y
for serviccs. ( All state and local
government expenditures, for instaoce,
are services. They produce no real
goods.)
Services represent the major job mar–
ket for the fnture. Even today, automa–
tion and the de-emphasis on technology
have placed many "overqualitied" pro–
duction employees into the ranks of ser–
vants. Meanwhile, our whole education
system has trainecl people for intense
specialization, while ignoring the
simple traioing of human relations, or
HOW TO SERVE.
WHO Serves?
Ever notice
who
does the "serving"
in many major hotels?
Very few are Americans, Britons, or
any other Eoglish-language group.
As a matter of fact, it's getting rather
difficult for Americans - visiting, say,
New York - to communicate readily
with floor maids, waiters from room ser–
vice, valets, and coffee shop cashiers.
There is a literallanguage barrier.
Tn
Europe, and in Britain, a very
Jarge number of serving-class laborers
are Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, and,
rarely, French. Few seem to be British,
and fewer still seem happy.
7
Likc the time in the former Carlton
Towers hotel grille room in London.
Six of us were seated
in
the well–
known Prime Rib Room by a nattily
attired Maitre d'hotel at a gaily-colored
table with polished stainless steel plates
and silverwarc. Approximately one
dozen ltalian waiters, bus boys, water
boys, wine stewards, and conceivably
passersby, studied us with an intent,
Jevel, unabashed stare.
lt was Jike being on stage at the
Metropolitan.
We were the greatest act since
Barnum and Bailey.
One sneered; two leered; a couple
g rinned; and onc dourly observed.
Three others advanced to whisk away
the steel plates. (We discovcred they
were only for decoration, and were
promptly removed when they had
accomplished thcir purpose of luring us
into the black, red, and sparkling silver
environment.)
There were six of us -
three
couples. We ordercd Prime Rib. That's
all they had, but it was Jine Prime Rib
- 1'11
say that. Trouble was, when the
waiters retreated, it was only to watch.
1
haven't felt so spectacular sioce the time
1
walked on stage in the Jirst-grade play
dressed as Samson and my !ion skin fell
to the floor.
The man who was serving water
(I
don't dare say "water boy," obviously,
since he was full-grown - but appar–
ently it was his singular occupation in
1
ife) had
a
really serious problem. His
salary didn't allow the luxury of soap.
Or cleaning bilis.
It
would seem superfluous to wonder
whether managers of restaurants lecture
their help on bathing at least once every
day or so and changing clothes now and
then. It has been my experience that
they either do not, or that their well–
intentioned instructions are ignored.
It
is not just "sour grapes" to say the
rank, musky, obnoxious oclor of stale
sweat does not mix well with yorkshire
pudding and cranberry sauce. Or with
horseradish, either.
Is it a spoiled, unreasonable attitude
to expect that food handlers should not
smell Jike warmed-over death, or that
cab drivers aod others who are contin–
ually coming into contact with the gen-
(Contimted on page 44)