Fame

I Made Steve Carell Laugh

Or at least maybe a low chuckle. It was definitely a smile. I’m sure of that.

I took a part-time job at an Apple Store a while back, intending to work there a few years while I slowly closed up my business. As it happened, I closed up my business earlier than expected and I enjoyed the Apple job. That became full time and I stayed there, selling iPhones and iPads and everything else for four years. I enjoyed the work and was good at it.

Located in Hingham, MA, the store gets a fair number of celebrities, mostly local sports figures. Other employees would sometimes whisper “Look, it’s David Ortiz” or something like that. Actually, I don’t know if it ever was David Ortiz. I don’t follow sports and wouldn’t know David Ortiz from Dave Chappelle. Chappelle is taller, right?

My ignorance is so great that I easily could have waited on a famous sportsperson and never known it. They’d have to be very famous for me to recognize their name and I’d never know them by face. Our queue listed waiting customers by first name only, so I would have walked up and said “Hi, Tom, I’m Tony. What brings you in today?” to anyone named Tom.

If I did help some sports legend, I’m unaware of it. If I ever did, I wonder if they were surprised by my not recognizing them or just relieved to be able to buy something without the salesperson nervously chattering, gushing, and blushing.