Big Brother

Sometimes he's watching; sometimes he's paying. This item is from my archives. I wrote about my conversation with the young male cashier--a Chinese OSU graduate in engineering. Surprised that he didn't have a job in his field, I'd suggested he send out more resumes, and he responded he was too lazy, and would probably go to grad school instead. I then wrote:

"There is an older brother paying his way, I thought. And if he gets a good job, he'll have to help his younger siblings. It is the Chinese way, and every Chinese student who ever worked for me had that sort of deal, whether the brother was a doctor in the USA or technician in China.

Big brother. So that's where that expression comes from.

This morning I asked my cashier Raiz (Pakistani Muslim) what had become of the "happy bagger," when the turn styles were installed. He was a middle aged, retarded man who was always laughing and smiling and reminding the customers loudly to smile. "Oh, he was fired," he said. "Did he find another job?" I asked, thinking that his talkativeness and his handicap might have made it difficult. "Yes, he did. It took two months but he found a new job and likes it very much."

So a man that couldn't even go to regular public school can find a job and be happy, but an OSU graduate in engineering can't. Interesting."

From Norma's archives.