{"id":1037,"date":"2017-04-11T20:56:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-11T20:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commarts.pleather.us\/2017\/04\/11\/an-excerpt-from-callings-clarence-clancy-haskett-and-jerry-collier\/"},"modified":"2017-04-11T20:56:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-11T20:56:38","slug":"an-excerpt-from-callings-clarence-clancy-haskett-and-jerry-collier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.valdosta.edu\/m2\/2017\/04\/11\/an-excerpt-from-callings-clarence-clancy-haskett-and-jerry-collier\/","title":{"rendered":"An Excerpt from \u201cCallings\u201d: Clarence \u201cClancy\u201d Haskett and Jerry Collier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Callings: The Purpose and Passion of Work<\/em>, our collection of 53 inspiring stories from those at the heart of the American workforce, is\u00a0now available in paperback<\/a>. In this excerpt, beer vendor\u00a0<\/strong>Clarence \u201cClancy\u201d Haskett talks with his friend and former colleague, Jerry\u00a0Collier.<\/p>\n

\"Haskett1200x900\"<\/p>\n

Clarence \u201cClancy\u201d Haskett:<\/strong> I used to play baseball in the streets with my friend John every single day, and we\u2019d always listen to the baseball games on the radio. When we were fifteen, John started working at the stadium during the Orioles games, and then I went to work there with him, too. I always remember the date: June the seventh, 1974. I made $8.25 that day selling sodas. And from that very first day, I was hooked.<\/p>\n

Jerry Collier: <\/strong>I met you probably the second day of my new job as a beer vendor well, a wannabe <\/em>beer vendor\u2014at Memorial Stadium when I was nineteen years old. The Orioles won the World Series in \u201983, and I came in \u201984. And I fell in love with that job.<\/p>\n

Clancy:<\/strong> When you came in, you was young\u2014still in college. And you were selling your sodas, just plucking people off. They said, \u201cWho is this guy?\u201d They didn\u2019t even know your name. Next thing you know, you was in the top ten in sales. Next thing you know, you was in the top five. We gave you the name \u201cthe Terminator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/strong> Every vendor at the stadium was on a list that was ranked based on sales every twenty-seven games. There\u2019s an eighty-one-game season. And the person at the top of that list could pick what product they wanted to sell. And the best product in the stadium was beer.<\/p>\n

Clancy:<\/strong> One of the guys, he had this little slogan that he started, and it went around all the vendors. So once you started working, he said, \u201cWhat\u2019s gonna happen when they revise . . .that . . . list<\/em>?\u201d He used to say it a hundred times a day. [Laughs.]<\/em> But it was a motivational tool for all of us.<\/p>\n

Vendors would do little tricks and everything to sell more. I had the gift of gab, so that helped me out. I used to do rhymes, and everyone used to love those rhymes. It\u2019s just the type of job where you can\u2019t start off in slow motion. You have to always be aggressive. I was a Division I sprinter in college, and I used to race guys up and down the hallways. And since 1984, I\u2019ve been consistently in the top five in sales. Next year will be thirty consecutive years.<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/strong> You were number one for a really long time, and I was number one for a really long time. So when you go into the stadium and you\u2019re at the top, you have incredible pressure on you to be a selling machine. I mean, the only thing that mattered was, \u201cWhat\u2019s gonna happen when they revise . . .that . . . list<\/em>?\u201d [Laughs.] <\/em>Because if you stop for a second<\/em>, number five is coming. Number four is coming. And it\u2019s just perfect competition. It becomes almost like a sport.<\/p>\n

Clancy:<\/strong> Well, that\u2019s the way that I look at it\u2014my mind-set is like I\u2019m a professional athlete. I have to stay in shape, I have to train during the off-season. Because vendors running around with straps around their neck? That\u2019s only on television commercials. Good vendors pick up their case and they carry it. Back in the old days we could carry five cases at a time.<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/strong> To be a vendor you\u2019ve got to be athletic, personable, visible, fast\u2014and be able to process a lot of information in your head. But we also had some vendors who weren\u2019t as athletic. One guy, he was working on an engineering degree from University of Maryland, and he created any number of mechanical devices to be able to pour beer faster. I mean, it was stunning<\/em>. He went from being a middle-of-the-road vendor to being basically at the top.<\/p>\n

Clancy:<\/strong> But I would say, \u201cYou don\u2019t need a can opener to sell beer; you need a personality!\u201d And I still <\/em>outsold them all. [Laughs.] <\/em>But you know, we vendors competed against each other every single game, and we still hung out together.<\/p>\n

Jerry: <\/strong>I would say it was like guys at any sporting event: when you\u2019re in the heat of it, you\u2019re all in. But then when it was over \u2026 I mean, we\u2019ve been on vacation together. You were in my wedding. I was in yours. I\u2019ve been in two handfuls of vendors\u2019 weddings! Love them like they\u2019re brothers.<\/p>\n

From my perspective, if you\u2019re really good at this, you\u2019re good at it because you love it. And it\u2019s consuming. Put it this way: how did we plan our weddings?<\/p>\n

Clancy:<\/strong> Around the Orioles\u2019 schedule.<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/strong> [Laughter.] <\/em>That\u2019s true. To miss a game, the stress levels weren\u2019t worth it. And when you get to that level, it\u2019s in your soul.<\/p>\n

\"Haskett1-1200x900\"<\/p>\n

I left in June of \u201996 because my first son was born, and I got promoted at my other job. I struggled, because I loved vending. But the hardest part was leaving that place and not being able to see you guys every single day.<\/p>\n

When I first arrived at the stadium and looked around the ballpark, you were just this ray of sunshine: a guy who outworked people, who loved all the customers more than anybody else. You were so positive, and you just crushed <\/em>it. And I said, \u201cThat\u2019s who I want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

I mean, you\u2019re larger than life in a lot of ways. But I know there\u2019s another side of you\u2014more than the rhymes and all that.<\/p>\n

Clancy: <\/strong>Right, yeah. My mother died ten days after I was born, and since my father was working a lot, my grandmother became my guardian. I ended up moving back with my father when I was five or six, and everything that I did\u2014the littlest thing\u2014I got a beating for. It was just war. Just before I turned nine, my father beat me with an extension cord, and it left large welts on my forehead. My friend saw it on a Saturday, and when I got to school on Monday, they took me out of class and asked, \u201cWhat is going on with your head?\u201d And I told them how I got it. They packed up my bags, and I moved in with my aunt that day.<\/p>\n

That was probably the <\/em>turning point in my entire life. I got around people who loved and cared about me. It changed my life. And it helped me think about things before I did them. Instead of being hotheaded, you know, I just don\u2019t go there.<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/strong> Well, you epitomize to me all that\u2019s right in the world. You\u2019re a great man. And hearing how you grew up helps me to have a deeper understanding for why <\/em>you see things the way you do. So if it\u2019s a rainout at the Orioles game and you only sell two cases of beer, in the big scheme of life, that\u2019s not even a setback.<\/p>\n

Clancy:<\/strong> No, that\u2019s not a problem at all.<\/p>\n

I feel good. And so as long as I\u2019m still healthy, I\u2019ll put in another good ten years. That\u2019s going to be fifty years of vending. Wherever I am, I can go in a restaurant or a bar that I\u2019ve never been in before, and somebody say, \u201cSend that guy over there a beer!\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry:<\/strong> That\u2019s something I miss. You sit in a restaurant and all these people come up to you, you know? Nobody knows me anymore. I\u2019m just a boring banker now. [Laughter.]<\/em><\/p>\n

From Callings<\/em> by Dave Isay. Reprinted by arrangement with Penguin Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright \u00a9 StoryCorps, Inc., 2016.<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Bottom photo: Jerry Collier, second from left.\u00a0Clarence \u201cClancy\u201d Haskett, third from left.<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Source: SNPR Story Corps<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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