#JusJoJan: Complaint

Today’s word for Just Jot It January is complaint. I’d complain about it, except I’m the person that picked it.

And now I can’t remember why I picked it. No matter.

When I delivered newspapers for Chuck, we had three kinds of slips we would get: a green “START”slip, which meant to start service, a pink “STOP” slip, telling us to stop service, and a yellow “COMPLAINT” slip, meaning Chuck or Mrs. H would have had to sit on the phone hearing a person complain about not getting a paper, or the paper being torn, or the delivery person broke a window, after which Chuck would take you aside and chew you out. Break a window, he’d fire you; otherwise, three complaints and you were out. I only got one complaint, but the person had called the Daily News downtown to lodge it, so I got chewed out more than usual. I delivered in several “four plus one”s (four floors of apartments plus a ground floor), and the elevator stopped between floors in one of them, making me freak out, so I hit the alarm bell. That made the elevator go to the ground floor, after which I bolted, leaving the alarm in the elevator ringing. I explained that to Chuck, and he seems to have understood…