Everyone in my line of work can look back on columns they wish they hadn’t written.
That is how I feel right now about a recent piece I did on all the hoopla created by Cal Ripken’s baseball longevity record.
I didn’t denigrate Ripken’s splendid accomplishment, but I pointed out that many lesser-known people have put in many more days on their jobs.
And I invited readers to send me examples of this devotion to work.
They did. My mailbox and computer have overflowed with reports of people with incredibly long, unbroken work records.
Boy, is some of it depressing stuff.
For reasons I don’t understand, some of the most obsessive, dedicated workers are in jobs that could drive a person nuts.
A few examples: In Long Beach, Calif., there is a guy named Don Yockey. He took a job in 1958. That was three years before Cal Ripken was born.
And he was still doing the same job in the same place when Ripken set his baseball record.
What was Yockey’s job? He washed dishes and pots and pans in a restaurant. That’s 37 years of doing what GIs considered the lousiest chore of KP duty.
Yockey finally retired the day after Ripken set the record. And as the dishwasher told columnist Tom Hennessy: “It wasn’t exactly what you’d want to do by choice. On the other hand, it was better than not doing anything.”
I don’t know. I’ve washed pots, pans and dishes. And I’ve sat under a tree doing nothing. Nothing wasn’t half bad.
A woman in Pittsburgh wrote: “My dad went to work in a machine shop when he was out of high school. For 40 years, he never took a day off for sickness, even when he felt lousy. He wasn’t ever late. When they had a rush job, he’d go in on weekends and even holidays.
“The only reason he left at age 58 was that the machine he was working on cut off his left thumb and forefinger.
“Even after that, he took a job in a shopping center retrieving shopping carts. That’s what he was doing on a hot day when he had a heart attack and died while he was pushing a stack of carts.
“My sister and two brothers and I learned an important lesson from my dad’s example. What we learned was that there is a lot more to life than a boring, stupid job, and we all goof off every chance we get.”
Ripken’s record touched off a flurry of news stories around the country about workers with long work records.
In Akron, there is a mattress factory that had several workers who put in 15 years without missing a day of helping make mattresses.
And one woman at the mattress plant retired after 40 years as a mattress-panel cutter without even one sick day.
You’ve really got to love those mattress panels.
A factory worker in Detroit sent along this message: “A few years ago, there was a man who retired from Ford Motor Co. after 50 years and he never missed a scheduled day of work. And this was factory work, real hard labor, that he did. The most I ever made it was 109 days in a row, and it almost killed me.”
Well, on the assembly line as in baseball, some guys have got that intangible called desire.
A woman in Springfield says of her husband: “He was an outstanding IBM salesman for 33 years. Twice he was the top IBM salesman in the country.
“He never had a sick day, even when he felt terrible.
“At age 59, when he was far from ready to retire, he became a victim of the Big Blue early-retirement squeeze.”
As the old saying goes: They shoot horses, don’t they?
But not all longevity records are depressing.
Mike Hansen of Tucson writes: “I might not be able to claim a work record, but I might be able to claim a before-work record.
“Nine years ago my doctor told me to get some exercise, so I enrolled in a tae kwon do class.
“I was then, as I am now, a geezer. And most of the students in the class were about one-third of my age.
“So to keep up, I practiced my kicks at home every morning before going to work.
“This got to be a habit which I never gave up. So every day I do 54 kicks -front kicks, side kicks, spin kicks and roundhouse kicks.
“Since June 1, 1986, when I started kicking seven mornings a week, I have kicked 182,952 times, including this morning’s kicks.
“And by the time you receive this, I will have exceeded 183,000 kicks.
“Do you think this is a record that would bring tears to the eyes of the sportswriters who were so moved by Ripken’s record?” Yes, quite possibly, especially if you kick them in the head, which I recommend.
I will have more of these inspiring stories later. But now I’m going home and will spend tomorrow goofing off.
Write to Mike Royko at the Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
