Mike and Mike and the Air Conditioner
The pantry made demands on all of us. For one thing, there were guidelines, rules, boundaries, and no-nos, handed down by not only health codes, the Food Bank guidelines, HPNAP guidelines, but the building rules.
The building committee had strict rules about what hours we could be in the building, where the cardboard could go, when and where we could use what portion of the parking lot, where the people could stand in the overcrowded hallway, what food could or could not be stored where, when the produce and bread could come in the building, how many chairs could be placed in the hallway, etc.
I was in the pantry arranging the produce on the shelves one summer evening in the month before the building committee limited our hours in the building so severely.
The night was warm for Woodstock and I put a box fan on the sill in each of the 3 windows to keep the air moving in the pantry in an effort to retard the rotting of the produce, the lettuce, tomatoes, greens, and herbs.
Mike Cooter stomped in the room with a serious scowl on his face. His body posture shouted “anger”. Cooter was a member of the building committee and everyone connected with the pantry and the church knew that the building committee assumed total control over every detail of what happened in the building.
“Get these fans out of the windows.” he said.
“I’m trying to keep some of the produce from rotting so we’ll have fresh food for the shoppers tomorrow” I replied. “We lost 50% of our produce last week. We need the fans to keep the food cool.”
“Get the fans out of the windows NOW” he yelled. Cooter had gone from disapproving to threatening.
And I was scared.
Luckily for me, Mike Lourenso was standing in the shadows. He stepped out into the light.
“Back off Cooter” Mike said with an air of authority. “I was a Brooklyn cop for 23 years. Calm down now or I’ll take you down.” I wasn’t sure what “I’ll take you down” meant but I really liked the sound of those words.
Cooter took a deep breath and backed out of the small room. He took another couple of deep breaths and appeared to be accepting what he had just heard from Mike Lourenso.
Cooter returned to the room. “We need to fix this problem now Cooter. She’s driving 90 miles round trip every week for a truckload of produce and then losing half of it here in this room because of the heat.
Can we have an air conditioner?”
Cooter appeared to be thinking about – and considering – the request.
“Okay” said finally. He appeared to have reluctantly come to terms with the situation.
“Get those fans out of here now and get an air conditioner in a window now. Put it in that window” he said as he pointed to a specific window.
“Now? It’s after 9:30.”
“Yeah. NOW.”
“Okay, I’ve got one in my home. I’ll go get it and we’ll put it in tonight.”
And he did. He drove to his home, took a window unit out of a bedroom, and returned to the pantry with the unit and an electric drill. Together, we installed it at 10:30 that same night.
I, for one, was grateful for many things that night.
First, I was grateful for a volunteer who knew how to be a cop.
Second, I was grateful we could get our hands on an air conditioner fast – before Cooter changed his mind.
Third, I was really grateful that we were going to be able to have a better quality of fresh food to serve to our shoppers.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
Woodstock
