Captain Lou
I was on the phone the other day with 80-year-old Lou Sprague, the scheduler for opening, closing and servicing pools for Teddy Bear in Chicopee. Lou was a longtime public-school teacher in Springfield, where he grew up. Later, he was the head of security at Riverside Park.
He’s been with Teddy Bear for more than 30 years. He’ll tell ya, “I’ve been here since Christ wore short pants.” Back when he was running security at Riverside, he met Teddy Bear owner Ted Hebert, who raced cars at the Speedway. They’d yak it up down in the pits. Ted told him to get a pool. Lou did. Then he went to work there.
Over the years, Lou has listened to the troubles I’ve had with my goddamn pool. He always has a good off-the-cuff line. “Throw a coupla hand grenades in it,” he’ll say. “That oughta to take care of your problems.”
Not everyone appreciates Lou’s pearls of wisdom. Lou will tell me, “A lot of people don’t want advice, they already have all the answers.” Another Lou line: “Common sense is an uncommon commodity today.”
When I ask Lou how long he’ll stay working, he says, “As long as I can get up the stairs at Teddy Bear, I’ll be giving advice to anybody who will listen."
Even though he’s a big talker, Lou is a member of the Silent Generation. They got that label by keeping their heads down and working hard. We could use more of that these days. Lou has wisdom, experience and knowledge you can’t match. But the workplace disregards people his age. Puts ‘em out to pasture. Then all you hear is businesses can’t find help...nobody wants to work...kids today...the American work ethic is shot. Maybe we're looking for the youngsters when we should be looking for the oldsters.
As my old buddy Rick Heath used to say, “Retire the word retirement.” We farm out the best talent at the worst times. If you keep working and you’re around people and you laugh and talk, you’re healthier and live longer. Take it from Lou Sprague. Keep your dukes up.