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SubTitle: The BCB, inc. Janitor
Posted by: Art (art_anderson@detrick.army.mil) on 4/03/1998@15:32hrs:
While I was at Wagner College, I worked in Picture Cover Bindings, Inc. in Rosebank. Full time in the summers and part time in the evenings. I came to know all the full time staff, including the deaf, non-speaking janitor. All the regular workers abused the janitor in ways that are unspeakable, but I felt compassion for him and tried to befriend him during break times. When I had finally earned his trust, he brought in a book he wrote about indian artifacts on Staten Island. He had a PhD in Archeology but could never get a university job because of his hearing and speaking deficiencies. Some of you may know about him. He discovered an indian burial ground filled with pottery and special artifacts on the grounds where there was excavation for one of the piers of the Verazzano Narrows bridge. After learning about his struggle, his knowledge and what he endured working at that factory I can imagine that the books and articles he wrote and the artifacts that he found on digs gave him strength to go on. The people who tormented him at the factory neither could understand what he did nor could they ever reach his level of accomplishment. He also had a perverse sense of humor because todays trash becomes tomorrows archeological treasures.