It's 5:30 A. M. on the large and well lit dry dock at Gordon Foods. My load is spread out in front of me as are the loads of a dozen trucks along the 18 doors of the dry warehouse. Lumpers, receivers and drivers are counting building and breaking down pallets of everything you would find in restaurant. The soundtrack, and yes there is one, is a steady stream of 80's rock and roll turned up to 11. At every large food distributor the music is the same, Bruce Springsteen, Blonde, The Police, The Cars....
What makes Gordon Food different is that when Bohemian Rhapsody comes over the sound system everyone, I mean everyone, stops and sings along. 50+ year old receivers, 20 something lumpers, and drivers just stare....For a few seconds we are all attending the worst musical ever as the chorus of untrained but well rehearsed voices rise and fall, " Gallileo! Gallileo! Figaro!!!".
"Every week I come here, and they do this. Why do they this?"
I ask Mike, a 30 something reciever.
"I don't know," he says quietly.
The senior receivers are almost always 50+ year old guys. They choose the music. They choose the music of their youth. In 10 years we will be hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the docks.
Bohemian Rhapsody Wayne's World
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| Sysco/Boston dry dock. |
