Christmas 1982...

Well as I look back on my life, I can say I once actually went to a Christmas party at the home of a Fortune 500 person. No he didn't just randomly call me up and say, "Hey Dave, me and my rich buddies are having cocktails for Christmas, care to come by and join us."

In fact it was a stroke of strange timing.

It was a hectic and fun Christmas season actually. Marty and I had just finished out our Subway franchisee class and we were the toast of family and friends and the enemy of our current Subway co-workers. They knew in about 4 or 5 days we were going to be moving on to own our own shop and well....they weren't. Somehow, Marty and I, borrowed to the hilt were now on the spolied brat list somehow.

Word had filtered down in the Subway ranks, that it was the weekend of Subway Corporate owner Fred DeLuca's Christmas party and as an added bonus he wanted the franchisee class to attend this year's bash. Marty and I were both working that night for our current bosses who both knew Fred.

Sooo can we have the night off?

"Absolutely!" said our boss Paul, "When Fred wants you to go to his house...you go!"

We both smiled..

"Of course" he continued, "this means your both fired!"

Ok, our termination was a mere formality...we were leaving on our own in a few days but our "dismissal" would be an ongoing joke.

As for parties at rich folk houses, this was kind of a disappointment for the most part. I mean no valet parking, we had to park on the street. The food...eh...especially coming from an Italian guy who's mom was still alive. No coat check...not that I wear one. The drinks were good and plentiful but I was 19 and any free liquor was quality.

Fred wasn't exactly omnipresent...he seemed to dip in and out of the party, said little and you kind of wondered if he was even involved with the event. He was pleasant and smiling the whole time but not exactly the center of attention.

Suddenly a piss off moment...two guys who were with the advertising department came up to me and Marty and one said, "Here they are, our two controversial new franchisees."

Marty smiled as if they were joking and not wanting to make waves...we were being given some assistance in gaining our franchise, yet I was just named Valedicatorian of the class which proved I knew what I was doing, But I was inebriated enough to raise the question, "Why are we controversial?"

The two guys didn't really have an explanation for their comment or at least not one they started and recanted. Marty could see the I was getting aggravated and because they were rumored to be gay lovers, he was kind of concerned that my slight intoxication might lead to me commenting on this considering this might have caused them some issues in 1982.

Marty led me away somewhat disgusted. Still sort of grumbling, Fred had ironically come out of his exile right in front of us.

"Hi Marty and Dave (he seemed to know us all by name) how's the party?"

Well we weren't gonna tell him the food sucked, the accomadations were disappointing and his department of public relations were a irritating pair of fags.

"Oh very nice Fred!" Marty chimed in but Fred could see I was a little upset.

"Follow me guys." he said

We went with him to a back office. He sat down with a drink and offered us some advice. "Guys no matter what happens from here, never take yourselves too seriously! You're both young and you have great futures ahead. Marty, you're very determined. Dave, you're fun and smart and all about the public. You guys are going to go far. Lets not take ourselves so seriously!"

We cheered up for the moment and then he said in a Michael Jackson kinda way he said to us, "C'mon, I have a secret room to show you."

He walked us across a hall and opened it up and it was a room full of stuffed animals.

We looked around and all we could see was stuffies from wall to wall.

Fred looked at us and told us he was going to open a stuffie store called "I LOVE ZOO" and put them in all the new malls that were being opened.

He told Marty to pick one out and he grabbed something for his girlfriend.

Fred said, "Dave, I have one picked out for you."

He grabbed a monkey dressed in brown courderoy overalls. He said to me, "Here...He is you. He's ready to work, he's got a big smile and he's ready for a good time."

He handed him to me and said, "I want him to work beside you every day at the shop. He will bring you not only lots of customers but admirers. Any guy who walks into work with a stuffed animal tells people you have heart!"

I suppose I was drunk enough to buy the story at that moment.

"Give him a good name." Fred said

"Well I've been reading Sherlock Holmes stories." I told him, "how about Sherlock?"

He goes into his semi-working knowledge of Arthur Conan-Doyle and walks us out of his office and says to me, "I think Sherlock is going to work you some magic. One thing leads to another. He's gonna make you a good friend."

When Marty and I opened the shop a few days later, Sherlock was there and he got a special spot at the end of the counter where for some reason everyone was drawn to him. Patting Sherlock became like a good luck thing to do with people even saying they won daily numbers and getting a good grade on a test having patted him and such.

He was even stolen for a day!

I made up a system that if Sherlock did you some good you could "feed" him a banana chip.

While Sherlock supposedly brought patrons good luck...he brought me something too. When someone I began to date brought her 9 month old daughter Emeline in the shop on a regular basis. Right away, as most little kids are she was drawn to the stuffie. As she got a little older, I'd give her the banana chips and she and Sherlock would have snack time.

At night, I'd bring Sherlock home and I'd tuck him into her crib with her so he'd be there when she got up in the morning. The problem came in was getting her to part with Sherlock at night so he could go to the shop.

So a call into Subway corporate headquarters got me an identical female companion for Sherlock and could stay home with baby Emmy. That seemed to do the trick.

This week as another year ends, I think about how an unlikely invite to Christmas party netted me a piece of our family folklore and helped nurture the relationship with the person who'd become my wonderful daughter.

Fred DeLuca is a bright man when he prophetically said Sherlock would "make me a friend". He also didn't get rich by accident either. They tried to bill me for Sherlock's girlfriend!

Many moves and boxes have come and gone..Sherlock's where abouts is unknown. But even now Emmy remembers him well and can trace her love of banana chips to that time.

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