Elaine's boyfriend, Ron, had a job at an auto repair shop where the employees wore shirts with their names embroidered on the pocket. The boss didn't feel like buying a new shirt, so he gave Ron the shirt from the previous guy, Carl. All day long, the customers called Ron Carl. He got used to it. When he came home after work, still wearing the shirt, all of Elaine's friends called him Carl, and he answered to that name.
I imagined that shirt being passed along for years. The person doing that job would always be Carl, until the job itself was Carl. When the guy moved on, nobody would say, "We need to hire a new mechanic." They'd say, "We need a new Carl."
To this day, when I encounter a worker wearing a shirt with a name, I ask, "Is your name really Andy, or are you just wearing Andy's shirt?" Most of the time, it's the shirt.
Wanda Farr is the pen name of a retired teacher who prefers to keep her writing separate from her social and professional identity.
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