I once knew a lady whose sole purpose at the bank was filing. She was short, loud and knew nothing of the alphabet. A trip into her lair to root out a particular customer’s file became an often repeated game of hide and seek. She was known as Ms. Betty. (not really but similar)
At this point a file search became virtual. Much time was wasted trying to envision how Ms. Betty would scan a document. Could it be found according to the guarantor’s name, and if so his first name, last name, middle name, nickname? Or maybe it was located under the company name according to the largest word in the company title… If the company name began with “A” or “The” or “In” it was sure to be filed under the first word. Unless it wasn’t.
What would Ms. Betty do?
I remember learning how to alphabetize in elementary school. Do kids have too much to learn now to be bothered with filing? We had consumed just enough wine to call up my son at the University of Arkansas to quiz him.
His private school education is soooo paying off.
Well, of course they don’t.
talya
Musical Pairing:
My mother, the old Nana, used to file all her doctors under D for doctors. I use to laugh about that. Now I know why she did that. The young Nana is now “the old Nana” and I am not laughing about that any more! Barbara
Cute story. Momma, I already put the doctors under D in my iPhone – there was a method to Nana’s madness for sure!
I’m just down to one doctor so it’s easy to remember.
Whatever works for ya! Ha
I file all doctors under “D”….dentists too!
On iTunes, however, they DO sort numerals LAST, which is JUST WRONG. They go A – Z, 0 – 9. Everyone knows it’s 0 – 9, A – Z. Sheesh.
This has been my geek-rant moment. Join me again next time.
Yeah that’s wrong.
I spent 15 minutes looking for my doctor’s office number in the phone book until I realized I was looking under “Doctor” and not “Physician” Duh!
ha!
Hahahaha!! Tate cracks me up! It would be very interesting to see how things are filed now since Ms. Betty is gone… 🙂
I know. He cracks me up too. I’m sure the filing is somehow the same…
I am so happy that our wine induced filing conversation/exercise has given your readers so much to comment on. As for my assistant, it only took her a few weeks to redo our entire filing system and cabinets. Hopefully after I left she didn’t revert back to filing under an “article.” As for Tate I am still impressed he knows what an article is, but I am not sure it was the private education…or iTunes that made the difference! Either way it’s still impressive!!
You just never know where a story hides:))
I’m impressed Tate knew what an article was too! Grammar became a lost art before filing. Then again, since we had the same English teachers at FBA, (and more importantly, since these teachers forced both of us to do hours and hours of grammar excercises), I shouldn’t be surprised. 🙂
I was so proud.
I had to call the secretary I’d replaced, once, because I could not find the 3M company in our files. I got a snarly answer about no 3’s in the alphabet, so under the m’s of course.
Well, I knew the alphabet, Dearie…
Finally learned what the m’s stand for: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, under the Mi’s. But not until I’d looked long and hard.
The real problem was that the entire file was on the boss’s desk.