From: John Ambrosavage
To: East Portland Blog
Subject: Bellhop at the Hilton
Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:43:54 -0700
I sent this to the Mayor of Southern West Seattle – but I forgot to send it to you – I think – and I know how you love the 70’s – a friend of mine from back east is helping me bring my resume into the 21st century – she just sent an email asking me about my prior to ’96 work history – I just sent her this:
Hi Old Friend,
OK – college 1971 – 75, during which time I was a bellhop at the Hilton Hotel – this was from 1972 – 1976….during this time I started drawing a cartoon strip called: “Super Bellman” – along the margins of the daily log sheets we needed to keep for account dept…..the bellhop doubled as a room service waiter in those days – I never heard back from accounting on what they thought of my cartoon strip – one day I had to go down to the department and the walls were papered with my cartoon strip! I guess they liked ’em! Jimmy Liberty was the owner and he was a little Mafioso like big shot – short little guy but very muscular – he walked around with his chest puffed out in front of him like a pigeon – wore dapper yet flashy suits, heavy gold jewelry – a totally 70’s dude – once I was taking the bags up to the room of this short bald skinny bent over be speckled dude – he saw Jimmy and glad-handed him – slapped him on the back – told how swell it was to see him, asked about his wife and daughters etc. – then when we got into the elevator the guy turns to me and says: “That Jimmy Liberty is SUCH an asshole!” And I thought – geeze who is the asshole? Jimmy or YOU you f**ker! Jimmy was my boss and I liked the guy. I enjoyed his style. He had three daughters and each one was homelier than the next….they were all sweet on me and the all drove brand new Cadillac Eldorados….Jimmy had one himself and a Fleetwood too.
That was a really fun job. Except I eventually grew cynical and jaded – as I could tell from looking at ’em which customers were going to tip well and which weren’t – and it affected my service, which disturbed me…..I was thrown once though – Europeans were typically bad tippers because they weren’t from a tipping culture – this one day I was carrying the bags of a dude who was not only European – he was from SCOTLAND! And I thought – oh brother – there is going to be nothing here for me! But I got him and his bags up to his room, turned on the AC, opened the curtains etc., he slipped a bill into my hand when I left – and I 
was surprised to even get a dollar! When I got into the hallway I looked at the bill and it was a FIVE! I was shocked! I went back to his room and knocked on the door. He answered and I said, while holding up the bill, “Excuse me but did you know that you gave me a five?” He looked at me with a smoldering stare and said, icily: “Yes”….obviously he had a one-man crusade on to debunk the stereotype of the Scottish as cheapskates…..
There was a guy who ran a limo service in town named Troy – he had a few limos and limo drivers running around town in stretch caddies – he himself drove a beautiful 1956 Cadillac limo – black and chrome filled and beautiful – GM bought it from him for their museum when he turned over a million miles on the car…..I chatted up Troy often as he hung out in the lobby waiting for fares…once while I was talking to him this meek humble quiet man in a super-loud sports jacket came up and pulled me aside and quietly asked me if I could get him a woman – I gave him my standard reply which was “Hey – I can’t even get myself a woman!” I went back to talking to Troy when Troy stuffed a bunch of his business cards in my hand and said: “The next time that happens to you give the guy one of these….” Heh.
One of Troy’s other drivers was another little guy – Troy was a big guy – in his 60s – as nice and polite a guy as you would want to meet – and he was a Mormon and talked to me all the time about Mormonism – but he also gave me rides to my classes after my shift in his shiny blue stretch limo so I was glad to let him talk on……
One night I went to the Patti Smith concert at the Orpheum theatre – the next morning I was working the 7 to 3 shift and got a call from Patti Smith just after 7 – I didn’t know it was her at that time…but I took the coffee and bagel up to her room and knocked and yep Patti Smith answered the door – wearing a long t-shirt and looking like death warmed over…..there was someone in her bed and I could not really tell if it was a man or a woman….
Which reminds me that once I got a call from a woman who by her accent was a nyer – she asked me for an iced coffee….I never heard of such a thing! I said: “You want me to put ICE in your COFFEE!?” There was a pregnant pause and she said” Yes” and silently to herself “You stupid hick” I am sure!
Oh I could go on and on – any way that covers the years 1972 – 1976 of my resume……
Yours Truly,
