C.R. Smith was one of the founders of American Airlines, and he once made a stopover in Nashville, Tennessee. When he did, he found two desks in the American Airlines corridor of the airport. On one, a phone was ringing away. Sitting at the other, with his feet propped up, was a man reading the newspaper.
Smith walked up to him and said, “Your phone is ringing.”
“That’s reservations. I’m maintenance,” the man replied.
Furious, Smith walked over to the desk, picked up the phone, and began talking to a man who urgently needed to get to California. Smith rattled off the schedule from memory to the man and hung up. The man from maintenance couldn’t believe it!
“Say, that was pretty good!” he said. “Do you work for American?”
“Yes, I do,” Smith answered. “And you used to.”
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