This week at work we got vending machines. Friends, if you were like me, you don’t much think of just how those vending machines stayed stocked with chilled beverages and salty snacks. But seeing its sign glow caused my mind to race back to the time when I stocked vending machines. In fact I was part-owner of a vending machine route for a few long days.

My father has a business named Snakman. He owned a dozen or so machines. My mother took over the business when he passed away. I helped her stock the machines, inventory the business, pull together the records and count the cash that came in. I will never forget what hard work taking care of those machines was. Fortunately we sold the business to a local business owner. With joy I returned to my life as a software engineer.

Allow me to share a story from one place on the vending route. There was a house for mentally challenged folks. I smiled at the director as she asked me to only stock the machines with decaffeinated soda. While I filled the machine a man appeared in the doorway. He wore a captain’s hat and clutched an empty pipe. I wondered what he was thinking as he silently watched me. When I closed the machine back up, he left without a word.

There ya go, captain, enjoy the 7UP!

photo credit: Stéfan