Letters to the Power Plant #58 — Ramblin’ at Dell

After I left the power plant and went to work for Dell on August 20, 2001, I wrote letters back to my friends at the plant letting them know how things were going.  This is the fifty eighth letter I wrote.

11/15/02 – Ramblin’ At Dell

Hey Soonerites,

I figured that since I had been here over a year, I would introduce some of my fellow coworkers to “Ramblin’ Ann.”  Those of you who know what I’m talking about wish you were here to hear the continuous blurby Kentucky voice of the Elegant and refined Ramblin’ Ann.  —  You know who I’m talking about.  The girl that came from a small town in Kentucky.  The one that insisted that she didn’t have an accent, or as she would say, “Aye dooooooonnnnn’t haaaaaaave annnnnnnnnn acceeeeeeennnnnnnttttttt!!!!!!!   Dooooooo Ayyyyyeeee?”

Yes.  My Dell friends were blessed with the story about how Ed Shiever was trapped inside the sand filter tank with me for two weeks, and heard nothing but the sound of me imitating Ramblin’ Ann echoing off the confined walls of the middle section of the tanks as we took out and put back in all those white plastic pieces.  —  That was in the days before “Confined Space Safety” where the relentless sounds of Ramblin’ Ann is considered “extremely hazardous” to your health.  —  Ed was never the same after that episode, and I used to regret that extreme punishment that he endured during those two weeks.

Note to Reader:  To learn more about Ramblin’ Ann see the post:  Ed Shiever Trapped in a Confined Space with a Disciple of Ramblin’ Ann.

Well.  My Dell friends just looked at me with a stunned look on their faces as I explained to them that “Ramblin’ Ann was this girl I knew in college that would start talking the minute you picked her up, to the moment you dropped her back off at her dorm.  (This was when I was in College many years ago).  She would have a continuous conversation that went something like this:

“I don’t mean to seem old fashioned or anything, but after all, I do come from a small town in Kentucky  And things are kind of different in small towns than they are in this big city of Columbia Missouri You know what I mean?  I mean that in the small town where I come from the postman would say to me ‘Hello Ann Bell, how are you doin’ today?’ and I would say ‘Hello Mister Postman I’m doin’ fine thank you’  He would call me Ann Bell, even though he knew I liked to be called Ann because he was trying to make me feel grown up and all and I would call him Mister Postman because I would be acting all grown up and it was a fun game, but in Columbia, the postman only knows that I’m Box 823, and he doesn’t say anything to me, he just puts the mail in the box and I know that he’s just doing his job, and it’s ok, you know what I mean?  I mean, I don’t mean to seem old fashioned or anything.  But what is funny is that since I moved here to go to school, my friends tell me that ‘Ann Bell, you have the funniest accent’ and I tell them that ‘Ayyyeeeee doooonnnnn’tttt have an accccccceennnnnntttt.’  Ayyyyyyeeeeee don’t  dooooooooooo Ayyyyyyyyeeee?  I know I don’t.  You know what I mean.  I mean, I might have a little acccccccceeeeennnnnntttttt, but Ayyyyyyyeeeeee don’t have muuuuuuuccccchhhhh of an acccccceeennnnnnnttttttt.  You know what I mean?  I mean.  I was in a class the other day and the teacher told me that I looked just like someone she knew once, and I told her that I just look like someone that comes from a small town in Kentucky, and that people that come from small towns in Kentucky look like a lot of people and that I probably just looked like someone she knew, and she said that she thought I did.  You know what I mean don’t you?  I mean, some places there are a lot of people that look like a lot of other people, and when you go there, you think that you must have been there before because there are people all over that look like people that you have seen, only these aren’t the same people.  You know what I mean.  I mean that it’s kind of like watching the Andy Griffith Show, because it is sort of like a small town in Kentucky, only it’s a small town in North Carolina instead.  But I figured that small towns in North Carolina must be a lot like small towns in Kentucky, and so the Andy Griffith Show is kind of like that.  You know what I mean?  I mean that when I moved here to Columbia, I thought, ‘Why, that person looks just like someone I knew in the small town in Kentucky where I came from,’ only I knew that it wasn’t because I knew that the person in Kentucky didn’t move to Columbia, because they weren’t going to move anywhere when I was leaving, and I had just left, so I thought that the reason they looked like them, was because people from small towns seem to look like other people some times.  You know what I mean?  I mean that the Bakery in this town is a lot like the Bakery we have in the town in Kentucky where I came from, only it is on a bigger street.  The Bakery looks the same inside, but when you step out of the Bakery, there is a big wide street here, and when I stepped out of the Bakery in the town in Kentucky where I came from the street was smaller, and people across the street could tell who you were, and you could even talk to them while they were on the other side of the street, because they were closer to you than they are here.  You know what I mean?  I mean that things seem farther apart here than they do there, even though I’m here, and Kentucky is far away, things still seem closer there.  Isn’t that funny that things seem closer in Kentucky even though I’m not even in Kentucky.  I mean, you would think that things here would seem closer, but they don’t even when I’m walking down the street here right now.  You know what I mean though don’t you?  I don’t mean to seem old fashioned or anything, but after all, I do come from a small town in Kentucky, and……………………..”

This is just a small sample of five minutes of a conversation that lasted for well over an hour once.

I hope I haven’t caused all of you to go into a comatose state reading this.  —  I know it took Ed Shiever a few weeks of walking around in a daze, and hitting the side of his head with the palm of his hand to try to knock all of that noise out of his ears before he seemed to be back to normal.  —  But we all know that after two weeks of this constant rambling while you are stuck in an echo chamber will have lasting effects on your sanity.  After all.  Look at me.  You know what I mean?  —  Yeah.  You know what I mean.

Your friend from Dell,

Kevin James Anthony Breazile

______________________

Kevin J. Breazile

CIA: Customer Experience, Integrated Services Model, and Ariba

—When the Mission seems Impossible, call the CIA!–

Dell Computer Corporation

(512) 728-1527