Patrick's Summer Jobs - Intern and Assistant at Hopp's Store

Written on 06-14-12, Thursday 

Background for a Research Assistant - Patrick

How he became the one to find the diary that finally put to rest how the settlement of West Buns got its name; while working as an Intern seeking the truth from the folklore tale of East and West Buns.  

He had seen the ad tacked up on the bulletin board in the hall at school, it was the only one that still had all the pull tags still attached to it; why was that? 

The he started reading - noticing that the deadline of June 1, 2012, 5 PM had already passed; reading on he read the Description of the Project  - To provide support to project partners as they complete background research on case study topics and engage in field work. 

Reading on......     

The instructions started out simply “Please read the entire document before deciding to apply.”   Slowly he read both pages and when he got to the bottom of the last page - it simply said, if you have managed to read all of this call us and the job is yours! 

Patrick assumed that no one ever read past the first page, it so quirky he decided to call and got the Internship.  

                                                        = = = = = 

Patrick had taken the Islebus up from Merritt on Route 3 - it had crossed over the Valentina River and then on thru Davoo and arrived at Hopp’s Store in mid afteroon.  

His journey was not one of just time and distance but one of discovery; he had landed the Internship and was now on his way to start his second job as the assistant at Hopp’s Store.   

He was hoping to combine the Intern job with the assistant job at Hobb’s in order to do the research that was required to meet the goals of the study.  When he applied for the assistant job he explained to Bernard the owner why he was so interested in working there.  Bernard hired him sight unseen, just because Patrick said, that Bernard was  like the Will Rogers or Mark Twain of New Island.  The flattery worked and he was on the next Islebus on his way to Hopp’s.

Beside the comics books it was rumored that Bernard also was a history nut!  Everyone traveling north and south stopped at his store, mostly to use the out door privy, but also to hear his outlandish stories - tales.

Bernard explained that Patrick’s duties would be light and that since the New Island Guide book had been published that he had added several small over-nite ‘shacks’ and if someone wanted to stay over nite and ‘chew the fat’ with him they could. 

Patrick would live in one of them.  Also, out back in a shed there was an accumulation of odds and ends - old books, manuscripts, sketch books, and backpacks that Patrick would be free to dig through for his research; people came and went and things got left behind and Bernard kept them thinking that someday their owners would return with new stories to tell.