Lunch with Mr. Fred

I had lunch in Berea, Kentucky with Fred Baker Jr. today.

That wasn’t part of the plan. Millie and I went off to the nearest Walmart for provisions. After an exhausting morning of washing, drying and folding laundry — and faced with the daunting task of changing the sheets — one of us was hungry. As luck would have it there was a Cracker Barrel practically across the parking lot. At CB, if you’re eating alone, invariably they seat you at a two-top back in the middle of the restaurant, surrounded by another half-dozen or so two-tops. Fred was nursing a coffee and typing on his phone at the next table; we smiled and nodded when I sat down. Practically elbow to elbow, I asked his opinion of the coffee. “Great.” Huge smile, gold tooth, sunglasses that were apparently glued in place. “If it’s not,” I said, “we’re gong to arm wrestle.” “Well then, I hope yours comes out of the same pot mine did.”

Fred’s gregarious. Loquacious. Talks more than I do.

“Everybody here knows me. They know my favorite table; they know my favorite lunch. They all call me Mr. Fred.” Sure enough…

Fred and his six siblings, four sisters and two brothers, came of age in Berea. Fred was married twice; widowed once and divorced once. No children but “a world of nieces and nephews.”

He retired after 30 years with IBM in Lexington but retirement for Fred, as with so many others, didn’t take. He went to work at the Boone Hotel and Tavern, across the street from Berea College — owner of the Boone facilities.

Berea enrollment, Fred says, is down to about 1,500 students sharing an expansive and strikingly beautiful campus in the heart of town. You’d expect more students, given that the school doesn’t charge tuition… students get work-study scholarships and most who graduate with debt owe only about $4,000. Fred is my source for that info. I looked it up. Its enrollment is generally limited to students from households with annual income of less than $32,000, most are awarded Pell Grants and when they graduate they get to take their school-issued computer with them. As you’d expect, the school runs an ambitious fund-raising program.

The college, of which Fred is inordinately proud, was the first integrated, co-ed school “anywhere around here.” It was, in fact founded by a Presbyterian minster/abolitionist in 1855 and stopped charging tuition in 1892.

Pardon my digression… Back to Fred.

At Boone Hotel and Tavern, Fred spent “thirteen-and-a-half” years as the hotel’s ambassador before retiring for what he insists will be the last time. “I see it as my job to shine my light and help you shine yours. When someone walks through the front door of that hotel, I greet ‘ em. I’d meet them at the door, offer them tours. At the school, we get students from all over the world and visitors from everywhere come for tours.” In addition, Fred — wearing his tourism director hat — proudly announced the Berea community is the crafts capitol of Kentucky and visitors come for the arts and crafts community.

Fred does, indeed, shine his light, thanking “him” (pointing to the heavens) for his recognition that “everyone deserves respect. If you treat them with respect, you get respect. I used to tell the bosses, ‘if you treat them with respect, they’ll respect you and the job. If you holler at them, they won’t ever come talk to you about what’s going right or what’s going wrong.’ Respect. You’ve got to shine your light.”

Fred’s light has not gone unrecognized. Berea College made him an Honorary Alumnus, following an earlier Senior International Friendship Award. A guy who never worked at a hotel until his retirement from IBM, Fred won the Star of the Industry Award from a hotelier organization (“I had to go to a convention at a big hotel in Louisville”) and he’s been featured on a couple of travel websites… now including this one.

Mr. Fred’s light is bright. And his taste in coffee squares perfectly with mine.