Yucaipa News Mirror
6/26/08

Meet Christopher Burgess, a young man who restores my faith in the younger generation.

Like many of my contemporaries, I shop locally and occasionally purchase from a favorite catalog. Sometimes I know exactly what I want; other times I need some additional information, and I never know what kind of help I’ll receive. If I’m lucky, the sales clerk will know the merchandise and make recommendations, but that doesn’t happen as often as it should. I’ve experienced frustration with indifferent clerks and fumed because of the lack of good customer service skills. So when I’m fortunate enough to be helped by someone who treats me with courtesy, I notice.

Chris, 20, has worked for Calimesa Video on County Line Road for about four years and I always thought he was one of the nicest young men I ever had the good fortune to encounter. He’s one of the few clerks who greets his customers when they enter and offers help, reminiscent of a different era when good manners were the norm instead of a rarity.

He had some free time one evening so I asked him where he learned his excellent people skills. He credits his parents, Alice and Dennis, and step-father, Peter.

“They were good authority figures,” he said, and he learned a lot from them. His mother instilled values, respect for others, and the manners that are so often lacking in today’s busy society.

“I try to treat people the way I’d like to be treated,” he said, and told me that when he was in the fourth grade, he was painfully shy and small and bullied by the other kids. His father and grandfather taught him some boxing to give him confidence. That helped, but he stayed shy until the tenth grade, when he realized he couldn’t get girlfriends unless he could talk to girls.

He also learned from his father while they restored old cars. His father bought a ’70 Chevelle for his mom because of the steel doors on the side, and today, Chris drives a ’69 Camero. When he bought it four years ago, he talked to his neighbor, who owned Calimesa Video at the time, and asked for a job so he could pay for the car.

He graduated from Yucaipa High in 2005 and just recently from Crafton Community College with business communication as his major. In September, he begins a new semester at Cal State, San Bernardino.

I asked if he were academically inclined, and he laughed and said one of his sisters, who graduated from Yucaipa High this year, had all the brains. His interest is in comedy and he hopes to have a restaurant or nightclub one day.

Until then, he’ll continue to work and improve his people skills.

I asked how he felt about himself today, and he said, “I may be handsome, articulate, and smell good, but I’m neither vain or conceited in any way. And that’s one thing I like about myself.”

Then he laughed, flashing that fantastic smile of his and I suddenly believed that one day he’d have his club.