The Syd Bethune Story

1. The Syd Bethune Story
2. by Austin Mitchell

My friend, Syd Bethune did two stints at a branch of the
same bank. I first met him at the library. We first met there in the early
eighties. He was a lowly paid clerk at a government institution. He always complained
about the low pay he was getting. He revealed to us that he used to work at a
bank. He told us that he was forced to leave the bank after a big quarrel with
a supervisor. He used to do several things that made us suspicious as to the
real reasons why he was forced to leave the bank. For example when this large
department store had their blow out sale he would attend and make off with
several products free of cost.

 Syd never stopped
trying to get back a bank work. Finally  his former bank called him after
he had applied to them for a job. They sent him to the same branch from which
he had been fired four years earlier. He told us that evening that only about
five former staff members were still there. However on Friday of the same week
I saw him dressed in casual clothes. He told me that on Thursday he had been
summoned to headquarters and summarily dismissed. He still insisted that it was
the quarrel with his supervisor which lay at the root of his second dismissal.
We knew otherwise. One wonders if he had given a different address and been
sent to a different branch what would have happened.