Back to my bailiff story

Not to keep on griping about my job but I want to paint a picture about the rocky start I had:

Each of the incumbent bailiffs took turns training me at various aspects of my new job.  They trained me and trained me and trained me.  And, to be honest, there wasn’t all that much to learn.   One bailiff, Jessie, who I learned to appreciate and even like later, really drove me nuts at first.  Jessie is a retired D.C. officer in his late sixties.  He had worked in the training division and you could tell.  You could tell because he felt the need to train me…and train me…and train me.  He made me rehearse “All Rise, District Court of Maryland for Q County is now in session, the honorable Judge XXX presiding.”  I felt silly was quickly irritated.  As he hovered over the paperwork which I had now mastered, I finally snapped at him.  He backed off and has been great since.  Jessie, it turns out, can be quite entertaining and is a very nice guy.  He is a preacher in his other life and has that beautiful melodic voice that is commonly found in black preachers.  He freely admits that he is lazy and therefore, this job is a perfect fit for him. But, I have no doubt that when needed, he will bring it.

John is not a bailiff but his life dream is to become one.  John is a security guard for the courthouse building.  He will talk your ear off and he repeats his stories over and over.  And his stories don’t really make sense.  He is the nicest guy in the world and you feel bad being mean to him but sometimes I thought my head was going to explode.  Several times, I excused myself to “go to the restroom” just to give my ears a rest.  I truly think that he, and he alone, is the reason that bailiffs don’t get to carry guns right away.  You have to get used to John.  After a while, you learn how to either manage him or tune him out.

But, all in all, everybody at the courthouse is very nice and I really have not seen any of the politics that I had fled from when I left Greenbelt PD.

That said, I was itching to get to my new home in K County.  My training was declared complete but due to staffing needs, I didn’t make it to K County for a couple more weeks.

Next installment: K County courthouse.