It was brutally cold and I drove around the block a couple of times debating whether to get out of my warm car, but there are some things you just can't pass up. He shook his head and was muttering when he saw me coming and I felt that familiar tinge of disappointment. As I got closer I realized he was talking to someone on a wireless headset.
"They call me Captain Caveman, because of my deep voice I guess," he said when he got off the phone. "I'm out here eight hours a day, seven days a week during tax season." It was his second year. "I've got on long johns, pajama tops, pajama bottoms, a snow suite, blue jeans, and a hoody. I feel fine." There was a bit of pride in his voice when he told me that 51 people before him had quit because of the cold.
During the holidays he makes his living as a Salvation Army bell ringer and in the summer sells corn dogs out of a truck stand. "I feel trapped when I'm in a building." He was vague when I asked him why, but eventually told me he that being a Vietnam Vet probably had something to do with it. "I'm all for freedom and making people laugh. I love this job," he said. "Basically I'm an ass, but when I put on this outfit I feel like I'm representing something."