[nfbmi-talk] snack shop operator cheers up fed court

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Snack shop operator cheers up dreary federal courthouse

 

1:48 AM, Dec. 31, 2011  |

The upbeat Craig McGlassion, 57, and his black Labrador, Booker T, are a welcome change of pace at the U.S. District Court in Detroit.

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The upbeat Craig McGlassion, 57, and his black Labrador, Booker T, are a welcome change of pace at the U.S. District Court in Detroit. / REGINA H. BOONE/Detroit

Free Press

Tresa Baldas

 

By

Tresa Baldas

 

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

 

 

Craig McGlassion is a ray of light in a too-often dark and dreary place.

 

He and his black Labrador named Booker T run the snack shop at the federal courthouse in downtown Detroit.

 

They work two doors down from arraignment court, a place that fills up daily with accused drug dealers, violent felons and con artists.

 

It's not a happy place. People get locked up. Families get upset. Lawyers get stressed out.

 

So the upbeat McGlassion and his good-natured dog are a welcome change of pace in this cacophony of legal chaos.

 

McGlassion has been blind since birth, but he doesn't let that get in his way. He knows all of his regulars by voice and knows what they like and don't

like.

 

One judge, he says, loves his Italian wedding soup, while another court employee is crazy about the chocolate milk. McGlassion knows who prefers Better

Made potato chips over the Frito-Lay brand. One customer always gets a PayDay candy bar.

 

"If you're in a bad mood or have had a bad day, you go in there and you talk to Craig, and within a minute, you have a whole different outlook," said court

spokesman Rod Hansen. "I don't think I've run into anybody who is quite so upbeat."

 

On any given day, from behind the snack shop counter, McGlassion is sharing a joke with a customer, telling a story, or offering the Tigers score. An avid

baseball fan, he always has the Detroit Tigers playing on a small TV in the shop during baseball season. He pays for the cable bill himself.

 

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman has a soft spot for Booker T, having lost his own dog several years ago. Borman said his job is massaging Booker T once

a day -- a chore that leaves him covered in hair.

 

"I look like the Geico caveman when I'm done," Borman said. "He gives a lot of love. And he gets a lot of love. He's a wonderful dog, and Craig is a wonderful

person."

 

Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen added: "I just think Craig is one of those unsung hero types."

 

McGlassion, 57, who is married with seven children, said one of his goals in life is to show the world that "blind people are ordinary people."

 

"We're going through the same things as they are," said McGlassion, who plays drums every week in a church band. "I'm human just like them."

 

McGlassion, who grew up in Taylor and attended Kennedy High School, said he has never let his disability get in the way of finding work.

 

In the 1970s, he worked for eight years in a darkroom, developing X-rays at an art center on Woodward Avenue. He later worked at the Wayne County Juvenile

Court, transcribing reports from probation officers.

 

In 1993, McGlassion enrolled in a business entrepreneur program with the Michigan Commission for the Blind, which led to a job running a snack shop for

the Environmental Protection Agency. In 2007, he came to the federal courthouse and now waits on more than 400 customers a day.

 

"I didn't know what to expect," said McGlassion, noting that he enjoys all the action of federal court. To handle the cash register, McGlassion has a system

based on trust and math.

 

Customers tell him what bills they're giving him. If he recognizes their voices, he trusts them and puts the money in his tray, which has slots for the

different bills. If the voice is unfamiliar, he puts the money in a machine that reads bills.

 

At the end of the night, he counts his stacks of money.

 

In four years of running the snack shop, he said he's been ripped off three times. Each time, the customer gave him a $1 bill instead of a $20 bill.

 

It happened when it was busy, McGlassion recalled, noting he mistakenly trusted the customers because he was rushed.

 

McGlassion said his dream is to one day work as a stand-up comic based on his experience as a blind person.

 

No doubt he'd be good at it, said Laura Marble, the property manager at federal court. She said McGlassion is an asset to the courthouse.

 

"He's likable. He definitely improves it," she said. "Between his personality and having the dog, it's like a two-for-one deal."

 

Contact Tresa Baldas: 313-222-4296 or

tbaldas at freepress.com