So Why Black Beans? The UNTOLD Story...
Guess who - or what - is coming for dinner! |
Spring 1993. I was employed by Seiko Communications of America, a national pager service formerly based in Beaverton, Oregon. At the time, I worked out of Seiko's office in Kent, Washington. On one of my many "field trips" to the Home Office, I went to lunch with my co-worker, friend, and partner-in-beans, Gary B. Franke. |
Gary and I had a wonderful lunch at Chevy's, a local Mexican restaurant, where we enjoyed a variety of outstanding tastes, including BLACK BEANS!
Gary, never being one to waste food, asked the waiter for a container for his leftover beans.
The waiter, never being one to miss a tip, brought Gary a plastic container filled with black beans, which Gary promptly left in the back seat of my car on the trip back to the office.
I, never being one to pay much attention, then drove 153 miles back to Seattle with the aforementioned black beans in the back seat of my car.
|
Chevy's - where the whole thing started... |
Upon returning home and finding the beans, I decided that instead of simply throwing Gary's beloved black beans away, I would freeze them and send them back to him at the next opportunity.
Surprise!!! |
Later that week, the frozen beans were on their way back to Gary, courtesy of a co-worker who was en route to the Home Office, complete with a note which read, "You forgot something in my car."
I expected to hear from Gary immediately after he received his beans, but he was mysteriously silent. Gary didn't mention anything about the beans, but I knew that he had received them, for three days later they arrived back in my office, delivered by another co-worker. This time the note read, "You keep them. Ha Ha."
|
The battle was on.
| The next week, I wrapped the beans up like a gift and sent them back to Gary. Sure enough, a few days later they were hand delivered back to me by the company's President. Again, I sent them back, and like a boomerang, they came back.
By this point, the beans were becoming....shall we say....a little less than appetizing. So one day, one of my co-workers, who sincerely enjoyed the joke but was quickly becoming ill by the now-foul-smelling legumes, pitched them. |
The gift that keeps on giving? |
The beans were gone. We were crushed. Was our game over forever?
Not quite.
I went to a local grocery store, and for 89 cents, I purchased one can of S & W® brand Black Beans (Frijoles Negros), wrapped them up, attached a note which read, "The game is on!", and promptly mailed them to Gary.
For the next few months, you could guarantee that the beans would show up at least once a week. Sometimes they would be hidden in a box of paperwork, buried in a Rolodex file, sealed in an overnight delivery envelope, or other unique packaging, and sometimes you would just show up for work in the morning and find them waiting for you.
Seiko's original offices |
By now the saga of the beans had circulated throughout the Seiko offices. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to be part of the bean game. But things really took off when Seiko V.P. Mike Park became involved. Mike came to Gary and I one day and said, "You've had a lot of fun passing those beans between Seattle and Portland. I'm going to China next week - why don't I take them with me?"
Sure enough, a week later the beans were en route to China. We really weren't sure if they would make it back or not -- the thought of Chinese customs confiscating our can of beans ran through our minds. But Mike returned two weeks later, beans in hand. As proof, Mike gave us several photos of the beans visiting the Great Wall of China. |
From there, the beans were off and running. They then went to Los Angeles, New York, and Washington D.C. with several Seiko technicians, onto Scottsdale, Cancun, and Telluride on vacation, and of course every now and then, back to Seattle or Portland.
The new millennium has seen visits to Denver, Boston, Mount Rushmore, San Francisco, The Sturgis motorcycle rally, Orlando, and even Roswell, New Mexico!
| In October 2000, the photo journal of the bean's travels, which was now known as Beans Around The World (also abbreviated as "BATW"), was placed on the World Wide Web, and a cultural phenomenon was born. Soon, reports of black bean sightings were pouring in from all over the world - Scotland, Canada, Finland, Bosnia, Australia, The Netherlands, Spain, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, The United Kingdom, and France, plus from just about every state in the Union! New photos and essays continue to arrive at the BATW headquarters in Iowa every single day.
All thanks to the stubborness of two friends who absolutely refuse to let the other one have the last laugh... |
The beans will be with you...always. |
Where will they go next? Stay tuned!
