The Wake

Bobby Joe Worrell hates to be late. He tells me this apologetically as he sits down across from me five minutes late for our interview. He fiddles with his glasses and glances at the clock. He settles into the interview, glasses in hand. Throughout the interview he glances, squinting, around the crowded Coffman Union cafeteria never becoming completely comfortable with the idea that he has anything important to say.

“I’m pretty boring, huh?” Worrell asks after he answers the first question.

Better known as “Salad Bar Bob” on campus, Worrell has worked for University Dining Services for the last two years and is anything but boring.

Worrell says students started to call him “Salad Bar Bob” because he was so friendly when he worked in the cafeteria at Middlebrook Hall last year before he was switched to the kitchen at Coffman’s Minnesota Marketplace.

At Middlebrook Worrell enjoyed asking students about politics, soccer, music and life.

During the summer, Worrell served a group of professors from former Soviet states who stayed at Middlebrook as part of a tour of the United States. Worrell said he enjoyed talking about Russian poetry with professors from the Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

Also known as “Bobby Bounce” in Kansas City, Mo., because of his above-average pinball skills, Worrell likes to spend his days learning and sharing.

Born and raised in Missouri, Worrell says he tries to mix up his routine every few years. From his career history, it seems evident that Worrell has stayed true to his credo. He has bailed hay, delivered bread, worked in a record store and posed for art students at the “U” before he began working for University Dining Services in Middlebrook Hall.

All of this change helps Worrell from becoming a “fussy, grumpy, fossilized person.”

“As an adult I don’t think you should feel like you know everything,” Worrell said.

Whether it is from a student or a book, Worrell is constantly trying to learn. A frequent patron of the Minneapolis Public Library System, he tries to be thankful everyday for what he has.

“I have a library card, a job and more access to food than I don’t know how many people. Why would I complain about anything?”

To be certain, Worrell seems to be a master of finding ways to be happy. During the week Worrell heads over to the Wienery for breakfast where he enjoys the informal, community feel.

“It’s the kind of place where there will be somebody’s dog lying on the ground,” Worrell said.

If he is not at the Wienery you can find him at Hard Times Café playing chess. He will play with anyone who wants to and especially likes to introduce people to the game.

At home, he likes to work on British crossword puzzles, which are much harder than the American kind, or toil away on his 6,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of the Dolomite Mountains, a place Worrell is saving up to visit next year.

One of his favorite activities is wandering around and exploring the Twin Cities.

While on the streets, Worrell tries to skip at least once a day. He figures if he skips everyday then he will have been happy at least once during the day.

For Worrell, that is what it all comes down to; the possibility that every new day holds.

“The potential to have a good moment is always there,” Worrell said.