Smith, Katz & Adams Sports Medicine Center maintained three practice locations when I started out; Beverly Hills, Orange County and Thousand Oaks, all of which were in Southern California. There were a total of 16 practicing PT’s and 7 PTA’s. I found this out during my clerical days. Of the sixteen PT’s, three were women. There was only one African American PT, surprisingly three Hispanic, one Chinese and one Filipino. Most of the PT’s were either nasty or disgustingly flirtatious. People would frequently ask me questions about my past and I would always dodge them by asking a clever question about them. I became a pro at it. I’d only take questions about school—that was it.
In my branch, there were primarily all white men. Most of the staff rotated for coverage purposes but for the most part everyone was assigned a location. I’d soon cover at all three locations for various reasons during my tenure and would learn the nooks and crannies of the business. It wasn’t by design either, it just happened. I eventually knew what each employee earned. Man, was the scale arbitrary. The range went from $972,000 per year earned by the heads of the practice all the way down to $8.50 hourly made by Maria and the rest of the cleaning staff. There were magazine subscriptions to accountants on the payroll to keep the business alive. I remember the day I stumbled upon the Beverly Hills Diamond Country Club membership for lead-practitioners. I was amazed to say the least. Michelle was on the payroll, too. She was making a decent salary as a firm financial consultant.
The one African American PT there, George Adams, primarily worked in the Orange County area. He had a son, Sebastian Adams, who was a few years older than me. Sebastian was a pediatrician. The Adams’ family was very well off and affluent. I met Sebastian at a company’s holiday dinner. I noticed him stealing gapes at me but he didn’t come over right away. Michelle had given me the run down on his family. George Adams was the last installed partner of the practice. The only reason he was bestowed the coveted position was because the local NAACP organization was prepared to file a lawsuit against Smith, Katz & Adams Sports Medicine Center for not having minority staff in professional positions. Adams had been there for close to twenty years, which justified him as partner.
By the end of the first fall semester, I had graduated to unofficial PTA by attending patients with one of the PT’s. His name was Rich Witherspoon. He was an older man with deep blue eyes and blonde hair that was turning silver day by the day. You could tell that he dyed it as often as he could but nature prevailed. It was completely revolting when he flirted with me but I used him to my full advantage. I’d learned a lot about the profession from him. He would flirt everyday asking what time I’d be ready for dinner. I grew at ease with it as if that was his way of saying hello. He’d buy meals for me every day we worked together.
His daughter, Hailey, started working there as well. The word on her was that she had gotten into some trouble and needed intervention. More specifically, she’d collected quite a few DUIs in her Beverly Hills neighborhood and her dad bailed her out financially under the condition that she paid him back. He arranged for her to work at our branch. He wanted to keep a close eye on her. Of course, when she came to work with us all of the subtle flirting came to a halt.