Retirement Of Larry Jones

From The Oklahoman (I urge you to read to the end):

There's something poetic about the swan song of Larry Jones, public affairs specialist with the Social Security Administration in Oklahoma City. Jones began working for Social Security just before its 50th anniversary celebration. He's retiring on Aug. 31 — only weeks after the agency turns 75 years old. ...

[H]e recently sat down with The Oklahoman to share some of [his experiences] ...

Q: What were some of your funniest experiences?

A: We always ask women about their past marriages because they're frequently eligible for benefits on a former or deceased spouse's work history. One woman had been married 13 times, but didn't qualify on any ex's record, because none had been married to her 10 years or died while she was married to them.

On another claim application, an older gentleman's glass eye fell out, bounced across the desk and landed right beside me. Without missing a beat, he walked over to it, picked it up, wiped it off and popped it back in. ...

Q: What's the biggest misconception about Social Security?

A: That it will go away. You'd have to have bankruptcy on a national level for that to happen. As long as there are people paying taxes, there will be a retirement system.

Q: The local Social Security office formerly was housed in the Murrah Building. Were you there on the day of the bombing?

A: No, I was at home in Yukon. Fortuitously, that Wednesday was my biweekly flex day, having worked compressed work days the other 13. A coworker, who was also off, called to tell me to turn on the TV and I saw the sheared off front of our building. I thought all my friends were dead. Sixteen died; some 50 survived.

Though I wasn't physically there, I was a very real part of it. We, I and the survivors, were like zombies for a year. People told me I was saved for a reason. But wild things went through my head like, "If I'd been there, and known, I could have gotten people out."

My wife and kids came home early that afternoon, and they were all hugging me. It was a very surreal experience.