WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (AP) - Korey Williams runs one of the snack bars in Building 300 at Robins Air Force Base.
He will be the first to tell you his job description does not end with dispensing caffeine to the sleep-deprived and ministering to every sweet tooth.
He might have the biggest hat rack this side of Gate 3.
“I’m the doctor, the lawyer, the counselor, …” he said, laughing, “… the butcher, the baker, the chief candlestick maker.”
Korey came to Warner Robins 19 years ago to visit two of his brothers. He never went back. Trading Michigan winters for Georgia summers seemed fair enough.
He was in a dark place, literally and figuratively. The change of scenery has changed his life, even if he can’t see it to describe it.
Korey has been blind almost half of his 46 years.
“After I lost my sight, I was running around in circles,” he said. “It was a confusing and crazy lifestyle, and I had to get away from the madness. God brought me peace when I came here. I have found out a lot about me.”
Building 300 is the largest administrative building at RAFB, the state’s largest industrial complex. There are 476,943 square feet and almost 2,500 employees under one roof.
Korey had big shoes to fill in 2006 when he took the reins from the legendary Morris Kirby, who was also blind and operated the snack bar for more than 39 years.
His “Hall of Snacks” is one of three snack bars in the building and is located on both sides of the East Wing, which connects the bays of civil service employees.
You can’t go around it. You have to walk through it.
“It’s like a gift shop in a museum or aquarium,” said Tim Ham, a Special Operations Forces avionics program manager. “You have to go through, and you’re bound to buy something - fruit, coffee, cookies, hamburgers, hot dogs, aspirin.”
Korey is a one-man operation. When he uses the word “we,” he really means “me.”
He has learned to distinguish soft drinks by their placement. He can tell candy bars and gum by the shape and smell of their wrappers.
He recognizes his regular customers by the sound of their voices.
His business is built on trust, too. He assumes most people are honest and won’t try to slip him a $1 bill and claim it’s a $10. Just in case, he keeps a bill validator on the counter.
Korey was born on New Year’s Day 1969, so he likes to say he “came into the world with a bang.” He had glaucoma at birth, and he eventually lost his sight in his early 20s.
He grew up in Benton Harbor, in the southwest tip of Michigan. There was no school for the blind, so he was mainstreamed in the public schools. He had blue eyes, caused by the glaucoma, and some children teased him. In high school, he endured a series of surgeries for his detached retinas.
He was one of 12 children from a blue-collar family. His parents worked in factories. His father retired and bought a neighborhood grocery in a part of Benton Harbor called Town Line. (The main road was the dividing line between two counties.) As a young man, Korey worked in his father’s store, stocking shelves and cleaning counters.
Losing his sight was traumatic. He had always had at least some vision to make his way in the world.
Suddenly, somebody turned out the lights.
“I wasn’t depressed, I was defeated,” he said. “I started living recklessly. I was on a roller coaster.”
His brothers, Mike Gray and Shawn Williams, urged him to move to Warner Robins. Mike was in the Air Force. Shawn also faced the challenges on being visually impaired. (He now operates the snack bar at the federal courthouse in Macon.)
Korey lived with his brothers, then eventually got his own apartment. One day, the phone rang. It was his social worker.
“She asked if I wanted a job,” he said. “I asked if she was sure she had the right person. She had never called me about that. It was always about getting a cane or something.”
He began training at the snack bar in Building 255. He learned to work the cash drawer. He went through six months of training to get his license, then moved to Building 300 to replace Morris, who had started as an independent snack bar operator two years before Korey was born.
Korey arrives at work in his carpool about 6:20 a.m. to start the coffee and make sure the breakfast biscuits are ready for his loyal patrons.
Later in the day, he is a popular man for those with the munchies or in need of an energy drink.
“I’m a server. I like dealing with people,” he said. “Sometimes they come out of a meeting, and they’re all over the map. It’s my job to get them where they need to be.”
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Information from: The Macon Telegraph, https://www.macontelegraph.com
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