"The hotel clerk in Philadelphia had been very busy that night. There was a convention in town and literally every hotel room in the city was occupied. It was close to midnight and the clerk was beginning to do his record keeping for the evening when an elderly couple came in and asked if there was any room available in the inn. The clerk regretfully said that all of the rooms were taken. The husband looked at the wife and the wife looked at the husband and they looked very sad. They didn't know where they were going to spend the night. The clerk then offered his room. He said, 'If you don't mind, you can stay in mine. It's a little office room, but it has a cot. That is all we have.' The elderly man looked at the clerk and said, 'You would do that for us? Thank you very much, son. You are a fine young man. Maybe someday we'll build a hotel that you will manage.' The three of them chuckled.The elderly couple went to the clerk's room and fell asleep. Several years later, the clerk received a letter from the elderly man along with a train ticket to New York City. The clerk had no idea what the elderly man wanted. He figured the elderly couple was going to provide him with a nice weekend in New York. When they met at the train station, they hugged each other. The clerk said, 'You didn't have to do this for me,' and the elderly man said, "I know my son.' The got into his car and drove to Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. They got out of the car and the elderly man pointed to the building at the corner. It was a tall, elegant building. It looked like a beautiful castle. The clerk had never seen a hotel of this magnitude.
The elderly man said, 'I would like for you to manage my hotel that I built for you.' The young man asked, 'Who are you?' The elderly man responded, 'My name is William Waldorf Astor.' The young clerk's name is George Boldt, and he did become the first manager of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel." -From, "Sankofa: Stories of Power, Hope, and Joy" By: Jawanza Kunjufu
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