(This week The Columbian-Progress spotlights China Buffet waitress Carrie Wood.)
Q: When and where were you born?
A: I was born in Pensacola, Fla., on March 30, 1983.
Q: Where all have you lived?
A: I’ve lived in Pensacola, near St. Augustine and here.
Q: Where do you work? Tell us about your job/company.
A: I work at China Buffet and wait the tables and greet customers when they come in the door. It seems simple, but there’s so much more to it. A lot of people that come in are just lonely, and I try to get them to talk. When I was little, we would always go out to eat, and it was special to us. So when people come in to eat, whether it’s regulars or someone that’s never been in before, I try to make it special. I want to help them get their money’s worth and make it more than a meal.
Q: What led you to your profession?
A: I hadn’t worked in eight years because I had stayed home with my children. I was ready to get working again, and I just wanted to be around people again with face to face interaction.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: It’s the interaction with customers. There was a man who came in once, and he was very quiet. He had come in a couple times before, and I didn’t think he wanted anything to do with anybody. But I started to talk to him, and he was recently widowed then his mother passed away. Once we started talking he wouldn’t stop. He had nobody to talk to. After that he started coming in regularly, and he’s a completely different person and really fun to be around. I ask questions like ‘How’s your day going?’ but it’s not something I want a one-word answer to. I really want to know about it, see what they did that day and there’s always a story there. It’s never just simple. Everyone has a history. Everyone has something that’s bothering them. I can talk to them, and I don’t know their family or friends so who am I going to tell? They will open up and tell me just about anything.
Q: What was your first job?
A: When I turned 18 I was living with my mother for a short time, and she had to get food stamps. Since I was of age and wasn’t working, I had to do community service for my part in the household as a dependent. I went down to the office where they assign you somewhere, and the lady asked me if I had any skills. I had gone to college for a little while, and I loved to write and type — data entry — and she said that was perfect. The probation department was looking for someone to fill a student position, and I would have to enroll back in school. The director there met with me and set me up somewhere to get my G.E.D., and I would have to work there for two years to get my degree to become a probation officer. In the meantime I would go to court, assign people to their probation officer and get them hooked up with a community service. After about I got hired on as a paid employee as an assistant director for community service work. It was the same thing I had gone there to do myself, so it was a nice turnaround. Then I got married, and my husband was a state trooper. About halfway to me becoming a probation officer he was assigned to central Florida so we had to move, and I became a stay-at-home mom.
Q: Who is the person who has been most influential in your life?
A: My grandmother, Justine, and grandfather, Doyle, both. When things weren’t working out great at home, they let me come move in with them. When I was in my 20s I became hooked on prescription pain medication, and other than my husband they were the only ones who stayed regardless. There was no judgement. They didn’t like it, but they were still always there. They kept me grounded and showed me there was a different life out there for me. They put it to me point blank, ‘You’re going to lose your kids. You’re going to lose your husband.’ Luckily it came right to that cusp before I was woken up and got clean.
Q: If you could relive one day from your life, which day would you choose?
A: It would be the day my grandmother died. I’d hold her a little bit tighter.
Q: What is your spouse’s name? What does he do for a living?
A: Brian Wood. He’s a firefighter here for Columbia.
Q: Do you have children?
A: I have a 12-year-old son, Samuel, and an eight-year-old daughter, Scarlett.
Q: If you could have anything for your last meal on earth, what would it be?
A: It wouldn’t actually be a meal. It would have to be a cup of French coffee.
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A: I would go to Egypt. I would love to see the pyramids, the sphinx and check all that out.
Q: What hobbies do you like to do in your spare time?
A: I like to read, and I like to study personal case studies of crime. I love criminology and looking at how the criminal mind works. I grew up two blocks away from where they captured Ted Bundy, so every time we would drive past there we’d be like ‘You know that’s where they caught Ted Bundy?’ That was the first one for me as a teenager that I studied. Then I married a law enforcement officer, and I would go through his files and still do some on the internet and prolific cases.
Q: What do you enjoy about living and working in Columbia and Marion County?
A: It’s a small town so meeting everybody in town is not as big of an undertaking as it would be in a larger city. I’ve been able to meet a huge cross-section of people from different professions, especially where I work because a little bit of everybody comes in to eat. I’ve been able to build friendships and relationships with law enforcement officers, a mayor, newspaper reporters, sports coaches and teachers; I know a little bit of everyone. I enjoy meeting people and getting to know them. You get to know what’s going on in town and in the loop. I like that. I like being a functioning member of society and having people enjoy knowing me for good reasons.
Q: If you could have lunch with anyone from your life or history, who would it be and why?
A: It would be Ted Bundy. I’d want to pick his brain for a little while. I would have a lot of questions and would love to see what made him tick.
Q: Would you rather read a good book or watch a good movie and why?
A: Read a good book because you can get lost in it. You can go to anywhere you want with a good book. You can peak into people’s lives. You can pretend you’re somewhere else or somebody else.
Q: What moment in your life has had the biggest impact on you?
A: The day my children came home (from DHS). I saw the fruits of doing what I was supposed to do. I saw the reward of working hard to be a good mother, working hard to be clean, working hard to be a good wife and actually putting into practice those things that make up a family and make up a functioning member of society. I saw that it’s better than any pill to actually live your life with the normal everyday things than trying to escape them.
Q: What would be the No. 1 thing on your Bucket List?
A: I would like to go on a historical tour of America and hit all of the sites that make up the fabric of our history, each patchwork of the quilt that has made it what it is now.
Q: Are there any ambitions you would like to accomplish in the future?
A: I would like to a degree in criminology and work in a career that required that degree.
Q: If you could describe your morals in three words, what would they be?
A: They are positive, grounded and unshakeable.
Q: How would you like to be remembered?
A: As someone you could come to for help and depend on. As a good Christian, good mother and good wife.
— Joshua Campbell
Pictured Above: China Buffet waitress Carrie Wood enjoys her daily interactions with customers. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
