Anyone who’s asked George Babos how he’s feeling already knows the answer.
Best Day Ever.
“The way that started was my granddaughter Katie would come over, and I’d go, ‘How you doing?’ And she’d go, ‘Best day ever.’ She got it from SpongeBob,” says Babos, an IT support associate with the College of Education’s Technology Innovation and Learning Services.
Grandpa liked its simplicity.
During his 22 years of working as a cable guy, Babos often endured an unwanted earful when his friendly small talk included asking residential customers how they were doing.
“I’d go to somebody’s house, and if I said, ‘How’s it going,’ sometimes I might get a half-hour of how it’s going,” he says. “So when I was walking the halls here when I first started, and people would say, ‘How’s it going,’ I’d just say, ‘OK.’ I didn’t think they really wanted to know how it’s going. Then, instead of just saying ‘fine’ or whatever, I’d say, ‘Best day ever.’ ”
Colleagues stopped in their tracks.
“I got a chuckle out of a lot of people, and I enjoyed making them laugh, so I just started saying it more and more, and pretty soon people expected me to say it, so now I have to say it,” he says. “Some people would go, ‘Why? Did you win the Lotto?’ And I’d say, ‘No. It’s just, you know, I’m above ground.’ ”
Now, more than 11 years after his August 2012 arrival at NIU, Babos will begin Jan. 1 to celebrate each best day ever in retirement.
He plans to stay busy repairing computers – a small business he’s operated for decades in the barn on his two-acre property near the intersection of Routes 23 and 34 between Leland and Somonauk – and gardening to sell the produce and flowers he grows.
Starting over is something Babos, husband to Karen and father to Don, George III and Jenny, knows well.
Working for cable TV companies followed his first career in construction. In 1987, however, “I fell off a telephone pole and shattered my leg. I was forced to work inside, and I didn’t like working on a bench at all.”
Fate soon intervened again.
“AT&T sold out to Comcast, and they did away with our department, so I became unemployed. I got the unemployment office to pay for me to get certified for A++ and Network+,” he says. “I had already been building and fixing and selling computers at that time, but this gave me another foot in the door because I had to find something I could do that wasn’t as physical.”
Mary Schlagel, a Facilities Health and Safety officer with NIU Environmental Health and Safety and a neighbor in Leland, told Babos about an IT job opening with the College of Education.
Eight years later, Babos received the college’s Exceptional Contributions by Staff Award in 2020. He’s also appeared twice in NIU Today’s Applaud a Colleague.
“I like the people. I’ve never liked sitting in one place all day long, doing the same thing, and this job has a lot of variety and a lot of different people I get to meet,” he says. “We do a lot of imaging of computers and pretty much whatever comes in. Things break. People need help with software.”
So why retire?
“Well, I’ve been pretty much in service ever since I was out of high school, serving customers, and I think I do it pretty well. People seem to like it,” he says. “I’ve been working for almost 58 years, and I’m 72 – I turned 72 in August – and I just think it’s time to move on and maybe start a new career.”
