Pasco Reporter

Pasco County Clerk & Comptroller issued the following announcement on July 28.

NEW PORT RICHEY – It’s rarely a bad bet to suppose retirees who perform volunteer work do so at least in part to prevent their golden-years worlds from shrinking. So what do you call a retiree volunteer who actually prefers his world in miniature?

We call him Tom Flood, who brings a lifetime of full-sized experiences to our Civil Courts Department up to three days a week. Tom is steeped in the important minutiae that makes meticulous clerk work possible, having logged close to 38 years with the Hillsborough County Clerk & Comptroller’s Office.

But it’s tiny soldiers, tiny cavalry, tiny cannon, and tiny ships recreating historic battle games in miniature that really makes his eyes twinkle. Let the kids have their fantastical Dungeons and Dragons. Tom and his comrades lay out accurately detailed battle scenes and, through the application of sophisticated gaming techniques, relive and – because it’s a competition – often attempt to rewrite wartime history.

Who knows how things might turn out when these modern-day Gullivers gather – with 20-20 hindsight, dice, rulers, and a dash of luck – to reconsider the Battle of Gettysburg, the Battle of the Bulge, or Waterloo?

History always has fascinated him. Growing up on the Lower East Side of New York City where Jimmy Durante, Eddie Cantor, and Al Smith (governor and one-time presidential contender) once strolled, Tom appreciated his hometown’s perpetual vibrance. But where other kids focused on Maris, Mantle, Y.A. Tittle, and Willis Reed, Tom’s fascinations ran to Patton, Grant, Washington, and Hannibal.

“I’ve always liked history,” he says, “especially military history, ancient to modern.”

But man – even an older man with plenty of like-minded associates – cannot live on history alone. Not that Tom didn’t give it a try.

Retired from the Hillsborough Clerk’s Office in 2012, “for two years, I did stuff I wanted to do,” he says. “But I missed the social interaction, the friendships, the coming in saying ‘Hi!’, and catching up with your colleagues.”

The work, he says, “is the work.” Much of what he does, officially, is making sure outgoing mail gets off to a proper start and double-checking boxes packed with of material marked for destruction. “I’m sort of like quality control,” he says.

But it’s the unofficial part of office life that has kept him involved with our West Pasco Judicial Center Civil Courts team for going on seven years.

“No one sold me on being a volunteer,” Tom says. “I sold myself. I’ve liked coming back to family. It’s a new family, but it’s my family.

“They’re good people, and they’re a pleasure to be around.”

We’d be Lilliputians, indeed, if we didn’t return the compliment. We’re delighted Tom Flood is on our team; he enlarges us.

Original source can be found here.