HOM: Patched Out

I dropped the job when classes started at Evergreen Junior High. I had to spend time for NNC credits at walking through "beginning of the year" stuff with a teacher & had arranged to do so at EJH. Since I was hired under a special program the street job was ending anyway, so I only missed a few days of work. I also enrolled at FVCC. Even though I was a senior at NNC I was missing some required course credits because of my erratic college career, so I signed up at FVCC to take Music Appreciation, Contemporary Social Problems, and English Lit. FVCC was a lot cheaper than NNC, so going there was a no-brainer as long as the credits were transferable, and they were. I made sure of that in advance. Bill gave me good marks for my summer's work and approved my rehire for the next season, but a job requirement that I had to live inside the city limits meant that it was more feel-good than practical for me. I enjoyed that summer job, though. Some old classmates were working there and a lot of real characters -- like Dean, who drove a four-wheel-drive V8-powered VW bug, and Jake, one of the oldest (and craziest) employees there. Jake was a joker... Jake was one of those guys who would run out in front of your truck waving his arms and screaming for you to stop, just to inform you that your wheels had been turning. To flash ahead a few years -- I was working here in the store, it was summertime and I had a bunch of tourists in. Jake was going by on a small Cat, either to or from a City job, and decided to have fun. The first thing I knew, this Cat came clanking up over the sidewalk and the blade was blocking my door. Jake yelled "You have thirty seconds to get out, we have a demolition order!" Since nobody COULD get out with him in the door, there were a few seconds of pure customer panic before he started laughing, backed away, and headed off down the street. In these politically correct & over-lawyered days, I suppose he could have gone to jail or gotten fired: In those days, people had a sense of humor. I miss Jake, and even more more I miss the free days when we all managed to cope without PC to guide us. Only one guy got fired from the Street Department that summer . One of the truck drivers spent more time drunk than sober and got by with it till the day he pulled out of Lawrence Park with a big load of gravel, misjudged his left turn, and dumped the rig over the side into the golf course. Finis for that job! Running this dredge of a blog through the sediment in my memory stream did bring to light one goof on my part that was probably hard on the truck. I was used to grabbing a quart can, filling it with oil and dumping it into the truck engine every other day or so, but once I managed to grab a GALLON can, fill it and dump it in, and didn't really realize what I'd done till I checked the oil the next day. I kept my mouth shut and fingers crossed and just kept up the daily routine till the oil level got back down to the normal quart-low reading. I guess I had a lot on my mind that summer. Besides sex. TBC (Me) (Blacktail Books)