I had just gotten off the boat and was due for three weeks off when I got grabbed for something. It was a simple task, lasting no longer than 48 hours so I accepted it.
This was early on in my career and I had a new Port Captain that was trying to make a name for himself. He proved to be the bane of my existence for quite some time until I bid onto another vessel and got out from under him.
Anyway, the company had just sold a tired, worn out barge and the OPA 90 regs had condemned it so they sold it off to some outfit in South America where it would be put to work most likely until it finally sunk. The agreement was that it be delivered to a place in Virginia. I was to ride the barge to Virginia and come back to Municipal Pier in Philly. Pretty straightforward deal. I'd get a couple of days pay for taking a boat ride. I'd get a flight back.
I dumped my seabag into the bed of the pickup, grabbed a few things, slammed the capper lid, hopped on the barge and an hour later we were underway. It was an uneventful ride to Norfolk.
We tied up at the dock where the tug taking her to South America would take her to her new home. The tug skipper handed my an envelope that was supposed to have my airline voucher in it. It didn't. It had a bus ticket that was supposed to leave in about 12 hours from then. I was livid!
Then I looked at the ticket carefully. Not only was it a bus ticket but it was a real drugstore run with stops in every little village and burg between Norfolk and Philly. What would normally be a 5-6 hour drive was going to take something like 16 hours!
Needless to say I was not a happy camper. I had done a favor and been repaid by being backstabbed. I looked at the dockman on the pier. "Looks like I have to hitch hike to Philly," I said. He was aghast.
"Hitchhike!? To Philly? That's four states away!" he was shocked. He looked at my ticket and was stunned. He thought a minute. "Let me see if we can do better than that." He asked me my name, went into the dock shack and made a call. When he came out he was grinning. "Jimmy's headed to New York. He knows where you are headed and said he can drop you off at the door. He leaves in about a half-hour. I have a feeling you two characters are going to get along together. Be at the gate. Better yet, I'll give you a ride."
I stuck out my thumb and he laughed. I hopped into the company pickup and he dropped me at the gate. Before be dropped me off he told me to look for a powder blue Lincoln Continental. He told me it was Jimmy's pride and joy and even though it wasn't new Jimmy spent a fortune having it maintained and even rebuilt from time to time.
I waited about 20 minutes and saw a powder blue car in the offing. I licked the tip of my thumb and stuck it out in a slow gesture, extending the international digit of transportation for the poor.
The car stopped next to me, the driver lowered a window and asked if I was Piccolo. I was and still am.
"Put you bag on the floor of the back seat and hop in," said Jimmy.
There was an expensive suit laid out on the back seat and a pair of expensive western boots on the floor. I laid my bag on the floor carefully so as not to damage anything. Then I hopped in.
He must have seen the look on my face. "My travelin' clothes," he said. "I'm not going to wear a damned suit all the way to New York."
I laughed. He was wearing a pair of threadbare jeans, an old western cut shirt and boots. We roared off and started moving. We wasted no time. We made one stop for gas and he let me buy him breakfast. He also made a phone call from a booth. This was before cell phones were the norm.
He was quite a character and we spent most of the time swapping stories and laughing. He was really down to earth and had started his career on the end of a shovel and now he was some sort of wheeler and dealer. He told me of his first week at a job early on where the boss had told him to empty some sort of warehouse and get rid of everything. He said he put all of the stuff behind his father's barn and sold it for enough money to buy a brand new pickup with money left over.
For a guy that started on the end of a shovel he had certainly done well. He told me he had brokered the deal between our company and the South American company that had purchased it. He was enroute to New York to look at another one my company was getting rid of.
I got dropped off at the gate and started towards the office to check in. I was still pretty pissed off with the bus ticket shenanigans. I walked in amidst the cubicles and one of the port captains, who was an admirer of mind that gave me the biggest grin I had ever seen him with. "How did you get back so soon?" he asked.
"I hitchiked," I said. He smirked. He also glanced at someone. I turned my head and saw a guy I recognized as some suit, a muckety-muck from the downtown office. I knew him by face but not by name.
My port captain heard me and interrupted. "You did NOT hitchike!" he snapped.
I pulled out my bus ticket and replied, "Then why am I here about two hours before that stupid bus you scheduled me on is going to leave? And while we're at it, it really shows how much we value our fine employees, doesnt' it?"
The valued employees part was a reference to a recent letter sent out by the CEO telling us how valuable we all were.
Of course he started in on how dangerous hitchiking was and how I could have been found face down in a ditch. "Save it for someone else. You don't give a damn about me one iota. Besides, what are you bitching about? You're just embarrassed because I got back before your cheapskate bus has even left! It still hasn't even left yet!"
The suit from the downtown office stepped in. He addressed me. "You are actually to be commended for you iniative and resourcefulness. However there will be no more hitchiking. It is illegal and unsafe." Then he turned to my port captain. "You gave that man a bus ticket for a 14 hour ride?" My port captain turned purple. The suit looked back at me.
"Did a man named Jimmy pick you up along the way?" he asked me.
"Yes he did," I replied. "He's a really nice guy."
"He spoke very highly of you when he called me a couple of hours ago," he said. He turned to my port captain. "Jimmy is the person that bought the barge Mr. Piccolo here delivered. He's headed to New York to look at another one we're getting rid of. He called me along the way to New York and said he had picked up one of our employees standing on the side of the road with his thumb out. He asked me what kind of a fly by night gyppo outfit we were running. I have never been so embarrassed in my life! There will be no more bus tickets issued as transportation under any circumstances."
He turned back to me and started in on how the company employees were its most valuable asset and the usual canned crap management tells its people and told me how I would be rewarded for my iniative. I saw it for what it was, apply anywhere bull$hit.
Some reward! The jerks didn't even do their homework. I got a gift certificate from some damned toy store along with a letter going on and on about famiy and how they hoped the kids I don't have would enjoy the toys.
Seeing I have no children I wasn't surprised to say the least. However all was not lost. I managed to trade it with some woman for a bottle of halfway decent scotch her husband's employer gave him. It looked like he had a job at the same sort of place I worked at the time because she said her husband didn't drink.
A few years later the company sold off some more equipment, this time to an east coast outfit. One of the pieces of equipment was the one I was assigned to. I lost my job with the company but the new company picked me up and I never even lost a day's work.
The new company has actually treated us like human beings and communication opened up wide. It's been a halfway decent place to work and they have been very good to me.
Oh, yeah. I put in for mileage for that one. They were too embarrassed not to pay me and I got my money.
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