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The Wild Bunch
Blowing Up Charlie
Turnpike Ticket Massacre
One of the keepers
The Myth of Gamey Vennison
Service Auto Glass
Throwing Down On The Bigshots
Knock City
Elanore
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JLF
If I had been my Dad when I was in my 20s, the solution would have been
radical, but simple. I would have killed me in my sleep, and then thrown myself
on the mercy of the court. A Texas jury of parents not only would have found for
justifiable homicide, but might have issued him a commendation to boot.
Service Auto glass is not a tale, it was an era, and it spawned numerous tales,
such as "Little Dead Vernie Myers", "Throwing Down on the Big-Shots", and "Set
My Nigras Free". I don't know how long it lasted, this stuff all kind of runs
together at times. I think it ran at least a year, but events moved at a
dizzying pace back then, "dizzy" being the operative word.
Once I finally decided that living in a California hippie commune was probably
not a really good career prospect, I took my Dad up on his offer for a plane
ticket back to Ft. Worth, conditional, of course, on there being no traps, and I
was free to leave. Once "home", I checked my options. My original plan was to
move back up to Minneapolis where my older brother was, and re-unite with the
hippies there who had had the good sense not to migrate to California in the
first place. In a phone call that spanned several hours, my brother flat talked
me out of it. So then it was off to my Mom's in Winnie for a visit. I ambled
over to Beaumont, my old college town, and checked the scene. I wound up sitting
in on guitar with a band at this "jam night" club deal, and was offered a job on
the spot. I thought I was just too cool for Beaumont Tx, and I declined. I have
wondered many many times what my life would have wound up like had I taken the
job, and stayed in Beaumont. Alas, I said bye to Mom, and came back to Ft.
Worth, and the rest, as they say, is history.
I moved in, for what that's worth, with my Dad and step-Mom. I went to work at a
Buddies Supermarket on 8th ave. My step-Mom had been a plant nurse at GM in
Arlington forever, and she pulled some pretty serious strings, and in the span
of a few weeks, got me hired on the line, where I soon met Powell. By any
reasonable standard, I was set for life. Nobody got fired from GM and UAW for
anything less than cold blooded murder. I sailed through the 90 day probation,
and needed only to join the UAW to be a permanent fixture, drawing serious pay
for those days, with benefits, retirement, the whole enchalada. Hah!
Dad: "Hey buddy, what's up?" Me: "Uh..I quit GM." silence...Dad: "Can you tell
me why?" Me: "I got another job offer". Dad: "Doing what?" Me: "I'm going to a
cowboy town up near Iowa Park to do gunfights for the tourists". loooonnnggg
silence... You can imagine the rest. Anyway, the "Ace Reid's Cowpoke City
Massacre" is a tale for another time. Again, time here is always a problem, but
I think I was at Ace Reid's Cowpoke City for maybe a month at the longest. The
pay turned out to be all the hot dogs, and warm Pepsie you could stand.
Back in the messoplex, busted, homeless, and unemployed. No way was I going to
move back in with Pop, I'm not sure it would have even been allowed.:) At least
I had a paid for car, from the salad days at GM. I know I washed dishes at the
Continental Inn in Handly for awhile, and finally wound up in Arlington, working
for a sign shop, and living in the loft over the shop, yet another tale,
starring Little Martha, and Five-fingered Debbie.(sigh)
But I need to wind this up if I am ever going to make it to the title. Powell
had also left GM for his own tortured path, and had wound up working for Service
Auto Glass, a national chain of glass shops with a number of locations around
the messoplex. One of their shops was in the same little pre-fab industrial park
deal that contained my sign shop. Powell and I hatched a plot. He got me hired,
and away I went to north Dallas as a "trainee". Powell being Powell, he quickly
charmed the regional managment, and in no time was promoted to shop manager back
at the little Arlington location by the sign shop. As soon as my training and
probationary period was up, he hired me for the Arlington shop, and our master
plan was almost complete. It all came together with the hiring of Younglood as
the third member of the proud Service Auto Glass team! God help us all, life
would never be the same, especially for poor Powell. He was a type-A go-getter
company man, and he had up and hired the two sorriest excuses for hired hands
that he could ever have found.
JLF
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