The bank cancelled the contract for security guards, and I lost my job. I knew I should have given my wife more money for the church. Pray for more bank robberies!
The security company that provided guards to the bank, had separate contracts for the main bank, and then for the branch locations. They cancelled the contract for the branch banks, but renewed the contract for the main bank.
I had worked primarily in the branch banks, but occasionally I also worked in the main bank. I only went there when I could find no way of getting out of the assignment because I did not like the attitude of the people there.
The managers, workers, and customers were nice. It was the attitude of the security company guards that I didn't like.
It must not have been me alone that resented their attitudes, because the security company had always had a problem keeping the extra positions filled at that main bank.
The company guards had been working in that bank for a long time, and they worked THEIR schedules, and they took THEIR breaks and they ate THEIR lunches, according to THEIR schedules, it didn't make any difference how badly you needed to go to the bathroom!
At that main bank were five company positions. There were two positions monitering the bank alarms, two desk positions at the entrances going into the bank and one roving guard. The roving guard furnished relief to the other positions for break and lunch, patrolled the bank itself and the company parking lot. Parking in the city was tight so all of the bank employees were given parking passes to hang on their rearview mirrors.
The security company guards were authorized to park in the company parking lot, but we were not issued passes. The last time I had worked in the bank I had worked at one of the desk positions, and to identify my car, I took a company logo which was an eight and a half by eleven inch sheet of paper with red and yellow on a white background and the company name in large black letters written across it, and laid that on my dash under the rearview mirror.
The blind roving guard issued me a parking ticket!
Initially, after I left that job in the branch banks, the security company offered me a full time job working in that main bank, and I turned it down because of the attitude of the employees. I figured that if I went to work in that main bank full time, it wouldn't take me long to get myself fired!
I took a full time job as a roving guard, moving from place to place, covering jobs for people who were on vacation, a day off, or sick. The first job they gave me, of course, was working in that main bank!
The next job they gave me was a week long stint, working the midnight to eight am shift on the "Rock Pile". The Rock Pile was nothing more than a muddy piece of land with piles of crushed concrete and heavy construction equipment that was located between two busy railroad tracks.
There wasn't much danger of falling asleep. The tracks on the north side were located about a half mile from the rock pile and were for east and westbound traffic. The trains passing on those tracks were already at speed and were just coasting through the city.
The south side line though, was located about a hundred yards from the rock pile and was a local spur that was carrying traffic west. Most of the traffic on it was empty coalcars heading west to the coal mines. Those trains were just leaving the city, and since the cars were empty, the engines didn't have to wind up to full speed to get through the city.
But there also was that fully loaded freight train, that was just getting started. I could hear him coming, way before he ever got near the rock pile, as the engines were under full power with the ground shaking. All I could do was set there in the darkness, wide awake, wondering, and waiting, while the train, bore down on me.
Where in the hell was that engine? It was so loud it sounded like it was in the trunk of the car.
Finally I could see the lights coming a half mile down the tracks. Invariably, the engineer would blow the horn as he passed the rock pile, and I would jump six inches off the seat of the car. Then it passed with a roar, and all I heard was the click-clack, click-clack, of the wheels of the cars as they passed, and then silence.
When the bank cancelled the contract with the security company for guards, it didn't put just me out of work, it also put twenty other people out of work.
These people were like myself, used to working a day shift in a bank. Security work is primarily evening, night, and week end work. The security company offered these people the positions that were available, and most of the positions were filled.
That left me, as a roving guard with slim pickings. Two hours here, four hours there. For someone like myself who was used to working fifty to sixty hours a week, it was just like being fired, but if it hadn't been for the money, I could have gotten to liked it.
The company had been through this many a times, and I had been through it a couple of times, and I knew it was just a matter of a month, and these people who taken these night and weekend shifts, were going to get tired of working all of those odd hours, and then it would be back to business as usual. The telephone would be ringing all the time, trying to get me to take an extra job. Many a times they called me at home, when I was already be at work, and then when I got home, my wife would want to know where in the hell I had been the whole time!
One Sunday, my wife's car was broke down, and she borrowed my pick-up to go to church. She couldn't find her set of keys to it, so I loaned her mine.
When church was over, she came storming in the door, threw a broken set of keys at me and starting bitching about my "No good piece of junk."
She still couldn't find her set of keys anywhere, so I took the broken set, and caught a ride down to the church.
There, I found out that she had locked the pick-up, which I never do, and then broke off the ignition key in the door lock trying to unlock it.
I couldn't find the broken piece, so I had to call a locksmith.
The locksmith charged me fifty dollars to make a new ignition key for my pick-up and my wife is STILL bitching at me because of my "No good piece of junk!"
Coon from down at work knew that I did some auto mechanic work, and told me one day that his wife was saying that her car died when she pulled up to a stop light.
I asked him how long it had been since it had been tuned up, and he said it had only been six months.
The car was an older model with a straight in-line six cylinder engine one barrel carbureter, and an automatic transmission.
I told him it sounded like the idle screw for the carburetor needed to be set up a little, so bring it to work some day, and I would set it for him.
A couple of days later, Coon drove the car to work, and when we got finished for the day, I got my magic screw driver from my pick-up and went over to the car to set the idle.
Coon opened the hood and then started the engine. The motor started right away but as the engine was running, it rocked back and forth, and when it rocked to the right, the body of the carburetor rocked to the right, and when the engine rocked to the left, the body of the carburetor rocked to the left. The body of the carburetor had come loose on the base.
Additionally, the vaccuum hoses for the carburetor were connected to the carburetor with plastic connectors, which had broken because of the movement of the carburetor. I could not figure how the thing started, not alone ran!
I explained what the problem was to Coon, and told him that since I had to dismantle the carburetor and buy two gaskets, I may as well as do a complete overhaul on it. He agreed and brought the car over to my house.
After the car was at home, I took the air breather off and checked the air filter, and it was greasy, oily, and caked with dirt. I added that to my list of items to be purchased along with the carburetor overhaul kit, and plastic connectors. I next took the carburetor off and took it apart. I cleaned it as best as I could, and blew out all of the air passages. While it was drying, I went and got the parts.
I installed the kit in the carburetor and then bolted it back on the engine. I started the motor and revved it up and when I let off, the motor sat there shaking, and when I let all the way off, it died. It wouldn't idle!
I decided that since I had just rebuilt the carburetor, something else must be wrong. I grabbed a wrench and checked the sparkplugs. It was a six cylinder engine, and three of the sparkplugs were so fouled, you couldn't see the tips! Two other sparkplugs were partly fouled, and the engine had been running on it's one good plug!
I looked around in the garage and came up with six, used plugs of the same type, that I knew at least would fire, and installed them in the engine.
I started the motor and revved it up and when I let off, the motor sat there shaking and when I let all the way off, it died. It wouldn't idle!
I decided that since I had just rebuilt the carburetor and installed sparkplugs something else must be wrong. I grabbed a screwdriver and checked the ignition distributor. When I opened it up, the ignition points were burned. I took them out, and sanded and cleaned them the best I could, then re-installed them in the engine. I started the motor and revved it up and when I let off, the motor sat there shaking and when I let all the way off, it died. It wouldn't idle!
I was stumped! I called Coon and explained the problem to him. I suggested that he take it down to the auto repair shop and have them tune it up. Maybe they could figure it out.
They charged him fifty dollars to install sparkplugs, points, and set the timing on the motor, and marked on the bill that the engine wouldn't idle!
When coon told that to me, I told him to bring it back, leave it with me and I would fix it right.
I let it set for a day then went out to it. I opened the hood and just stood and looked at the motor. Assuming that everything else is all right, the idle of the motor is governed by the carburetor. Therefore, I must have done something wrong to the carburetor. I got the wrenches, and took the carburetor off the motor. The carburetor was a three piece affair, consisting of a mounting base, the body, and the body cover. I dismantled the carburetor, and looked over the body very carefully.
Then I spotted a jet in the body of the carburetor, that I had not taken out when I had it apart the first time. I unscrewed the jet. It was a long hollow brass rod that went from the top of the body, all the way down to the bottom of the body, and at the bottom of that jet, was an oily piece of paper from that greasy, dirty air filter. I took the paper out of the jet, re-installed the jet in the carburetor, reassembled the carburetor, installed it on the motor, turned the ignition key, and the motor started and ran is if it was brand new.
The air filter on that car was so clogged that a piece of the filter was sucked down into the bottom of that jet. The body of the carburetor was so loose from the base that it broke the vacuum line connectors. There were three sparkplugs in that motor that were totally fouled and two that were partially fouled. The ignition points were burned. And after all of the hours, that I had spent working on that car, to think that all I would have had to do to make Coon's wife happy, was to remove that piece of paper from that jet!
I hated it when I had to work the evening shift and my wife was at home. My wife was always a worker, wash dishes, wash clothes, wash the car, water the lawn, water flowers, water the garden. Have you ever taken a shower when the water is going from freezing cold to scalding hot? If there was even any hot water left!
My semi-truck driving buddy was an avid bird hunter, and gun collector. He and another friend went turkey hunting early one fall day.
A farmer had given them permission to hunt on his land, and they arrived just before daybreak. The friend went one way and the driver went the other.
The driver had been walking for about ten minutes when he heard:
"BOOM! BOOM!"
The limit was one per day per person, so he waited for a minute, and when he didn't hear anything more, started walking again.
As he was nearing a stand of trees, he heard turkeys chirping and gobbling. He quietly slipped into the trees, trying to see the turkeys. He could tell that he was near, but just couldn't see them. Then he realized, the turkeys were in the tree above him. He had a double barreled, twelve gauge shotgun, and aimed it up into the tree. He knew that he had a problem though, if he missed with the first shot, he probably wasn't going to have the time to aim and get off a second shot. he pulled both triggers
BOOM!
Turkeys and feathers started flying, and he thought he had killed every bird in the tree!
He actually only got four though, so he picked up his prey and walked to where he thought his friend was.
When they met up, the friend told the driver, "We have a problem. I got your turkey and mine."
The driver told his friend, "If you think you have problems, I have ours!"
They left off two turkeys with the farmer, and then sweated out the trip back!
