Is God trying to tell me something?

In December of 1980, the new clock company, Sovereign, Ltd., gave a ham to every employee for Christmas.  Bud rented a U-Haul (or some brand) truck in Greensboro and started the trip to Baltimore to move me.  For some reason the rental fee for the truck was less if he drove it round trip than a one-way rental.  Unfortunately, he had gotten only about as far as South Hill, VA when the truck broke down.  He hiked to the nearest service station (there were no cell phones then) and called the rental company.  He told them they would find their truck parked on the shoulder of I-85 near one of the South Hill exits, and oh, by the way, he expected a complete refund.  He was fortunate to find a man gassing up at the service station who offered to drive him as far as the Maryland side of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge in DC.  He called me and asked me to pick him up.  He offered the ham to his Good Samaritan as compensation, but he refused to take it.  So I picked up an extremely disgruntled traveler and his ham off the roadside near DC and took him back to Baltimore.  Not a great start to my move, but certainly not an insurmountable problem.


Bud rented another truck in Baltimore for the one-way move and on Saturday, December 27, 1980 we got up, had coffee, and started loading the truck with all of my earthly belongings.  Being a good little doobee, I had already packed and boxed everything except the clothes I was wearing, some personal hygiene items, the coffee maker and some mugs.  After cleaning the pot and the mugs, they were closed up in one final box and ready to go.  I don't remember what caused us to be delayed.  Maybe it was someone coming to help load the heavy stuff (I had a complete one-bedroom apartment full of furniture, some of which was inexcusably heavy).  Anyway, we didn't get completely loaded, with my little Datsun B210 hooked up behind the truck, until about 12:30 PM.  We had hoped to start sooner because the drive normally took 6-7 hours in a car, and we were adding at least an extra hour or so for being in the truck and towing my car.  Still, when we left Baltimore it was a cold, sunny, clear winter day and we were loaded for bear.


Once we got to the first Richmond tollbooth we started to notice a few flakes of snow falling.  Back in 1980, there were four tollbooths in the Richmond/Petersburg area.  They aren't there any longer.  Virginia is the only state I have ever known to remove tollbooths once the cost of the road was paid.  They didn't do it willingly; the citizens forced it.  But the tollbooths came down.  I'm sure the Harbor Tunnel and/or the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore were completely paid years ago, yet those tolls are still in effect.  But, back to our merry travelers.  I don't know if we didn't check the weather forecast, or if we just didn't really give it much thought since snow is a given in Baltimore, but at first we didn't worry much about a few little snowflakes.  Except, the further south we went, the harder it snowed.  The roads in Virginia were not salted or prepared in any way for snow, and we saw only a few snowplows throughout the rest of the trip.  The snow from the road was being picked up by the truck tires and deposited on my car behind us.  That made my car increasingly heavier and heavier.  Soon the truck started to overheat.  We stopped under an overpass and dug in the truck until we found some brooms and swept all the wet snow off my car.  That helped, but we had to stop repeatedly to clean the car to keep the truck from overheating.  Then Bud says to me "Keep an eye out and let me know if you see your car pass us on either side."  What??? It seems the bumper on a Datsun B210 was not bolted on and as the car was being towed by the bumper, Bud was afraid the extra weight from the snow would cause the bumper to detach and set the car free.  What a mess!  So, now we're sweeping and we're checking bumper connections and we're freezing, and it's snowing more and more and more.  The windshield wipers started to freeze and the defrosters were not working properly.  Bud had a hard time seeing where he was going.  So, now were sweeping and checking bumper connections and breaking ice off the wipers and freezing, and it's snowing more and more and more.  Fortunately, we were almost the only fools on the road.  We went as fast as possible, which by any accounting was still very slow.  We did some slippin' 'n slidin' and I did a whole lot of praying.  Eleven hours after we left Baltimore, we pulled into the parking lot at Bud's apartment.  Fortunately, my car was still attached.  He parked the truck smack in the middle of the lot and left it there.  We grabbed our personal stuff and headed inside to his apartment.  I thought about kissing the ground once we arrived safely, but it was covered with snow and I just wanted to get warm and dry.


It was late, we were tired, but it was gonna be awhile before my frayed nerves and twisted stomach calmed down enough to sleep.  We were just happy to have arrived safely, though I was seriously wondering if this inauspicious beginning to my life in North Carolina was a sign I should have stayed in Maryland.  We'd been in the apartment less than a half-hour when the doorbell rang.  Huh?  It's almost midnight and it's snowing to beat the band out there, but we have company?  Sure enough.  We opened the door and there stood LB.  Now, LB takes a little explaining.  Someday I may write individual blogs about LB, Frank, Gabe and the others of our friends we have lost too soon, but here I'll just give a brief background.  LB and Tim had been friends, roommates, coworkers and co-conspirators when Tim lived in North Carolina before moving to Maryland.  Once Tim moved to Maryland, LB was a frequent visitor.  Before I became involved with Bud, LB and I dated quite a bit.  After Bud and I became a pair, LB still visited Maryland often, especially when the three stooges shared a townhouse, and we all were on great terms.  When Tim and I moved to separate apartments, LB moved up from North Carolina and took over as Plant Manager at the clock company.  So, of course, when the company in Maryland failed and the new company was started in North Carolina, LB came home.  He was now the Plant Manager of Sovereign, Ltd. and Bud's boss.  LB just also happened to be Rita Henderson's (of Harold and Rita) brother.


Well, of course, we asked LB to come in.  Looking in the parking lot at the way he had "parked" his car next to the rental truck smack in the middle of the lot, there sure wasn't gonna be any way he was getting out of there.  His apartment wasn't really that far way, but there was not gonna be anyone leaving our lot until sometime the next day after we got that truck moved.  He said he'd been waiting for us to get in because Frank and Tim had asked him to offer me a job.  Originally, I had planned to move to NC and stay with Bud while I looked for an apartment and a job.  I'd barely been in town a half-hour and I already had a job offer, and it was one I couldn't pass up.  No, the money was not gonna be great -- the company was just starting up.  But I would be back with Frank, Tim and Bud plus some of the other old Daneker gang.  And LB worked there too.  What more could I ask than the opportunity to bust my butt working 14 to 16 hours a day AGAIN with my best buddies.  I said "yes", without hesitation.  There was just one small problem.  The pay cut was gonna make it almost impossible for me to afford my own apartment.  For some reason this put a great big giant smile on Bud's face.  After a congratulatory toast with beer (all we had in the apartment at the moment), LB bunked out on the sofa and Bud and I fell into bed exhausted but content.


So there would be no discussions about who paid who for what, we worked out a deal where we would get a larger apartment in the same complex (his was only one bedroom and I had a bunch of furniture), split the cost 50/50, split utilities and phone and such 50/50, carpool and split gas 50/50, etc.  I had a Sears charge card so I bought a new washer and dryer and we split the payments 50/50.  I was not gonna have any more misunderstandings, misconceptions or any other miswhatevers about finances.


Maybe my life in NC was off to a pretty good start after all.  I'd been a resident less than a day and I had a place to live and a job with some of the best friends on the face of the planet.