It was the fall of 1971. I had been playing guitar in an ever changing band in Panama City, Fl. The drummer and I were the constants,but the rest of the personnel changed, depending upon the whim of the bar owner. One week we were country, the next, rock'n'roll. The only thing we knew for sure was that when the summer ended, so did we.
I was in a family arrangement with a girl, her 2 kids, her mom, and her alcoholic step dad, Jim. We lived in a one bedroom apartment, which was not a problem while I was working all night playing, and mom and dad worked during the day. But when my job ended, we would need a bigger place. Jim was captain on a tourist boat that ran from Panama City Beach all around the bay, stopping at an island for a lunch on the beach. On busy days when I had off, I would help him out as 1st mate. All in all, it was not a bad life. But we knew it was going to end soon.
Out of the blue, the owners of the boat wanted to know if Jim could cruise the boat to Houston and run tours from downtown Houston, down the ship channel, to the park where the San Jacinto Monument and the Battleship Texas were located. In order to make a decision, Jim wanted to go to Houston to meet with the parties that would be involved at the restaurant where the boat would be docked and the tours would depart from. I had been to Houston in 1966 for a job training school. and knew the town a little, so I volunteered to drive him over on a day trip. We drove over and met with the parties involved at a very nice restaurant on the water. A tentative agreement was worked out, which Jim was happy with, so we headed back to Panama City. On the way, he said he would need help to run the boat, and since my situation would be over soon, would I like to be 1st mate? Sure, why not. I had been around boats all of my life and had been in the Navy, so helping on a 65 ft tour boat shouldn't be a problem. All I had to do was work the lines coming and going and sell beer and sandwiches to the tourists, and do all of the tour guide talk.It sounded like fun to me.
The band was to be dissolved the week after Labor Day, when the summer tourists began to disappear from the Red Neck Riviera, Panama City. We had 3 weeks to prepare to leave for Texas. This was not a problem, since everything we owned would fit in the 2 cars.
One week before departure, Jim got into too much Vodka and sunk the boat.
After all of the crying and cussing was over, we decided to go to Houston anyways. It was the only place I knew of to start over. My first wife was in Miami, so I didn't want to go south. Girlfriend and the little kids thought it would be too cold to go North with the winter coming on, so West it was. We had no money to speak of, but I had a credit card I hadn't used in a long time, so maybe it would get us started. Jim had 4 or 6 flats on the way over, but we made it. I got us a big room at a cheap motel, and we started looking for a place to stay and jobs.We found a 2 bedroom apartment on the west side of Houston we could manage. Jim found a job in construction, and I answered an ad for a trainee position at the convenience store chain- U-Totem.
I went to the Main office and applied, took the tests, and passed a lie-detector test. I was sent to a 'training store' where I did well enough to be assigned as night manager at one of the slower stores. As a few months passed I worked my way up through the ranks until I was worthy of a day manager position. At last, they were going to let me manager a 'busy' store. In order to do this, I had to go to another store to pick up the keys so I could open my new store the next morning. I had to go to one of the busiest stores in town. It was a 24 hour store that had the only outdoor beer garden in the chain. This was due to the location- just down the street from the Houston Post newspaper. The paper boys liked to eat and drink beer out back at all hours of the legal period where beer was allowed to be sold. I was told to stop by, ask for Bill, and get the keys for my new store.
I guess it was about 8 PM when I went into the store. The store, in addition to being near the newspaper, was just across the street from a very large apartment complex. The place was quite busy. I'm not exactly sure how it went down, but it was something like this. I approached the man behind the counter, who had a line of people waiting to check out, and asked to see Bill. The man informed me that he was Bill and what could he do for me. I'm here to pick up the keys to Store xx, I said. I'll get them for you in a minute, he said. So I went to the back of the store to look around. Minutes passed and still no keys. I knew he was busy, but I had things to do, so I reminded him again. Finally he reached under the counter, took a ring of keys and threw them in my direction, saying, Here's your damn keys. Now I'd like to think that since he didn't really know me, he wasn't throwing them at my head, but if I hadn't caught them, that's where there would have made contact. I put the keys in my pocket, said thanks very much and left, thinking that was that, and I didn't have to deal with Bill anymore.
In a month or so, the district manager stopped by and told me- Sid, you're doing a great job here, but you're not making any money. An opening has just came up at a 24 hour store and we'd like you to consider being the night manager there. It's in a great location and the guy that's going to be the day manager really knows how to run a store. Where's it at, I asked? Over by the Post. What's the guy's name? Bill. Crap, I'm not sure I can work with him. He's a little, umm, impulsive .But the money is good. Does he know who he'll be getting? Yeah, I think so. Well, I can sure use the money, so OK.
And that was how I met Bill. In a short time we began to get along. We covered for each other at the store. We did things together when we could get common time off. By this time, girl friend, and family had departed for Virginia, where Jim had been offered work. Now that I was making more money, I moved from the dump to a very nice apartment in the center of my work and other activites. I was sending money back to Florida to pay off the credit card that had saved us when we first arrived. I was informed by #1 wife that the divorce was final and I was a free man. She also said I had sent enough money and that I owed no more. So I began to put some away for a change.
Somewhere along the line, Bill and I had become really good friends. He showed me the little tricks that make a store profitable, and I introduced him to pot. Life was good. We worked long hours, and partied when we got a chance. In fact, the store was doing so good, and my reputation had risen thanks to Bill's lessons, I was offered a day manager position at one of the other busy stores. It was next to the largest singles apartment complex in Houston. It offered me the chance to have a night life for the first time in a long time. It was a 24 hour store, but the night manager was happy working nights, so it worked out well. Along about this time, Bill started dating a girl that also worked for U-Totem, named Nancy. She fit right in to the life style that Bill and I were trying to lead. We began all hanging out together. I would have a date when I could find one, but with the hours we worked, a normal person had a problem fitting in. There were times when we would borrow Nancy's car to go to a basketball game, or out to Gilly's, or other places. But after we brought it back one time filled with Taco Bell wrappers, from when we had a bad case of the munchies, she became more selective about lending it to us. We were running mostly with people from the Post or U-Totem. It was a good life. Bill and Nancy married, I moved back to Florida in 1974. The bonds of frienship we forged over those few years are as strong today as they ever were.We see each other at least once a year and try for more. We no longer indulge in some the vices of our youth, but beer, and BBQ, and Texas are forever. AMEN.
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