One night, February 17th, 1979, I was laying in bed at the Admiral Benbow Inn, in Biloxi, Mississippi watching the Johnny Carson show. The weather was terrible for the Gulf Coast, a very cold rain with some sleet mixed in.
As I reached over to get another cigarette, I found that I only had one left in the pack. The only way to get some was to go to the lobby, and I was on the back side, a good little walk in the rain plus I would have to get up and get dressed. Not something that I wanted to do, but I didn't think I could wake up and not have a cigarette to light immediately. I checked to see if I had sixty cents in change, to fit the machine they were in, and first decided to go get a pack.
Then I thought gosh I have been wanting to quit, and this looks like a good time. So, I turned the TV off, and the lights out and went to sleep.
The next morning it was really tough but I stuck with it. After breakfast, I grabbed a wooden toothpick to try and satisfy my nicotine craving. I chewed that toothpick, until it looked like a toothbrush. This continued for about 3 weeks until I felt that I had won the battle. I'll bet I chewed a cord of wood during that time. All the time I was telling myself and others that when I turned 65, I was going to buy a pack and chain smoke them one right after the other until they were all gone.
When I did turn 65, they told me the pack of Marlboro was going to cost me $4.00 or so which scared me into giving up that idea.
You know, sixty cents a pack was wasteful, but I don't think I could ever pay that kind of price for something just to burn up and that was also very bad for your health
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Sunday, August 15, 2010
The Saga Of The Female Mannequin
In the sixties, I was office manager for a sales and distribution company. We had a warehouse that stocked a large amount of grocery products and we had a couple of men working in the warehouse unloading rail cars and trucks, and then loading trucks that came by to pick up their orders.
One of the truck drivers that picked up at the warehouse, was also a friend of mine. As he was making his rounds this one day, he found a female mannequin that had been placed in the alley by a clothing store that had burned and he asked if he could have it.
That afternoon he brought it by the warehouse when he came by to make a pickup. It was in a large cardboard box with her legs sticking up and out of the box. Her legs were smutty, and the black high heel shoes showed they had been burned. When our worker, a very large black man pushed his two wheel truck up into the the trailer with several cases of canned goods on it, he saw those legs sticking up, and he lost control, dropped the truck, scattering the cases of Campbell soup and he came running off the trailer, screaming there is a dead woman in there.
Thats when the fun began.
To be continuied.
One of the truck drivers that picked up at the warehouse, was also a friend of mine. As he was making his rounds this one day, he found a female mannequin that had been placed in the alley by a clothing store that had burned and he asked if he could have it.
That afternoon he brought it by the warehouse when he came by to make a pickup. It was in a large cardboard box with her legs sticking up and out of the box. Her legs were smutty, and the black high heel shoes showed they had been burned. When our worker, a very large black man pushed his two wheel truck up into the the trailer with several cases of canned goods on it, he saw those legs sticking up, and he lost control, dropped the truck, scattering the cases of Campbell soup and he came running off the trailer, screaming there is a dead woman in there.
Thats when the fun began.
To be continuied.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)