One Great Conversation

I had the most wonderful conversation with a man from my hometown this morning, and it totally took me out of my non-blogging slump to share some thoughts with you.

I am currently working as an Administrative Assistant for a small family-owned business in the cotton industry.  More specifically, the company I work for designs, sells, and services cotton module equipment all around the world with very few competitors.  One of the pieces we sell looks like this:

In fact, our only competitor for module trucks is in Lubbock!  Anyway- we put the big steel box on the back (among other things).  So, this morning, we had a new truck chassis delivered from the West Texas Peterbilt.  The driver needed to kill some time before he left for the airport so we had ourselves a little talk.

This guy was FASCINATING to me!  He was originally from New York and had become a truck driver back in the 70's.  Back then you only got paid when your truck was full.  He had taken a load from Birmingham to Idaho and they didn't have anything for him to pick up, so he was driving back unpaid.  He got called to run a load to Ft. Stockton and then to Lubbock.  When he got to Lubbock, he had been driving unpaid for days and he was sick of it, so he quit.  Dropped the rig off in Slaton and decided he would just stay put. 

He said it took him 4 weeks to find a job, and that entire time a woman in Slaton let him stay at her little inn on the promise that he would pay her when he found a job.  And he helped her by mowing the lawn around the hotel and stuff.  He had to hitchike to job search, but he ended up getting hired by the City of Lubbock to work at the airport.  Back then, they wanted you living at the airport, so they GAVE YOU A HOUSE!  Seriously.  So that pretty much all worked out just fine and dandy for him and he worked for the city for 25 years when he retired.

Oh, and he did pay that lady back with his very first paycheck and he slept on the floor of that house until he saved up for a bed, but he was just fine.

I was so struck by this guys story and it made me feel lots of stuff:

1.  He was BRAVE.  I mean, who does that?

2.  Things in this world sure have CHANGED.  We don't trust each other anymore.  Most people wouldn't take care of you like that!

3.  I sure miss Lubbock.

I'm sure it's not like it used to be, but I know it's still a great place to live.  It's where my history and family and many friends are.  I know it gets a bad rap, but it's one of those things that's hard to appreciate when you've never lived there or you've never left.

I wonder if I can get a good Southwest deal and go home?