And Then There Was Jim

Wow - I can't believe how long it's taking me to turn out a post these days. Must be the new meds :-)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, when I started working at A-1 Plastic Supply in the summer of 1972, the prior delivery driver (Jim) was moving "up the chain" so for the first week of my "tenure" he was my trainer.

As I recall, Jim was thin and tall, with longish (well styled) sandy colored hair and a thin mustache. He was 21 years old and on his third marriage (to his former bosses ex-wife, a redhead in her late 20s with a daughter from that prior marriage).

Jim was into cars, but (unlike me) he had absolutely no interest in working on them. That's why he offered to sell me his '65 Mustang (red K-code GT fastback - pony interior) with a bad timing chain for $400. (I didn't buy it but I certainly wouldn't mind having it now...) I had worked on Ford v-8 engines before so I replaced the timing chain and rebuilt the carburetor on the Mustang for him, and afterward he got rid of it and bought a silver 1962 Austin Healey 3000.

 Aside: I have to admit that the Healey was a really cool car (mucho fun to ride around in) but like a lot of the British roadsters of its era it was ill-handling and kind of slow. (That's because British engine and suspension technology was stuck in the 1940's at the time.) ... Of course, it seemed fast but that was only because you were sitting so close to the ground. In reality, the 0-60 time was around 10 seconds and (according to my research) the cornering limit was something like 0.6 G's... In other words, a stock 4-door Dodge Dart with a small 2-bbl v-8 engine would have trounced it in both acceleration and handling. But clearly, the appeal of a small British roadster like the Healey has nothing to with performance and I can certainly see why a lot of people like them so much... But it's just not my thing :-) And back to the story...

For the first month or so I was at A-1 Jim worked in the warehouse (learning the inventory) and I often helped him pull orders. I was amazed at how many different types of plastic there were. The majority of our sales were polymer-based plastics (like PVC, Lexan, polyethylene, polypropylene, Delrin, Plexiglas, Teflon, Mylar etc.) in a variety of forms (mostly sheets, but also rods and tubes).

Aside: The Collins Radio facility at the Addison airport used to buy a polymer called KEL-F in two inch thick blocks  that cost $1200 per square foot. (You could get a pretty decent car for that back then.) I have no idea what they used it for and the armed guards at the door made sure I didn't find out :-) Yeah - I'm not sure exactly why they were so secretive, but given that I once saw Air Force One pulling into their hangar they probably had a good reason... But I digress a bit...

A-1 also stocked a variety of phenolics, as well as that green copper clad stuff used to make circuit boards, and a variety of laminates including that black/white/black layered sign stock engravers use to make name plates. (BTW: Did you know they make that stuff with multiple color layers? It's really cool.) ... I still remember the first time I delivered sign stock to Holsapple Engraving. I had never seen a pantograph engraver before and I was like "Aha! So that's how they do it!" But I digress again...

Despite being very different people Jim and I got along surprisingly well. Within a couple of weeks we came up with "alternate" names for a lot of  the plastics... It all started with Boltaron. That was a brand of PVC, and the name was incredibly apropriate because a 4x8 sheet of that stuff can store a lot of static electricity. (I always slapped the edge before trying to grab it to avoid the shock.) Then we  starting calling the stuff that smelled really bad "Skunkaron", and polyethylene became "polyelephant", and polypropylene became "polycracker"... Yeah - not all of the names made sense, but that was kind of the point :-)

Here are some more memories (in no particular order):

At one point Jim and I were discussing him taking college classes at night. I mentioned that I didn't intend to ever go back to college. His response was something along the lines of "I'm really glad to hear that! That's one less person I'll have to complete with after get a degree!"

Next - I probably shouldn't tell this one, but (as usual)  I will anyway:
Jim used to wear this pair of blue suede high-heeled sneakers. (OK - the heels were really wide and not that high - but they still qualified...) One day a redneck buddy of William T's ambled into in the warehouse and noticed Jim's shoes. He said (facetiously) "Boy! I wish I had me a pair of them shoes!" Without hesitating Jim responded "Well, you're just going to have to catch your own n-word then, aren't you." ... Now, ordinarily I would have been offended by the racial reference, but Jim was not at all racist and I immediately got this mental image of a big fat redneck chasing after a guy yelling "I want your sneakers!", which was actually kind of humorous... But, the funniest part was the reaction. The redneck got this weird look on his face as he tried to process Jim's remark and (a number of seconds later) when he finally "connected the dots" he started laughing uncontrollably - making these godawful noises... I was afraid he was going to have a heart attack :-)

Jim did eventually move into sales and I didn't see very much of him afterward. But I remember him taking me aside one day and saying sales was the most amazing gig he'd ever had. As he described it, he and Ivan would make a few calls in the morning and then spend the entire afternoon bar hopping. Apparently the commission on those few sales was a heck of lot more than he was making in the warehouse...

Yeah... The idea of being a salesman didn't appeal to me at all back then... And it still doesn't now :-)