Suddenly Bobby Felt Very Alone

Thirteen has always been one of my favorite numbers because that was the day I was born in December 1952.  Friday the thirteenth has been my favorite day.  One of my most memorable Fridays the thirteen happened forty-nine years ago this week.  It is one of the anniversaries that I celebrate.

It was 1976 while I was working as an apprentice machinist for Linefast Corporation in Montevallo, Alabama where we produced items used by cargo shipping containers.  I experienced a first that Friday the thirteenth.  I was fired!  There had been some problems and irregularities at Linefast and the men there wanted to have a conference with the owner.  The owner had a partner in New York.

When the meeting took place, I found that I was ushered to the lead.  I had all the wisdom and know-it-all of twenty-three years.  That day I realized that people do a lot of talking but very few will address the issues if they have a rambunctious twenty-three to be the idiot fall guy.

I was the happy dad of our first-born Andy who was born in January of 1976.  One of our issues was insurance.  Linefast paid part of the premium and employees paid the other part.  St. Vincent’s hospital in Birmingham informed me with a monthly bill that the insurance had not paid for the delivery of Andy.

When I questioned Linefast’s corporate office in New York about the delay, they offered excuses and said they would pay.  They never did.  What “broke the camel’s back” was that the owner at Montevallo said there was no insurance that paid for delivering babies.

I produced my policy and showed him that I did have maternity coverage.

When I lead the meeting, things got heated especially when the owner realized that I caught one of the inconsistencies.  Employees were paying one insurance premium to Linefast and we received another policy.

As I aired the grievances, they were said and I realized I was standing alone.  All the men that had encouraged me to speak were gone.  The owner said, “You’re fired.”  It was dinner time and I asked for my pay.  He initially said no, but I reminded him that he paid us every Friday.  He paid me.  I went home, changed clothes, and started the process of job hunting that Friday afternoon.

Having no luck, I returned home and noticed fresh tire tracks in our dirt drive.  I recognized them as the mud grip tires of my former boss’ pickup.  He had come to apologize and offer my job back.

We had a good meeting and I told him it was best that I move on and find another job.  We parted friends and remained friends until Linefast shut down and the owner moved away.  Linefast Corporation paid St. Vincent’s hospital bill.  I did not owe anything.  I did not find another job until October, 13, 1976 when I started at the Cement Plant in Calera.

The time off was difficult.  With no work came no pay.  No pay and job turned to stress.  Everyone blamed me.  Their condemnation, anger, and discouragement got the best of me.  One day after a jobless opportunity, frustration got the best of me.  I pulled into mom and dad’s drive and the weight of the world drove and bowed me into depression.  All alone I lay in the seat of my old Ford pickup when dad drove into the yard.

He walked to my truck and asked me what was wrong.  For the next few moments I poured my heart to him.  I told him that everyone was upset with me, even him.  I told him what happened.  Most family and friends only knew that I had been fired and not the circumstances that transpired. 

He asked, “Did you stand for what was right?”  I told him that I had.  He said, “Then I am with you.  When you are right and know it don’t back down from it.  Just remember son that when your make a stand be prepared to stand alone.”  Since that afternoon, I have made many stands and most of them have been alone.

 

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. (I Corinthians 15:58 KJV)

 

One of my favorite cartoonist's is Gary Larson creator of The Far Side.  I had one his masterpieces that I kept on our refrigerator for years.  It was a baby dinosaur walking on the road.  Dressed in baseball cap carrying a bat and glove on his shoulder among three caves with extinct signs above their openings the caption said, Suddenly, Bobby felt very alone in the world.”   Yep, been there done that and thought of it a lot.