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.

Standing Alone and Having the Last Word

 Most of us have ventured farther than we needed to go in life.  We took that infamous next step and fell flat on our face, had the last word and it has cost a life of regret, got one more laugh and it led to embarrassment.  My family says that I always have to have the last word.  I usually reply, “No, I don’t.”

When I think about going a little farther, I remember the words of my dad.  He would say, “Son if you make a stand, be willing to stand alone because most of the time you will look around and see that you are all by yourself.”

Forty-five years ago, I had the one of many “stand lone” experiences.  It was Friday August 13, 1976.  I was fried from my job after I confronted the owner about an insurance policy. 

It started at the birth of my eldest son, Andy, on January 18 of that year.  The insurance policy included coverage for the birth of a baby.  I paid a deducible and took Andy home from St. Vincent’s Hospital in Birmingham.  Shortly, I received statements that I owned for Andy’s birth.

I asked the owner, since he was boss, human resource, personnel, and insurance managers for the company why the insurance did not pay for the hospital stay.

He said he had to get with his partner in New York and that he would let me know.  Another statement came and I again asked the owner about the status of the insurance inquiry.  The same question received the same response, “I will get with my partner in New York.”

I revisited my policy and once again, all I owed was a minimum deductible that I had already paid.  I don’t know about you, but I dislike to be ignored and for people to be disingenuous with me.

Since I was a young man of twenty-three, I sought the wisdom of older guys whom I worked.  They talked of all the shady things that transpired in the routine work of the shop.  I remember doing things that I thought were improper and wrong, but I was a stupid twenty-three year old.  What did I know?

The collective thought of the employees was that the owner needed to answer some questions we had.  I received encouragement from my Sunday school class that we as Christians needed to stand for that which was moral and right.  I remember a sermon that the pastor preached about snakes.  He said, “If you mess with snakes, you will get snake bit.”

I finally got an answer from the owner about the insurance.  He said that he and his partner did not know of any insurance that paid for baby delivery.

On my favorite day, Friday the 13^th, I, with the backing of six to seven employees, confronted the owner about irregularities with work and insurance.  I know now, but was clueless back then that my companions lacked backbone, why else would they let a young man lead? 

I showed him my policy and the coverage.  Looking back, I realize I caught him with the proverbial “hand in the cookie jar.” He became hostile.  When the discussion got heated, I looked around and I was the only one standing up to the owner.  After a short exchange and my short diatribe on the owner’s spiritual lostness, he fired me.

The response from my allies shocked me.  They said I took the discussion too far.  I thought I did the right thing.  The premiums I paid were for full coverage, but the owner and his partner were paying for a lesser insurance coverage.  When caught, they agreed to pay my hospital bill.

The owner realized what he did and offered my job back, but I took another road on life’s journey.  I never made a full machinist because I never had an opportunity to continue the apprenticeship.

After two months of building houses, I went to work at the cement plant on October 13.  During the between months, I faced great challenges and criticism.  Everyone was mad at me for getting fired.  I stood for what was right, I found myself alone, and I went into a time of a personal low.

Lying on the front seat of my old Ford pickup, my dad asked what was wrong.  I told him that I stood for a principle I thought right morally and ethically.  Now, I feel abandoned.  His words I never will forget.  “Son, if you stand for what is right, be willing to stand alone.  If you are right, that is what matters regardless of what others think, including me.  Son, I am proud of you.”

At a pastor’s conference Dr. Rick Lance, Executive Secretary for Alabama Baptists, gave an inspirational devotion on Jesus at Gethsemane and the phrase, “Jesus went a little farther in following God Will, Word, and Work.”  I immediately went back to 1976.

 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.  And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? (Matthew 26:36-39 KJV)

I cannot start to imagine how Jesus felt at that tremendous moment in His journey to the Cross.  His dad knew that His Son would be all alone.