Here I am, two days behind schedule. I should have been on the road to somewhere by Sunday, but no, I drive to Miami to help out my pal. And to check out the old truck to find out he did put new tires. But he will not ride the sidecar and will not take the truck out of town. Therefore, I told him I would guaranty if we followed a railway line to wherever we were going, I would put up the cash for a tow to the nearest station and pay for haulage back. He’s thinking, but won’t decide.
I persuaded him to take the truck on a test drive out past Cutler. It works fine and is no more likely to break down on the highway as any other old vehicle. Remember, this is my buddy JP, who used to make two pots of coffee from the same grounds. I hauled him over to Harry’s for breakfast, it’s a popular spot way out on South Dixie with double helpings of everything. The idea here was to get JZ to sit still long enough to reason this thing out. Here’s JZ with his sister-in-law over at the new house his other sister-in-law is moving into. Yes, that is a tennis court. We are standing in the covered pool area. I’m beginning to think he is insecure about making this first trip out of town after dad passed away. JP does not have a background of independent travel on the scale I’m used to.
JZ is traditionally difficult to get going, but once he does, he has the time of his life. He no longer needs to work for a living but he can’t break the habit. By the time I retired, I’d had a full eight years practice not working. He’s not taking to the reality that he has to slow down. So next thing I know he is over there ripping out the old carpet like a construction laborer. Let me dwell on that for a moment.
That JZ even does this [manual] work stupefies me. No, it is not his calling, he doesn’t like it either. He knows other ways to earn a living and has all the proper influences. Here’s just one example. The knife he used to cut the carpet has the initials T.H. That’s Mr. Hicks, the guy who used to be the security guard at Gables Estates. He’d be just a few years older than us. But I knew him as the guard who had the fancy boat. So before he made it big, he gave JZ that carpet knife, probably 25 years ago. It’s not like JZ hasn’t seen the light or hasn’t had time to prepare for his later years.
[Author’s note: I never met Hicks, so I’m not name-dropping, but I would have no aversion to doing so. Tell you what, let’s look one layer deeper. Hicks had only one child, Angie, that would have been in his mid-30s. So she’d be in her mid-twenties now. You’ve probably heard of Angie’s List. Yep, exact same lady.]
On the way over I was early to beat the traffic. I stopped by the old place I was employed when I had heart attack number one. This was the electrical company that sadly, the boss died in an accident. Soon after his influence was gone, the in-fighting began. When Tom was around, promotion was on merit only. When he wasn’t, matters reverted to standard office warfare.The result of this that instead of the best people rising to the top, you get the most ruthless. I was gone by 2004, unable to work even two hours per day then, and for another entire year. But the significance here is that I’d told certain people when I left that the place was going downhill, that if they continued the way they were headed the company would not last ten years.
Here is my ride parked in front of the main entrance 9.5 years later. Gone. It is now a Latino run tire warehouse. What happened to all those people that worked there? A large part of the light industrial park was dependent on this one company’s success. To seek answers, I drove around back to ask the neighbors, where I used to park my Cadillac. Boarded up. The supplier next door, vacant. Even the large fixture warehouse off 82nd was abandoned.
All the middle-class jobs are gone. Not just Miami, if you walk down Hollywood Blvd, you’ll see all the character businesses have completely disappeared. Replaced by massage parlors and nail salons. The book shop, the incense store, the magician’s store, nothing like that any more. Not a single unique business. Even the pawn shop no longer has tools and guitars, just endless racks of cheap jewelry.It is not a case of supply and demand. The city bylaws have long discouraged traditional business. You may recall the lack of movie theaters in Hollywood because the city refused to place three hour parking meters in the vicinity until the cinemas were driven out. Now the huge and expensive city parking lot sits vacant, supported by taxes instead of income.
How about the big scare that Cher died? Caused by a tweet when Iron Pants Thatcher passed. I have always envied Cher but I would not say that extends to admiration. She had a rough go of it but she also possessed certain inestimable advantages, such as being raised in California by a mother who was also an actress. It appeared to me (I was quite young then) that Cher was yet another case of some kid claiming she one day “decided” to become famous. We farm kids were quick to notice the majority of children who successfully made this “decision” came from California and New York, not Manitoba and Alaska.
I admit to never having bought any of her music, but she’s sold a hundred million albums so she’s gone the distance. Now that she’s pushing 70, I wonder what she’s on to prance across the stage like a teenager. It was well known before such things were talked about that she slept her way to the top. What other reason would a woman date Warren Beatty? The world was different back then, the girls all knew she got away with it because she was part Indian. Cherokee, I think. And, well, that’s what Indians did. I don’t have to make that controversial, it already is. I’m not taking sides, just describing what I remember of the time.
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