$1.25 A Day

This story will develop in a round about way to illustrate one of the peculiarities of small town life. As the story goes, my Father was about 20 years old, traveling on a freight train going from San Antonio to anywhere. He had gone to San Antonio to join the military. Only problem with that there was no work anywhere and thousands of young men had converged on San Antonio for the same reason. It was a preenlistment camp and after a few weeks of sitting around doing nothing, and realizing that he could be there for months, he hopped a freight train going east to anywhere. The story continues that along the way, he got hungry, and jumped off the train as it slowed down at a small town. He stayed there for 25 years, built a business that employed hundreds, and left after he was pressured to do so . After having heard the story all my life, I figured out that there was a lot of fiction mixed in with the facts. The story continues. He was hungry, so he entered a small restaurant that was near the tracks and asked if he could do some work for a meal. The owner agreed and he ate and worked. A stern German customer who owned a small animal feed mixing store, noticed him and asked him if he needed a place to stay for the night. He did and so he spent the night on a cot in the back of the Germans store. The next day, the store was busy, so he pitched in and helped the owner. The owner took a liking to him and offered him a job. The owner had an interesting background. He had emigrated from Germany many years before, but his English sounded like he had just arrived. He walked and rode his bike with perfect posture and did so until he died in his late eighties. . An interesting side note is that his uncle is the astronomer who is credited with having discovered Neptune. For anyone curious about this fact a nd wanting to look it up, his name was Galle . I am not sure about how much time my father worked there, till he bought the business from the Old German. He worked tirelessly and soon hired his first employee. The business grew and the single employee was an excellent worker. At that time, the standard pay for all store clerks in the small town was a dollar a day. My father had started him at a dollar, but felt he was worth more, so one day as the worker was leaving for lunch, told him he was giving him a raise to a dollar and a quarter. The worker was overjoyed and went home to lunch. All the stores stayed open till seven and that evening at about fifteen minutes to seven, one of the most prominent store owners in town came by and informed my father that there was going to be a meeting of all store owners at seven thirty and he was urged to attend. My father told him that he would be there. He closed the store at 7:30 and hurried over to the General Store where the meeting was to be held. As he approached the front door he could hear a big crowd inside. He opened the door and the room went silent. He felt awkward and looked at himself as if to be sure he was dressed. The Storeowner who had invited him wasted no time, “Marvin, today you gave your worker a 25 cent raise. You know that we all pay our workers a dollar a day. Now you have created a problem for all of us, as all our workers are unhappy and complaining that they want a raise. “ My father was shocked, but he kept his cool. He gazed around the room, making eye contact with each storeowner. The room was silent. He then addressed the room. “Your workers are not worth fifty cents a day, mine is worth more than a dollar and a quarter”. He turned around and left the store. He was a city block away and he could still hear the noisy reaction. Less than a week passed before every clerk in town was making $1.25 a day.

Just One More Chance

Its always disturbing when I hear someone has taken their own life. Even if I never met them, I find myself wishing that I had and maybe I could have talked to them in some way to relieve the pain they must have been going through. Years ago I had a friend that I had met in college. We had run around together during the year I was at UT and met up a few times in later years. I lost touch with him while I was in the Navy. I gave up when he didn't respond to notes I sent him. Many years later, when I came across his old home phone number, I called, and was informed by his mother that he had been gay, had gotten AIDs and had killed himself. I was totally shocked at what had happened and equally shocked that I had not figured out he was gay. I blamed that on the fact that I was young and totally naive A few days ago I found out that a man that worked for us last year for several weeks , had taken his own life. He was a true craftsman with cement and plaster. I had worked along side him last year, mostly bringing him supplies and carrying off the old concrete and plaster that he had removed. We had talked a lot while he was working and I had figured out that he was fairly beat down by life. He hadn't had steady work for years and when he did find some, had to work for less than he had many years before. This was a product of the poor economy and the flood of immigrants that had driven down the value of his work. The last time I saw him was the first week we got here this year. I was at a store that sells concrete products and I was looking for a concrete cover. There was a group of men waiting for service and I had not noticed him in the group. He saw me and called out my name and came over to talk to me. He asked if I had any work for him as he only had a few more days of work on his currant project. We really hadn't planned on doing any repairs this year. We did have just a few little things that he could have taken care of in a day or so. I was thinking of calling him the day I heard he was no more. I wish I had had the chance to talk to him again. Maybe I could have made a difference.