“Vacation Week” is almost here! That’s what the week of the Fourth was called where I grew up. All the textile mills and all the ancillary facilities of West Point Manufacturing Co., later WestPoint Pepperell, would close for that period. That was when everyone in the organization got their one week of paid vacation. A lot of families lit out for Panama City, where, it was said, they would have to sweep the lint off the beach after the mill workers had returned home. We never went to PC. My family usually would visit one of my father’s brothers, or we would stay home and help Daddy with some ambitious home-improvement project. Needless to say, I preferred visiting my uncles and cousins. One uncle lived in Mobile, which meant trips to the nearby beaches there, and the other lived in Huntsville, where NASA was blowing and going. As much as I was enthralled by manned space flight at that time, I think I preferred the beach. Sorry, Uncle Ray.
Just Hersay
By Jimmy Johnson
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65 responses to “Just Hersay”
emb, here’s a story you might find interesting:
https://www.ksl.com/article/46586401/heres-why-this-doe-in-southern-utah-has-antlers
Although I have little to no interest in even the closest star let alone far-flung galaxies, this fascinates me: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190703.html
is JJ on vacation this week too?
Re: Folding Laundry. Yes I will sometimes go to the basement and bring up the laundry all folded….but I have caught my wife re-folding it. Hey, I don’t mind. She has to put up with my idiosyncrasies. And Arlo did the “heavy lifting.”
When I lived in my old house the power never went out (1996-2011). But starting in 2011, it went out 3-4 times a summer, so my kids got us a generator for Christmas in 2014. We didn’t need to use it in 2015 and since we moved at the end of 2015, the power has only gone out for a couple hours at a time. Last night we had a storm and the power went out at 8:00. The electric company said that it would be restored at 11:30, so I decided not to pull the generator out. At 11:00 the expected restoration time went to 3:30 this afternoon. I figured that I would get up and pull it out and run the refrigerator and the sump pump.
Without my CPAP machine and air conditioning, sleep was fitful at best. My allergies and the humidity made it difficult to sleep. I left the light on in the bedroom and thankfully the power came back on at 2:20 AM! Whew! I intend to pull out the generator tomorrow and run it, just to made sure that it will work when I need it. I’ll be sure to run it till the gas runs out.
I also wanted to mention the passing of Lido “Lee” Iaccoca. The man had the ego the size of Montana, but many in Michigan are in gratitude for what he accomplished. He did not take a salary in 1979, but got a bailout from Congress (that was mostly paid back) and in 1980 made about $800K. By 1986, with Chrysler in good health, he made about $20 million (you can double that in today’s dollars). There was some criticism of that kind of pay, but Madonna and Michael Jackson were making the same or more at the time. A friend at Chrysler asked me “How many people are employed as a result of those pop stars?” It was still a LOT of money, but he made a point.
One personal story was during the early 90’s we got word that Lee’s Limo driver complained about the automatic temperature control that our company manufactured. The Chrysler Engineer investigated and apparently Lee would sit in the back smoking his cigar with the window down. We were developing a dual zone control for the driver and passenger so that one could have it cold and the other hot. We also had developed a separate control for the back of the minivan, so we had that installed in the limo so that it would blow hot air at Lee and keep the Limo driver comfortable.
Trucker, Rick: Thanks,
Peace,