Paint Shop Again
Dec. 15, 1981 I'm now back in the body shop business. I remember showing up at Coach & Carriage after leaving Horn-Williams Ford. Now you have to understand that I had actually been working part time at Coach & Carriage in the evenings. I had gotten to know some of the people there (many body shop people work late) but I did not know the GM, Craig. Terry, (the body man) took me in to see Craig and asked him if ne needed a good painter. "Not Really", was his answer, but Terry assured him that I knew what I was doing because I had already done several jobs for him at night. He must have convinced Craig to hire me because I started working that afternoon. It was good for my pride to be able to go get a good job after being let go at Horn-Williams.
This was a very good experience in my life. The combination of being able to actually perform a skilled job, make good money, manage jobs and materials really made it worthwhile. I had my own company inside a larger company and I tried to manage it well. The other great thing was that there were three other painters in the shop, Lonnie, Thomas, and Snezz. We were all in our twenties.
Ron, the owner of the company generally stayed out of the shop. Generally. He was a good businessman and I appreciate him giving me a job and in all fairness it probably was very irritating to him to supervise a bunch of youngsters. He paid me well, he was fair, and he was a good family man. Sometimes in relating to the young men who worked there, he would go over the top. Once, he picked me up and turned me upside down, just to show he could. At that particular time, I didn't find it funny and was humiliated. Ron didn't understand that.
Lonnie worked with me previously in Jack's shop and at J. Key Color (Dad and I had sold the business to Ron). Lonnie was a painting fool. He could do things with a paintgun that defied the laws of physics and quite often he tried. He broke all the rules of the paintmans code and usually made them work. Usually. Sometimes he would have to do a do-over and that meant not getting paid. Lonnie didn't like do-overs.
Thomas was new to me. However it didn't take long to become friends with Thomas because he was everyones friend. Thomas was a good painter, and a peacemaker. He was a Christian man with good character, but he did enjoy a night out with the boys. He made sure everyone had a good time. You know what I'm talking about, Thomas.
Snezz was a couple of years older and therefore, a little slower in his approach to things. More mature, and experienced, Snezz, (whose real name was David) put a touch of thought into things before he jumped in. He had a baaad brown El Camino and then he had a baaad white Z-28.
These were my friends, and we had a great time in the paintshop and out on the town.
We went to lunch together almost every day. Video games were becoming very popular and occupied a large portion of our lunch hours. Snezz and I liked Pac-Man, Thomas did unbelievably well at Gravitar and Lonnie could kill Centipedes like nobodys business. We also played Battle Command, Space Invaders, Galaxian, Galaga, Tron, Donkey Kong, and all the spinoffs. We spent a lot of time at the Buckner Bowl eating and playing video games. I can still feel that bowling alley environment. It kind of gets in your blood.
Work, work, work. We did a lot of work. We did manage to have a lot of fun and listen to rock and roll, but mostly we painted. We could actually smell colors.
At some point, Thomas and I brought a couple of brand new Suzuki RM-125 motocross bikes. This was one of the greatest days of my life. I thought I had it all. It was'nt too long before we were going to Friday night motocross races and having a blast.