Two Mules For Sister Sara ~ Saved Me I
This is how the movie "Two Mules For Sister Sara", especially the hat worn by the character Hogan played by Clint Eastwood in that film, other spooky factors and just dumb luck saved me from harm. (Shirley MacLaine played the role of Sister Sara in that movie.)
Today I flinch, cringe and get silently peeved when my daughter sometimes says, "You have no life, you need to get a life."
I like what life I currently have. I once had a busy life, a working life. Often my working life was easily 16-18 hours per day because I worked both full and part-time jobs every week. Working like this fed my compulsion to keep moving, to stay busy. I was young, I was full of energy. I was proud of the money I earned. The other truth is earning this money kept me running ahead of my own insecurity, that spectral vision of endless, miserable and abject poverty that I was sure would overtake me and my life if I wasn't working.
THE PRELUDE ~
The Very Part-Time Job ~ I was a bartender at a place in the industrial section of town. This wasn't a dark, dank, dive bar. The bar was less than one year old and had been built on the location where a popular dark, dank, dive bar had been torn down. It featured all the latest and best in bar equipment, furniture, lighting, pool tables, style and cleanliness.
It was owned by a respectable and prominent business couple in the community. They were majority owners in a major media group (television and radio stations), had their own public relations firm, a downtown dinner club, a very upscale dress shop and this bar. The bar was a big place, the main bar had four stations to mix drinks at which all four stations only needed to be completely set-up for Wednesday - Friday (afternoons and nights). Saturday and Sunday had regular customers, but were not normally 'big' days unless there was a special event or party happening. Too long ago to actually recall if this had to do with the manufacturing plants going full employee, full shifts Monday through Friday and reduced shifts Saturday and Sunday. (Possibly adjacent individually owned industrial small businesses and services were also either on reduced or closed Saturday hours and usually closed on Sundays.)
The wife did the hiring. I already worked full time for them in their media business. I already worked part-time for them at their downtown dinner club. I also worked a very part-time schedule at this bar plus "fill-in" ~ "call-in". They would call me to see if I was available on the rare occasion another employee could not make their shift or most often if the place was really busy and they needed that extra person to come in right away. Other than a couple of times, my "call-in" was no more than two to three hours in duration and I was happy to help out and glad to make the money.
UNTIL THAT WEEKEND ~ The wife came to my office on a Thursday morning and asked if I had plans for the Labor Day weekend. I told her I really had no plans, but I was scheduled for the evening shift Friday night at their dinner club. She said she needed my help at the bar for the entire weekend starting Friday night. If I could help her out, she would get my shift at the dinner club covered. She said she and her husband would give me $300 CASH EXTRA to my wages (like a bonus) for keeping the bar open and running.
She said they had one of their 'bar backs' ( person who is a bartender's helper) lined up to work. I was comfortable to ask her "Where are all the other employees?" She said "they all made other plans and said they would not be working". I asked her, "Do you think there will be enough business to justify keeping the place open and that extra $300 to me?" She told me they needed to keep the place open. She indicated she and her husband would do it themselves except they were scheduled to fly with friends to Mexico on Friday morning and wouldn't be flying back until Tuesday.
She told me she would give me some flexibility and authority about hours. If I could do this, I didn't have to open on Saturday, Sunday or Monday until noon. If there was no business or extremely slow business (one or two customers) hold it open until at least 9:00 PM, then close it down. She said she knew she could count on my decision making.
I am thinking to myself, this is 'odd' but I told her I'd do it. (I knew I would have made at least $50.00 in tips for that Friday night shift at the dinner club, so this opportunity would get me wages plus $50 extra for Friday night through Monday night, longer hours to put in for it, yet money to be made.) Still, I couldn't shake that feeling of this is 'odd'. I had no idea of the 'odd' and 'unexpected' that was to come.
* * *
Part II will evolve where this true life telling is going. Part II How "Two Mules For Sister Sara" Saved Me
Part III will finish it to completion. Part III How "Two Mules For Sister Sara" Saved Me
I am @grammakaye on twitter. You are most welcome to leave a comment.
THE PRELUDE ~
The Very Part-Time Job ~ I was a bartender at a place in the industrial section of town. This wasn't a dark, dank, dive bar. The bar was less than one year old and had been built on the location where a popular dark, dank, dive bar had been torn down. It featured all the latest and best in bar equipment, furniture, lighting, pool tables, style and cleanliness.
It was owned by a respectable and prominent business couple in the community. They were majority owners in a major media group (television and radio stations), had their own public relations firm, a downtown dinner club, a very upscale dress shop and this bar. The bar was a big place, the main bar had four stations to mix drinks at which all four stations only needed to be completely set-up for Wednesday - Friday (afternoons and nights). Saturday and Sunday had regular customers, but were not normally 'big' days unless there was a special event or party happening. Too long ago to actually recall if this had to do with the manufacturing plants going full employee, full shifts Monday through Friday and reduced shifts Saturday and Sunday. (Possibly adjacent individually owned industrial small businesses and services were also either on reduced or closed Saturday hours and usually closed on Sundays.)
The wife did the hiring. I already worked full time for them in their media business. I already worked part-time for them at their downtown dinner club. I also worked a very part-time schedule at this bar plus "fill-in" ~ "call-in". They would call me to see if I was available on the rare occasion another employee could not make their shift or most often if the place was really busy and they needed that extra person to come in right away. Other than a couple of times, my "call-in" was no more than two to three hours in duration and I was happy to help out and glad to make the money.
UNTIL THAT WEEKEND ~ The wife came to my office on a Thursday morning and asked if I had plans for the Labor Day weekend. I told her I really had no plans, but I was scheduled for the evening shift Friday night at their dinner club. She said she needed my help at the bar for the entire weekend starting Friday night. If I could help her out, she would get my shift at the dinner club covered. She said she and her husband would give me $300 CASH EXTRA to my wages (like a bonus) for keeping the bar open and running.
She said they had one of their 'bar backs' ( person who is a bartender's helper) lined up to work. I was comfortable to ask her "Where are all the other employees?" She said "they all made other plans and said they would not be working". I asked her, "Do you think there will be enough business to justify keeping the place open and that extra $300 to me?" She told me they needed to keep the place open. She indicated she and her husband would do it themselves except they were scheduled to fly with friends to Mexico on Friday morning and wouldn't be flying back until Tuesday.
She told me she would give me some flexibility and authority about hours. If I could do this, I didn't have to open on Saturday, Sunday or Monday until noon. If there was no business or extremely slow business (one or two customers) hold it open until at least 9:00 PM, then close it down. She said she knew she could count on my decision making.
I am thinking to myself, this is 'odd' but I told her I'd do it. (I knew I would have made at least $50.00 in tips for that Friday night shift at the dinner club, so this opportunity would get me wages plus $50 extra for Friday night through Monday night, longer hours to put in for it, yet money to be made.) Still, I couldn't shake that feeling of this is 'odd'. I had no idea of the 'odd' and 'unexpected' that was to come.
* * *
Part II will evolve where this true life telling is going. Part II How "Two Mules For Sister Sara" Saved Me
Part III will finish it to completion. Part III How "Two Mules For Sister Sara" Saved Me
I am @grammakaye on twitter. You are most welcome to leave a comment.
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