Dear Sister: My 80 Papers (7) On Time

I am not sure how to figure this one; it's probably the last one I'll write to you for awhile. No, I'll probably report T. L. Osborn's experience to you in a short while. But this experience I had was weird. In 1988, 1989 I lived in Hacienda Heights, at the very northern edge, right by the train tracks. I was working at the McDonnell Douglas plant at Lakewood Blvd. and Conant Street in Long Beach. It was 25 miles from my home to the factory, and I think we had just changed from starting work at 7 AM to starting at 6 AM.

All I remember is that I woke up and saw that the minute hand was at 40 after the hour. Not a biggie. The clock was set ten minutes fast, so I had half an hour to get to work. Not that I was going to make it. Give me at least five minutes to brush my teeth, get dressed, and to the car. Twenty-five minutes to work, and I'll still be late getting from the parking lot to a clock across the street to punch in. I was going to be tardy.

Not a biggie. I hadn't been tardy before, and it took at least three tardies before they'd fire you. First you'd get a warning, then you'd get a counselling, then they'd fire you. Interestingly, this was the only violation for which the union could NOT get you back on the job. If you were fired for being tardy, you were out PERMANENTLY. I know guys who had stabbed their supervisor and had still been returned to work, but tardy? Good bye.

Anyway, I still had twenty-five miles to drive, and the freeway was traveling slow. Bumper-to-bumper, I was seeing thirty-five on my speedometer. I know it picked up sometimes, but I had miles to drive on surface streets, too. So I plugged along. Hmm. I still had fifteen minutes on my car's clock, which I kept accurate. I hit the surface streets. Still had five minutes. I found a parking space waaay out there, but still had a minute. I ran to Lakewood, through the parking lot across the street, and punched in just in time.

The thing is, I just couldn't do that in half an hour. I didn't have times or spaces where I could speed up to catch up with where I should be. I was late, the traffic was slow, time just did not allow for the distance, and yet I was on time. It was just super weird to me (but I appreciated it!).

Danny