Dear Sister: My 80 Papers (7) On Time

From Letters For A Sister.

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 and 1989 I lived in Hacienda Heights, right at the very northern edge, by the railroad tracks. I was working at the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach, at Lakewood Blvd. and Conant Street. It was 25 miles from my home to the factory.

All I remember now is that I woke up one morning and saw that the minute hand was at 40 after the hour. Not a biggie. The clock was ten minutes fast, so I had about half an hour to get to work. Not that I was going to make it; I was going to be tardy. Give me at least five minutes to brush my teeth, get dressed, and into the car. Then I'd still have twenty-five minutes to drive to from home to work, and get from the parking lot to a clock across Lakewood Blvd. to punch in.

Still, not a biggie. I hadn't been tardy for a long time, 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, being tardy more than three times was the only violation for which the union could NOT get you back onto the job. Once you were fired for being tardy, you were out PERMANENTLY. I know guys who had literally stabbed their supervisors, and they had still been returned to work. But tardy? Then it was good bye forever.

Anyway, I still had twenty-five miles to drive, and the freeway was traveling slow. It was nearly bumper-to-bumper, and I was frequently 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; miles to go on Carson, but I still had five minutes. I found a parking space waaay out there in the Conant lot, but still had a minute. I ran to Lakewood, crossed 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 to where I should be. I was up late, the traffic was slow, and conditions just did not allow for the distance to be covered in half an hour. And yet I was on time. It was super weird to me (but I appreciated it!).

Danny