The Hollow Men - Episode 10
J.T. and Sue get married, VP Tanks is getting busier and the HR team at VP Tanks makes some changes.
Last week in Episode 9 of The Hollow Men, the concept of mordida, collecting measures, and the trial of Steve Fife.
If you like to read things from the very beginning feel free to start with The Cold Days of Summer, the first collection of not quite true tales of Texas. Each episode of The Cold Days of Summer and The Hollow Men contains a link to the previous and next episode so you can easily move through all of the episodes.
The Catholics do a wedding right
Rick and I were busy, crazy busy. We were at the office by 7:00 am every morning and worked through to 6:00 pm. We had our weekly lunch with Matt and our monthly lunch with my Uncle Bill, but other than that we usually worked through lunch, eating leftovers or making a quick sandwich in the kitchen. On Saturdays we were both in the office at 7:00 am and often worked past 12:00 pm. Sundays was our off day, but we still talked business while we would play a round of golf at Golden Acres. It seemed the more hours we spent lining up deals, coordinating everything, making all of the calls and making sure everything got done the more money we made.
Our measures had a nice jump, the price of oil and the U.S. rig count both increased nicely, very nicely in fact. Our work buffer was the same, but we were straining and so was SouthWestern Tank. If the price of oil and the rig count kept climbing we were confident that an increase in the work buffer wouldn't be far behind. The tank business was good, better than either Rick or I had expected it to be. We had definitely found a niche, a niche that was keeping us busy.
But we still made time to have some fun. We managed to make most Wednesday Quarter Beer nights even though it usually made for a rough Thursday morning. Saturday mornings were also often rough, but somehow the pain of the night before was lessened by getting another deal done.
On Saturday, July 14, 1979 we decided to break from tradition and not work that morning. We could say all kind of good things about us, but the truth is very simple, we were not in any kind of shape to work that Saturday morning because of the Friday night before.
That Saturday was a special day. It was the day that Sue and J. T were married. Which meant that Friday, July 13, 1979 was the night of J.T.'s bachelor party. It was due to that bachelor's party that many of us were in pain that Saturday morning.
J.T. asked Mark and I to be two of his groomsmen. J.T.'s three bothers made up the rest of the groomsmen, with his older brother as his best man. Jack and Rick were ushers. Kate was one of Sue's bridesmaids. Everyone else just planned to have a good time.
Rick and I closed up the office at 5:00 pm Friday night in order to get ready for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal started at 6:30 and went smoothly. That was my first time in a church in a long, long time. Sue's family were Catholics and a proper Catholic wedding had been planned, with a full mass and all. I spent most of the rehearsal learning the gestures of faith so I wouldn't look too out of place.
The rehearsal dinner was held at The Barn Door on the west side of town. Once the dinner was over the real fun began. Mr. Madison had a successful real estate business and appeared to be sparing no expense for his daughter's wedding. He had rented several rooms, including a party room with an open bar and a keg for the bachelor's party, at the Inn of the Golden West just west of downtown Odessa. We weren't sure where the bachelor's party would end up but we knew where it would start.
By the time those of us who had been to the rehearsal dinner arrived at the Inn of the Golden West, Jason, Barry, Greg, Mike Garrett and quite a few others had gotten things started. When we walked in we could see we had some catching up to do. J.T. was a little reluctant to ramp things up, but with our friendly encouragement he loosened up. Even Mr. Madison joined in on the party and we soon learned that Mr. Madison was a good man to drink with.
As the night wore on, the drinks got drunk faster and the conversation loosened up. Around midnight someone got the grand idea to head out on the town. I'm not sure whose idea it was, or where we actually planned to go, but several of us, even Mr. Madison, thought it was a great idea. Mr. Madison told the bartenders to get everything restocked as he didn't expect us to be gone too long. He was right, we weren't gone too long, but he was almost wrong.
We stumbled into the parking lot. Rick and Barry were the most sober so they were chosen to drive. J.T. rode shotgun with Rick. Jason and I rode in the back of Rick's car, with Mr. Madison squeezed in between Jason and me. Barry, Mark, Greg and Art followed in the second car. Mike Garrett, Jack and several others decided to stay at the party room and get a came of cards up and running.
The two cars drove off into the Odessa night. After a swerve or two and just a little too much hilarity Rick swore under his breath.
“God damn, we're getting pulled over.”
I could see in Rick's rear view mirror the flashing lights of an Odessa police car. Rick pulled over and came to a stop. So did Barry. The police car came to a stop behind Barry's car and the lone policeman stepped out with his flashlight in hand. The beam swiveled back and forth from Barry's to Rick's car. We had all gotten quiet. The policeman leaned over Barry's car, a few words must have been said and I could see Barry pointing at Rick's car. The policeman looked up and started walking towards Rick's car.
When he came astride of Rick's door he said “License and registration, please.” Rick complied.
“I hear one of you is getting married tomorrow.”
J.T. spoke very softly. “That would be me, sir.”
“I see.”
I don't why Jason did it, but he did.
“Officer, would you like to meet the father of the bride?”
“What?”
“The father of the bride. He's with us. This is him.” Jason said pointing to Mr. Madison, who leaned forward and stuck his hand out the window.
“Nice to meet you, officer. Any chance you can let this slide on by?”
The officer shook Mr. Madison' hand and said “Damn, the groom and the father of the bride? Man, it sure would mess things up if you two got arrested tonight.”
We all nodded our heads in agreement.
“I'm thinking that you've got enough problems to face tomorrow without me adding to them. Why don't you all head on home and call it a night?”
Rick spoke up this time. “We have rooms at the Inn of the Golden West, can we just head back there for the night?”
The officer looked at Mr. Madison. “Is that right sir, you're staying at the Inn?”
“Yes, officer, that's where we're staying for the night.”
“All right, then just head over there. Don't be on the streets any more, at least tonight. If I see you again I'll have to arrest you and I don't think that would do good for you or your son-in-law to be.”
“Yes, sir, we'll head there right now.”
The officer handed Rick his registration and license back wished us all a good night and walked back to this car. Mark got out of Barry's car and walked over.
“He's just letting us go?”
Rick nodded yes and said “But he's going to escort us back. I think he wants to make sure we go where we said we were going.”
Rick was right, the officer waited until Mark had gotten back into Barry's car, then he turned off his flashing lights and waved at us to get moving. Rick turned his car around and started driving back towards the Inn of the Golden West, this time slowly and very cautiously. Barry followed suit and the police car brought up the rear. Once back in the parking lot the officer watched as we climbed out of the cars.
“Evening boys, make sure and have a drink or two for me.” With that he drove off into the night.
We went back in and joined in on the card game and the drinking. The bartenders left at 2:00 am, but left the keg and the whiskey behind. I'm not sure when the card game ended or when the keg went dry.
Sometime in the early morning J.T. and Mr. Madison went to their hotel room leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves. We didn't think we were too tired or too drunk so we just kept going. I woke up in the party room around 7:30 in the morning. At some point I had fallen asleep in my chair. I looked around and the rest of our crew had done the same. Jack was dead asleep, his head cradled in his arms on the card table. Jason had stretched out on the carpeted floor and was softly snoring. Rick was leaning back in one chair with his legs propped up on another chair. Barry had set up a similar resting place on the other side of the room. Mark had crashed on the only comfortable piece of furniture in the room, a couch in the corner. Mike Garrett had stretched out on the card table, sound asleep or dead on his stomach.
My head pounded, my mouth was dry, stuffed with cotton. I stood up slowly, listening as every joint in my body popped and cracked. I was stiff, sore and in pain. The world was one cruel bitch this morning. I stumbled to the restroom and tried to come back to life. I ran cold water over my head and washed my face and some semblance of life did return to me, but I still hurt and I needed to drink something. I foraged around the party room, the keg was dry, there was some whiskey left but that wasn't too tempting. I checked the ice chest and there were still a few beers and enough ice to keep them cold. On one hand the beer was tempting, on the other hand I knew I knew better but I had to have something just to keep going. I pulled a Coors out, popped it open, took a sniff of the aroma and took a sip. For a second I regretted it, but the taste of the ice cold brew made a difference. I was alive.
Jack was the next to wake up, mumbling softly to himself. “God damn, is this hell?”
“No, not hell, just another glorious morning in Odessa. Want a beer? There's only a few left and I'm feeling better now that I'm drinking one.”
“God, no, not that. I need some water, maybe some ice.”
“There's plenty of ice in the ice chest.”
Jack stumbled over to the ice chest, put two pieces of ice in his mouth and started to suck on them.
“What time is it? Hell, what day is it?”
“A little after 7:30 am. I'm pretty sure it is Saturday, but I don't know for sure.”
“Lord, we drank too much last night.”
“Jack, you got that right. And, tonight we'll do it again.”
Mike rolled over on to his back, stretched, opened his eyes and proceeded to do a backwards somersault off the table and onto his feet, landing gracefully and looking none the worse for the evening.
“Any beer left?”
“Yeah, there's a few. Over there in the ice chest.”
“Good, you know what they say, hair of the dog.” He walked over to the ice chest, picked up a can of Coors, opened it and took a long drink.
“Damn, how can you do that, drink this damn early in the morning?”
“Jack, sometimes you're just an amateur. A true pro can drink anytime, anywhere, like Drew and me. The only time not to drink is when there's nothing left to drink.”
“Look, go ahead and drink, but I need to get something to eat. Can we go ahead and leave? What time do we need to be at the church?”
I took a long drink and was feeling quite human.
“The wedding is at 3:00 pm. You and me, since we're in the wedding, need to be at the church dressed and ready at 2:00 pm. Everyone else just needs to be there around 2:45 so the wedding can start on time.”
Everyone else had woken up. Looking around at the damage my guess is that Jason was in the worst shape, but all of us were feeling a little pain, save for Mike and Mark, neither one of those bastards ever seemed to suffer the next day.
Around 8:00 am we hit the road. Jack, Mark and I rode with Rick. The rest rode with Barry and we all headed to our next stop, the Denny's on 8th street. We got a large table, the waitress brought out enough coffee, iced tea and orange juice for everyone and within 20 minutes we were eating. After filling our stomachs everyone one felt more or less alive. Rick and Barry chaperoned each of us to our homes. We changed the seating arrangements up a little bit. Jason rode with Rick, Mark and me while Jack and Mike rode with Barry.
Once I got home I walked in. Luckily Dad was out in the oil fields, it being a Saturday. Kaiser gave me a quick sniff, realized I didn't bring him any breakfast and quickly lost interest in me. Mom was in the kitchen, Elizabeth was still asleep.
“How was the bachelor's party?”
“Good, a little long, but good. I'm going to shower, then try to catch a little nap.”
That's exactly what I did. I woke up at noon feeling good. I walked into the kitchen. Mom had left a note saying she had gone to the grocery store and that she would be back before I left for the wedding. I made two sandwiches, one for me, one for Kaiser then took a long shower and shaved. I really didn't need to shave all that often but I figured Sue deserved a shave.
Around 12:45 Mom got back from the grocery store. I helped put up the groceries then I started putting on the tuxedo. That took a little while because I was not used to dressing up. Mom helped me with the tie and the cummerbund.
Elizabeth and Mom were both going to the wedding but didn't have to be there as early as I did. My plan was to ride with Rick. At 1:30 Rick pulled up, fully tuxed out. Both Mom and Elizabeth gushed over him. Mom insisted that pictures were taken, one by myself, one with Elizabeth, one with Rick, one with Elizabeth and Rick and one with Elizabeth and Mom. Rick promised to make sure Elizabeth and Mom got good seats at the wedding as we headed out the door.
We were on time. Once we were at the church another round of photographs were taken. The guys were kept separate from the girls, but a lot of pictures were taken. J.T. looked good, but a little nervous. The rest of us were feeling much better than we had earlier that day. As the photo session ended Mr. Madison walked over and talked to us. He looked damn good, didn't look like he had hung around with us the night and the early morning before.
It was getting close to 3:00 pm and we all went to our assigned positions. The church was fairly full and balanced between the bride and the groom.
At 3:00 pm the bridal march started to play and we all turned to watch the bride and her father walk down the aisle. Sue was beautiful, I had never seen her look as wonderful as she did that day. A part of me was still a little bit in love with her, but she had made her choice and I could see it in her eyes and her smile. J.T. was a lucky man, a damn lucky man.
The wedding went without a hitch, the groom kissed his bride, I learned a little more about the Catholic church and then it was time for the reception.
Mmm, the Catholics know how to do a wedding right, and they sure know how to do a reception right. In the reception hall a band awaited us, a full snack buffet, but more importantly an open bar and two kegs of Coors. I damn near converted that day.
There were more pictures to be taken, there were a lot of hugs and kisses, good food and good beer. Around 7:00 pm J.T. and Sue rushed to their car and were pelted with rice. J.T. sighed when he saw his car. Jack, Mike, Barry and Mark had done a real nice job of decorating it. After J.T. and Sue rode off for their honeymoon we headed back inside determined to float both kegs before we were done.
Around 9:00 pm, we had done all we could to the kegs and after a last round of goodbyes everyone went their separate ways. It had been a long day, a long weekend but it had been a good day and weekend. I needed to get some rest.
We need a break
Rick is one smart son-of-a-bitch. He was the one that came up with the idea of VP Tanks. But working with him every day for the last seven months, well, I was beginning to see there could be some problems.
Here's the deal. I'm lazy. Always have been, damn good chance always will be. I do enough to get by. I coast, I find out where the red line is and I live well below it. I do not know what my maximum effort is in anything. I've never done my best. Personally, I don't believe I ever will. That's for two reasons, one you already know. I'm lazy. The other reason is I don't believe a person ever does their best. I always believe there's something more to give. Me? I'm about giving "good enough." Good enough to get by, good enough to pass, good enough so that people know that I'm no dummy, but that's about it. That's about it.
Rick? He's a damn ball buster, all the time, never stops, or so it seems to me. And we're working together. Doesn't make sense at first glance, or second. Just like oil doesn't mix with water, our two work styles logically are so far apart, there's every chance that one of us will kill the other if things keep going at the same pace.
All of this was wandering through my mind in the summer of 1979. Turns out Rick had been poring over the idea as well.
On the last Saturday in July he walked in the office and said “I need a vacation. So do you. We need to get away from each other before we end up hurting something, the company or each other.”
I didn't say anything but nodded my head. He was right so I let him ramble.
“We're working more than full-time and most places offer their full-time employees some kind of vacation. I've been thinking this over, we need to do the same thing. I say we both get two weeks vacation a year, to use any way we want. The only rule is we can't take the same time off, one of us has to be here to run the place. What do you think?”
It was a good idea, wished I had thought of it. But remember? I'm lazy.
“Rick, that's a good idea. As a member of the board of VP Tanks I vote yes for two weeks of vacation a year. Who's going to be first?”
“If you don't mind too much, I was thinking me. My parents are going to a friend's lake house at Lake Sweetwater Thursday and Friday of next week. They asked if I wanted to come along. At first I thought no, but as I thought more about it I could use a long weekend at the lake doing nothing.”
“Then do it. I approve your vacation request for next Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I'll find some way to not burn this place up.”
We laughed at that and got to work. By noon I had sold two tanks and Rick had sold three. It had been a good Saturday. I managed to keep the place open the following weekend while Rick was laying about at Lake Sweetwater. He came into the office rested, refreshed and a little tan the following Monday.
Next week in Episode 11 VP Tanks makes money hand over fist, Drew buys a house in Austin, someone else gets married, and Drew has a late dinner with a coyote.