PRECIOUS

When I discovered that I had a serious alcohol problem I realized that some of the road blocks to recovery were my party hearty friends whom I loved but didn't need to be around if I were to stay dry. I had been toying with the idea of leaving the West Palm Beach area in search of a new "dry" life. Having been raised almost like an Army brat, I had no fear of pulling up roots and moving somewhere new. In fact, I found it a bit exciting.

One day as I was taking a short cut through the meter reader room on the way to my collector dungeon, my former boss, Bill, stuck his head out of his office and said, "Who wants to transfer to the Okeechobee office?"

"Pick me, pick me." I shouted with up raised arms.

The outburst startled me as well as those around me. At that time I am not sure I could have found Okeechobee on a Florida map with out studying it. All I knew about the town was that it was tiny, red necked, and somewhere on a big lake. It was about 100 miles away which made it near enough to keep my family close but far enough that my friends couldn't tempt me. I wasn't involved with anyone at that time so I thought Okeechobee would be a good place to go to remain "dry" and start over. I would really miss my friends but felt this was best.

Bill told me that it was for a meter reading job which was a step backwards for me career wise. However, I hated collecting which involved cutting peoples power off when they could not pay. I was way too soft hearted for that job. This seemed like the perfect answer. Also land prices were much cheaper when you got away from the beach areas and perhaps I could buy some acreage for my horse, pony and dogs.

The supervisor from the Okeechobee office came to interview me . I was impressed with my future boss and thought he was rather cute. I liked how he described the town as still having a hundred head of cattle within the city limits. Most of the routes would be driving routes as the area was so rural. The lack of long walking routes appealed to my late thirty bones.

At my going away party in West Palm, Bill told me just who I would be working with as he had been loaned out to Okeechobee the previous year during hurricane recovery.

"Your boss is a divorced ladies man, there is one collector and two customer service persons. One of the CS girls is Margaret who doesn't wear shoes and you will work with Precious in the meter reading department," Bill told me with obvious glee. He let my mind fill in the blanks.

Well Margaret did wear shoes, most of the time, and was to become a long time friend. She is a perfectly lovely person and I quickly adopted her and her delightful boys. Shoes never were a big thing with me. "Precious" however was not what I expected.

My new boss introduced me to a lanky, nice looking young fellow named Ray and said Ray would be training me on the routes for about a month. I looked puzzled and said ,"I thought I would be working with Precious."

Everyone laughed except Ray who just reddened and hung his head. "You are looking at him." he muttered.

It seems that in this small office, everyone was required to do several jobs. Sometimes Ray had to work the counter. He was such a nice, fun, self deprecating fellow that everyone immediately liked, in particular one very large black woman who would burst through the door once a month to pay her bill and bellow, "Where is my Precious?" as she looked for Ray. The name had stuck but was reserved for when we wanted to tease Ray a bit.

Precious was a native Floridian who had been raised on a ranch. He was a true cowboy, who enjoyed working from a horse but was ambitious and wanted a future. Being a cowboy didn't offer much except a prematurely worn out body with zero benefits. His father owned a ranch but he had seen his father struggle for ranching is like farming, unpredictable and ulcer causing. It took a special breed to cowboy and Precious preferred parties, girls, and a fat wallet.

Precious was delightful to work with as he showed me the miles of area we had to cover. Our territory went into 5 counties and we spent a good portion of our time thumping across cow pastures, an Indian Reservation, dairies, and through orange groves. I loved it. It was so freeing after working so many dog and fence filled city routes in West Palm.I could not have asked for better partner though I later learned he made sure to give me all the really hard routes. I didn't know any better and was blissfully ignorant till we traded routes a year later.

As the yearly transfer of routes came up, Ray got more and more anxious how I was going to react to the news of the screwing he had given me. By then we were good friends and I could laugh about his sneaky behavior. Besides, now he had all my former nasty routes for the next year... I thought. He out foxed me by moving into the office that year and quit reading full time. Rats.

I learned a lot from Ray and while we haven't worked together in 16 years, I still considered him a very special friend. I have many Precious stories for another day. I just thought I would introduce you to him today.

Admit it, you just knew "Precious" was going to be a cutesy dog story. Sorry.