The Real Adventures of Jack - Chapter 2

Jack

Chapter 2
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There I was cool, sleeves rolled up starting my career in landscape maintenance; Bob Riley would become my teacher/mentor.

It's 8am we roll the mowers off the trailer, Bob says to go down and mow that lawn, well I did with the trusty 21" Murray push mower.

We were lucky because the sun was not at its peak yet, but remember, I was cool.  It seemed like hours and I dragged the little Murray mower back, and proudly said " how does it look", well with a kind of coy smile, Bob said, " you mowed the wrong lawn"? I thought OMG!

This is when I thought I may die if I had to go down and mow the right lawn?    I could tell that Bob knew I might expire in the hot sun, so handed me this edger.
Ok, this is when your thinking just pull the starter rope and edge?

Oh no, this was back in the day, this edger with the star wheel for cutting, was like one you probably saw hanging in your grandfather's garage, hehe.  Hey, I was tough and cool, sleeves rolled up like Fonzie, edge 6 lawns; a piece of cake! 

Here I was making.90 an hour, I would have to work almost 30 hours just to pay my rent to my Dad.  Maybe you thought he was kidding about the $25 a week?

Soon I thought I was becoming a star worker; $1.00 an hour, then $1.25, then after a while $2.00 an hour, wow!  I became rich, we worked 60 hr. weeks.

My mentor was the real deal, he taught me so much about the landscape maintenance business.  Many years later in Saint Petersburg, Florida, I would win 4 City of St. Petersburg City Beautification Awards.

Well back to my cool dad ' raise your hand if you have a cool dad'?  Hey dad, I would like to get my drivers license, well after it seemed longer than it took me to mow that lawn my cool dad said " no".

So here you are sixteen and cars are really cool,  you need to go kruzin for girls, after all, I had read and reread all the car magazines, I went to plan B, joyriding.  But with someone else's car!

The plan was perfect, my parents both had night jobs, a perfect fit for plan B.

After watching many hours or Cops & Robbers, I was well trained.  Dressed I all dark clothing, I started searching for cars with the keys in the ignition. A piece of cake this joyriding career.

That one night I saw the open garage and quietly like the Pink Panther very quietly snuck in and rolled the car down the driveway, into the street, I hit the key, then it stalled? It was a beautiful 1955 2door Ford ( stick shift ) omg, all those car mags never taught me how to drive a Stick Shift.  Well, I got her Rollin for maybe a block or two, then I hit a tree, eke!

I jumped out in my cool dark clothing, hair slicked back, sleeves rolled up, cool as hell, running like hell.  This was to be my first and only escape, from the law.

This was to become as I think back now, an important turning point in my young life of crime!  Do you remember my bank account, from my newspaper route, and washing dishes, it came in handy to pay three lawyers. For three cruises with the law. 

I was so good at this joyriding stuff they gave me a two-year vacation!

Yes, this 5-star hotel ( the Coxsackie Correctional Facility, but not exactly like MIT. Or the Waldorf.

Soon I learned what fun this hotel was, we had jobs like paving (taring roads) in the cool 90+ heat, working on the rock pile, or the mason shop, I did learn a trade and got my GED.

But, I found books, because we had no Internet, I couldn't  use my iPhone, haha.
My first book The Mysterious Island, by Jules Verne.  I was such a good reader I needed a dictionary to see what the words meant.

Ok, 150 books later and a GED, I was cured, my life of crime was over, and thankfully Bob Riley rehired me.

Coming soon Chapter 3
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