When Trouble Came(Short Story- page 1)

 

     I just got my drivers license and paid in cash for a 1973 Vega from a dear friend of my dad's and it was so easy on gas, I literally checked the gas and filled it up with oil because it had an aluminum block and burnt oil at a premium. I just turned 16 and now needed some money to keep my car and life moving, and my first stop was at the Bluegrass Tavern. 

     I walked in this brand new juke joint and immediately met a robust, friendly, and generous man called Joe Lawrence Thompson, and I said, ”Hello, I'm Tim Hardesty, and I'd like a job.” Joe paused for a moment, and said, ” Well, Tim, can you sweep and mop floors?” I quickly replied, ” yes sir!” He looked back at me and said, ” you're hired, come by in the morning around 10:00.” I was ecstatic, my very first job and it was too easy, there has to be some catch, but I withdrew any doubt and shook his hand and told him I'd see him in the morning. 

     I drove back home blaring out from my brand new Pioneer speakers some old Aerosmith, Toys In The Attic, and I was so happy when I got home from the two-minute trip from Joe’s Tavern to our home to tell my dad that I had employment but he seemed unmoved but I wasn't going to let it bring me down today! My very first job was one of my grandest memories of my youth looking back now, things move so quickly and if you don't stop to appreciate the moments that define our lives then why live period? 

    The morning came quickly, I was ready to work, rather eager to get my hands dirty, and drove up to the Bluegrass Tavern, that many folks still call to this very day Joe's Place. I was handed a broom and started a sweeping this massive place, the walls were painted cinder blocks, and had a partition of a half-cut out wall strewn in the middle to separate the dining room from the pool room with barstools placed all along the half wall, so I swept first the booths that lined the right wall, and cigarettes and ashes laid everywhere, then I ventured over to the staple of the place- the pool room, these were very fine pool tables too, Joe showed me how to vacuum each table off too, and then behind the bar was mats that needed mopping and laboriously I finished mopping the entire place, but had to clean the tables off with some special cleaning agent, only to arrive at the most important job, cleaning out those nasty bathrooms, I still can smell that urine splattered everywhere but in the urinal, and I'll tell ya, drunkards are pigs.