Great Jobs: Chapter 3-Best Job I Ever Had

By Leocthasme

I had just graduated from High School, had my drivers license, and because I was known as a ‘good’ driver by those who rated driving skills by ‘speed’ and ‘maneuvers’, I got a job driving a limousine from pick up points on Washington Avenue across the Eads Bridge to certain places in Illinois. The job was nights, some times all night, the pay was great, and all I had to do was go where I was told, and keep my mouth shut. And, above all I was tipped very well. I had the job for almost a month.

Soon, the question arose.

“Francis," (my mother called me by that name, especially if she had something serious to talk to me about no one else on the face of the earth dared utter that name, especially if they knew me) "you come here and tell me where in the world you are getting all the money you seem to have lately. And, beside that you might also tell me WHERE (with emphasis), on this earth, are you spending your nights”?

Mothers seem to have a way of getting to the point.

“I’m driving a limousine; I get 5 bucks for every trip I make, usually takes about 30 minutes, and the tips are real good too”.

“YOU (with emphasis) are driving a limousine”?

“Yep, sure am, mom”.

“Well, WHO (more emphasis) are you driving this limousine for”?

“Oh, just some guy, I pick up the keys every night from a guy at the Lenox Hotel parking garage and he pays me for the trips from the night before and I get the passengers in front of the downtown hotels and take them to places in East Saint Louis, and I bring them back too”.

“And where in hell (my mother was not one to use such language except in moments of sheer excitement or should I say, emotional aggravation) in East Saint Louis do you take these passengers”?

“Well, there are some places out on 40 towards Collinsville and some all night places under the Eads Bridge and some on down Highway 3”.

“So, you are telling me, you are taking men to gambling joints and other places of questionable reputation, which are mostly owned by “Buster” Wortmann, the Southern Illinois ‘boss’ with connections to Chicago’s Al Capone Gang? Oh, My God! You, don’t leave this house tonight, if I have to lock you up in it.”

“But, mom, what about my pay from last night”?

“Forget it, YOU ARE GROUNDED! Don’t you dare leave this house!”

Mom sure was tough; there went another great paying job.