RUDIMENTS, pt. 126
Making Cars
So, when you're ten years old
you make a papier-mache rendering
of the Fertile Crescent, showing
Mesopotamia and all of that, and
that's then what they tell you is the
Cradle of Civilization and where all
of your world started. Your kid-body
is screaming out, within you, 'No, no,
that ain't so at all. I know better than
that...' but they squash you. And, kiddo,
it's all over from that point on. They
make cereal boxes and Cracker Jack
boxes with better stuff that that inside
them. It's around then that the only real
alternative left to you is to begin
figuring a way out. Believe me, most
people don't make it. I know I didn't.
Lock, stock, and barrel I stayed with
the whole bundle of crap. When I was
at St. George Press, throughout the
1980's, there was this local, retired
guy who'd always come around. He
lived but a few blocks away and had,
in his garage, a little operation of
sign-engraving and plaques and
things. We'd use his services for
door nameplates, desk signs, lobby
directory slides, and all that. It was
all fine, but he always then just
hung around, talking endlessly,
taking a chair, and just remaining.
It was tolerable, though a little
annoying, except for the fact that
he was so deadly-stock earnest about
every little thing. It got very tiresome.
One of your ears would always wind
up just wanting to run off. I never
kept a part of me open for people
who insisted the world was but one
way. This fellow was a Jehovah's
Witness too. Not that he ever really
pressed that point, thankfully, but it
made a difference and was always
there. In fact, if I had walked into
any of the three or four local towns
around that had a Jehovah's Witness
Hall and, in the hall, mentioned his
name, most anyone would have
known him. His singular point of
fame, (I was told), was that in WWII
he refused to serve, using his pacifist,
Witness stance, and did the requisite
jail time for that offense (or honor).
That had given to him a great deal
of fame and glory, or at least
renown, within these local NJ area
towns, and other Jehovah's Witnesses
revered him by name for that battle
and stance he took. So...I guess it
was all worthy, and worth something.
His obstinate and adamant viewpoints,
however, on things - worldly,
ordinary things - grated. I probably
should give a few examples - this
isn't dogma or religious stuff I'm
talking about - just ordinary
cultural and social things. TV,
dance, clothing, highways,
congestion, schools, etc., but
nothing useful comes to mind.
Over time, and what makes this
all interesting, he also took a
job as an on-call limo driver.
He'd come around then, between
or during driving jobs, with his
agency's livery car, in his 'formal'
looking driver attire (back in those
days they did that stuff), and sit
around, twenty minutes or so, but
with an entirely different attitude.
It was very strange - he accepted
everything, things that normally
would have driven him crazy. And
then he'd simply and calmly relate
the story or stories. It was amazing
to see the nonchalance replace the
adamant stance. This one time, for
instance, he came in telling about
his previous Saturday night's
driving job - a wealthier than
usual young couple had rented
the vehicle time, four or five hours,
to be driven down to the beachfront
at Sea Bright, NJ. No big deal; he
got the assignment. He gets down
there, and they ask him to park,
pointing out the spot they wanted.
Then they ask him to remain in
the car, roll up the privacy window,
just sit there and pay attention to
nothing. He does do. For the next
twenty minutes or so, he said,
they made wild, passionate, crazed
love over his rear seats and passenger
compartment. When it was over,
they straightened up from their
disarray, tapped the window, and
told him to drive them, a long way,
no shortcuts, home. That was it.
-
That's just a tale, a re-telling of what
happened, unvarnished by me. Perhaps
you can get a feel for how it surprised
me. I could never understand if, perhaps,
his adamant ethos (this is what I figured
for the reason) told him that his job was
his job, period, and that he had to do
that which it demanded of him, no
matter what, and that the good and
proper performance of him doing his
job was more important than the rest.
That, I suppose, is defensible, in its
way. It is, however, much the same as
Hannah Arendt's old post WWII theory
of the 'Banality of Evil,' which posited
that the killing of all those Jews and
Gypsies and gays, etc., was not a form
of conscious evil but just more a matter
of perfectly normal, ordinary and task
oriented people going about their jobs,
completing assigned tasks, using no
value judgments, and questioning
nothing. The efficiency of doing the
task overshadows what the task is.
No big deal, I guess, in this small
context, yet it did always surprise
me that he'd roll over like that,
inhibiting his objection (if that's
what it was) to what was occurring.
-
Charlie (his name) eventually, sold
his house and with his wife left the
area - they moved to some seniors
community in Jobstown, NJ. (I always
enjoyed the name), down south in
the Jersey Pinelands. He was about
70 at that point, so he'd be about 105
now. I imagine his driving days
are over.
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