Tell me a story- I can't sleep...

[Inchworm]

:hi:

[Droopy]

1. Here you go

Stories from the Road: Ronny, Darla, and Rose

I delivered a load of clothes to a department store in Sheboygan, Wisconsin the other day at 6 AM. I had driven until two in the morning to get there and I was very grateful when the dock worker let me sleep with my truck in the dock after I was unloaded because I didn’t think that there was a close place to park and I was dead tired.

At about noon I awoke and called dispatch. They said that they would not have a load for me until 8 AM the following day. So I pulled the truck out of the dock thinking that I would head toward the direction where the load was coming from and try to find a truck stop along the way. When I got to the intersection of the interstate I saw a small truck stop on the other side of it that I had not noticed the night before when I pulled into the department store lot. I went to the truck stop and parked the truck.

There was a restaurant right beside the truck stop and I decided I would go over there to have something to eat. The place was almost deserted. There was an older couple there in the non-smoking section and a young man back in the smoking section. A host asked for my seating preference and I told him smoking. He then escorted me to a table across the aisle from the young man. A waitress came to get my order. When she was done the young man across the aisle started speaking to me. I’ll call him Ronny.

“Do you know what time it is?” Ronny asked.

“It’s right around noon,” I said.

“Thanks,” he said, “Do you come here often?”

“No, this is the first time I’ve been here. I’m from out of town.”

“Really? What do you do for a living?”

“I’m a trucker. I delivered at that department store right across the freeway this morning.”

“Does that pay good?”

“It’s decent,” I said not wanting that part of the conversation to go any further.

“I’m a professional waiter,” he said.

“Do you work here?”

“No, but I’m trying to get a job here.”

A few minutes later the waitress, I’ll call her Darla, came back with my food and to fill Ronny’s glass. He asked her if the manager was in and she said no. He then told her that he had put in an application earlier but had put the wrong date on it and wanted to fill out a new one. She fetched him another application.

While Ronny and Darla were talking another waitress came into the room and started sweeping the floor. She then heard Ronny and Darla talking about jobs and joined in the conversation. I’ll call her Rose.

Rose spoke of her time down in Florida. She had a job waiting tables down there and said she made good money. She had a nice apartment and a nice car down there. We all wanted to know why she decided to move back to Wisconsin as she was originally from there. She said that she had lost everything in the Katrina hurricane. She had to move back up here with her folks. She was new to the restaurant and they wouldn’t let her wait tables yet because she was in training. She said that she had a second job, but she was still not able to get on her feet yet. She had been in Sheboygan for four months and was still not able to get her own place.

Then the topic turned to wages. Ronny said he made $3 an hour plus tips at his current job.

“Why do you want to switch jobs then?’ Darla asked, “I only make $2.33 an hour here.”

“I only average about $18 in tips a night at my current employer.”

I decided I would chime in, “Man, that ain’t right. I think they should at least have to pay you guys minimum wage.”

Ronny and Darla looked at me like I had sprouted a third eye on my forehead.

“Minimum wage is $2.15 an hour for waitresses,” Darla said.

Rose clarified, “Minimum wage for most people is 5 or 6 bucks an hour.”

Then all three of them looked at me like I was some kind of weirdo.

Rose was in her 30s I guess. She spoke of having a teenaged girl. Darla appeared to be about the same age. Ronny looked to be in his early 20s. I was thinking that these people weren’t going anywhere in life. I need to gross about 40k a year just for my house, food, clothes, and a modest S-10 pickup. I have no idea how people survive on less money than that. My house is only a two bedroom deal that’s about 700 square feet and I don’t have to support anyone but myself.

Then I did a little digging and found that the median, national, annual wage is $13.98 per hour. That means that half of the people who work in this country make less than 30k a year. http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_00Al.htm

I’m Tobin and I drive a truck for a living. Apparently I’m one of the wealthy elite. Pleased to meet you.

Now I'm off to bed. Good night

[Inchworm]

4. Thank you Sir Droopy

You are indeed wealthy. The things you'll see in a diner are incredible. But, to put it into such detail and spin is a gift.

I may rest yet Driver...

Edit: spellcheck is my friend

[pokerfan]

2. An old man

An old man lived with his hound-dog, Mace, in a run-down shack on the outskirts of town. He had no family and only a few meager possessions: a table and chair, a bed, a bag of hand tools, and his dog. He used the tools to do odd jobs in town, for which he usually would be paid enough to get food for the next day. Mace and his master lived from one day to the next on what little these jobs would bring in. The dog was just a normal hound, with one exception: while most dogs like to chew on grass occasionally, Mace loved it. When the old man was in town, Mace would spend the day in the yard in front of the house, chewing away on the lawn.

One bright, sunny day the old man said goodbye to his dog and headed into town to work. He had a plumbing repair job in one of the homes there that would take him most of the day and would probably pay enough for food for the remainder of the week, if he managed the money carefully. He headed for town with a spring in his step and a whistle on his lips. Inside the house and ready to start, the old man reached in the bag for his wrench.

To his surprise, he didn't feel it. He dug around again, but there didn't seem to be any wrench. He looked in the bag, then dumped its contents on the floor, but still no wrench. Reality set in. Without a wrench he couldn't finish the job, and without the pay he couldn't even buy food for that night's supper, let alone for tomorrow. When he finally came to grips with reality, he told the lady who hired him what the situation was.

While she sympathized with his situation, the job needed to be done. If the old man couldn't do it, she would have to hire someone else.

The old man packed up his tools and headed home, head bowed and shoulders stooped. The whistle was gone and no longer was there a spring in his step. A walk that normally took 15 minutes seemed to last forever. But finally the old shack came into view, and there was Mace in the distance, munching away as usual on the lawn. When the dog saw his master, he came running, tail wagging, telling the old man how glad he was to see him.

Kneeling beside the hound, the man began to pet him, and through tear-filled eyes told the dog that there would be no supper tonight and no food for tomorrow. What's more, without money to buy a new wrench, he had no idea what the future held. It was the loneliest, most helpless feeling he ever had! Then he caught a glimpse of something shining in the grass.

As the old man went over to see what this piece of shining material was, his despair turned in an instant to joy! It was the wrench! The old man had dropped it on his way out that morning, and it would have been lost forever had Mace not been eating farther away from the house than he usually did! The old man grabbed the dog, gave him a hug that almost suffocated him, and ran into the house. Reaching for a stub of pencil and the only piece of paper he had, he wrote a moving tribute to his canine companion. Few people have ever heard these words...until now, that is.

One man who did happen to read them changed them a bit and has his name recorded in music history. The old man never did get the credit he deserved. But now you are privileged to read the beginning line of his original poem, which went: "A grazing Mace, how sweet the hound that saved a wrench for me."

[Inchworm]

6. awwww

that was very sweet.

When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the spanner.
We've no less days to sing Dog's praise...
then when we've first begun

:hi:

[In_The_Wind]

3. I can't sleep either.

:hi: This is the very short story of Why I have A Koi Pond In My Livingroom.
The frogs were waiting for me to release the Kio into the new cement pond (again) :scared: I couldn't do it. I didn't know why the other Kio had disappeared. :cry:
Next summer the inside Koi will be too big to be hordouvers for the frogs.

[Inchworm]

7. I dunno what Kio is

I am almost certain you grow them in water though :)

:hi:

[In_The_Wind]

12. pretty little fishes

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koi&h=375&w=300&sz=60&tbnid=rBciZhwWemHrBM:&tbnh=122&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkoi%26um%3D1&start=1&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=1

[Omphaloskepsis]

5. Do you want a happy story or a sad one?

I can do both..

[Inchworm]

8. How bout a happy one- but

someone dies

:hi:

[Omphaloskepsis]

9. When I was 17 and in High School I had a lovely Girlfriend..

After school we stopped by my apartment to watch TV. That got old and we decided to go to the park before sunset to have a picnic. We stopped off at the store to get sandwich stuff and chips. We also bought some Ice Cream. So we went to the park and ate and cuddled and kissed on a blanket until about ten PM. So we head back to my place. She was going to spend the night. Her parents were cool with that. They knew we were active.

On the way home I told her to pull into a parking lot. I jumped out and picked a flower for her.

Fast forward ten years. We ran into each other and talked for a bit. I asked her what was her best memory of our time together. We had dated for a couple of years. The flower was the one she was the most fond of.

She had actually pressed it and had it in her purse and showed it to me.

[DarkTirade]

10. There once was a man from Nantuckett...

oh wait, that's a limeric, not a story. Nevermind. O8)

[RebelOne]

11. Once upon a time, etc., etc.

And they lived happily forever after.

[BarenakedLady]

13. Once upon a time

A boy met this girl and they fell in love.

They lived happily ever after together.

The end.