ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
(and thumbs up in New Jersey)
Back in the 1980's my husband was driving for North American Van Lines hauling household furniture, yes, he was a 'Bedbugger', so aptly named by the world of trucking. Occasionally, I got to travel with him for a few weeks at a time. But one year, I actually got to travel with him for a continuos eight month period. During this time I worked as hard as any man lifting and carrying furniture. I built my muscles up to where I could lift just as much as most men in this profession. The story I am about to tell is factual in every way, nothing added to spice your imagination. And when you finish reading it, I highly advise you to go to another story titled 'Reno or Bust' in a small way it is a highlight and grand climax to this one.
We had picked up a household of furniture in Tucson, Arizona, 12,000 lbs. worth. We contracted one lumper, (hired laborer) to help load. Now, I need to mention that we rarely did hire lumpers. But once in awhile we would feel the need if the amount of furniture was extensive or if we had a lot of stairs or if there were huge pieces, such as baby grand pianos. I always did the inventories, while Bo stacked, padded and helped carry the bigger pieces of furniture. The process of any loading, usually consisted with me, inventorying boxes, while Bo and any helper we may have hired opened the doors of the trailer, set up the ramps and laid out any equipment needed. By the time they are usually done, I have inventoried most of all the boxes. The hired helper would start with hauling all the boxes out of the house, while I inventoried all the furniture. Bo, at this time would be doing a walk through of the house, assessing size, shape, bulk and weight of all the furniture. By the time all of the boxes are stacked in neat rows according to size, I would be done inventorying and I along with any lumper we may have hired would start hauling out the small pieces of furniture that Bo would ask for.
(Now, if we didn't have any lumper, then the process would consist of about the same as above, except Bo would haul most of the boxes after his walk around, otherwise I would fill in for the lumper. A much slower process, but as effective to say the least.)
Now, this move wasn't anything out of the ordinary, for size or weight and the customers were rather pleasant people. We got them loaded without any mishaps. When it came time to do the paperwork, the man told us he wanted delivery on such and such a date. Bo asked him if we got there the evening or afternoon before could we park outside his house for the night? He said that it wouldn't be a problem. As he was giving us directions to their house on Staten Island, he paused to emphasize that when we come into Staten Island look for the last road off of the freeway, before you cross the bridge. DO NOT CROSS THE BRIDGE, we were told. But did we listen?
Crossing over onto Staten Island was a snap, I started looking for exit signs. Just about the time I saw the sign, we were past the exit to turn. WE CROSSED THE BRIDGE, we didn't have a choice, we had passed the last ramp before the bridge, one minute it was there and the next it was gone. Well, that little mistake cost us $40.00 in bridge fees, to cross over and cross back again. Expensive lesson!!
We got to our exit ramp and followed directions without any more problems. We pulled up in front of their house and sat open mouthed. They had mentioned that there would be stairs, but not four flights! You see, New York is so over crowded, that they have no choice but to build straight up. What we, people from the Midwest would consider a condominium or townhouse, they would consider to be a normal dwelling. We were not looking forward to unloading and hauling everything up four flights of stairs at all. But, and there is a G~d that answers prayers, we didn't have to.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. We pulled in front of their home late that afternoon, our customers weren't going to be there until the next morning. So, we took that opportunity and went site seeing. We walked three blocks, caught a train tram to the Staten Island Ferry and floated across to Manhattan. Yes, I got to see the Statue of Liberty, she is as magnificent as she has ever been portrayed in any photo or film. Once we embarked from the Ferry we were in Manhattan, we walked a couple of blocks and caught a subway to Times Square. Here, we walked and walked and took in all the sites that we had only seen in pictures or movies. We ate hotdogs from a sidewalk vendor. Purchased shirts from harkers on the corners and milled about with the crushing of humanity. It was exciting and exhilarating and I think everyone should do it once. Late in the afternoon towards evening, we retraced our path, catching the subway at Times Square, we got on not thinking. But, as we were zooming through the underground we noticed that when ever they stopped, we couldn't see any platform for disembarking, just walls to a tunnel and the doors to our car didn't open. Well, of course we had to ask someone sitting close by why this was. They looked at us with that all knowing smile, (you dumb tourist) and politely told us only the first four cars opened to allow for getting off and on. Then the million dollar question--how do we get off from here--again that stupid smile---you have to walk to the front four cars. We didn't walk, we ran. Opening the doors between the cars and feeling the rush of air was frightening. The walls of the tunnel sped by so fast it could make you dizzy. But, we didn't stop to consider all that, we only wanted to get to the car that would let us out, which we did. That was an exhilarating experience and I will never forget the feeling. Anyway, we made it back to our truck safely for the night.
The next morning, with despair gripping our hearts we encouraged each other for the task ahead. But, when the customers got there, they told us sadly they we couldn't unload because the inside of the house wasn't finished yet. Trying to act as disappointed as them we told them we understood and were sorry that they wouldn't be able to live in their new home for awhile yet. The whole time I was leaping for joy under my breath, especially during the tour of the yet unfinished house. The stairs were all switch backs, four flights, my G~d it would have taken two days of constant moving to unload everything. We managed to make arrangements with a North American Storage in Orange, New Jersey.
We pulled onto the lot of the storage building. Bo took all the shippers papers to the front office. This was about 11:00 a.m. After completing all the paperwork from the office, he went to deal with the foreman of the warehouse. His name was Dennis and he wasn't a pleasant fellow. After looking at the sheets of inventory papers, he informed Bo, that they took lunch break at 12:00 noon, so he wouldn't unload us until after they got back. We had no choice but to sit there while they stuffed their faces. At 12:15, Dennis came back to tell Bo to back up to their concrete ramp. Bo informed him he was unloading from the side door. When Dennis asked why, Bo told him he loaded it that way and that was the way he was unloading it. Dennis made the snide remark, "Any good furniture driver could unload from any door no matter which way it was loaded." Bo sarcastically answered, "Then I must not be very good." Ignoring this remark, Dennis asked him how many lumpers did he want? Bo told him none. Well, this didn't settle well with him. It was like he was picking a fight. He proceeded to tell Bo all about North American's rules and regulations of loading and unloading household goods. That for every 4000 lbs. of household goods you needed to have one man. Bo didn't argue with him, he just told him the facts according to 'Gifford'. That if Dennis wanted to provide the manpower he would be more than glad to accept. Only he wasn't going to pay them out of his pocket. Dennis blew his stack, of course we would have to pay the men, they don't work for free. Bo told him he didn't have the money to pay a lumper and that Dennis couldn't force him to hire men to do a job that he and his wife, (me) could do ourselves. Now, that was the icing on the cake for him, he sneered at me and said, "She's going to lump all that furniture, this I have to see!" Well this only made Bo determined to push harder, as sweetly as he could he told Dennis, "She can lump furniture as well as any one of your men, and probably do a better job." Now it turned into a dare, Dennis looked at his watch, then stated to Bo, "It is now 12:30, I am closing those doors at 5:00 p.m. on the dot. I don't care if you are unloaded or not, those doors close at 5:00 p.m." Boy, he felt pretty smug with that little show of authority. Bo felt bold and brave, he looked at me, then back to Dennis and said, "I'll make you a deal, if my wife and I don't have everything unloaded in two hours, I'll pay you what I would have had to pay a lumper, but..if we unload it in two hours you owe my wife an apology for being a horses ass."
Let me ask you, would you take the deal? He did, but not before pointing out that we would have to carry everything down our set of ramps and back up their concrete ramp and place every piece inside their doors of the warehouse. As Bo and I got back into the truck and he was maneuvering the trailer into position to their concrete ramp, I looked at him and asked, "Do you have that much faith in our capabilities?" He told me he did, that he really honestly felt we could do it.
Well, I have to admit I had reservations in the beginning, but as we hauled piece after piece down our ramp and up theirs, I felt we could do it too. At one point, Dennis brought in extra men to keep up with our unloading so they wouldn't get congested on the docks. Faster and faster we unloaded, until there was one box left on our trailer. Bo paused to look at the time, we still had 15 minutes left. Bo nonchalantly put the box on a two-wheeled dollie and walked it out of the trailer down our ramp and up theirs. When he planted it in front of Dennis, he said, "That's it." Everyone stopped what they were doing and all eyes dashed to their own wrists to confirm the time. Dennis was the first to make a comment, he swore, threw down his pencil and stalked off. Needless to say, I did not get my apology, the defeated, embarrassed man left. To this day, Bo and I get chuckles out of our memories, by the way, even though Dennis hadn't acknowledged what we did, his helpers in the warehouse did. And a few of them were happy to see him knocked down a peg or two.