Flashback (37): Captain Morgan

There hasn't been anything but going to that nasty toilet and doing the disgusting job in the past few weeks. I was told that the end of Aug. would be the end of the project. I knew that from a different source but I'm glad that I received confirmation. It's good that I cancelled the European trip! Would have lost, probably, as much as $2000! Not to mention that my $1200 (and the change, as it is repeatedly said in Clear and Present Danger!) cost of the trip has not been refunded! I just have it as a credit! With that in mind, I thought I should write about one of the fellas that I worked with for a while back in British Columbia day from 2008 to 2010, I think it was. 

This was a poor old man who had been retired already and was spending his late 60's on that job to be able to earn ends meet! He had worked hard labour jobs his entire life, including working in Houston, British Columbia which is a small town more than 1000 Km north of the Lover Mainland. He used to bring us the old, almost torn apart, small photographs of himself in those days and telling us stories! Everyone was laughing at the pour guy and making fun of him behind his back, mimicking him, including repeating his story about the time that he went from Lover Mainland to Salmon Arms on one tank of gas with his Toyota Tercel! 

I have to do everything possible to make sure I don't end up like him or anyone in that age range whom I see everyday on the job working outdoor with shabby and dirty cloths, cigarette between their lips, faces not shaped and even washed at times(!) and hairs never combed and groomed!  

He once got mad at me as I interrupted his call while we were at work. Everyone calls their family during the working hours but I was a different fella back then. Beside I was really sick of him being slow and lazy but what could you expect from an old man! He got mad an that was the first time that I heard the term " Piss on you "! He said that he was talking with his daughter who had Leukemia. I feel ready bad now that I know what he was going through.

I saw him a few years later once we were in British Columbia with The Lady. He had held a guy with a sort of special and unique car and was talking to him about that! That's what usually old people do! That was him! That was Captain Morgan! That was the nickname the supervisor had given him. The very same supervisor who later was fired! That is another story which might be told later but many people in Canada are like Captain Morgan. They have to work even past the age of retirement to be able to manage their lives and many are sick. His wife was suffering from Emphysema which was the result of years being exposed to second hand smoke. This also is a bad disease which basically means the patient's lung tissue has been damaged over the years. I hope he's doing okay these days.   

(Photo: Captain Morgan is a 35% alcoholic beverage or to be exact spiced rum. I don't know how popular it is here in Canada and I don't think I have ever tried it but I know it's named after a Welsh privateer)