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Humping cement - Should have stopped to see Kapps - "Hello Bob," "Lieutenant Jay, in the middle of Nebraska?" - Date with fate post 74
This entry was posted on 11/10/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies.
This is one of those experiences I have thought about, and talked about off and on enough, it's like I have written about it somewhere before. But it seems, this will be the first time it is penned to paper.
By mid-1980, the economy was in a shambles. I had left my furniture store job - for what it was worth, there was no future with a 9-person family business; the relatives would always get the perks and promotions. It had also been a long commute in a time of high fuel prices and low vehicle miles-per-gallon technology. Then I spent a few months working as a welder in a factory - until they laid off the whole plant. But as fate would have it, it was the spring of the year and the feedmill and fertilizer business down the road from my dad's farm needed some seasonal workers for the approaching planting season. But, seasonal is just that - seasonal. By mid-summer I was once again shaking hands with the unemployed.
While I was biding my time imbibing in all things nefarious, I received word an old Army buddy would be getting married out Ohio way. With no apparent hope of scratching up another job, it did not take me long to pack a small bag and head out. I tied said bag on my 1975 Kawasaki 500, bid my folks goodbye, and headed to Ohio.
The wedding went well, but the happy couple were quickly off to all things married, so I had some free time on my hands. With the beautiful summer weather of 1980 in tow, I headed out again. I knew another Army buddy lived in Loveland, Colorado. Also, I had an x-girlfriend that had lived in Loveland at one time and spoke highly of it. So off I went cross-country.
Motorcycle guys being as they are, I teamed up with a couple guys heading cross country west, so we rode together. One guy I remember had a good looking old Triumph. Poetically, the weather turned into a heat wave. The pavement was so hot in Kansas it burned the bottom of our feet as we rode down the road - we started to travel at night.
I found my pal in Colorado. He was working as a delivery guy humping crates of milk to convenience stores. Dave's roommate was a big guy and a bit older than us. He worked construction in that pocket of "better economy" at the time out in Colorado.
After a few days of sleeping on Dave's sofa in his humble but newish digs, one afternoon we were all sitting at the kitchen table having chow.
"I can get you in with my contractor. You will be pushing wheelbarrows full of cement. It pays about 11 Bucks an hour," the roommate said with a serious demeanor. He had muscular hands and I could see his biceps bulging under his work shirt.
I thought for a second, the memory of that three and a half Bucks per hour I had just left behind in Wisconsin seemed pretty lame compared to 11 Bucks per hour. But the temptation faded quickly as I imagined pushing cement in the bitter Colorado winters.
"I'll think about it," I said.
"Don't think too long," the roommate said, and then added the caveat, "I can always find some joker that needs a job."
A couple days later I bid Ol' Dave goodbye. I would head back east via Nebraska leaving the molten Kansas pavement to..., Kansans.
Out on Highway 80, I went past the sign for Ogallala, Nebraska. Poetically, it is the county seat of "Keith County." I had a pal in the Army from Ogallala. Now I could see it was the small town Ol' Kapps had always described it as. Old Kapps used to stay in a bit of trouble with Ol' Sarge. Sergeant Hood used to click his teeth. Once while the Captain was prattling off the many charges leveled against Kapps, Hood's teeth just about jumped out of his mouth after each offense was read off.
In typical Bob fashion, I just kept on going past Ogallala. Now, decades later, what would it have mattered to stop a couple hours and pick up a phone book and look up the name Kapps? Maybe he would have actually been around.
Nebraska is long and flat. Seven hundred miles or so from Wisconsin, somewhere along that old Highway 80, I stopped at a rest stop to take a break. I parked my road-grit and grime-covered motorcycle and pulled my stiff legs over the seat to head to the restroom. I was thinking of Kapps and how odd it was to have had a platoon mate and a platoon leader both from the same state - a low population state containing mostly corn fields. The platoon leader had been a lieutenant named Jay. I stepped up on the sidewalk to head for the latrine.
"Hello Bob," a familiar voice said from my rear.
I turned and then took a second look, blinking my eyes.
"Lieutenant Jay," I said, "What the hell are you doing in the middle of Nebraska?"
"I live in Omaha. Remember?" he said with a subtle smile.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" Category does not list the brushes with fate chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older event. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Sergeant Garrick Louis Eppinger Jr., 25, Appleton, Wisconsin, died on Saturday, September 17, 2011 in Parwan Province, Afghanistan. He was killed as a result of a non-combat weapon injury. Sergeant Eppinger was assigned to the the 395th Ordnance Company, 687th Combat Sustainment Support Brigade, 646th Regional Support Group, 310th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, Army Reserve, out of Wausau, Wisconsin. Sergeant Eppinger also did work out of the Appleton, Wisconsin reserve center.
The Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter noted both Eppinger's parents are Navy veterans. Sergeant Eppinger was on his third overseas deployment. He had previously served in Iraq in 2005 and 2009. In his current assignment he was among more than 100 Army Reservists from the Appleton-based 395th Ordnance Company that first went to Fort Hood, Texas, in July of 2011 for training before deploying to Afghanistan. The Herald Times went on to mention Eppinger was a 2004 graduate of Appleton North High School in Appleton, Wisconsin; he was the youngest of five children; and, he had four sisters. He joined the Army after graduating from high school.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said Sergeant Eppinger was stationed near Bagram Air Field, a large military base near Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul. He had arrived in-country in early August 2011. The Journal Sentinel went on to say Garrick had been a member of the debate team In high school; he also had worked at Mark's East Side restaurant in Appleton. After his active military tours of duty he returned to his home in the Fox Valley region of Wisconsin and joined the reserves. He was studying political science and business at Fox Valley Technical College and worked at a convenience store when his unit was called up for deployment to Afghanistan.
The Web site legacy.com posted an obituary from the Post Crescent about Garrick Eppinger which stated he was born on August 9, 1986 in Portsmouth, Virginia. His family later moved to Appleton, Wisconsin. He had been a student at the University of Wisconsin - Fox Valley. The Green Bay Press Gazette noted Eppinger was a Staff Sergeant. He liked cheesecake and collecting 50-cent pieces. At the time of his death he was working as a supply specialist for a munitions post. Some of Sergeant Eppinger's military medals include the Army Commendation Medal; NATO Medal; Afghanistan Campaign Medal; and, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal.
At the time of his death Sergeant Garrick Eppinger was survived by his daughter Lenorea Rose Eppinger; his parents Garrick Sr. and Linda Eppinger; his grandparents Richard and Burma Castle; his grandmother Arvonne Jakobsen; his sisters Shandra L. Smith, Cori Reichwaldt, Robbyn (Chad) Stanley, and, Amy (Jeff) Strong; his nieces and nephews, Bryan, Melissa, and Joshua Smith, Evelynn Strong, and Christopher Stanley; and, great-nephew Kaden Smith.
Army Sergeant Garrick Eppinger Jr. was the 35th Wisconsin military service person killed in the war in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
103,260 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003 (actually documented).
10,125 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,485 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1824 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
962 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011.
32,224 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
592 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Iraq since Spring 2003.
14,733 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
192 Wisconsin military service persons have been wounded in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
36 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin military service persons have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since September, 2001.
150 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
22 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since September, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org .
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