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Could have been in Saudi - Fate Fairies - book version
This entry was posted on 12/26/2011 2:00 AM and is filed under Fate Fairies:Fate Fairies - book version.
I probably have not mentioned in my many literary forays into fate and revisiting my former jobs, that during my landscape days I tinkered with learning the irrigation trade. Texans called it "plum'in" and if the sprinklers were shooting water out into the middle of the boulevard they would say, "Call the Plummer."
I had worked with the "Plummers" from time to time at the Dallas Park Department. But, I never fell into the job at any proper capacity. I took a couple classes related to the field, but they mainly prepared one to pass the State irrigation exams and not the riggers of the labor intensive occupation.
There were two exams in those days, one for an Irrigator's Helper, and another for a bonafide Irrigator. I easily passed the Helper's exam down in Austin. But when it came time to taking the Irrigator's exam I lost interest. To me the design portion of the test was always overwhelming.
Non-the-less, through classes and conferences in the Park and Recreation and landscape industries, I hooked up with a local irrigation broker firm that had a big shop and contributed to those professional fields on several levels. And, their front man was funny, informative and a good presenter.
One thing led to another and at a class Funny-front-man was teaching in irrigation, he blurted out that an overseas company was needing some ambitious guys to work in irrigation and in the related area of oil piping. He gave out a phone number.
By that time, I had left working for the City and was off on my own landscape maintenance endeavor and said to myself, "What could inquiring into this tip hurt ?" It was early 1990.
To my surprise, but in retrospect it should not have surprised me, a guy with an Arab accent answered the phone. He said he was in a hurry to fill the positions. And then he said, "Let me interview you now."
"Where is the job?" I asked after collecting my thoughts and heading off the start of the inpromptu interview.
"Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq," he said matter-of-factly.
"How much per year?" I asked not too worried about offending a faceless interviewer on the phone.
"Sixty Thousand dollars per year, tax free," he said as if he were chatting about a tuna sandwich and a cup of coffee. 'You will have to sign a one-year contract."
Damn, not bad for a farm kid, I thought.
Well, I can always decline the invitation prior to signing if I am offered the job and get cold feet, I mused as I continued my analysis of what was quickly transpiring.
After telling him my extensive work background, he indicated my credentials were impressive and I was good to go after one last query.
"How much college do you have?" he asked.
"None," I answered.
Silence came from the other end of the line.
Then he asked with an incredulous tone, "How the hell can you not have any college and be from America?"
"It just was not in the cards; life and work got in the way," I replied.
Then he ended by saying, "Damn it, if you just had one semester I could probably get your resume past my handlers, but I have people to answer to. Thank you anyway for being interviewed."
It was at that moment that I concluded that if I ever did get to college, I would never regret any of it. And, I would not cry too much over the possibility of getting through college someday and being older and not getting the chance to use some particular part of the education I might have gleaned along the way.
And of course, that scenario of getting some college and then not being able to use the skills learned is just what has happened in this current horrible economy. But to this day I insist it is better to have the education and not use it than never having got it at all. You never know when another Funny-front-man with an Arab-accented buddy will offer you a lucrative deal out of the blue.
On a back-story note, a few months after my intriguing exchange with Arab-irrigation-dude, the whole region of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iraq was embroiled in our first Gulf War there.
Note: This blog "Fate Fairies" - book version Category is a work in progress. The original vignettes are being edited for book form. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Fate Fairies Page for an ordered chronology of the book vignettes (chapters).
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