Chapter 54

September 3, 1979

It was Labor Day weekend and, with the exception of Benny, the usual suspects were planning to participate in the annual Labor Day parade. Tim had missed last year since he had met up with Benny who was camping. This year Benny had taken off for lands to the south, for a change. He was heading towards Texas rather than the eastern end of Oklahoma. He didn’t have much experience traveling south like that, except to visit Tim once, in his first life, when Tim lived south of Dallas.

The break at the end of summer had come at a good time for Tim. All of his work had been finished on basically the same day. Not one person came calling after him demanding that he fix some problem. For the first time in a long time, he was free to do as he wanted. After busting his hump for two and a half months without reprieve, he had finished everything that had to be done.

Tim’s first decision, was to take a week long break away from working on houses. He didn’t quite leave everyone behind. He spent the first couple of days in bed (one of them was even spent sleeping), and generally getting relaxed. When he finally got mobile, he found that Benny was drifting with little to do. They hopped in Benny’s sedan and headed on a drive northeast. The sights were nice enough, but that country didn’t seem to appeal to either of them. For some reason, the terrain didn’t reach out and grab Benny. He couldn’t even put his finger on the reason the area didn’t do it for him, but it just left him feeling flat. It was kind of strange because the land had trees, and a few of the places nice bodies of water on it, either babbling brook or a clear pond.

Lily was sitting on the front step of her father’s house waiting for Tim to arrive to take her to the parade. She was a young lady divided in her thoughts. To be brutally honest, she was deeply in love with Tim and wanted to spend the rest of her life with him, but there was a problem. Tim was a construction worker. He fit so many stereotypes. He drove around in an old pickup truck that had seen too many miles. Although he did have a new jeep, he didn’t use it nearly as much as the old truck. Of course, the main reason for that was she usually rode with him during the day he was doing things for the construction business.

The real problem was a minor prejudice against construction workers that came from casual stories at the dinner table about irresponsible people in the construction field. Her father was an inspector for the city, and saw all of the mistakes, shortcuts, and scams pulled in the construction field. He’d talk about folks who worked in the morning to earn enough money to drink beer all afternoon. As far as she could tell, the only one preventing complete construction disaster was her father. That was supported with little tales about how he had caught a wiring job that would have caught fire the first time they put power to it.

In her father’s defense, the activities of good and responsible construction folks didn’t make a tale worth telling. The result was a rather skewed view of a whole industry, and the people who worked in it. She had completely accepted that view of the world. There, living right in the middle of that world of incompetents and scam artists, sat Tim. That didn’t make her happy at all.

She sat there on curb and sighed. She didn’t want to break it off with Tim, but she didn’t want to go through life with some guy who would end up wearing wife-beater t-shirts, swilling beer all day, and living from paycheck to paycheck. She knew he wasn’t like that right now, but the future was a scary thing and decisions made now were ones that she’d have to live with for the rest of her life. She believed that she was going to have to make a very distasteful decision soon; a decision that went against everything she wanted at the moment. What did she want? Tim.

Tomorrow she was starting college where she would meet scores of men who were at the beginning of a great journey to achieving professional careers. These were the kind of men who would become decision makers, wear suits to work, make salaries not wages, join country clubs, and own big houses in upscale neighborhoods. With a husband like that, she could be a stay at home, raising her kids and taking care of the house. That was the lifestyle she wanted and she knew it.

Why had she fallen in love with a construction worker?

This week her cousin Sandra had teased her about having to ride in the parade in the old car. Sandra and Cathy kept talking about how they were going to be driving the old truck. They actually sounded excited about that. She had ridden in the truck almost everyday with Tim and couldn’t understand why they weren’t embarrassed at the idea of being seen in it. There were hundreds of old F-100 pickup trucks running around. His wasn’t even in that good of a shape in terms of the truck body. It was a work truck and it looked like a work truck.

She hadn’t even known that Tim had an old car, but it had to be a real wreck. Why else would he have bought a new Jeep if it wasn’t to replace some clunker that barely ran? The smiles and knowing looks on everyone’s faces when they talking about the old car had really irritated her. She knew that they were making fun of her. She knew that she had to really love Tim to accept riding in a smoking clunker in a public parade.

Why had she fallen in love with a construction worker?

She was beating herself up for a decision that she had already made. Several weekends ago she had spent the night with him, giving him her virginity. It was a sign of her commitment to him. At least it was in a house, not the back of an old car like what a lot of her girlfriends had experienced. She was going to stay with him despite the fact that he was a construction worker.

She sighed and wondered once again why she had fallen in love with a construction worker.

“Lily, I’m heading to the parade. I’ll see you there.”

“Sure, Daddy.”

“You’re riding in the parade with Tim, right?”

“Yes.”

“The car or the truck?”

“The car.”

“You’re in for a real treat,” her father said with a grin.

“Right,” she snorted. Even her father was teasing her about riding in a clunker in the parade.

“I’ll see you there.”

“I guess you will.”

Lily had stopped going to the parade when she had turned a teenager. Until then she had gone every year with her father who talked about it as a work obligation rather than a fun family activity, although in his mind it was both. As a kid, she had trailed along behind her father who was busy talking to other people who worked for the city and other important businessmen. She had hated every minute of it, and had stopped going as soon as she was old enough to stay at home alone.

She watched her father drive off. Her father’s respect for Tim was one thing that surprised her. She knew her father well enough to know that he wasn’t faking it for her sake, but that he honestly respected Tim and Benny. She could understand her father respecting Benny since he was brilliant and majoring in every science and engineering program offered at the college. Tim, though, was another matter. He was just a construction worker.

Thinking it over, she knew that he wasn’t just a construction worker. He owned two houses and the construction company. In a way, owning the houses didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Her cousin Sandra owned one and she had bought it for a dollar and back taxes. So owning those houses wasn’t really like owning regular houses. Admittedly, she knew that she didn’t really know that much about home ownership.

She glanced at the end of the street and spotted an antique car turning the corner. It was an impressive looking car.

“Now that is an old car that I wouldn’t mind being seen in,” she muttered darkly.

She was surprised when the car slowed down as if to pull into her driveway. It was then that she realized it was Tim who was driving it. Her jaw dropped. She closed her mouth recalling her mother’s warning that she’d swallow flies sitting there with her mouth open like that. She stared at the car unable to believe her eyes. It was gorgeous.

“Sorry about being late. I haven’t had much chance to drive it around this summer and the battery was dead. I had to jump start it and let the battery charge up.”

“No problem,” she said. “What kind of car is it?”

“It is a 1935 Chevrolet Standard Phaeton.”

“It’s beautiful.”

“Thanks. Benny and I did a bit of work on it to restore it, but the fact is that most of the hard work was done by the guy who owned it before us. It was nowhere near as much work as the old truck.”

“Your old truck?” she asked.

“The 1940 Ford Truck. You’ll see it at the parade. Sandra and Cathy are driving in it.”

“I though you were talking about your work truck.”

Tim laughed. “No one would want to see that thing in a parade.”

He knew that wasn’t actually true. He and Benny weren’t going to get rid of it. They were going to restore it and store it once they had bought a truck to replace it. They figured in 2000 that an early 60s F-100 pickup truck would be of some value, particularly if it was in good condition. The truck might not look the greatest at the moment, but the paint job was 15 years old after having baked in the Oklahoma sun for that whole time.

“I kind of wondered.”

“I guess we better go if we’re going to make it there in time to be in the parade. I bet the girls are wondering what happened to us.”

Lily got into the car amazed at the size and room of it. She ran a hand over the seat covers. The interior was just as impressive as the exterior. Her dad was really going to be surprised to see her in this. Then she realized that her father had known about this car. He had really meant it when he had told her that she was in for a real treat.

“This is amazing.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you like it,” Tim said while backing out of the drive.

Lily couldn’t believe the reactions of people to the car. It seemed like everyone pointed at the car when it went by and they hadn’t even reached the parade yet. She felt a little overwhelmed by all of the attention.

When they reached the area where the participants in the parade were meeting, the attention became even greater. She spotted her father, along with the mayor, headed over in their direction. She was shocked when the mayor greeted Tim by name.

“We missed you in the Fourth of July parade.”

“Benny and I wanted to be here, but we were swamped with restorations.”

“I drove past that area the other day. You guys really did a great job over there.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m kind of surprised you’re in our parade rather than the big one downtown.”

“This is where we grew up. This is home.”

The mayor clapped Tim on the back. “We hope you’ll move back here.”

“You never know. We’re going to be living there for at least another three years.”

“The high school appreciates the scholarship you and Benny keep funding. Last year the young woman who won it really needed it.”

“I agree, she really did need it. I can’t imagine losing both parents to a drunk driver at 17. It’s such a shame.”

“Are you going to fund another scholarship this year?”

“Yes.”

Lily listened to the conversation surprised at how the mayor treated Tim. It was like they were old friends. She didn’t know that he and Benny funded a scholarship.

“You know the routine. We’re going oldest to newest. So you’ll be the third car in line.”