"RTP Stories" contributed by Tom W
It was around 1990. I don't remember much; it was a place for forgetting - a bland hideous place.
I recall absolutely nothing about IBM - who I worked for, what I wrote, where I ate, who my friends were ( if any) - what the parking lot looked like (for some reason, I usually remember parking lots). I know that I worked there, that I came from IBM in Charlotte to RTP but that is all.
I also spent some time at Data General. I do remember Wayne S. He was a wry funny guy with a Faulknerian accent and manner. He might have worked for me at Burroughs in Charlotte. He got me the job at Data General. Walking in the surrounding woods at lunch I found a pristine skull which I assumed was a decapitated dog's head. I named it Woo Woo. Later somebody told me it belonged to a deer. Today it sits on top of a bookcase beside a statue of Robert E. Lee who is wearing a coroner's toe tag - both the statue and tag given to me by Steve K. who is also one of us.
I remember most clearly the time away from work. I stayed in a bleak basement room in Carrboro and watched TV. I occasionally went to my sister's house for supper. (Driving up once with Brenda and Yancie we encountered baby Henry sitting half naked in the yard - he had a rash - guarded by an outward facing ring of huge dogs - Henry the lord of that ring.)
I don't know where I ate, probably one cheap dive or another sitting in a corner reading not looking at anyone else.
I took tai chi in a room in a mall (?) from Almanzo - a sprite with long hair wearing a backpack with tinkling bells. He hugged everybody, especially one little girl with good size breasts, granny glasses and an odd not entirely unpleasant odor. (Sorry Almanzo - maybe I am dreaming that part or maybe it was me hugging her - everything is pretty much a blur.) There was a larger woman who was said to be especially centered and whom I know could not be moved. Almanzo was entertaining and knew what he was doing. I learned an entire form from him (which sorry to say I have forgotten having moved into the more violent worlds of karate and krav maga).
And that was it. I went back to Charlotte to work for PSI. I learned another form from Thom Effird, this form and his instruction hewing a little closer to kung fu roots.
I also spent a year at IBM Charlotte. The writing was pointless. But I shared an office with two worthy trolls. There was Jim the big shouldered big bellied PhD poet with the young beautiful wife. He lost his teaching job and had spent the previous year doing manual labor. He and I were contract writers. Dave was an outcast IBM employee. He roamed the halls in a gunfighter's crouch giving the impression he could go rogue any moment. People were scared to death of him. I heard that he left his wife, married an old high school sweetheart, and went back to Virginia, where he cuts grass for living and is maybe happy. I don't know what happened to Jim.
My God - that was 23 years ago. Children have been born, grown up, had kids. Jesus.
* * * * *
(Thanks to old pal Tom Gold Weathers, Jr. for responding to my request to write a "remember when" post, following up on my previous RTP article. Tom was my first supervisor back in the Seventies when we were both writers working for Cardinal Associates. -wpm )
I recall absolutely nothing about IBM - who I worked for, what I wrote, where I ate, who my friends were ( if any) - what the parking lot looked like (for some reason, I usually remember parking lots). I know that I worked there, that I came from IBM in Charlotte to RTP but that is all.
I also spent some time at Data General. I do remember Wayne S. He was a wry funny guy with a Faulknerian accent and manner. He might have worked for me at Burroughs in Charlotte. He got me the job at Data General. Walking in the surrounding woods at lunch I found a pristine skull which I assumed was a decapitated dog's head. I named it Woo Woo. Later somebody told me it belonged to a deer. Today it sits on top of a bookcase beside a statue of Robert E. Lee who is wearing a coroner's toe tag - both the statue and tag given to me by Steve K. who is also one of us.
I remember most clearly the time away from work. I stayed in a bleak basement room in Carrboro and watched TV. I occasionally went to my sister's house for supper. (Driving up once with Brenda and Yancie we encountered baby Henry sitting half naked in the yard - he had a rash - guarded by an outward facing ring of huge dogs - Henry the lord of that ring.)
I don't know where I ate, probably one cheap dive or another sitting in a corner reading not looking at anyone else.
I took tai chi in a room in a mall (?) from Almanzo - a sprite with long hair wearing a backpack with tinkling bells. He hugged everybody, especially one little girl with good size breasts, granny glasses and an odd not entirely unpleasant odor. (Sorry Almanzo - maybe I am dreaming that part or maybe it was me hugging her - everything is pretty much a blur.) There was a larger woman who was said to be especially centered and whom I know could not be moved. Almanzo was entertaining and knew what he was doing. I learned an entire form from him (which sorry to say I have forgotten having moved into the more violent worlds of karate and krav maga).
And that was it. I went back to Charlotte to work for PSI. I learned another form from Thom Effird, this form and his instruction hewing a little closer to kung fu roots.
I also spent a year at IBM Charlotte. The writing was pointless. But I shared an office with two worthy trolls. There was Jim the big shouldered big bellied PhD poet with the young beautiful wife. He lost his teaching job and had spent the previous year doing manual labor. He and I were contract writers. Dave was an outcast IBM employee. He roamed the halls in a gunfighter's crouch giving the impression he could go rogue any moment. People were scared to death of him. I heard that he left his wife, married an old high school sweetheart, and went back to Virginia, where he cuts grass for living and is maybe happy. I don't know what happened to Jim.
My God - that was 23 years ago. Children have been born, grown up, had kids. Jesus.
* * * * *
