Uncle Sal and the Intrigued Interviewer (Episode 207)

Uncle Sal entered Rock Around the Cocktails, removed his Round Rock Express baseball cap and scanned the place for the reporter who was interviewing him for the local paper. The reporter said he would be reading a biography of Joe Strummer. After a moment, Uncle Sal spotted the only person reading and made his way to the table.

The reporter looked up from his book and said, "Sal? Andrew Sweet. Boy, it sure is a pleasure to meet you. I can't believe I get to pick the brain of the most interesting man in town."

Uncle Sal shrugged and ordered a boilermaker from a waiter who wore a big button that read WHAT WOULD BUDDHA DO? on his vest.

Andrew Sweet started his digital voice recorder and said, "Let's just jump right in. I know you have had a wide variety of jobs in your life. Which was the most interesting?"

"Well, Andrews, as you know I was on the police force. They ain't too many dull days when you're a cop."

Uncle Sal's beer and shot of whiskey arrived. He dropped the shot glass into the pint glass, drank it down and quickly ordered another beer.

Sweet probed Uncle Sal's work history and Uncle Sal and was beginning to think there was no job Uncle Sal hadn't held. "Before I move on to something besides your work, let me ask you one more thing. What did you think you'd be doing when you were a kid?"

"Andrew, I'll tell ya. My first job was fixin' fences. I was 14 at the time and learned from a man in town how to fix any kinda fence. You know, things like rabbits and gophers can really do some damage to a fence. And when it happened, people would call my boss. He was usually playin' golf or sump'n so he'd send me. It was good work at that age. I could still prolly fix a fence, not that I'd want to."

Uncle Sal sipped from his bottle of Spud's and said, "Ya know what my next job was after that? Tow truck driver. I started doin' that shortly after I got my license. and it was pretty good money, especially for a teenager. But then ya get that call at 2:30 in the mornin', let's just say that ain't too great, bein' on call when people hit some bad luck."

"So those were your first two jobs? But you never figured you'd be stuck in either of them?"

"No, I sure didn't. I guess ya could say I learned pretty early on...neither a car tower nor a mender be."

This episode featured:
Franklin Benz as Uncle Sal
Richard Bonhomme as Andrew Sweet
and
Jellybean Merengue as the biography of Joe Strummer.

Tune in next week when Uncle Sal says, "Keep bats warm. Gracias."