The Real Hotel (ePub)

Mike Addison was born Herbert Mills Addison Jr., quite a mouthful for a little kid, but my father had a plan for that too. (My father loved to plan things.) He had to name the first male baby after himself, hence the Herbert Mills, but he had always wanted a son named Mike. Therefore, the baby was called Mike. Family and friends in Crystal City still call me "Mikey," go figure.

If a man wanted to be successful in Crystal City during this time, he usually did not wish to buck my father. My dad ran the local Del Monte Cannery and that was the main place to get a paycheck in good ole Crystal City. He did not have that much power, but I remember one day in the drug store he was having a cup of coffee with a man I knew vaguely had something to do with Crystal's politics. I found out later he was the county road commissioner and also owned the only farm pump repair company in town. My father was relating how difficult it was to get the trucks from the cannery to the end of the conveyer belt due to the recent rains. The problem was holding up canning operations and that was bad for everyone.

I noticed the man was sweating even though the store was air conditioned, and he seemed to be nervously waiting for something. My father offhandedly mentioned he had noticed some road equipment sitting idle. Did the man think he could possibly pave the dirt road from the cannery to the waste dump?

The poor man was really sweating when he replied, "Mills, you know that's county property we are talking about and it would be a breach of my oath of office to use it for commercial purposes."

My father reflected for a few minutes, then told the man how much he admired his ethics and how proud he was to be his friend.

The man kept acting like the "other shoe" was about to fall. Sure enough, my father asked him how much business Del Monte did with his pump company last year. No threats, nothing nefarious! The man managed to stammer, "I think we can have that

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