Comments on: On the Road Via Green Tortoise, Part One

By: fencer

fencer — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:01:26 +0000

Hi Whatzername,

Well that’s amazing! Thanks for your comment. Sounds like you were at Z&Z maybe two-three years before I was.

Those two guys and their lead staff were very fair with their employees, surprisingly so. They knew one secret of business, which is treat your people right.

If you’re so inclined, tell us more of your story… or maybe you have a blog somewhere?

Regards

By: Whatzername

Whatzername — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 19:32:58 +0000

I worked at Zimmering & Zinn for a couple months in 1975, proofreading on the day shift. I loved those guys. They gave me a raise on my second day, because the jobs had already stopped bouncing. In my memory the two men are always the age I am now. Oh, no, wait — I’m now about 10 years older than they would have been. Anyway, working for Z&Z was probably the best part of my ill-advised trip to NYC. I ran away from home at 28 and then back again after 10 or 11 weeks.

By: On The Road Via Green Tortoise « The Best of New Writing on the Web

On The Road Via Green Tortoise « The Best of New Writing on the Web — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 15:34:05 +0000

[...] still had dreams of writing a novel, though. By the time being attacked in the subway showed me that the cosmos was urging me to move on, I was thinking San Francisco might be a cool [...]

By: fencer

fencer — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:36:06 +0000

Hi K,

Yes, those were the days, not too burdened by things.

Both rail car shots are not mine, unfortunately, but found on Google images.

Regards

By: K

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 08:06:12 +0000

Good story; good escape. I’m looking for the sequel.
Your comments about selling up and moving out reminded me that youth had great advantages. We weren’t tied down by too many possessions. One could travel light and start all over again. Sometimes the moves were accompanied by some emotional baggage, but the clean slate syndrome had it’s great moments – and great stories.
That’s a great shot of the rail car.
Regards,
K

By: fencer

fencer — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 06:38:58 +0000

Hi qazse,

Yes, I have off and on… maybe most recently a half dozen years ago. I should check them out again.

Regards

By: qazse

qazse — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:09:01 +0000

fencer, good luck in SF

Did you keep up with your roommates over the years?

Best

By: fencer

fencer — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:04:37 +0000

Hey, now, I’m not quite that old… but I am a little sorry that I got to San Francisco after the heyday of the 60s.

Thing about blogging, I could make up a pretty good story along those lines, but I do try to follow the main lines of my faulty memory… meaning sticks to veracity, it seems like.

Regards

By: Mr. Beer N. Hockey

Mr. Beer N. Hockey — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 03:42:47 +0000

Love New York stories, that’s a keeper. Love San Fransisco stories too. Let me guess – you got into Grace Slick’s pants!

By: fencer

fencer — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:02:46 +0000

Hey forestrat,

Nope, never saw anyone pulled down into a manhole by deformed creatures, but that may have been just because I was looking the wrong way…

I lived several years in Manhattan in different places… an experience I don’t regret, but the grime and the grunge and occasional danger, along with the insular feeling of the inhabitants that this was the world with a horizon only to the edge of Manhattan island made me eventually want to move on.

Upstate New York is really beautiful, and I wish I could have spent more time there.

Regards