Ok, chapter 2. I've been looking around since 2007 to relocate my shop, and figure out how to spend the next 40 yrs in a good down home friendly area. Atlanta turned into an International city after the Olympics of 1996. Rent tripled..and stayed that way. Land went from 2k an acre to 2 million an acre. Everything old was bulldozed and replaced with high end stores, etc. My 88 yr. old grandmother even made the comment " If I still drove, I'd be lost in Atlanta, they have changed all the street names." I've been in Atlanta since 1971, and started turning wrenches in Decatur in 1983. Ive seen alot of changes, good and bad. I've also worked in many BIG night clubs downtown since 2001 as Security, and watched as Ice and Meth. came prevalent , turning many people into walking corpses. Racism is alive and well and I witnessed all types of gang violence regularly too. Anyway, a million reasons to raise a child elsewhere. <p>So after looking in surrounding cities for a year, then surrounding states, I found the shop in a small town in Texas. On a main highway, 40,000 cars per day, by my front door.
Chapter 3, Homework. After finding a destination I get to work. Tirelessly searching Texas on the internet. Laws, regulations, TXDOT, history, Streetview for hours, history, KLTV, on and on. At the same time I start sorting and packing my life. By late September I'm ready. All my bases are covered. Bought a months time here and there...just in case. So I get there. Stay in a Tarrentino Motel (all this money went to India for more Cow Necklase charms) for a few days, while I build a new office, and a room to crash...TX Mosquito free. Hit all the used car lots on Marshall Ave. for work and a car to drive this winter, while I get the truck TXDOT ready. Went to church with the Landlord, met more great folks and contacts. 2 or 3 people a day stop to look at the truck out by the road, and I pass out cards everywhere. By the end of week 1 , power is on, office is up, yardwork is done, jobs are in the works, and I've made good progress. In my gut I've had a bad feeling about this landlord since late September though.
Chapter 4, week 2 in TX. Got trough the hottest day on record in Longview TX, drove around on flooded roads, muddy water splashing OVER my cab, and stayed sick as hell. Got some work in, met more "good" people, went to a car show at Brookshires, and kept cleaning, organizing, and setting up shop. A guy pulls up with an I.D. tag around his neck. The Tax Man. TX has no state sales tax, so he decided " to leave me alone until the first of the year, unless I got busy, then he would tax everything I own in my shop." WTF? So I drug all this equipment to TX.... in the rain.... to pay for it ? Titles. Every car in TX needs a title and inspection. GA is 1986 and up on titles, and abolished inspections in the early '70s. I'm starting to sense a noose around my neck, as far as building old cars here. Cigs. are $6.36, but beer is $1. Every clerk asks me to buy a lottery ticket, on the worst roads I've ever traversed. Meeting people that live in a school bus, attached to a camper, attached to a box car. Haven't seen 1 dog on a leash, or no helmets on bikers.....but my truck is ILLEGAL to operate on TX roads. Oh my gut feeling.
Chapter 5, week 3.More work in, and delivered. Made my first dollar on the 19th. Go exploring in Kilgore, Liberty City, Gladewater, and more of Longview. Neat area. Like the land of the lost, with all the '50s signs still up..and the '50s pavement too. Still no winter car to be found reasonable. Decided to check out the night life. Biker bars, cowboy bars, hispanic bars, and blocks of byob stripclubs. Hmm, I'll try cowboy bar. Wow, the dance floor looks like a Carousel with 2 stepping. I sit, comparing how many different cowboy hats there are, how they fold them, what's the feather for, why do so many have tight Wranglers and waxed eyebrows. I leave and try a pool hall. I could'a bought drugs 3 times in 30 min. I go to Wal Mart. My brain notices there are NO women between 15 and 50.....anywhere. I call it a night. More work to do tomm., and week 4 is my deadline to make this happen. My landlord says " I've never met anyone like you...that thinks like you. Every day there's more progress, work, and people here. What are you doing here?"
Chapter 6, week 4 deadlines.So I'm feeling better, and on a tear to get Ins., tag, and everything else done. A 16 yr. old warned me that my landlord accused him of stealing his computer card, calling the cops and all, the whole time it was in his bag. Someone stole his Power Chip out of his truck this week, and he wanted to search my shop. My dog was barking at his storage lot next door, so I walk to the property, and he threatens to blow my head off if I steal anything. The Devil is out to get him since his CPA wont answer the phone too. Anyway I decide to limit conversation with the paranoid landlord, and stay focused, possibly find another shop. Good week though, he brought a falcon by to restore the next day, and I delivered another job Friday. Checked the Falcon out, rusty valve train, leaks everywhere, hole in tank, and stiff front wheel bearings. Left him a message and went to eat Friday night.....and then....
Chapter 7 The fan of shit.7:07 am Saturday 10-24-09. The Landlord calls. Leaves me a screaming message. "....what kinda mechanic are you? You took my WHEELS off to check the brakes....") 8am, my Rottweiler is rising hell at the back door ! It's the landlord trying to get in. I watch, and let the dog handle it. I thought it was only fair. He gives up and leaves. Several phone calls later, and after he comes by for a chat ( picture Daffy Duck on Meth. ) he says " We've ( meaning church) all decided you're running from the law, and I know you're gonna steal my car!!!" He finally leaves, kinda calm. I call the junkyard across the street. The owner Bubba comes over. I say " How much for the whole lot, truck, tools, lights...everything?" We strike a deal. I sell everything but my clothes and dog. Landlord pulls up, sees the roll back and flips out again."See, you're stealing my Falcon!" I finish selling everything, land lord leaves, and I call my Girlfriend in GA. In 20 min. she's in route to pick me up. It's 6:30pm GA time.
Chapter 8 Welcome to Georgia.Land lord is back at 8..wound tight. Another wacko conversation. He has an extra patrol here, and the cops are on standby, over his car. He thinks she is bringing a trailer to steal his car. He leaves again. I call the cops. they run my D.L., and there is no extra patrol etc. They are fine. She arrives at 5:30 am. We load what's left, dog on top of the clothes bags, key under the mat, and leave. We cross into Louisiana at daybreak. I call him to tell where the key is, and he's furious again. We nap in Ruston LA., and are home by 2:30 am. It takes him 2 days to answer the phone to make sure all is well. He says " Well if ya'll ever want to move back, you've got a shop in Texas, and a good friend here. Take care." By Wend. the 28th, I'm back to normal here, tags and all....but NO shop OR equipment.
What ever your plans are for next month, think long and hard about it than have someone else make the decision for you... Good story to tell around the campfire to scare the kids.
Chapter 9 The Moral.Like I said, I know what meth looks like in action. I lost my business over Meth.......and have never touched it. I left my life, ambition, and drive to succeed... in Texas.... over Meth. 1 Meth ruins lives. 2 Rent from a well known Real Estate firm, not a good ole boy. 3 If you move to another state, don't tell people where you are from. You can watch their curiosity turn into judgement in their eyes before you. 4 I refuse to turn another wrench in this lifetime, with this public. 5 Rest in Peace 1959 Classic Auto Care. 6 No offense to Texas, Meth. is nationwide. 7 I feel for anyone that has had Meth. alter their life. 8 If you are on Meth., I have as much respect for you as the Cockroach I just stepped on in the parking lot. Pray for our country.
Home, where I20 is a sheet of glass. Never complain about road work delays in GA., at least we do it.
this is an interesting thread. i wish you the best of luck, you seem like a good character. i'm curious though... why didn't you drive your truck back to GA?
Reading this thread is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I don't want to, but I can't stop.
A week or so after I arrived, my truck started a very slight surge, kinda like someone holding a rope behind it tugging on it a little. All my drivetrain was new...but Pinion bearings. No time, no energy to drag it all back. No where to park it in her apartment either. <p>Dig the Pontiac, I had a '61 Cat for a while.
I've worse threads (like the flamethrower one that finally got canned). This one at least ended with a fairly interesting story. Good luck with the future, I hope the handful of jerkoffs you experienced in that month timeframe doesn't completely turn you off from turning a wrench, because they aren't worth it.
I've calmly..verbally chewed up alot of good ole boys here over the years, to where when they see me they avoid me. They retaliate with a reputation for me they pull out of their ass, and spread it. I'm not giving them another chance in another state. This landlord also had no clue what a GA Concealed Carry Permit meant. Texas recipricates it. IT IS A FBI BACKGROUND CHECK. He could not figure out why I had a Rotty, and a bag full of guns. I moved into a "shed" of a shop, in a strange new area...with Alligators and wild boar. <p>I'm done with trying to please this public perception of manual labor...and what they see on TV.
I thought about NOT posting this on this forum, but there are a few of me still out there. Hope this helps someone in someway. Expect a curve ball in your best thought out plans. Texas was nice.
The Jalopy Journal
