Ride

Thinking back, I’ve had a love of flowers since I was young. In high school I had the opportunity to learn about flowers from some amazing people. Last week I mentioned briefly in my Friday Favorite’s post(which was about flowers) about the time I backed a van into a lady's Cadillac door. So let me tell the whole story. Well I’m going to tell as much of the story that I remember because 1998 was a long time ago. So let’s take a small journey back to 1997 when it all started.

When I was 15 I told my mother I wanted a job. I need money for lunch, buying cds, and getting a detachable face car stereo(Kenwood or Pioneer) for the car I didn’t have. She said “Alright” and took me to the mall to fill out applications. I was turned down at every single place because I was 15. On the bright side I memorized my social security number, because I wrote it down so many times.

Fast forward a few months and I ended up getting a job. I’m not going to say where nor am I going to say what they paid me, but I was able to purchase “Wu-Tang Forever” and I was highly disappointed that I spent my hard earned money on two discs of subpar material!

Fast forward a few more months later, I’m 16 and I can finally work. Once again I was at the mall being rejected over and over. Well have no fear because I ended up being hired in a really popular clothing store. I was super excited because I was going to get paid! I mean this place made major money. After working there for about a week, my mother said “John needs some help, are you interested?” Hell Yea I’m interested!(I didn’t say that to her).

So the next day I visit John, introduce myself and tell him “I’m here to help.” “Ohhh your Gwen’s son! Of course you can help.” I’ll skip all the other details, only because I can’t remember them. But I walked away with job #2! Here I was 16 years old working two jobs, 7 days a week. One in the mall, and one at……”John Davis Florist & Balloon Fair” as their new delivery driver.

Now I had only had my license for about 6 months, but it was the 90s who cared? If it was the 80s they would have cared even less! So I got introduced to my white van that looked like it had been in too many police stakeouts,robberies, and attempted abductions. It was the kind of van that every bad guy had in every Cynthia Rothrock movie that came on cable late nights from 1993-1997. Oh for anyone interested she’s doing a martial arts training on Zoom with Billy Blanks(Tai-Bo) and several others, can’t say I never tried to help. Ok back to my van, it was rough. I mean rough! Another guy who worked there Mike( who I initially was actually very scared of) looked down at me and bellowed “You ain’t taking that thing out until I teach you some things.” Skoal or Kodiak(whichever he preferred) flew everywhere. Now Mike was about 6’3 300 lbs with flaming red hair, and a flaming red beard and the loudest deepest voice I had ever heard. Intimidating as hell, but man that guy had a way with flower arrangements! I mean his creations were beautiful! So here we are behind the shop and Mike is showing me how to check the transmission fluid, oil,steering fluid and tire pressure on the van. Why did I have to know all of this? Because the van needed these things checked daily! I told y'all it was rough!

So after my crash course, I got my first order and my career as a delivery driver started. Sidenote: I also was a delivery driver for a plumbing supply company in college. That job sucked! But I can also recommend the best plumbing accessories for your needs. Back to the florist. So here I am driving in a terrible van with flowers blasting Master P with the windows down. Come on now, did you really think the van had air conditioning? The majority of my deliveries were to the hospitals. I was such a regular that security and the nurses in front never bothered to stop me after about two weeks. Now this seems easy enough, but take my advice on this. If visiting someone in a hospital please knock first, and if they don’t answer…Don’t go in! I wish someone would have told 16 year old me that. I had several instances where I had to say “Oh I’m sorry! I’ll just leave these right here!”

Not only was I the delivery driver, I was also responsible for picking up the flowers from the wholesale distributor. And let me tell you, these distributors did not like each other at all. I’m trying to navigate a terrible van, staying on the honor roll, making my deliveries on time, and these people want to beef with each other and question each other’s supply. “I’m in 11th grade sir, I don’t know what they have in their warehouse today, I have to go home and read “The Scarlet Letter” On the flip side, I learned a lot about flowers from them.

One of my least favorite days was when my mother volunteered me on my off day to deliver flowers to a convention she was attending at 7am on a Saturday! I had to deliver so many pink tea rose arrangements, and every single woman I walked past would stop me and say “Oh are those for me?” That day I made between 7-12 trips with every single pink flower you can imagine. I knew my time was coming to an end after that day.

So here I am tired of the van, tired of the beefing distributors, and a little tired of flowers. But I had a responsibility so I kept working. And one day I’m backing my van out of the parking lot and I hear a crunch and I feel something behind the van that shouldn't be there. So of course I jump out and see the huge dent I just put in the door of this cadillac. So I pulled my van back into the lot. I called Mike outside and I showed him what I did. He laughed and said “What are you going to do?” So I did the right thing and I waited until the owner came out. Soon after I heard a woman’s voice yell “Someone hit my car!” That was my cue to walk up with my hand in the air saying “Actually it was me, I’m someone.” At that point she called the cops, who charged me with illegal backing(Whatever the hell that is). Then she grabbed my hands, gave me a hug and said “I forgive you!” That was a Wednesday I only know because I got into another accident on Sunday. When I was asked “Did you not see him?” followed by “Do you wear glasses?” Because of that week my driver’s license still says “Corrective lenses required”.

I didn’t last much longer as the delivery driver. My other job was paying me more, and wanted more of my time. I enjoyed my time, and I learned lots about flowers, and maintenance on cars. I always kept in contact and used John as my florist for whatever occasion.Sadly two years ago I received a text that John had passed away. I have no idea what happened to Mike or the lady whose car I hit. The distributors are still in business, and hopefully squashed their beef. I had fun, this was before cell phones were common so I was just out there on my own with a van full of flowers, a lemon-berry slush from Sonic, and a Master P tape. Oh what you thought the van had a cd player? NOPE! But I did get enough money to get my detachable face radio. It wasn’t Kenwood, it wasn’t Pioneer, and it wasn’t worth a d*mn because it took one of my cd’s one day on the way to school and wouldn’t give it back!

(This story was written as “Da Last Don” by Master P served as the background soundtrack. Released on June 2nd, 1998)