True Story 2
Life tends to be routine and ordinary, but it can still offer anyone surprises and challenges. Even the most average person can rise to meet these and, for the moment at least, be something other than ordinary. Some times one can end up with a great story that they just can't tell anyone. And some times one has a story that has to be told to somebody.
Way back in the 1980s I was sent to San Francisco on a business trip. The company I worked for had set up everything, from the flight to the car rental to the hotel reservation to the return flight. The only flaw I could see in those plans was that I would need a credit card for the rental car. I was still trying to recover financially from my divorce, and I had no such card. I was told that that wouldn't be a problem: They gave me a 'company card'.
It turned out that it was a problem when I tried to pick up my reserved car. The name on that 'company card' wasn't mine, and Hertz declined it. So did Avis. I had to go sit down and consider what to do. My hotel was miles away, in San Jose. Without a car I couldn't get there, let alone drive to the customer tomorrow. It was a little after 9:00 PM in San Francisco, but past midnight back in Pennsylvania, so it was unlikely that I could get any help over the phone. At least I had a generous travel advance, in cash.
I went to the airport terminal information booth and asked where the smallest car rental company was. I had to take a shuttle bus to get there, and once there I explained my predicament to the attractive young woman behind the counter. I'd figured that the smallest rental agency would be the most helpful in doing business, and that's how it turned out. They rented me a car and took down the credit card information, with the understanding that when I returned the car I would pay in cash, so that the actual name on the credit card wouldn't be a problem for anybody later.
Thanks to Alamo, I had a car and was able to take care of business. I also had a nice little tale of triumphing over adversity through intelligence and imagination.
When I told the story to a close friend of mine, though, her reaction surprised me:
"Doesn't it bother you," she asked, "When things like that happen?"
Way back in the 1980s I was sent to San Francisco on a business trip. The company I worked for had set up everything, from the flight to the car rental to the hotel reservation to the return flight. The only flaw I could see in those plans was that I would need a credit card for the rental car. I was still trying to recover financially from my divorce, and I had no such card. I was told that that wouldn't be a problem: They gave me a 'company card'.
It turned out that it was a problem when I tried to pick up my reserved car. The name on that 'company card' wasn't mine, and Hertz declined it. So did Avis. I had to go sit down and consider what to do. My hotel was miles away, in San Jose. Without a car I couldn't get there, let alone drive to the customer tomorrow. It was a little after 9:00 PM in San Francisco, but past midnight back in Pennsylvania, so it was unlikely that I could get any help over the phone. At least I had a generous travel advance, in cash.
I went to the airport terminal information booth and asked where the smallest car rental company was. I had to take a shuttle bus to get there, and once there I explained my predicament to the attractive young woman behind the counter. I'd figured that the smallest rental agency would be the most helpful in doing business, and that's how it turned out. They rented me a car and took down the credit card information, with the understanding that when I returned the car I would pay in cash, so that the actual name on the credit card wouldn't be a problem for anybody later.
Thanks to Alamo, I had a car and was able to take care of business. I also had a nice little tale of triumphing over adversity through intelligence and imagination.
When I told the story to a close friend of mine, though, her reaction surprised me:
"Doesn't it bother you," she asked, "When things like that happen?"
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