Monday, October 17, 2011

On This Day in History, October the 17th



1781 Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown.
1919 Radio Corporation of America (RCA) created.
1931 Al Capone convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 11 years in prison
1933 Albert Einstein arrives in the US, a refugee from Nazi Germany.
1959 Queen Elizabeth is fined $140 for withdrawing her race horse.
1967 The play "Hair" is 1st performed.

Above is an old postcard of the Atlanta Penitentiary. Al Capone spent some of his time behind bars at that facility.

I had a relationship with the Atlanta Pen,but not nearly as serious. For three months I worked for a magazine distributor in Atlanta. The Federal Pen was on my route.

One morning my boss gave each of us route men hundreds of different kinds of books that didn't sell well. Our orders were to leave that at a customer on our route and leave them a bill for the publicatons. I think the bosses knew they would have to pick them up the next week and give issue credit. I think they probably did that to get out of paying taxes on inventory in the building.

I was stuck with 1000 coloring books to pawn off on some customers. I had no idea how to get rid of them. Then it hit me. The Pen! They didn't look at anything I delivered. I delivered them 1000 coloring books and the guard signed for them and ordered some prisoners to take the boxes in the warehouse. I was probably smirking when I drove away.

The next week when I went back I was expecting to see those boxes on the loading dock with the same guard patting his foot with his arms folded. Nope! As far as I know they kept them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Funny, the jobs we get into along the way to a career, or something approaching one. I learned how to ferret out the people whose ads you'd call and they wouldn't tell you what it was they sold. Usually, if they wouldn't tell you, they were selling Bibles. If you ask them directly, is it Bibles, they'd usually say yes.

Sometimes, friends would invite you over for something mysterious and it would turn out to be Amway. I once had that happen, and I had asked if it was something about Amway and the friend said no. As soon as the "event" started, he brought out some Amway detergent to drink. Dealers were big on drinking detergent back then. We left without saying a word. Haven't seen my former friend since.

Mike D