I knew I had there somewhere. They were hiding in my Norrell Temp agency tablet in my button box. I had a nice story earlier in this blog about my experiences when Howard came to town and I got to be in the same strip club with him :)  Yes, I had All Access and a Press/Vip badge. It made me feel all important for an intern. Really, how the morning turned out, it was a big bowl of okay. But then, I didn't have a radio or a cell phone back then and had no way of knowing that the wires got sliced and someone was messing with Howie. I was supposed to be on his tour bus, but was sent back in the club to get Jackie The Joke Man's notes. It was probably BS. I do remember it was a good lookin chick who was something to someone that asked me to go back for them. When I came out, the bus was gone.

So, I knew I was supposed to be on there. I wrangled around and finally got a cab/limo/jitney/UBER...no wait...um... SOMEONE gave me a ride to the next stop. Howard was going to appear live on one of the TV morning shows so the driver dropped me off at the TV station and there I waited. I waited. Waited. Something was wrong. I went and checked at the front desk and they said there was a problem with the broadcast. So, I couldn't afford a cab... I walked 15 blocks to the home base. (I was a freakin' intern working part time at a Radio Shack. Broke as a MF'in joke.)  Home base was the radio station. It was closer than the flats and I could call my boss from there to explain. The board operator asked what I was doing there and filled me in on the madness.  Thankfully the program director of the AM station was going down to the outdoor stage show so he took me there.  I sat at the side of the stage as the show went on and the crowd roared. Again, I met the guys from America,  Mike Gange (no potato) and Joey Buttafuco! Yeah! THE Joey Buttafuco. Cross that one off my Awwww F*CKIT list. 

I guess this company got bought out or whatever a few years after I finished my tenure there. I was washed out of radio in Toledo. I muddled in brokeness for 6 weeks and well, I was thinking about going back to Cleveland to see if I could get my old burger flipping gig back.  (Cue Winger's Depression Theme from "Stripes".)  Ahh, but I had new friends on the 100MHZ 14.4 internet.  I could start right away earning 8.50 and hour, full time, with about 10-20 hours overtime at least for the first month or two. All I need to do was move to Louisville. I did indeed. I cashed in my pennies to raise $42. I bought a "Ted Nugent Greatest Hits" tape which I said I'd be listening too the day I left Toledo.  (He and Bob Seger are gods in the Glass City. Go figure.) I figured I'd apply for radio gigs down Kentucky way and get back on my feet. Plus, live cheap with a room mate in a crappy apartment behind a "by the hour" motel. The road to financial security was a dark one, as well as working as a temp when the gig dried up and I went back to the temp pool. That's misery for another blog.

The only "benefit" I ever got from the temp job was, this cheap ass notebook. See our fabulous business cards? We wrote in our name and gave them to anybody that didn't care.  Again, I made some good paychecks while I was working admin (file work and phones) for "flood" claims for a national insurance agency. Lot of overtime, and at one point, my roommate and I were the only temps left. Yeah, we worked our asses off, but that was because we needed the money. They finally cancelled our order. I had a year and eight months working at the same place. The other business cards were some of the five hundred WIOT cards that were made for me. As a producer, I had to give them out for contacts. I may have 400 of them still. and then we got a new logo and I got another five hundred.

I don't know where I got the basketball card holder, but that's what it is. I think it came wrapped in plastic, free with a bottle of ALLSPORT. (Yes, ALLSPORT. It was Gatorade with a bit of fizz but damned if it wasn't a great hangover helper.) I also got a calendar from Northeast. Yay! Christmas bonus! Well, Our Christmas bonus usually came  in January when we got paid for the weeks after black Friday. I would make a ton, especially in the last week before Christmas when desperate people would come in and buy up everything that wasn't nailed down.  Finally, a piece of a plastic sign from Hills department stores.  It's debris that was being swept up from my department when we moved a display case. I couldn't let THAT go. Ahhhhh. Junk.

ARF! -Ric