Me & Ziggy

I had just moved to a new city for my new job and the year was early 1987.

I was so excited about this step in my career.

First and foremost I was out of my hometown. 
A dream I have had since the age of 8.

Second, I was now doing what I had worked my butt off to do.

This was the next step I was working towards for a few years and in all honesty, I gave myself 3 years to achieve it and it took me 5 years. 

But that did make me appreciate it all even more.

I was doing work I loved and I was getting paid handsomely for it.

I was told of my territory for my job. I rented a new apartment smack dab in the middle of this territory. I had to report to an office on the west side every Monday. (I lived on the east side) 
The rest of the time I was in my territory. I made my own hours and I knew what had to be accomplished and went out and did it. My boss was in Chicago and I lived in Ohio. 
For a person who loves to work alone, this was great.

I was given a box of customers that was to be my territory. 
I was not even given a map.

So the first thing I did was get a few maps.
This was before GPS’s, mapquest, laptops, cell phones, and all other forms of today’s technology that would have helped me so much.
Those that had those big bulky car phones were rich people in my eyes.
Thinking about that now is rather funny. Everyone has a cell these days and it’s hard to imagine life without cells, laptops, GPS’s, the internet, etc. 

I met my new co-worker at the office on my first Monday. 
She had the west side and SW side of the city and I had everything east and SE of the city. We split downtown. 
On Mondays at the office, it was great to have a friend with who I could discuss issues encountered with the travel or the clients, etc. 
It was someone to bounce ideas off of since both of us worked alone. 
And the other great thing about Mondays was that after work we went over to a neighborhood bar and would have some drinks and nachos or a real dinner and just hang out. 
We were both new to this city so it was great fun for us both.

One evening the place we normally went to was being remodeled so we went somewhere else near Joan’s home. We had a ball. 
We sat at the bar and had a few drinks and then we had some appetizers. The bartender was a chatty guy and before you know it we were all laughing and telling stories and having a great time. 
There was a man a few stools down who smiled at me and then asked the bartender for a piece of paper. He began to draw but something made me look away and conversations continued to flow with everyone.

The Drawing Man walked down the bar to me and introduced himself as Tom Wilson. He handed me the paper and said, “I’ve been watching you talk and you are very animated I had to do this.” 
I looked down and it was Ziggy talking to me, THAT TOM WILSON. 
I thanked him and gave him a hug and bought him a drink. 
He moved on down the bar to chat with Joan, me, and the bartender. We had a wonderful night. We ended up closing that bar and we 4 stayed. There was a baby grand piano there and someone played and people sang.  It really was a great night that I won't ever forget.

I found that paper in a frame when going through those old photo’s and I am not sure you can read it all here but this is what he gave me. 

I had so many great evenings, moments, and experiences when I traveled with total strangers. I miss it so much. I hate to travel these days because as we all know it’s so much more stressful and different. 
But I always love it when I get there.