Unpleasant Encounters

I am sure we have all had an unpleasant encounter or two in the course of our lives. I have been in the unique position of being the unpleasant encounter for many people in a two year stretch of my life when I worked for a financial service company. What, you might ask, did I do? I  The territory was essentially the entire country, and I repossessed mobile homes. In the vernacular of the industry, I popped coaches. It was an interesting couple of years.

My company serviced mobile home loans for a number of banks, savings and loans and insurance companies. There were loans all over the country but most of my work was in Florida, Colorado, Arizona and California. Each month the lenders sent me the delinquent accounts and I worked them to bring them current or took possession of the coach - aka popped the coach, I was a much better than average bill collector - I have a booming voice, Alas,  sometimes things went completely south. The last week of every month was hit the road time. I'd gather up my paperwork and bid Lynn and our cat a fond adieu and off I'd go on a coach popping tour.  Ii would inspect and pop as many as 30 mobile homes.

Typically, the coaches were empty when I hit the road. I was always very reasonable about letting families clear out before I  knocked on the door - it was embarrassing enough for families losing their homes, No need to make it worse. At this point I should interject that when I first took this job my friends literally laughed their collective asses off - I am rather large, At the time I was 6'2" and about 290. They were all picturing me literally chaining up and yanking these home off the property. e all had a good laugh.

One trip to the north was more interesting than usual- I had scheduled visits as far north as Eureka and as far south as Santa Rosa.  One of my stops was in a little berg just north of Santa Rosa and it was not in a mobile home park, it was on private land,  By the time I found the place, the day was pretty well shot (no GPS back then). I drove up the winding driveway, encountering various goats and cows with the occasional chicken running around. The man I saw made me immediately think of Deliverance. I asked him why he had not vacated the place and he indicated he wanted to take care of the matter.I asked how he intended to do that and he yelled out a woman's name. We looked up at the run-down blue trailer and the door opened. Out stepped what I assume was his wife, buck naked. She was ready to work out a trade - sex for more time. This was in the seventies - free love and all. Now I must admit - if the woman approaching me had looked at all like Natalie Wood I might have hesitated but this lady looked like what I pictured a female sasquatch just might look like - or perhaps Ma Kettle It did not take long for the pair to realize they were going to have to leave and give up their place. I gave them two days - long enough for me to go to Ukiah and hit several accounts, and I'd come back and inspect their trailer then. They agreed, called me a few names and I watched them flip me off in the rear-view mirror as I exited the property.  I drove about 30 miles and booked a room at the local notel  motel. After a diner dinner I went back to ,my room to watch some TV. The lead news story was of a tragic fire that had burned down the trailer of a local couple. Clearly they did not take my turn down of their offer very well. They simply torched the place. The paperwork was much simpler than usual as well.

On one Southern California trip I actually  popped a really nice coach. The place was actually horse training facility run by a very nice, pretty deaf lady. While inspecting the coach I stumbled across her stash of letters to and from the ex chronicling the rise and fall of a relationship and a business. It was quite sad and frankly the reason I left that business.  Suddenly I decided how I made my living required a higher standard.

Call it Karma - several years later I was forced to appear in court when the company I worked for was sued by their primary insurance carrier. Being on the stand in a civil trial was not as much fun as it appears on television. In the end, the carrier won several hundred thousand dollars from my former boss. I got a nice dinner with the carrier's IT manager.

That brings my tales of unpleasant encounters encounters to an end. There were others but honestly my life as not been filled with unpleasant encounters. While not the life I had planned, it has turned out to be interesting and full of characters with some adventure folded in to keep it interesting. When I lived in Hawaii I used to sit on my Suzuki 550 waiting for the light to changeat the intersection where the statue of King Kamehameha rules the roost, and simply be amazed I was there.

Be sure to check Ramana's Musings .