The episode with the circus recalled that my closest brush with the animal kingdom was of the stuffed variety. While working the booking desk in Philadelphia I received a call from the owners of a "Ma and Pa" carnival group who wanted to send a trailerload of stuffed teddy bears to Honolulu for the Hawaii State Fair. Hawaiian rates were negotiable and we agreed on $3000. for trailer and contents - PREPAID. On the appointed day - Friday - they arrived at the pier and the "Ma" half of the partnership came into the chief clerk's office with a large carpet bag filled with 3000 crumpled up dollar bills which she proceeded to dump on his desk. Several longshoremen lingering there were bugeyed - the banks back then closed at 3PM - and the petty cash drawer couldn't accommodate this windfall so the poor cashier had to babysit it at home over the weekend. Talk about money laundering! But when all is said and done there is nothing like cash on the barrel - or on the Chief Clerk's desk!
tjs
(Above excerpted from EagleBlue No. 12 - March 2, 2006)
(Blogger will be out of pocket for a week as we head down to Cape May to check on the bird watchers as this is flyover season.)
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