Jerry 2 The year is 1988.  The train is #48.  The Lakeshore Limited.   Chicago to New York.  Jerry and I are working the two sleeping cars to New York.  He’s working what we called the “Slumber Coach” , kind of second class sleeper, and I’m working the “10/6” sleeper, the first class sleeper.  Reporting to work that sunny fall afternoon I was informed that the head of our company would be traveling to New York with me.  Great I thought.  These trips to NY were hard enough as it were, now I have the CEO on my car.  Lol  While the train is in the yard the mechanical people fix the trains, the coach cleaners clean it and we, the On Board Service people set up our cars for the trip.  Usually you don’t see much of the mechanical people.  They were never around back then.  They always found somewhere to hide out and sleep.  Lol  The coach cleaners were the same way.  They just cleaned enough to get by.  But not this day.  Lol  There were so many yard people on my car making sure every light worked, sink shined, carpets cleaned…you name it.  They were paying extra attention to room #1.  This was the room the CEO was to occupy.  God was it ever pathetic.  Lol  They even had a guy in there with touch-up paint covering up all the scratches.  Lol  Well we load up the people and head out of town.  The CEO got on my car and went straight into room #2.  Hahaha.  Nobody wanted to tell him he was in the wrong room so he stayed where he was.  Some nice old lady got room #1.  That, I thought, was poetic justice.   Lol  The CEO being an old rail road man, liked to drink.  I believe he was half crocked when he boarded the train.  He didn’t say boo to anyone.  He said about 10 words to me the whole trip as well.  Kind of a strange guy I thought.  He kept getting lost too.  He kept going the wrong way when heading to the dinning car.  Lol  Ending up in the crew car and being confused as all hell.  I had to point him in the right direction all trip.  Now back then Amtrak offered wine and cheese to it’s sleeping car passengers.  We got two cases of 10oz bottles of wine.  One red the other white.  We are suppose to hand these out to our people after we leave the station.  Jerry came into my car and asked if he could take some wine back to his car.  The people riding in the Slumber Coach didn’t get the wine and cheese.  I figured he was trying to make some extra tips and was going to hand it out to some of his people.  Seeing how I had more than I needed I said sure, take what you need.  Well he took half a case, 24 bottles of the white.  He never did hand them out though.  They were for his personal consumption.  Lol  This I didn’t know until I went to get him for dinner.  I just walked by his room, never stopping, and said “Jerry, dinner.  Come on.”  I went up to the diner sat down and watched Jerry “stroll” on in.  He’s bouncing back and forth off the walls and has this chit-eating grin on his face.  Eyes blood shot and glazed.  He sits down at the table.  The other attendant and I just look at one another.  Here he is drunk off his butt with the CEO not only on the train but sitting one table behind us.  We can’t believe it.  Jerry begins to “flirt”, and that’s putting it mildly, with the dining car Stuart Jacky.  He’s talking in a loud voice, making comments about the way she walks.  Were trying to tell him to shut up.  That if he liked his job he best knock it off and now.   He keeps it up but in a quite voice.  I just want to burry my head in my mashed potatoes.  Lol We hurry him through his meal and get him back to his car.  I tell him not to come out of his room.  Just go to sleep and I will cover his car.  Well that worked for about an hour.  I walk around the corner of my car and what do I see but Jerry and the CEO in the vestibule between the cars talking.  Lol  Oh man, he’s toast I’m thinking.  I walk into the vestibule and it smells like a distillery.  Lol  Seems Jerry was not the only drunk employee on the train.  Hahaha.  Now Jerry talks with a heavy accent.  For those of you who remember Cheech and Chong, Jerry talked just like Cheeh.  Lol  He was telling the CEO some crap about his kids and how sick they were and how he needed to make more money so he could pay their medical bills.  Hahaha.  How his house was being taken away from him because he was behind in the mortgage.   All lies.  Lol  He was trying to hustle the CEO for God’s sake!!!!!  I butt in asking the CEO if he wanted his room made down.  All the while getting inbetween him and Jerry.  I keep looking at Jerry and nodding for him to leave.  It was the break the CEO was looking for because he said yes and made a B-line to his room.  Lol  Jerry finally went to sleep and so did the CEO.  Jerry pretty much behaved himself until the train was going under Park Avenue and into Grand Central Station.  The CEO was waiting by the door to get off and Jerry was at him again about all his “hard times”.  Lol  He was even telling him about the mother in-law who was living with them now.  God this was getting deep.  Lol  With a long sigh the CEO reaches into his pocket and hands Jerry a $50 dollar bill.  Hahaha.  Unbelievable.  Jerry’s all thank you’s now.  We stop and everybody gets off.  CEO gives me $10.  Hmmmmm………  Thinkin’ maybe I need to take up drinkin at work.  Hahaha.                                                 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~