Chuck and Remo worked together as dockworkers for Roadway Express for a decade, so they have plenty of shared memories. As we walked around, they brought up many frightful characters. They spoke of an intimidating ex Marine who had the disconcerting habit of suddenly grabbing another man's genitals or kissing him. Suspected of stealing guns from the dock, the nut squeezer even smooched an FBI agent. He finally killed himself with a .357.
A company executive would ask odd sexual questions during job interviews. "Do you like to wear your wife's panties?" He claimed it revealed personality traits.
Irked at a newly hired supervisor from Boston, a black worker showed his sullen mamba to this annoying gent as he was talking on the phone. Traumatized, the man quit. This reminds me of a white friend's take on a famous Robert Mapplethorpe photo, "That's every white man's biggest fear. To see a huge black penis from some guy in a suit."
"Isn't it weird, Chuck," I said, "the guy's reaction? I think it's incredible he would let go of his job over that."
"I used to see black penises all the time," Jack added. "They were all lined up in a row. In the shower."
Once, Remo grabbed the neck of a foreman but was not fired. Unionized and in skilled jobs, workers obviously had more leverage then. Now, you can be fired with no pretext, for there's plenty of fresh meat waiting just outside the door.
Done with what's left of Centralia, we all went to Dorko's in Mount Carmel, four miles down Route 61. Remo's wife bartends here, and this is where he goes regularly to chat and sometimes to play shuffleboard or shoot darts. Remo's health prevents him from downing the cheap Yuengling. A while back, a reader complained that I was talking to too many folks in bars, but lady, people the world over talk to each other while drinking. It's called socializing. At its peak, Centralia had a population of less than 2,761 but 27 bars, so go back to your chatroom, lady, and leave me to my fermented hop and Remo to his spring water. We're talking.
Wine in, words out, goes a Vietnamese saying. In Dorko's, I talked to a man who had lived in half a dozen countries during his Army stint. He spent three years in Italy, loved it, and almost married a woman there. He still thinks the USA is best, however, "We have the most freedom."
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