I met Charlie Pressley at my first hi-tech job after finishing Trade School in '91. He was that old guy from the Phone Department and I was that new guy in the newly formed Network group of the also new Computer department. The rules required technicians work in teams of two so we ended up working together since he was in a department by himself and tradition held that the newest guy in our group had to work with Charlie.
Back in the old days Charlie was the Department lead with people working under him and a big budget to spend money managing five hundred phones and faxes but now all the money was going to the new Network project. Suddenly phones had lost all their all their budget and importance. Charlie ended up working with me as his reluctant helper on loan from another group.
The other teams called us Katz and Pressley but managed to make it sound disrespectful and they made sure we got all the worst jobs. We were working at a mid-size hardware company that was moving from a product line of dialup modems to network adapter cards. Charlie and I spent most of our time pulling cables and punching down connectors in a constant flurry of office moves and cube relocations as the company grew. Occasionally we got called on real issues for the computer group but it was never enough for me.
At first Charlie and I didn't have a lot of respect for each other. I thought he was a crazy old man and he thought I was a young punk. He had these super thick glasses with lots of hair coming out all around his head except in the expected places. He also had a deep voice with a slow delivery that was a little too deliberate leaving an overall bad impression. He didn't think much of me either as I liked punk music and was more interested in setting up Computer Bulletin Boards than learning about phones.
Then a funny thing happened. The more we worked together the more we gradually gained mutual respect which in turn led to our recurring success. As much as I liked taking the credit it became clear that Charlie was the root to the solution for most problems even though he could barely read and write. He was lucky more than anything. He was always stumbling into the stinkiest mess and coming out smelling like a rose.
Then we started getting more and more real jobs assigned to us and to everyone's surprise we became one of the best teams in the department . As we developed a reputation for getting things done we started getting the hardest tickets and that's when I realized just how much help Charlie could be in spite of his limitations. He always made friends with anyone we met along the way and he always told funny stories to keep things going.
There was a recurring debate regarding the correct pronunciation of his name. Charlie insisted it was just like Elvis and sounded like Presley while I kept telling him that the double "s" meant it had to rhyme with "dress" as in Pressley. He ought to know how to say his own name and it just shows how arrogant I was back then and just how little I respected him at first.
Then we started going to lunch every so often and he opened up about his personal life and his various interests such as ham radio, a collection of adding machines and even raising chickens. He brought examples of each the next day in the form of the FAA operators manual, a classic hand powered adder and one dozen fresh brown eggs.
Our lunch evolved from every so often into almost every day as we had more calls to the branch offices. Between rides in the van and meals on the road I started to learn more about how Charlie came up through the ranks over the years. One story told how he got his limp from falling off a telephone pole when he was just starting out as a young lineman and after that he ended up working in the phone switch room.
A few years later we were the top team for troubleshooting and firefighting and finally had some respect in our department. Then the world changed and they laid Charlie off. The old modems weren't selling anymore and the new network cards weren't selling yet so there was a big layoff to save money. All the various computer departments were consolidated into a single IT department and all the phone work was to be outsourced.
Charlie didn't seem to mind and was starting to enjoy his early retirement but I soon found I couldn't get anything done without his help. The first time we got in a crunch at work the boss agreed to pay Charlie one time just to help out. Then it happened again and before long we ended up calling him back to help us on a regular part time basis.
The HR folks suggested it would be easier if Charlie had a business and he asked for my help and that's how we ended up starting a small company together so we could get contract work hours with the Corporate Headquarters. Charlie and I went into business and that led to us getting work on the side with other high tech companies in our area. It was always my intention to go into semi-retirement by contracting so this gave me a chance to practice without having to actually quit yet.
We called our little company Columbia Interlocking Services. Our two main competitors were Northwest Systems Technologies and Solution Integrators Network. We called them the Nasties and the Sinners and they called us the Sissies. We often ended up working on the same jobs after the other guy failed to put out the fire or the customer wanted a second opinion.
We got the same jobs because we all got them from the same dispatcher who had once been classmates with myself and the guys running the Nasties and the Sinners. There was mutual respect among everyone when the only goal was profit and the only enemy was stupid computers.
With our new company all setup and customers waiting we were in the perfect situation to find the best and most interesting of all the challenging jobs in our area. That's how we ended up with the first of our series of unusual incidents starting with Curious Case #1: The Power Problem. That is next week's Chapter.
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