Robert C Andrews JR

At this time I would like to remember a friend. I will fill in a little background so as to not lose you. I met and fell in love with a woman on AOL in 1996. She lived about a lifetime and another world from me. I courted this woman and won her heart, which I treasure to this day. I packed up my life, and moved to a strange land where I barely spoke the language, in 97. I am an auto mechanic so I always have a job. I tried a few jobs, and didn't like the people, or pay, all the while getting homesick, and broke. I lasted the last job about four days when the girlfriend (now wife) told me to quit before I went up someone's head. ( another story for another day) I was angry and tired of assholes telling me to "Go home Yankee!" I was sick at heart and about to call it quits on South Carolina, and my love, when I walked into a big ole drafty barn of a building by the university, for an interview. This is where I met the man I would come to think of as Daddy Bob. It was an old run down building, kinda dark , and short on equipment by my standards. The man that interviewed me, about in his early sixties. He told me, "We have an old rundown building, one day I'll replace it, but for now, it leaks. I have five employees that have been here twenty years or more. If you decide to come to work for me you will get up to two raises a year at as much as fifty cents each." He then offered me a small starting salary, and a hell of a lot of work. He told me that there would be no yelling or cursing in his shop, by him or anybody else. It sounded like a peaceful place so I signed on. Day one: I got there early to unload my tools, and make a good impression. I forgot to tighten two wheels on the first damn job I did. Bob moved the vehicle about ten feet then stopped, got out and whispered to me, "We usually tighten the wheels on the cars before we let them go to the owners!" (continued)