Polaroid Portrait
Photo taken circa mid-1990's when I still covered the Delayed Coking Units. My friend Bobby L was one of the operators for the bridge cranes that the were located on the back side of our Coke Drum structure. Those cranes were used in order to lift petroleum coke from the large coke pit onto the hopper that fed the crusher (the structure in the background.)
Because I have an uncommon last name with 4 syllables that can be mispronounced by most people, Bobby decided just to call me 'Hoss' which in a way rhymes with the first syllable of my name. I was accustomed to such abbreviations because through school some of my friends had various nicknames for me that were vaguely rooted in my last name. This became especially common in junior high school where Physical Education (PE) instructors referred to students only by their last name (go figure). Even after I no longer covered the Coking Units, whenever Bobby saw me in other parts of the plant, he’d wave and call out with his big smile, “Heyyy, how’s it going HAWWsss?”
A bright and observant fellow, Bobby saw humor in a lot of things, never in a mean-spirited way. One time in the plant parking lot he saw me from maybe 65 or so feet away place a steering wheel lock onto my ‘89 Pontiac Bonneville, already over 10 years old with fading paint at the time. From a distance I could hear his voice hollering, “You don’t have put the Club* on your car Hoss! NO ONE is going to steal THAT!” :-D
*The Club was a brand of a popular steering wheel lock.
Polaroid Portrait
Photo taken circa mid-1990's when I still covered the Delayed Coking Units. My friend Bobby L was one of the operators for the bridge cranes that the were located on the back side of our Coke Drum structure. Those cranes were used in order to lift petroleum coke from the large coke pit onto the hopper that fed the crusher (the structure in the background.)
Because I have an uncommon last name with 4 syllables that can be mispronounced by most people, Bobby decided just to call me 'Hoss' which in a way rhymes with the first syllable of my name. I was accustomed to such abbreviations because through school some of my friends had various nicknames for me that were vaguely rooted in my last name. This became especially common in junior high school where Physical Education (PE) instructors referred to students only by their last name (go figure). Even after I no longer covered the Coking Units, whenever Bobby saw me in other parts of the plant, he’d wave and call out with his big smile, “Heyyy, how’s it going HAWWsss?”
A bright and observant fellow, Bobby saw humor in a lot of things, never in a mean-spirited way. One time in the plant parking lot he saw me from maybe 65 or so feet away place a steering wheel lock onto my ‘89 Pontiac Bonneville, already over 10 years old with fading paint at the time. From a distance I could hear his voice hollering, “You don’t have put the Club* on your car Hoss! NO ONE is going to steal THAT!” :-D
*The Club was a brand of a popular steering wheel lock.