I quit my day job to become a musician

      It was during the 60’s and I was working for the AAA in NYC. My job, along with ten others, was to sit around a long table at the headquarters on East 79^th St. in a lovely old Town House. It was 9 to 5 with an hour off for lunch and ten minutes on the hour to stand, stretch, visit the bathroom, etc. Very rigid and boring.

     A few minutes after 9 am the bags of mail would arrive from people all over the USA who belonged to the AAA, and a request to send a map with a green line we would make on the best route(s) to go from one city to another. The large mail bags would be dumped on the table and each of us had several hundred to complete that day. Or else. A drill sargeant would enter the room many times to see if we were not goofing off. He was a silver haired employee in his 50’s who had been in the Marines during World War II. An officer, but no gentleman. “Keep going you grunts,” he would shout. “ No screwing around on company time.”

      I was in a waiting period of six months in order to obtain my New York Local 802 Musician’s Union card. Then I could perform as a percussionist. I had my eye on the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, 55 fine musicians playing four shows a day.

     After 4 months on the job with the AAA I was freaking out from that treadmill to oblivion. I would hyperventilate at the end of each day as I bolted for the door at 5 pm. I had to get out of this job somehow and not lose unemployment insurance, by being let go, rather than fired.

     I got my chance when one letter from a woman in Great Neck Estates, written on expensive paper with her name in gold letters, asked for a scenic route from her home to Asbury Park, NJ. Well, it’s a kind of direct route over the George Washington Bridge, or through the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels.

    But Mrs. Rubenstein underlined “scenic route.” So I drew my green line on the Grand Central Parkway west to the Hudson River Parkway, then North to Montreal, Canada along the Hudson River most of the way. Then west to the Palisades Parkway and South all the way on the other side of the Hudson River down to Asbury Park, NJ. This would be an overnight trip and I had suggested a nice Bed and Breakfast Inn near Montreal. This will certainly be my ticket to freedom.

     Sure enough, several days later, I was summoned into the AAA director’s office. There sat Mrs. Rubenstein, along with her chauffer.  She was in her 70’s and if eyes could kill, she had them right on me. (I had to sign all my map trips). The director, Homer Hotchkiss, recited the circumstances:  “Mr. Abel you sent this lady on a long journey overnight that would normally have taken two or three hours. How could you do this?”

     “Well sir,” I responded.  “I could see from her letter that she lived in an expensive area of Long Island and wanted to travel to her destination in New Jersey via a scenic route. So I prescribed one, in the spirit of the AAA policy for being properly responsive.”

     Mr. Hotchkiss looked at me with no sympathy; Mrs. Rubenstein just glared and tapped her gold handled cane on the floor. She said angrily, “We drove four hours North until I realized we were going out of our way. Wasted time, gas and money.”

     I apologized and was interrupted by Mr. Hotchkiss. “Clean out your locker, turn in your green marker and pick up two weeks severance pay. We’re laying you off now.”

PS I had a nice two week vacation and then went to work at Radio City Music Hall.