This was during one of my trips from Kodiak to Washington and the trip is a blur. I remember parts and pieces clearly but seem to have forgotten the purpose. I do know it was before the time I took my boat north.
Wait a minute. I had bought my boat and it was on the hard in Port Townsend. I was running an errand for a fishboat skipper. He needed a couple of parts and time was running short. He had already been sent the wrong part and in frustration had called the parts place and said he was sending someone to pick it up.
Twice he had gotten the wrong part delivered via overnight air and frustration had set in.
He had handed me a round trip ticket to Seattle and $100 cash and told me to match the part that was in my seabag. I took off like a shot and caught the bird to Seattle. I was met there by a business partner of his who drove me to his place and handed me the keys to a car and I took off for the parts house.
Trips like this were not common but they were totally not unheard of. Time was short and season openings wait for no boat.
The parts place didn't have the exact part I needed in stock but could get it by noon the following day. It was early and I had nothing to do.
It was about noon and I was in a supermarket picking up some traveling chow and met a fairly attractive woman that appeared to be interesting. She seemed mildly bored so I struck up a conversation with her. She had mentioned that the handful of men that she had dated were predictable. It was always the same dinner date in the same type places.
I laughed and told her I'd take her to lunch somewhere she had never even though of. She looked at me with curiosity and decided I was probably not a hatchet murderer and accepted. We paid for our groceries, hopped into my car and fifteen minutes later we were entering the cafeteria of a hospital. She was surprised to say the least and I explained that when I was 'on the road' I would occasionally walk into a hospital cafeteria for a change of pace. The food's generally edible and it's bright and airy instead of some dank candlelit dungeon that seemed fashionable at the time.
We talked and she was interesting. She seemed to have completely forgotten where she was. She was a divorced suburban housewife with the almost obligatory liberal arts education that meant she was not looking at much in the employment market. She was a few credits short and had planned to finish when she realized it would be a waste of time and money. Instead opportunity had come knocking and she had landed a job that paid the bills.
She asked me what I did and I told her I was a fisherman and when she asked about it I told her that explaining it was something that had to be experienced to understand. "It's not like being the guy on the fish stick box," I said.
She said it sounded like a lot of physical work in a constantly changing environment. I told her it was.
Then I grinned. "Did it ever occur to you that at some point in your life you would find yourself in a hospital cafeteria across from a homeless fisherman that barely finished high school?"
She looked stunned and looked around for a second. ''You're homeless?"
'Pretty much. I presently crash on a fishing boat in Kodiak. In about three months or so I will be living on my sailboat which is now on the hard in Port Townsend." Then I explained what had brought me to town.
(Little did I realize then that it would later take me 3 months of sailing to get the boat to Kodiak.)
She asked me what brought me to town and I explained that I was picking up a part and told her about the remarkable lack of success that had been experienced in getting what was needed.
Suddenly she laughed and shook her head and said to me, "You're right. I never in my life thought that I would find myself in a hospital cafeteria having lunch with a homeless Alaska fisherman. I also never thought I'd accept a lunch invitation from some guy I met. Next time you're in town maybe we can do something together."
We traded contact information. Her eyes raised when she read 'Piccolo. General Delivery Kodiak AK 99615' I saw her surprise and told her that I seldom got mail but when I did Joey who worked in the PO would tell people I knew and inside a few hours I'd get word and run up and get it. (one of the joys of living in a small town)
After lunch I dropped her off at her car and we parted company. Then s a Hail Mary I went to the parts place and found out the part was due in early. I told the clerk I would take a nap in the car. A half hour I was summoned, went in and confirmed the part and called the car owner. Then I got on the horn and called Alaska airlines to see if I could get out that evening. I had the car owner drop me off at SeaTac and flew into Anchorage, dozed off in the airport and caught the morning flight back to Kodiak.
The skipper was a happy camper and if he was happy then so was I.
Later when I returned to Washington to pick up my boat I considered calling her but decided against it. I was up to my ears in getting a boat ready for a long trip and figured I didn't have a whole lot of time. That was coupled with the fact that once she was in the water I still had to teach myself to sail.
Besides there was really no serious chemistry there. She had been an interesting person but there was no real spark there.
Looking back on it I'm still glad I took her to lunch because at least she was interesting and is a good memory to look back on.
There were a number of other off the wall impromptu dates here and there and my advice to the younger guys is think outside of the box.
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