nuhawk

That ain't happening here. If you're in a county jail for more than a few days ICE and IMF come calling. All the newbies get shipped out. These guys get busted for no DL, no insurance, improper equipment, the older ones know all the avenues. It's just the culture. The man that taught me the most about Central Texas Horticulture was a 72 yo Mexican man that had settled on the nursery land twenty years before I got there. We had to bail his *** out of jail for a chicken fight right after I started with the company. Pete didn't drink, walked home to his woman every night (next door), put three kids through Central Texas colleges and finally gave up driving after crashing in a local intersection at about the age of 80. I was there for that one.

I will never forget that day. I come upon the collision and Pete is wandering around in the intersection like a lost puppy. I have been out to a landscape service call and I am wearing my pruning tools which include a Buck 119. I park my truck in the middle of the intersection and go to collect the old man. When I get to him, he recogs me immediately and says, "I knew I could count on you Doug."

The cops are all over my ***. You can't wear equipment like that in a public environment. I kept asking them is Pete OK? what have you done to check him out? Eventually the yelling match subsided. I put the old man in my truck while this was all taking place.

Not that the pain was done - I asked him if he wanted to go home. No, he wanted to go see the wife who was a caretaker at a local laundrymat. I helped him into the building and she comes over in a very matter-of-fact presence. He was like a beat puppy. " I wrecked my car."

She said she would call one of the kids, and they hauled them both home to the place that is now worth several million dollars. They lived there for another Pete 3 yrs, and his missus 5. They lived in peace with their chickens.