You’ve got the job!  [seventh daily dose of Florida Rescue Mission]

When we get to Portland, Oregon, we stop in to visit Bev, a friend of both of ours from Legal Services in New Jersey.  She’s now an attorney with the Portland Legal Aid Society.  We get to her office around 4 p.m.  She’s excited to see us, listens to why we’re here (Bob is going on to Alaska and I’m catching the Amtrak in Seattle for St. Paul), and says,

Driving to the Ends of the Earth to settle down

“Bob!  They’re hiring an Executive Director for the Community Access Cable TV Station, tonight even! And I’m good friends with the President of the Board who just told me minutes ago how forlorn she was over the lack of any really good candidates for the job.”  Bob had been the producer of a local cable TV show during Bev’s time in South Jersey (which played a major role in our community organizing efforts, read “How I Came to be a Lawyer”).   Bob was also known for having produced some very good documentaries.

Well, we quick use Bev’s typewriter (no computers in those days) to hurriedly put together a Resume for Bob, and race over to the cable TV station.  We arrive out-of-breath, and yea! the Board President friend of Bev’s is there and the meeting to decide whom to hire hasn’t started yet.  She’s very glad to meet Bob and does a short interview.  Bob is a quick study and I already told you he was a great guy.   She says call from Seattle tomorrow and I’ll let you know.

In Seattle we visit Ginny, another friend from South Jersey, Bob makes the call:  “You’ve got the job!” she says, and Bob drops me off at the Amtrak station before turning the Volare around for Portland.  Bob became a fixture, even a legend, in Portland for the next 30 years, and I went on to become a State Legislator in Minnesota.