Motorola Friends

I came to Motorola in 1989. Cell phones were just coming into popular use around the world and Motorola was at the top of the wave. Rick Chandler was head of the Cellular Division of Motorola and offered me a job as a buyer. Rick and his wife Karla had been my church youth group leaders in high school. They had opened their home to a bunch of us teenagers several times a week, even though they were raising young children and Rick was traveling a lot for Motorola. It was our haven from the pressures of school and parents. In many ways, Rick and Karla became our second parents. We carried on long discussions about the Vietnam War, religion, politics and drugs in their living room over pots of coffee. We went on retreats and cookouts and we sang our group’s theme song: They Will Know we are Christians by Our Love.

Many of us kept in touch with the Chandlers over the years and Rick’s offer of a job was a lifesaver for me at the time. I had worked as a buyer for Honeywell for many years, come through a divorce and was about to remarry. Things were looking up when the economy took a left turn and Honeywell began layoffs. I was one of the unfortunates. Going to work for Motorola put my life back on track and gave me financial stability at a time when I needed it the most. I entered a new chapter in my life. I owe a lot to Rick and his wife, Karla.

I became fast friends with two of my fellow buyers during my 10 years at Motorola. Jim Cahill and Jack O’Brien were my “comrades in arms” through our many office moves and changes in department management. It was our joint sense of humor and my love of practical jokes that got us through some tough times. I was the youngest and Jack was the oldest. Jim was the more practical one of the trio and he would often shake his head at some of the things Jack and I would pull for a laugh. Jack was the perfect foil for some of our humor. I always knew I could count on Jack to play along no matter what was afoot. Jack and I formed this fictitious company (O’Brien Enterprises) within Motorola to promote non-existent schemes and scams much to the bewilderment of Jim. “Youse guys are nuts!” he’d say, as he’d shake his head.

We still laugh about the “Great Christmas Card Contest.” We worked in cubicles next to each other and at Christmas time we would tape our greeting cards from our vendors to the outside of our cubicles. As buyers, we were not allowed to take gifts from vendors so our cards (or lack of cards) became something to notice. One year we decided to have a contest to see who could display the most cards. Unknown to Jack and Jim I decided to “stack the deck” after Jim was bragging about how many cards he had. I took a box of extra Christmas cards to some of the girls in the planning department and had them write sexy things to Jack and sign them with names like, “Trixie” and “Bubbles La Rue” or whatever they wanted. At the end of the day, I gathered up all the cards. Early the next morning, I taped them all over Jack’s cubicle. When Jack and Jim came in that morning, I promptly declared Jack the winner. People started coming over from other departments to see the cards and read the inscriptions and names. Jack was the hit of the office. Of course this led to grumbling from Mr. Cahill about where all the cards came from, so I started taping “used” (recycled?) cards on Jack’s cubicle. Well, this led to charges that Jack was hiring orphans to take used Christmas cards, scratch out names and write in Jack’s name on the card. For years, Jack and I have continued the long running gag about the orphanage and forged greeting cards in our annual Christmas letters.

I remember one time Jim was in the hospital and Jack and I decided to go visit him after work. We drove to the hospital and took the elevator up to his floor. The light was fading outside and Jim’s room appeared to be dark and empty. The bed was even made… and no Jim Cahill! Jack and I both looked at each other, afraid to say what we were thinking. Just then, out of the dark, came Jim’s voice, “What are you two doing here?” As we turned to scramble for the door, I noticed Jim sitting in the corner of the room, dressed and with his suitcase. In typical Cahill fashion, he had had enough of the hospital and the nurses and was planning to leave (against doctor’s orders as I recall). He scared the HELL out of us!

Jack took a medical leave once and was out for several weeks. When he was to return, I enlisted the help of some of the others in the office to “fix up” his cubical to welcome him back. They laid out cards and a few gifts, but I thought it needed another touch. I got some Halloween cobwebs and toy spiders and strung them around his desk. Then, I stacked folders and papers on the desk to make it look like all his work had piled up in his absence. Finally, I found a toy parrot that flapped its wings and talked when you clapped your hands. Since you can record what you want the parrot to say, I had to give it some thought. Jack is the older of our trio and I always teased him about his age, so when he walked into his cubicle the next morning I walked in behind him and clapped my hands. Immediately, the toy parrot came to life and began shouting, “Old Codger! Old Codger!” He knew right away that I was the perpetrator of the mechanical bird. The office had a great laugh and they knew that Jack was back. The rest of the morning I heard Jack on the other side of our cubicle wall grumbling about the “damn bird” and “how do you turn it off?” Jim just shook his head and looked at me. “Youse guys are nuts.”

Jack and Jim are retired from Motorola now and I left the company in 1999 to pursue freelance writing and some other things. We have kept in touch over the years and we love to reminisce about the years we spent in the corporate world. We were and remain the Three Amigos. It was quite a nice surprise then, when my friends decided to take a road trip, after all these years, and come to San Antonio for a visit. Jack, Jim and Jim’s wife, Sandra (poor Sandra!) drove down together in Jack’s new van from the snow and cold of Chicago’s winter to partake of our South Texas sunshine. I took my friends on a tour of the Alamo, the old Spanish Missions and the Mexican market place, El Mercado. We went out to dinner one night and the next morning Lisa and I took them out for breakfast tacos. We ended their visit with a cookout at our home here in San Antonio. It was so great to see my friends again, but unfortunately we learned of the death of our old Motorola boss, Rick Chandler, a week after our visit.

Motorola was a big part of my life and the people I met and worked with there will remain in my memories. Life is so short in the great scheme of things, but to laugh…is eternal.

FOOD for THOUGHT...