Motels A Night in Albany and Other Places
Over the years, I worked with sales reps that were assigned to me. I would get in my car and drive to their area. Most of the time, I would ride with them in their car after meeting up with them. Sometimes, just due to the route and the schedule, it might be that I would follow along and then we might split up later and I would go home. A typical day in a rural territory could involve getting up early, doing a lot of riding, making a lot of calls, loading and unloading the car for samples eight or ten times, and working displays to update the samples and arriving at a motel at 6 PM dead tired.
Due to the very conservative nature of the company that I worked for, we were expected to keep costs low and not stay in expensive motels or eat expensive meals. I refused to stay in dumps but sometimes in the rural areas their best motel was a dump. My per-day motel and meal allowance when I started in 1968 was $8.50. And, yes, you could get a room, dinner and breakfast for $8.50 back then. And, by the way, we were expected to double up when possible!
Once, in Columbus, I stopped at a motel that several people from our company used when in town. I had never stayed there before. I checked in and paid in advance for the room. That’s how they did it mostly then and credit cards were seldom accepted or used.
I got my stuff out and climbed the outside stairs up to the second floor. I went in the room and it was damp, dark and dreadful. I thought about leaving immediately but decided that I would make do and go get a sandwich as I was tired.
I went to a fast food place, picked up sandwich and headed back to the room. As I was climbing the stairs again, I heard someone call my name. I was startled to see a fellow that I had gone to high school with coming down the steps. He was accompanied by two pretty rough looking women. He says how great it is to see me and asked if I wanted to go have drinks and dinner with him and his friends. I told him I had already picked up a burger and thought I would just head to the room. He responded that they would bring a couple of bottles of liquor back with them and would come over to my room and we would have a party when they got back!
The prospect of this guy coming over to my room did not sound too appealing to me. He had been sent to prison in Macon for killing his then girlfriend’s 5 year old child in the bathtub. He was first charged with murder but I think he pled guilty to manslaughter and went away for some time.
They went to their car with the idea of coming back and joining me for the evening. As soon as they pulled out, I put my stuff in my car. I went to the office and told the lady I wanted a refund because the room was damp and had an odor. She complained but gave me the money. I was gone in a flash! I never went back there!
Once in Statesboro, I could not get the key to open the motel room door. I walked across the courtyard back to the office to tell them about the problem. While I was walking over, the man and woman that were in the room threw open the door and fled! They left underwear, their shoes, their Jim Beam and the TV on! They were not expecting company!
Once in Alabama, I checked into a Holiday Inn. It was cold and raining and was during a big energy crisis so all the motels were not leaving the heat on much if any at all. I got to the room and put my stuff down and looked for the thermostat. As soon as I moved the thermostat, the power went off. Not just in my room but the whole building. I picked up the phone to call the office and it took several attempts as everyone was calling. When I got them they said the maintenance man was working to get the power back on and it should not be long.
In a few minutes, the power came on. Once again, I went to the thermostat to try to get my heat going. Once again, as soon as I touched the thermostat, the power went out in the whole building. This time, I noticed a spark in the thermostat when I moved it. There was evidently a bare wire touching the metal thermostat base. I called the office again and told the person I thought the problem was my thermostat. I was basically told that I did not know that I was talking about and the maintenance man would get the power back on in a few minutes.
As soon as the power came on, I immediately moved the thermostat. Off went the power. It came back on and I did it again. Off went the power. I called the front office again. I told them to get me a new room and get the maintenance man over to fix the thermostat. They finally did both.
During that energy crisis, we had a big Armstrong meeting in Atlanta at the Hyatt Regency Hotel involving about 300 people. It was a cold January day when I checked in. They were sending up someone with each guest to turn the heat on to the prescribed settings during this time. When we got to my room on about the 7th floor, it was cold! The fellow apologized and turned up the thermostat and told me it would be warm in a few minutes.
After about thirty minutes, I called and told them my room was not getting warm and could I move to another room. I was told to please be patient and there were no more rooms to move me to as they were completely sold out.
I started looking at the thermostat and the heater and I noticed that the big drapes covering the windows were moving. I pulled the drapes back and to my surprise, there was no window! It was completely gone and someone had stood a piece of plywood up and leaned it against the wall to cover the opening. It did not take an Einstein to figure that this room was not getting warm before July!
I called down and told them I had to have a new room and explained the problem. I was told that I must be mistaken about the window and they would send a maintenance person to my room. He arrived and saw the window missing and he called downstairs. They told me to come down, bring my bags and they would see about moving me to another hotel.
When I got down to the front desk, the manager was there and said they would try to find me a room elsewhere. I was riding with some other guys and did not have a car.
I told the manager to look at my booking and he would see that I was with the Armstrong Group and that I was in charge of that group and was responsible for their being there. (I wasn’t, but he was not wanting to argue at this point). I said, “If I leave, I’m taking the whole Armstrong Group with me.” They suddenly found me a room that did not exist two minutes before. No one ever explained why there was no window in the room.
In 1997, we had to go to Wilmington, Delaware to meet with Mannington Mills regarding our becoming their distributor. I had been tasked with getting a meeting and they had agreed that we would come up but they did not think we could make this work at this time.
But Chip (the company owner), David and I went up to Wilmington. They had a stretch limo pick us up and drive us from Philadelphia to Wilmington, Delaware to the Dupont Hotel. Now this was not your budget motel. The cheapest rooms were about $399 and the nicest ones were about $1299…..per night. Mannington had picked the spot and reserved the rooms at their expense! Not too shabby! We were to have dinner there that evening with their execs and go to a meeting at their headquarters the following day to discuss the possibility of the business relationship.
When we arrived, Chip got sidetracked for a few minutes and David and I went to check in. David walked up to the counter and said we were checking in and that we were with the Siegel Company. They checked him and me in and we went to our rooms. When I got to my room, it was nice. Plush bathrobes, towels, TV in the bathroom, and a separate living room and bedroom arrangement. A nice suite. My phone rang and it was David. He could not get over his room and how nice it was. I agreed with him.
In a few minutes, David came down to my room and we were to go meet Chip and the others for dinner. He looked around my room but did not say too much. When we got to where Chip was waiting, I mentioned the niceness of the hotel and Chip, too, was impressed.
It was several weeks later before David made a confession. His room was twice as big as my room. Mannington had requested that Chip have the best room, about 1200 sq. feet but the hotel had mistakenly given his room to David. The $1300 room was where David stayed and Chip and I got the lowly $399 rooms! David never told Chip and neither did I. But, we made the deal with Mannington so I guess it was OK.
There was a hotel at Northside Drive and I-75 in Atlanta that was very near the office. I stayed there from time to time when I was in town. It was the Royal Coach Hotel and looked like an old castle. They had a sign over the registration counter that said something like, “Don’t worry if you get lost looking for your room. The architect got lost in here when we were building the place and he has not been heard for since.” I believe that was a distinct possibility.” But the Opry Land Hotel was the most walking I ever did. The Wildenmann in Lucerne, Switzerland was the oldest I ever stayed in at 500 years old. Doors were so low you had to duck or hit your head going in and out.
I had a lot of funny experiences in motels. And, I had an unusual stay at the Holliday Inn in downtown Albany, Ga. one evening. It had been a long two or three days working with the rep who lived in Albany. We had driven a lot and made a lot of calls. I usually stayed in a quiet family run motel on the other side of town that my uncle had stayed at for years when he worked at his branch in Albany but they did not have any rooms. So, I had to stay at the Holiday Inn. Downtown Albany. This place was swarming with people and a lot of stuff went on there. It did not have a quiet family atmosphere.
I was dog tired and my car had a lot of stuff including slide projectors, clothes, and sales materials. I was afraid to park it except in a well-lighted area. I waited until someone pulled out of a spot and pulled in as near my room as possible. I had concerns about my personal safety and the safety of my car. It seemed there was a big crowd of people partying at the motel.
Once my car was parked, I took my suitcase and sales bag up to the room with the idea I would get comfortable, wash my face and go get something to eat. It was getting dark at about 6:00PM by the time I got to the room.
I laid my wallet and keys on the dresser, hung up my clothes and changed from my suit to my jeans. I sat down on the foot of the bed and called home to let my wife know where I was (no cell phones then) and I turned the TV on to look at the news.
The next thing I remember, I was waking up and lying on the bed in my jeans. I had fallen asleep and slept the entire night in my jeans on the foot of the bed. It was about 7:00 AM. My wallet and keys were where I had left them. I had not been robbed or mugged and I hoped my car was ok.
I got a shower and rounded up my stuff to go to the car. I could not find my room key. This was back in the day when you got an actual key and they charged you if you lost it. After looking everywhere, including going through my bags and clothes again, I decided to give up looking.
I opened the door to leave and there it was! The key was in the door from where I had used it to get in the room the night before! It had been there all night! I guess the crowd was not as dangerous as I had thought!
©2015 JC