The Store, Whiting, VT
Before I worked at Simmonds in Vergennes, VT, I worked at Standard Register, in Middlebury, Vt. Standard Register was a company that published all types of printed material. My position was a close out clerk. What that entailed was proofreading the finished products for any mistakes or errors. The job was boring, but it brought money in. I had quite a few friends there, Bill Taylor was one of them. I think he was in some sort of sales position for the company. He lived in the same town as me, so we would ride together occasionally when the need arose. I didn’t care to ride with him after I discovered how fast of a driver he was. Bill was a character, he had been from Hawaii, after meeting a Vermont girl who was living over there. He married her and as the usual course of events occurred, she wanted to return to her home state, and poor Bill followed her back. I believe they had 3 girls together. Bill had been an acting double for the character of Dano, on the Hawaii FIVE-O TV show. He always wore some loud and crazy tie to work. My stay at Standard Register wasn’t that long and I moved on to buy my own business in Whiting, VT. Bill Taylor and his family lived in that town, so although I no longer worked with Bill, I still saw him quite often when he would get gas, and or, other items from my store.
This little Amoco gas station had a convenience store attached to it along with an apartment overhead. The Store had one picture window in the front on the left side of the front door. To the left of the window was the two bay garage. Out in front where the two Amoco gas pumps. The place looked a lot like a regular home with an addition added to the top, where my apartment was. Behind the picture window inside, stood a big old wooden office desk where the cash register sat. Behind the desk I had bought a love seat where my girlfriend and I often sat.
One snowy, stormy night I was sitting in the middle of the store, wondering if any customers would ever come, I was, humming, singing a popular song of the day that had as one of its lyric, “Fred is dead.” Sitting in the middle of the store, on a stool, not feeling that well, I was coming down with a cold, who walks in, but my friend from Standard Register days, Bill Taylor. He was wearing his greenish parka, which was open, and he had on a pair of galoshes which were unzipped. I said, “Hi, Fred, How’s it going?” Bill and I exchanged some small talk, he paid for his gas and left the store to go pick up Judy, his wife, who was at some kind of women’s party. Not feeling that well, I got Holly to come down from the apartment overhead and take over running the store while I went and laid down upstairs.
Later in the evening, when it was time to close and take Holly home, she came upstairs to wake me. Upon awakening she told me what had happened. After Bill had left my store, he had gone down the road, around the corner, lost control of his car, slid down the road sideways and hit a tree, with the driver’s side of the car striking a tree and killing him almost instantly! Was my calling him “Fred” when he entered my store earlier some sort of premonition of what was to come?
