The summer after my senior year of college was spent driving from one town to the next looking for the elusive English teaching position. English majors were a dime a dozen in those days and I remember 200 applicants for one position in Minnetonka. I was excited because I'd landed an interview in Mankato so mom and dad filled up my car with gas, wished me luck and I was on my way.
Around Clearwater I started noticing some problems with my car. The temperature gauge was high and climbing. Of course it was late in the evening and there were no mechanics open to assist me. I had to be to my interview by 8 am so my options were limited. I called dad. He hopped in the car, drove the four hours to Clearwater and picked me up. In the meantime I hung out at a truck stop and read a book. When dad got there we headed down to Mankato and I made it there in time for the interview. Dad rented a hotel room slept for a couple of hours and then picked me up. We made the trip back to Clearwater, he fixed my car, and headed back home.
The funny thing about the whole trip was that I never worried for a second about making it to my job interview. I knew my dad would drop everything and come and get me. That's just what he did. After all that work you're probably wondering if I got the job. Nope. In fact, after I had spent 90 minutes writing an essay about my philosophy of education they told me that they already had a candidate but they wanted a back up "in case". My dad and I laughed about that on the way home.
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