The SLO Baggage Handler

Okay, I'm getting way out of order, but I actually had a request of sorts. After working all over the Bay Area, Reno, Bakersfield and most every other station in our District, even selling the last tickets at Truckee, I decided to make a move. I had been living in San Francisco with my partner Nick. We decided to move to San Luis Obispo, which we did in February of 1981. I bid into the job of station agent due to the sudden, unexpected death of the previous long-time agent, George "Pookie" Mello. George was a truly fine guy, and I had been looking forward to working with him. Nick and I had gone through SLO early in February on our way to Mexico on vacation. I hopped off the train at SLO and told George I was going to bid down to SLO. I hope that didn't bring on the fatal heart attack!
One of the really awful things about SLO was setting up and working baggage. Both the northbound and southbound Coast Starlights were scheduled into SLO within minutes of each other. Once the SP did away with Telegraphers, we never knew which train would be in first. We frequently had up to four trailer loads of baggage for each train - and only three trailers! So you loaded which one you hoped would come in first. If it didn't, you did a LOT of quick running around to unload and reload the carts. Not a job for me any more!
That funny looking guy in the picture is me, by the way.