Medford mail tribune., May 01, 1960, Image 42

Confessions of a Moving Man
Every year 30 million Americans change addresses; some do it with tears,
others with laughs but few without some surprise for the men who tote their stuff back and forth
By JEROME C. CIRKER
The job looked simple enough. This couple was
making the move from an apartment to a house.
But as soon as my crew started bringing in the fur
niture, the fireworks started. "Put the love seat in
front of the fireplace," said the wife.
"Nuts!" replied the husband, "I want my lounge
chair there."
And so it went Whatever idea she had, he was
against and vice versa. We weren't enjoying this
moving job one bit unlike the trio on today's
family weekly cover. In fact, we figured that any
minute they would head for the divorce court
Then one of my moving men got the couple to
gether and said, "Look, folks, is this the way you
want to get started in your new home?" Immedi
ately, they stopped bickering, relaxed, and invited
us all to have a drink with them. By the time the
job was done, they were standing in the middle
of their new living room, his arm around her and
her head on his shoulder, both of them lost in
admiration of their new domain.
Strange cases like this come to be almost routine
in this mad moving business my family's been in
for so many years. When we opened the door of
a house in New York years ago to remove its con
tents at public order, we were greeted by a really
incredible sight; piles of newspapers and junk
battered furniture, tin cans, even hunks of auto
mobiles were stacked from floor to ceiling. We
went about the job of removing what seemed to
be the accumulated debris of a lifetime, when sud
denly one of my men came upon the body of an
elderly man buried under the papers.
It took us five days to remove the SO tons of
trash from this house. And for months, newspapers
and magazines printed stories about its occupants
the famous Collyer brothers. For years, this pair
of aged recluses scions of a once-wealthy and
prominent family had refused to have anything
to do with the outside world and had buried
themselves within their clut tered mansion.
We handle the moving for a lot of well-known
personalities. When we moved Steve Allen, his
family, and 22 members of his company from
New York to California last summer, it turned out
to be an experience almost as unpredictable as
Steve's show. We were all set to go when a rush
call came from California to pick up some shirts
that Steve had left at a laundry. In spite of this
and similar problems, we enjoyed' the job and
found Steve to be funnier off-screen than he is on.
I understand that each year over 30 million
Americans move to new addresses and that the
average person moves almost a dozen times in his
life. Believe me, every time it's an occasion for
highly seasoned emotions. People always have
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mixed reactions to changes and they often reveal
their deepest feelings in moving to a new home.
Not long ago, we were hired for what looked like
a routine move to a small house in Pennsylvania,
The woman was all packed when we arrived, but
as we went to work the tears started to flow.
It turned out she was leaving her husband after
IS years of marriage, but now that she saw her
home being stripped bare of all she loved, her hus
band's transgressions seemed small compared to
a future without him. Well, it happened that one
of the crewmen had a daughter who had gone
through a similar experience and had decided to
forgive her husband; now she was a happy house
wife again, with three darling children. After he
had talked with the woman awhile, she told us to
bring everything back in!
That was one moving job we didn't mind losing.
Another job I won't soon forget involved an
elderly couple who, after living in the same
house for 47 years, were moving to a home for the;
aged. All their belongings, the cherished posses
sions of a lifetime, were being given to charity.
And as we loaded the van, we saw them walking)
down the path away from their home, hand in
hand, with never a backward glance.
A few years ago, a woman moving from New
Jersey to Iowa wanted to take along ISO house
plants, all neatly arranged in an open crate. She
handed the moving man a watering can and gave
him detailed instructions on how to care for them.
When he protested that he wasn't allowed to
transport plants, she called him a brute, a monster,
and an enemy of God's green growing things. In
fact, she didn't calm down until he promised to
take all the plants home with him and give them
the loving care they were accustomed to.
Funny thing is that this guy, who'd never grown
anything but whiskers, now his become talented
and enthusiastic gardener! -
COVCH:
Fred ruin shouts us a pause in (he day'
occupation as a jolly threesome indnloes
tit a bit of moving harmony. It's alt part
of a fascinating job, as you'll sec in
"Confessions of a Mowing Man," above.
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