{"id":1965,"date":"2010-08-25T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-08-25T12:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/?p=1965"},"modified":"2012-03-26T16:47:59","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T20:47:59","slug":"ted-ski","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/25\/ted-ski\/","title":{"rendered":"TED “SKI”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Ted Budzowski was<\/strong><\/span> my dad’s favorite building manager.\u00a0 Maybe because they were both Teds.<\/p>\n

My dad was “Ted” at work and “Toby” at home. \u00a0Ted Budzowski was “Ski” at his day job (crane operator at Republic Steel) and “Ted” around the building.<\/p>\n

Ted Budzowski could have treated me like a silver-spoon son of a boss, but instead he invited me down to the mill on family day.\u00a0 I didn’t make it to the mill for some reason.\u00a0 Everything was air-conditioned at the mill now, Ted said, including his crane cab.<\/p>\n

I eventually caught a tour of the mill with the Society for Industrial Archeology.\u00a0 The slabs of molten steel coming from the furnace looked like creamsicles.\u00a0 Big red melting blocks.<\/p>\n

My dad and Ted<\/strong><\/span> talked in a clipped cadence, like telegrams.\u00a0 Ted would say, “The kid [tenant] is hanging on by the grace of God.”\u00a0 That meant pay up.<\/p>\n

“That tenant is a troublemaker,” my dad answered.<\/p>\n

“The kid better not raise a rumpus.”<\/p>\n

“He’s thinks he’s cute.” Toby said.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, tell it to the judge,” Ted said.<\/p>\n

“Give him an eviction notice.”<\/p>\n

Ted had two Stratoloungers in his living room, an Okinawan mongoose-and- cobra souvenir, and a tree-stump occasional table, which his son had made. The son lost $8,000 on tree stump tables, which never caught on big in Cleveland.\u00a0 The good news was the son also was a retired career solider.<\/p>\n

\"Ted<\/a>

Ted Budzowski, 1978, age 63<\/p><\/div>\n

Toby and Ted were<\/strong><\/span> about the same age. \u00a0\u00a0Toby was from Kinsman Road, and Ted had grown up in Youngstown, Ohio, near Cowshit Hill (a real place).\u00a0 Ted’s kids had made it out, just like Toby’s. \u00a0\u00a0Ted’s second son worked for the phone company.<\/p>\n

When Ted retired to Texas to live near his military son, I hired Buck, a hard case who had grown up in a Tennessee orphanage.\u00a0 Buck didn’t like certain people, particularly sons of bosses.\u00a0 Buck thought many routine tasks — cleaning up after tradesmen, watering outdoor plants — were not part of the job.<\/p>\n

Buck frequently got “porky” with me.\u00a0 (That was West Side talk for “argumentative.”)\u00a0 Ted, on the other hand, had always been helpful.\u00a0 Ted would tell me when my tire pressure was low.\u00a0 He could sense low tire pressure.\u00a0 He thought about tire pressure. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For his last 15 years, <\/strong><\/span>Ted’s HQ was probably his Stratolounger in San Antonio. \u00a0He didn’t check back with me, except for an annual holiday card.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Buck was raising prices unilaterally on odd jobs.\u00a0 He never asked what I thought the job was worth. Who was bossing whom?<\/p>\n

I had a hard time bossing around people older than myself.<\/p>\n

That changed. I got older.
\n—-<\/span>
\n1 of 2 posts for 8\/25\/10.\u00a0 Please see the post below too.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ted Budzowski was my dad’s favorite building manager.\u00a0 Maybe because they were both Teds. My dad was “Ted” at work and “Toby” at home. \u00a0Ted Budzowski was “Ski” at his day job (crane operator at Republic Steel) and “Ted” around the building. Ted Budzowski could have treated me like a silver-spoon son of a boss, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landlord-biz","category-toby-stratton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1965"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8606,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1965\/revisions\/8606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}