James Tillman

I will never forget the year 1995. I was sleeping in from a 3rd shift job one afternoon and was awoken by a phone call for a job offer at W.R. Bonsal. Little did I know, there was more to that phone call than a job. My position was loading rail cars and then after lunch loading customer trucks in a control tower. This where James Tillman (A.K.A Blue) comes into the scene.

The first time I met Blue, he acted as if I had known him all of his life. He was super cool about everything. Always smiling and always ready to listen to what you had to say. That loadout tower was the perfect place to get to know somebody. All we had to do was mash buttons... the conveyor belts did all the work. Even when it got real busy, we were kicked back having a blast. We hardly ever had to work hard.... Anyways, Blue just had an outgoing personality that you could get use to very quickly. He was always cheerful and full of good news. Since Blue had that kind of personality, our control tower became a gathering place at anytime of the day. At this point in my life I would say working with Blue was one of the best things that could have happened to me. Not only did he become one of my best friends but I was going through stupid things in life that I just couldn't see the light of day on and he always seemed like he wanted to try to help me solve what was going on. I'm not even gonna tap into the things that were going on with me at that time... you will just have to take my word.... it was stupid... trust me. I don't know how he done it but he could manage everything that was going on in his life and still come to work and act like he is dying to hear whats was going on in my life. To go along with his warming personality he was hilarious to be around. One of the funnest things I can remember was I had been leaving Halloween suckers in the control room and I noticed that a mice were getting in and gnawing on my suckers. This particular day, there were a couple of other employee's in there and we all were yapping away. At the same time, we had some material running and I was kinda glancing over as we were cutting up . You see the material we ran went into a bin and then the drivers loaded themselves... all we had to do was keep the bin full. So were loading a bin and I looked over and the bin was over flowing... I quickly jumped over to hit the stop button and I saw Blue do a 180 in the air. When he leaped in the air he threw his arm around thinking mice were crawling on him. I had just finished telling him we couldn't leave any more candy in there cause of mice and he said the mice were on his mind when he jumped up. I was laughing so hard I couldn't hardly stand up. You just needed to be there for that one....

As time went by I started leaning towards working with heavy equipment and eventually got a job at a different company. I was sad that I was leaving one of my best friends and such a easy job but I was reaching for my dreams and an opportunity rolled into my lap. As even more time went by, I continued to conquer my goals and then what seemed to be the snapping of my fingers- my chances of catching up with my friend were slim to none. You see for me- there were many things Blue told me that stayed in my mind... things like " the sky is the limit" and " never give up on you dreams... keep reaching out until you have it" and many other positive comments he made to me about not giving up on the goals I set in life... or my dreams.

Almost 10 years later I was starting to think I would never get a chance to meet up with ole Blue when all of a sudden I got a message. I was finishing up my lunch when a co worker told me Blue was working with Vulcan now and he said hello. I knew then that it would only be a matter of time and with the same snap of my fingers... we were reminiscing about the old days. It's funny how things turn out. In one moment I thought I would never hear from him again... another moment we are catching up and come to find out he was living only 15 mins away. Small world huh!!! Now that we are back in touch- I have been asked to be in his renewing of vows wedding. You know something, when Blue told me not to ever give up on my goals in life, I believe he meant big or small... well.... this is one I can mark off my list.

Now that I think about it, I don't remember if I ever thanked my friend for all of his advice. The things he was teaching me were more than how to do our job but how to reach for the sky in everything I do in life. I would like to dedicate this story to none other than my friend Blue and his family. Thanks for all you have taught me. I will never forget your words of encouragement.