Lucky Bonner

I was assigned to assist two Southern Bell engineers to install and place a new multi-channel carrier in service. The days were long and hot, and the nights were rowdy, but there was precious little time for recreation down there. This was a big deal in those days and there was a great deal of pressure from the bosses to get this job done. Time was critical and we worked practically day and night for several weeks. We’d become very tired and not very alert.

Bob Bonner, one of the engineers I was working with, he’d been gambling with some of the boys in town there, and he bragged about his winnings every morning, and some of the other guys doubted him. Me, I figured he was just puttin’ on, and that he wasn’t really that lucky.

One morning, we stated smelling burning cloth. Bob eventually found the source. He had sat down on a hot soldering iron, and his thick wallet was the only thing that saved him from serious burn.

J. Lucious Morris.