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Snowstorm
About twenty-plus years ago I had a early evening, junior varsity game scheduled on a Saturday, at a school about forty-five minutes away from my home. The weather report that day called for a little snow, but around midafternoon it started snowing like crazy. I tried to call the school, and of course, since it was Saturday, I got no answer. I tried to call my commissioner and my partner and couldn't get hold of them. This was way before cell phones were invented. So figuring that the trip in the snow would take me a lot longer than forty-five minutes, I left early, giving myself about seventy-five minutes to make the trip. When I finally got there, just a few minutes before game time, I found the junior varsity cheerleading coach and a police officier assigned to the game in the parking lot. They, like, me, had not been informed that the game had been postponed due to the storm, which the police officier was able to finally determnine after using his radio. When I got home, I finally got hold of my commisioner, who informed me that the athletic director had called him just a few minutes after I had left for home, and or course, my commissioner couldn't get hold of me because I was on the road. The athletic director hadn't called me directly because he left his officials dirtectory in is office at school and he was calling from home on a Saturday. After not getting a check after several weeks, I called my commissioner, who contacted the athletic director, who said that I would not be paid since I had left home too early for the game. I worked for this comissioner for over twenty-years and this was the one and only time that he didn't cover my back. In my opinion, I didn't leave too early, because if there had been a game that night, I would have actually gotten there a little on the late side. I still hold a grudge against this school even though the athletic director and coaches are long gone, and my commisioner has passed away. I still think that I deserved that junior varsity check. That's the only time that I did not get paid for a game in twenty-six years.
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