RE: Toronto COMMON... -- MIDRANGE-L

That is HILARIOUS - except for the delay you had to suffer...

At my previous employer we were headquartered here in Indianapolis with
locations all over the US, Canada (Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal) and
Mexico in North America (also worldwide...). We were told by our cohorts in
Canada to always say we were "coming for meetings" NOT to work. This was in
that late 80's/90's. So we would ship whatever we needed up there or have
them get it there and then we would come up. 

Well we had a coworker that forget and told them she was going up to work.
And she was promptly whisked aside and had to apply for a temporary workers
permit. If I recall it took a long time. She kept it tacked to the wall
above her computer :-)

Our cohorts there also told us when flying into Toronto to try and come into
the Canadian terminal. Since Air Canada flew in and out of here, that worked
great. Back then a BUNCH of US Airlines shared a terminal; and I mean
shared. If you got there earlier for a flight, the would actually ask you to
MOVE so folks on an earlier flight would have room to sit down ! :-)

Chuck

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Larry Bolhuis
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2004 7:38 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Toronto COMMON...

Back when the speed limit in the US was 55 and 100KPH (62) in Canada we 
would cut through from Niagara to Port Huron to save time when going 
to/from the east coast. On the way back into MI at Port Huron with a 
tour bus full of kids and the cargo bays neatly packed full of 
disassembled bicycles we all were asked where we were born.  It was dark 
out and the bus had bunks inside and very little interior lighting. On 
the bottom bunks were two 18 year old boys from Kenya with VERY dark 
skin and a strong accent.  When the agent asked them where they were 
born they replied "Kenya" but the agent couldn't understand them and 
repeated the question, and then again. Finally the first young man 
replied quiet loudly "KENYA! Have you never heard of Africa man?!" Oh 
Oh. Inside they went and the agents decided to search the bus. As they 
went to open the cargo doors on the driver side I tried to stop them 
explaining that the bikes were loaded from the other side and they would 
pour out. Also they didn't understand this old bus's doors, but they 
pulled the handle anyway. The bottom of the door came down like a pickup 
tailgate but at 1 ft from the ground it smacked the guy in the shins, 
the top door then swung out being pushed by all the bikes and smacked 
the guy in the chin setting him on the the parking lot on his backside 
followed by a few wheels which rolled out to greet him.  Needless to say 
'saving time' did NOT turn out to be one attribute of that "Shortcut".

 - Larry