Pumping Gas with Fritz Hollings

[wyethwire]

I used to work for Fritz Hollings, and when he announced his retirement yesterday I decided to post this memory on my blog.

It was my job to pick Fritz up at the airport in Charlotte, drive him to a Rotary Club luncheon in Camden, and then drive him down to Charleston.

We pulled off of I-77 around Ridgeway and took the backroads into Camden. As we drove through a Camden neighborhood, Fritz remarks that "Fran lives in this neighborhood."

It wasn't until after the luncheon that I found out who Fran was. Fran was a housewife in Camden who was recovering from breast cancer thanks to an experimental treatment. The Food and Drug Administration denied the treatment, but Fritz intervened and made sure that Fran got this life-saving medicine. After the luncheon, Fran came up to Senator Hollings and introduced him to another woman from Camden who was now taking the same cancer treatment.

Anyway, we continued down Hwy 601, got stuck behind a logging struck in Calhoun County, and stopped for gas at a convenience store in Orangeburg. It was one of those pay-at-the-pump deals.

I got out to refill the gas tank. And Fritz spoke up.

"No, Wyeth let me get this one."

I protested that the Senate office (meaning you taxpayers) would reimburse my mileage costs for driving Fritz around the state in my 1993 Saturn. Fritz would have none of that, and got out of the car.

He pumped his own gas. And he used his own credit card. And unlike some people who make a fetish out of their own frugality, he saw no need to trumpt this fact.

Fritz Hollings taught me to never be afraid to make a hard decision or tell a hard truth. I hope he is remembered for the things he did as much as the things he said.

[jiacinto]

1. What a shame

I wish that he had run again. That seat is now gone.

[KoKo]

2. Thanks for sharing this story. He was indeed a good man....and the best

of the South. I'm so sorry he's retiring. I don't know who could replace him. One of the last of the good orators who had a sense of his duty and a long view of the South and the changes. I think it's a sad time for him seeing what has become of the Senate with only he and Robert Byrd who know where they've been and how far they've come and appreciate the offices they held and their duty to the people who elected them.

Both have been accused of "Pork Barrelling" and both voted for some things I might not have wanted them to, but both are men of "good character." Can't say that about many of the rest of them.

[realFedUp]

3. Thanks for sharing this memory of Hollings

The first speech I really listened to of his was last week...
and thought how lucky we in this country are to have him as
an elected official...
you are lucky you know him in first person.

[blm]

4. That's so typical of Hollings....

thanks for the peek inside, wyethwire. Hollings is a family friend to mr. blm's family here in SC. He would have won if he ran. I think he got spooked too early.