The Runaways
I was working at the front desk one day when three girls came in the side door. They were dressed pretty skimpy, in really short shorts and halter tops with flip flops. They asked to rent a room for the night and I said one of them had to be 18. She pulled out an ID that looked legit so I rented them a room. In fact it was one of the two top floor rooms because they needed 3 beds in it. Those rooms were the ones we called the party rooms they were so big. The girls stayed there a couple of nights.
The girls didn't look like they had any luggage except the backpacks they had with them so I was very suspicious of them. I wondered if I should call the police and report some strange teens running loose in the town, but I had no idea what I'd turn them in for. I just knew something was off with that group.
A couple of days later the police came to the hotel searching for some runaways. The girls were apparently all under 16 years of age and had been gone for a few days. I KNEW I should have reported those girls. Obviously the one girl had a fake ID showing her as legal age. Anyway, I pointed them up to the room the girls were in and told them all I knew about the girls.
This is what I learned after the police took the girls into custody and I was able to talk to my maids. Apparently the girls had been going around trading "favors" to some of our residents for clothes and maybe even money, I'm not sure. Also, our handyman (early 20's) was discovered to have been messing around with at least one of the girls so he was taken to jail at some point. After that we had to get another handyman. My dad volunteered for the job so I moved him into a room rent free and gave him a pitiful salary ($50 wk).
Now You Tell Me
There were many things I learned from the maids AFTER all the storm was over with. I started to think the maids didn't tell me much about the real happenings at the motel until after the shit hit the fan.
One thing they didn't tell me until a few days late in my opinion was about an old lady, weekly renter, who had fallen. They saw her laying in her floor when they went in to clean the room. and knew she had fallen, but she kept telling them not to worry about her that she was fine and didn't need help. That old lady could have sued our butts off, even though she was the one protesting against help! As soon as I found out about her I called an ambulance to take her to the hospital. When I visited her there she thanked me for doing that because she hadn't realised she had broken her hip when she fell. While she was at the hospital some of her family members decided that she shouldn't be living in a dump motel so they set her up in a nice nursing home.
Good Fortune
Several weeks before the hospital incident, when I first met her, that same old lady had offered my husband and I a deal. She needed 6 safety deposit box keys that were all somewhere packed away in 4 large storage bins that she owned. If we found those keys for her we could have the rest of the stuff in the storage bins. And we had to dispose of anything we didn't want so the bins were empty when we were done. Of course we took the deal.
To be honest there was so much trash in those bins it's a wonder we were able to go through all of it, but we did. And we found all of the keys. They were stuck in obscure places. The other kind of stuff that was in the bins was a few furniture antiques like bed frames, a dresser, some dishes etc. We went to an antiques dealer and sold the lot of it to them for probably too low of a price. The only things I kept from it was a cedar chest and a couple of matching handmade antique quilts. I still have those. My dad, who helped us go through everything looking for the keys, really hit the jackpot. He found cash stuck in places everywhere, especially the purses. Apparently even in the purses that the old lady wasn't using anymore she'd have money in them. The was cash in bibles and other books, too. I think dad said he found nearly $300 cash. But the biggest part of it was literally trash in trash bags! What a mess. We earned every bit of what we got. The old lady was pleased with her keys.
That's Embarrassing
Some of the things that are found occasionally at a motel room when people leave are adult XXX stuff. Usually that includes things such as condoms, used and unused, lubricant containers and maybe even porn magazines. Once, however, we knew a previous customer was going to be ticked off when they got home and unpacked because we found their best friend in the room after they left - a vibrator. They never called to retrieve it.
Moving On
When the Kentucky Motel was condemned out of the blue like it was I was stunned. We had no money saved up to get an apartment and only a week or so to get out. I didn't know of anyone that would let us stay with them either, or so I thought. I did have a friend who I had made through one of our weekly stays. She was the guys aunt and was the nicest, sweetest woman I'd ever met. She and her husband lived in town with their three kids. Right when we were needing a place to live they were on their way to a month long visit to family in PA. They told us that is would be great if we would stay at their place and house sit. In that month we hopefully would be able to gather money to get an apartment by the time they get back. How great is that! I'd only known the lady a few months and we were friends, but not close, and she was offering her home to us! I loved this lady!
A couple of years after moving away from the same town she was in I stopped contacting her. Sometimes when I move I find it hard to keep on connecting with the people from my old life, for no specific reason. I wish I had not lost contact with her, though. A few years ago I looked her family up because I really wanted to talk to her about something. I just knew she could help me with my issue. I reached her husband and he sadly told me that she had died a few years before of cancer. I don't even remember what kind of cancer he told me because once he said she was dead I went into shock. I was barely able to say how sorry I was for him and the kids and that I missed her a lot after we left, then hang up. I mourned for her after that. I had unknowingly lost a friend, someone who was dear to my heart and I hurt. It made me completely remember the importance of keeping in contact with people on a regular basis. If they haven't called you, you call them! Don't leave it all up to them. At lease message them. Friends, true friends, are too precious to lose. This lady was golden and I'm sorry I lost her.
As for jobs, before the condemning of the motel I had already put my application in for desk clerk at a new local hotel and had one interview. I was waiting on a call back to see if I was hired. Of course I was! I worked at that hotel for 2 1/2 years before moving to Lexington to go to college.
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