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Title: Carrying Somebody Else’s Bag

Original CoS Document (slug): [[https://conventionofstates.com/carrying-somebody-else-s-bag|carrying-somebody-else-s-bag]]

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Created: 2023-01-03 16:59:52

Updated: 2023-01-11 20:20:41

Published: 2023-01-03 03:00:00

Converted: 2025-04-14T21:22:08.402033738


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On paper, it was the ultimate of golfing dreams. Not only was I caddying on the PGA Tour but caddying at the U.S. Open - and not just the Open, the Open at Pebble Beach, the Mecca of golf. In reality, it was 1972 and the week in hell I wouldn’t wish on my brother-in-law.\\
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The temperature was never above 60; the wind was never less than 20 miles-per-hour. And it was Pebble Beach, the nearest affordable hotel was 200 miles away. Throw on top of that a guy named Jack Nicklaus. This was the year he became immortal; the rest of the field was playing for second place. We got thirty-third and I had a lot to think about driving back east across the mountains.

These were different times for caddies, a profession in transition. I was part of the first generation of college kids. We worked for $20 a day from 6 a.m. to dark plus anywhere from 2 to 10% tip if our guy made money. I was leaving California with $300 I didn’t have when I got there because I’d bagged for a great guy and saw the famous up close. I had been told I was being fired in less than two months.\\
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Bud knew the score and I wasn’t talking about his card. I’d driven from the Philadelphia IVB Classic the week before to California, and now was headed back to Chicago to the Western in a 1961 Ford Falcon. I’d slept in the back seat the week of the Open. I’d eaten by a campfire with other sherpas and went to the porta-johns to shave. I’d make four days’ pay in Chicago minimum, another $80, and be sleeping in the car again. Not that bad for a guy about to start his junior year at Ohio State studying financial management and investment analysis.  \\
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But my guy Bud convinced me there was nothing fun about abject poverty. There is something called fiscal management. Being the realist, I knew Bud was right in making sure I got an education and not hope for a win next week, or even making a cut. Real life was about a real education that found real work and made real contributions. I needed real money in my pocket to buy what I wanted.  \\
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Things have changed between that drive back to Chicago 50 years ago when a college junior saw clearly the value of hard work and fiscal responsibility. Today, the leaders of our government on all levels have forgotten that concept. They treat money as an accounting entry. Bills are tax assets with no product as an end result…only votes. Abject poverty is indeed a way to live if you’re a government. After all, the rest of us will pay the bills one way or another. We’re almost used to eating beans by a campfire. Almost. 

Two holes to play and one shot outside the cut line, champ. We’ve got to get moving or we’re in a lot of trouble. It’s past time to invoke Article V of the U.S. Constitution to pass amendments to promote fiscal responsibility and set term limits for career politicians who have lost sight of what it means. Find our more and sign the petition at: https://conventionofstates.com.\\
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