One long hot summer weekend, when I was teenager, before I could drive, a friend, Lihn, who was a bit older offered to take a group of us to the beach. This was time before teens driving other teens was considered problematic. I was staying with my grandparents, and while my Gran was okay this, my Grandfather was was not. At least, he said “Ok” only on condition the driver pick me up at my house. I assumed he wanted to know the car was in good condition and see if there were any boys in the car. It was and there were not – they had gone in a separate car and planned to meet us. The car arrived, boy-free, my grandfather nodded, and off I went.

The beach was glorious. Cool blue water, soft sands, laughter, fun, games, a sunset of vivid reds, golds, pink and peach. It would have been nice to be able to stay till dark, but we were to be home before sunset (around 8:30ish). So we dutifully packed up our borrowed cars at 7:30ish to start the trek back. Sadly, Lihn’s car battery decided to die. It may have had something to do with the heat, or leaving the radio on and the trunk with the coolers open so the little light was on. I’m not a car person, so I really don’t know.

What I do know is that it took a while to find someone give the battery a jump start. In those days, cell phones were not ubiquitous accoutrements of young teens. The beach was a long walk to the nearest phone on a dark deserted road. So talking to strangers, which I still posit is less bad than talking to ChatGPT, was the only way to find help. In a way it was nice, to get some extra time to see the stars come out. But I dreaded going home to explain what had happened. It would sound cliché. The car battery died. Fortunately, when we pulled into my drive, and stopped the car to unpack it, the batter again failed. My grandfather tested the battery and it was well and truly very dead.

Batteries love a dramatic pause.

My grandfather gave Lihn’s car yet another jumpstart and sent my friends on their way, with a warning to her never to stop it anywhere till she got home. And so, no fuss was made of my late arrival. The next day, Gran took me to Mass and the Catholic shop afterwards to get me a St Christopher medal (Patron St of Travellers). The following day, my grandfather took me to the tiny AAA building in the center of town and bought me a family membership. Every year, as long as he lived, my grandfather would send me a birthday card and write “AAA membership included.” It became a sort of running family joke but also a bond of affection between my grandfather and I. To this day, I still have both the AAA membership and the St Christopher medal hanging from my rearview mirror.

I lost Gran’s medal last week. The cord broke and it fell on the car floor. I searched for a few days to no avail. Finally I thought, “Well, it’s still with me, Gran. I just can’t see it. As long as I have the car, I’ll have it.” The SO searched my care as well, because you know, as a woman I might have been “searching it wrongly.” (Can you hear my eyes rolling?) He too was defeated by St Christopher. I gave up the search for a few days, then on Wednesday I prayed really hard, and gave it another go and bingo! There it was, easily found in a place we’d search multiple times. St Christopher, such a scamp! He’s back on my mirror now.

I renewed my AAA last month, so both my grandfather is also still with me. And the friend who drove me to the beach that day? Lihn, she became an auto adjuster with AAA right out of college. It’s funny life is. Early in her career, she volunteered to be part of the Hurricane Katrina Disaster Recovery claims team. She lived in hotel for 3 months, doing nothing but claims. She said she often felt guilty, that she had a place to return, with light and food and clean water, and most of the people she dealt with had nothing. She never did another trip like that. I think emotionally it took a toll on her. It’s difficult to be yelled at day after day by stressed out people, who have every right to be stressed out. It’s hard to see people that have suffered so much, and are still suffering, and to feel like whatever you do will never be enough.

You can help everyone, but you can help someone.

All that aside, Lihn has always liked AAA. Her plan was always to make her whole life’s career there. They don’t pay as well as other similar insurance companies, but they have things that make up for it like a pension plan and a desire to see everyone move forward in career development. They care about their customers and about their employees. During the Pandemic, AAA didn’t let anyone go. They paid every employee their full salary – even if they couldn’t do their job because the job could not be done while maintaining proper social distancing (like driving instructors) They pivoted to WFH. They did everything they could to keep everyone work. And despite the challenges, they came out of the pandemic in pretty good shape.

Under the previous administration, AAA was rebounding. AAA has really good financial wizards who keep the company on a stable footing. People like Lihn continued to get annual raises. Every AAA newsletter that went out painted a rosy picture of a bright future and fiscal soundness. Yet, despite all that, I wasn’t really surprised when, as I was re-hanging St Christopher, Lihn she called me to tell me that her manager had announced to everyone that next month there would be a AAA meeting and they would be giving people new job titles (nothing was said about new duties) and at the same time, there would be pay reductions.

To me, it was inevitable given the destruction of the economy and the tarriffs that make any sort of car part replacement 1000% more expensive now than 6 months go. To Lihn it was surprising. Some of her coworkers already decided to quit or retire or early retire as a result. She’s not sure what she’d do. Maybe wait and see what actually happens at the meeting before doing anything rash. But, she was upset. AAA was a big part of her life. Honestly it’s a big part of America’s life. This great American company, a part of so many American lives, so many generations. To see this fiscally responsible company that cares about it’s employees, now, after 123 years – through a Great Depression, two world wars, a Great Recession, a Global Pandemic and 21 presidents – consider it’s only means of cost savings and survival cutting its employee’s pay? At a time when prices are going up for those employees? Wow.

“Heavens, where is my automobile? Jeeves, call AAA.” Ila Parkhurst, 1902

Knowing my friend voted for the current administration, I asked her why she thought AAA was taking this extraordinary measure. I was interested to hear what she would say. She said “corporate greed.” It was really the only frame she could put around the picture, and keep her worldview going. But it was unsettling to her say that, given the company’s storied history and her long association with it. In her mind, I guess, it couldn’t be that the person she voted for caused this. She couldn’t accept that she had basically done this, to herself. So what else could she think.

Up until a month or two ago, Lihn told they had many job openings, that they were trying to hire more people because they had so much work. Now AAA can’t even afford to pay their devoted but overworked people the do have. That’s a big shift. For me, AAA’s decision reflects a typical American company’s genuine struggle to come to grips with what I can only describe as an intentionally train-wrecked US and global economy and no foreseeable light on the horizon. I think AAA is doing the best it can with what it’s got given the situation.

As for myself, I wonder if I’ll have to make a big shift. Will I be able to afford another year of my grandfather’s AAA? Price hikes on customers can’t be far behind. I don’t need AAA for the amount of time I’m on the road. But I’d miss them. I’d miss my AAA family, those who have been there for me many a time. That flat battery in my drive, but you still got me to work on time. That flat tire in the snowy mountains, and you not only changed my tire, but guided me to a cafe and left me with a hot chocolate to warm up. The year I volunteered to work for the US Census, and ended up locking my keys in my car multiple times (3x in one very bad week)!

As, it turned out, I learned many years later, that my grandfather wanted Lihn to pick me up at the house so he could see the car. So he could write down the license plate, the color, make and model of the car. Just in case he needed the police to go out and search for me/us. When I call AAA, they always say “Are you somewhere safe?” And I think of my grandfather, and that day, and his great care for me. It’d be hard to let go of that, of that last piece of him. But I guess, I can keep my last AAA card with me. The way I keep his last AAA card with his name embossed on it in raised blue letters in my glove box. You know, because when you reach in there, you’re usually in trouble. His card reminds me, there’s still someone watching out for me, and not just on the long weekends.

Thanks for the memories, AAA!