Blog 3256 – 10.01.2024

“It’s A New Month, Honey!”

Forty-five years ago this month I started a new job where I met and worked with quite an unforgettable character, Thomas Spillane (That’s Thomas J. Bourgeois the Third to you, Honey.) Tom was from New Jersey and I from Tennessee and we were both working in the shipping department at NL Industries in Houston, Texas, pulling parts orders for one of the largest oil tool manufacturers in the world at the time. Tom reminded me of Ralph Kramden’s sidekick Ed Norton from the nineteen-fifties sitcom The Honeymooners played by Jackie Gleason and Art Carney respectively (Pictured above).

Tom was a natural comedian and a true pleasure to work with. He love Saturday Night Live and many of his bits came from that program like his classic line at the beginning of each new month, “It’s a new month, Honey.” Partly because my last name is White and because to Tom at least I resembled the lead character on a popular TV series at the time, The White Shadow, that title was chosen as my nickname name. If Tom was anything it was short and to the point so my nickname quickly evolved from The White Shadow, to Shadow, to for Tom at least Shad. I have been called worst, but seldom by any handle more affectionately. To Tom, Shad was a synonym for brother and I understood that from the beginning of our friendship.

I always think of Tom at the beginning of a new month and especially October. Tom was the only person who ever called me Shad and as silly as it may sound though I never cared for nicknames it was one I was proud to be tagged with for the way Tom used it, it was the highest of honors.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White (alias Shad)