Perfect Limo Service, Inc. has been in business since 1984. We started as a chauffuered car service providing transportation to the local airports (EWR, LGA and JFK) and New York City. Our very first customer were the in-laws to my wifes' first boss at Panasonic in Secaucus, New Jersy.
The reason why I tell you this, is because Panasonic was instrumental in helping us survive in those early years. For their 25th Anniversary, Mr. M., the owner of the whole kit and caboodle, was coming to New York for the big celebration. The company chauffeur, Ray, found out that Doris, my wife, was the owner of the limousine service that was providing transportation for the company.
Ray asked us if we owned a stretch limousine. No should have been the answer, but "why" sounded better. He wanted to know if could handle transporting Mr. M. for five days while he was in town. Let's see, five days of roughly 14 to 16 hour days. What color limousine did you want?
Not having the money to purchase a new limousine, alot of creative financing went into getting that stretch. We didn't want to pass up this job, so we got it done. My wife is great at finding money.
The first limousine was a 1984 Cadillac limousine. It was stretched 84 inches. What that means is a regular sedan is cut in half and the fancy limousine section is attached in the middle of the two ends. Voila, a stretch!
The configuration back then was two jump seats with a wood bar in between, directly behind the driver facing the rear seat. Today these cars come with "L" seats, "J" seats, unattached seats and bucket seats. It was alot simpler back then. Thank goodness the car had a Panasonic TV, stereo and VCR.
Well, the big day arrives and I meet everyone who is going to JFK with me to greet Mr. M., his wife and his right hand man. We'll call right hand man, Mr. R. We had about five cars loaded with Panasonic exec's and a security team. One security officer was in the front seat with me and two in their own car for the whole trip, five days. Now, keep in mind, we had two groups of security, the ones from New York, who covered New York, when we were in New York and a group for New Jersey when we were in New Jersey. We had to stop at a location before the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel to make the swap. One night, the New York guys weren't at the spot, and my instructions were not to wait more then three minutes for the switch. The New Jersey guys joined me on my trip to New York. They weren't happy, but I had my instructions.
We had a good four days, nothing real eventful to talk about. (Or allowed to talk about. I will have a private blog soon to talk crap)
On the fifth day, we headed back to the airport. We were down in the Elizabeth, NJ area, so the plan was to cross the Goethals Bridge, over the Verrazano Bridge and the Belt Parkway to JFK. Remember now, I had a security guard in the front with me, Mr. M and his wife on the rear seat, and Mr. R. and a local Panasonic VIP in the jump seats. Every day that local VIP seat had a differant person in it. This day it was an American.
One thing I forgot to mention. I love the smell of lemon Pledge! Even though the car was brand new, I used that stuff on everything. Yes, the seats, too.
As we are tooling down the Belt Parkway, I had the window divider up between me and passengers in the rear. As I got cut off (really!), the security guard stuck up for me, even though I left him behind one night, I took a look in my rearview mirror.
Pledge, leather seats and stopping short do not mix well. Off the seats flew Mr. M. and his wife right onto their knees. I saw every cent I made in the past four days go down the drain on that sudden stop. Mr. R. and Mr. Local VIP helped them back up to the seats. That seemed like an eternity! Being asked what the heck happened, I put down the window to apologize. Although I didn't do anything wrong, I still felt bad.
Wondering what was going to happen next, Mr. M. let out the biggest laugh, making motions about how he fell to his knees. WHEW! The man had a great sense of humor.
Sometimes, we put very important people on top of a pedestal, but the bottom line is we all are human and we all enjoy a good laugh now and then. Thank you Mr. M!
