Pumping Gas with Fritz Hollings

[wyethwire]

I used to work for Fritz Hollings, and when he announced his retirement yesterday I decided to post this memory on my blog.

It was my job to pick Fritz up at the airport in Charlotte, drive him to a Rotary Club luncheon in Camden, and then drive him down to Charleston.

We pulled off of I-77 around Ridgeway and took the backroads into Camden. As we drove through a Camden neighborhood, Fritz remarks that "Fran lives in this neighborhood."

It wasn't until after the luncheon that I found out who Fran was. Fran was a housewife in Camden who was recovering from breast cancer thanks to an experimental treatment. The Food and Drug Administration denied the treatment, but Fritz intervened and made sure that Fran got this life-saving medicine. After the luncheon, Fran came up to Senator Hollings and introduced him to another woman from Camden who was now taking the same cancer treatment.

Anyway, we continued down Hwy 601, got stuck behind a logging struck in Calhoun County, and stopped for gas at a convenience store in Orangeburg. It was one of those pay-at-the-pump deals.

I got out to refill the gas tank. And Fritz spoke up.

"No, Wyeth let me get this one."

I protested that the Senate office (meaning you taxpayers) would reimburse my mileage costs for driving Fritz around the state in my 1993 Saturn. Fritz would have none of that, and got out of the car.

He pumped his own gas. And he used his own credit card. And unlike some people who make a fetish out of their own frugality, he saw no need to trumpt this fact.

Fritz Hollings taught me to never be afraid to make a hard decision or tell a hard truth. I hope he is remembered for the things he did as much as the things he said.