No. 944 – Hold On, I’m Comin’

Performer: Sam & Dave

Songwriters: Issac Hayes, David Porter

Original Release: Single, Hold On, I’m Comin’

Year: 1966

Definitive Version: None

This song is a big night-time song (think of the scene in The Blues Brothers when it’s played), so of course I think about when I transferred from news to sports at the Flint Journal in December 1990. I began what I called the Vampire Shift. It was well-named.

If you were the head copy editor in charge of laying out the section, you went in at midnight; otherwise, 1 a.m.-ish. The boss would roll in about 7:30, and the section would go out about 8. If there was anything late (early?) breaking, you’d stay until 9. Most of the time, the sports editor would take the ball, so I was usually gone by 8 or so.

My schedule at that point was to go home and go to bed. I’d sleep till about 6 and then have the evening to do whatever. That part was kind of nice. If you’re a newspaper copy editor, the odds are you work in the evening, and that really sucks, because your schedule never synchs with anything. When I moved to sports, I worked while most people slept and vice versa. The evenings aligned, so now I could finally do things like play softball and go to concerts.

Of course, a problem is the weekends if you ever planned to do anything with anyone. I kept the same hours—stay up till about 6 or 7 a.m. and sleep till the late afternoon—so I didn’t screw up my schedule too much. On event weekends, I’d do a power switch where I’d go home and get a two-hour sleep and be up and gone by noon. By midnight that night, I’d be so shot that I’d be ready for bed, and now my schedule was in alignment.

But the worst part by far would be in early January—the dead of winter—right after Christmas when nothing was happening. Sometimes I’d go an entire week without seeing the sun. I’d wake up and it would be dark. I’d go to work and it was dark. I’d leave and it was dawn, and by the time I’d get home, it would just start getting light. It was as if I were a vampire scurrying off to my cave before it got to be light out.

Is it any wonder that Flint was where I really learned how to drink?