ゴールデンウイーク
今年のゴールデンウイークも昨年同様、前段、後段の二回に別れ計7日間。
企業によっては9連休とした所もあったようであるが弊社のような零細は大半が暦通りであったのではないか。
小生の連休は、前段は一泊二日で趣味のゴルフ、後段は家族サービスにあい務め、バス旅行ツアーに参加した。コースは、岐阜の
「ひるがの高原・水芭蕉群生地⇒御母衣湖・荘川桜⇒白川郷合掌造り⇒五箇山合掌造り⇒能登志賀の温泉（泊）
⇒砺波チューリップフェア⇒夢の平スイセン畑と周り、北陸道経由で帰ってきた。走行距離900キロ強の可也強行軍であったが、
日頃の行いが反映してか覚悟していた渋滞は全くなく、極めてスムーズな旅であった。
実は、この旅は妻が特に相談もなく決めたものであるが、偶然にもこのコース、２８年前（昭和54年）、私が会社を創業した年の夏、
親友と二人で自家用車で周った懐かしいたコースと全く同じであった。但し、その時は今回とは全く逆で、福井、石川、富山、岐阜と周った。
当事は高速網も今のようには発達していなかった事もあるが、何よりも暇はあるが金が無かった。その為、
名神高速以外は殆ど地道を走ったことを思い出す。従って、日程も3泊4日とのんびりしたものであった。
彼の親友、１２年前に４９歳の若さで天国へと旅立った。彼とは前職場で知り合い、何故か気が合って始終一緒に居た。
私の独立創業にも全面的に応援してくれ、半年後には弊社に来てくれた。以来二人三脚で創業期の一番苦しい時期を乗り切ってくれたが、
家庭の事情で６年後に出身地の福岡に帰り、母親の面倒を見ながら弊社の福岡営業所として活躍してくれていた。ところが、
大阪に出てきていた平成６年の暮れ、友人の事務所で突然倒れ、数時間後には帰らぬ人となっていた。私は友人からの急報で、
救急病院に向かったが既に時遅し、地下の霊安室での面会となった。その夜誰も居ない霊安室に毛布を持ち込み、
朝まで彼と二人の時を過ごしたのを思い出す。
Like last year, this year’s Golden Week was divided into two stages, the first and the second, for a total of seven days.
Some companies had nine consecutive holidays, while others, such as our company, were on the calendar for most of the time.
I spent the first two days and a night playing golf, and the second two days and a half of the day for family service, and joined a bus tour. The course is based on the Gifu
Hirugano Plateau, skunk cabbage cluster area ⇒ Momoi Lake, Shokawa cherry blossoms ⇒ Shirakawa-go Gassho-zukuri ⇒ Gokayama Gassho-zukuri ⇒ Noto-shiga no Onsen (overnight)
Tonami Tulip Fair ⇒ Tonami Tulip Fair ⇒ Yumenohira narcissus field and around, came back via Hokuriku road. It was a pretty strong march with a little over 900km on the road, but
It was an extremely smooth trip, with no traffic jams at all, which I had been expecting as a reflection of my daily activities.
As a matter of fact, this trip was decided by my wife without any particular consultation, but coincidentally, this course was taken 28 years ago (1979), in the summer of the year I founded my company.
The course was exactly the same as the one I took with my best friend in his private car. However, that time was the complete opposite of this time, I went around Fukui, Ishikawa, Toyama and Gifu.
It was partly because the high-speed network wasn’t as developed as it is now, but most of all, we had time but no money. For this reason.
I remember that I drove mostly on the ground except for the Meishin Expressway. Therefore, it was a leisurely schedule of three nights and four days.
His best friend, 12 years ago at the young age of 49, went to heaven. I met him at my previous job and for some reason we hit it off and stayed together the whole time.
He gave me his full support in starting my own business and came to our company six months later. Since then, the two of them have worked together to get through the most difficult period of the company’s history.
Six years later, he returned to his hometown in Fukuoka for family reasons and worked as our Fukuoka sales office while taking care of his mother. However.
At the end of 1994, while he was in Osaka, he suddenly collapsed in a friend’s office and was gone a few hours later. I got an urgent call from a friend.
We headed to the emergency hospital, but it was already too late and we were met in the basement mortuary. That night, I brought a blanket into the empty morgue.
I remember spending time alone with him until the morning.
