Employed 9 Part 2

The reader may have noticed that only eight paintings were noted while nine were counted. the painting l neglected was the 3'x3' square. lt was from a photo of many photos taken of the moonless, clear night sky over the Nevada desert, not far from Midas. lt was among two rolls of pix that Dulce and l shot with her
new Nikon of different parts of the sky. l had an 8"x10" print made of it, then cropped it to an 8"x8", then painted it's image (somewhat expanded) onto the 3'x3' canvas. lt had been my favorite of all the pix we shot that nite. And since
Dulce shot the pix, l named it's painted counterpart "Spacey Dulce". Of that batch of nine paintings, l liked it so much l decided to keep it for my own, and only sold it when l left D.C. because it would have been very difficult to get it across the country in a car loaded with five guys and their stuff.

D.C. is a great town for culture. All of the monuments, memorials, museums and art galleries are free of admission charges, even the White House tours.
Dick Dewitt (my landlord in Alaska) taught me to make frames and stretch canvas over them, to mix paints to achieve specific colors and to use brushes  
and palate knives to apply the paint, but l got no instruction about what to paint
(subject) or how (technique). For ideas and inspiration and just pure joy,l often
visited the National Gallery of Art. lt is a huge complex complex displaying 
hundreds of paintings of of all genres. l don't think l added much to my ideas for subjects, but l did pick up some knowledge relative to technique. Not so much as to how l could do it, but from seeing onthe actual paintings, the result of the masters' grasp and execution of it, increased my appreciation of their work as 
well as my enthusiasm to paint.

lf it hadn't taken so long to sell those eight paintings, l might have had some money in pocket when the last of the eight was sold. No materials, no paintings
no sales. Good thing my rent is covered, but being employed,immediately
became necessary. Our house-mate Ron, who had reached the end of his Army service some weeks earlier than l had, took a job with GMAC (General Motors
Acceptance Corp.) as a field rep. He mostly re-posessed the cars of folks behind on their payments. Quite often, when none of his co-workers was able to help
with a re-posession, l was able to help, and also make a few bucks. But when l talked to Ron about the possibility of me working for GMAC, he said that they had no openings, but he referred me to his friend Bob Nagly, who was a supervisor at Commerce lnvestment Company, a consumer finance company
owned by Union Bank.

Bob and l hit it off rightaway.He was very happy to give his stamp of approval to a new veteran who, thanks to Walter Baring, had left the Army honorably only  
 a few months earlier. When he learned that the language school  he was very much impressed and l'm all "Oh yeah, bring a Russian linguist for the NSA  was
a great, if clandestine way to serve". Bob had been on active duty in the Army
lnfantry and afterward, the D.C. National Guard, to which he still belonged. l
completed the application as we talked.When l accepted his offer($100./wk,a
new plymouth company car and a few other benefits)he apologized for having
to provide me with an older car (57 Plymouth) but a new 59 Plymouth would
replace it within a week.

C.l.C. did not finance cars. But boats? You bet. Anything from a dinghy to an
ocean-going yacht. Yes,too to motorcycles,scooters,kitchen and laundry appliances, TVs and more Tvs. AM/FM radio-record player consoles were very
popular then too, as l recall.

My very first day at work for C.l.C. was notable. An elderly couple had fallen behind on their TV payments. Specific instructions for handling the visit was to knock on the door, introduce myself as an agent of C.C.C., then go directly to
the TV and stick the "Property of Commerce lnvestement Company