l hope my candor in E14 P4 will not be mistaken for braggadocio; what's going on there, is confession, mostly; no matter the state of one's union, there is no excuse for cheating on the Mrs., then or now. Of course that judgement is made in my current time-frame. l gave my infidelity the green light without thought or hesitation at the time. The fact of her not needing to be persuaded was all the permission that l needed. No thought was given to whether or not l should give myself permission. But even including some of the negatives, l had a great time on that trip. lrvin and l always had good times when we got together. l was just four years older than he and l was a big fan of his from the day he came home from Nanny Petersen's Mid-wifery. The nine months, from the time l first heard about his impending arrival seemed like it would never pass. Growing up we found mutual interests, (except for sports;He lettered every year of high-school in basketball, (forward): in track, shot put, discus,
and javelin, in American Football (center) Outside the bounds of interscholastic
sports he taught himself a French kick-boxing regimen. This, he once told me,
virtually eliminates any possibility of his ever finding himself with a kicked ass.
And almost assures that he will do any of the ass-kicking that gets done in his vicinity. Luckily, he never had a reason to kick mine.(Actually, the head is the target in this kind of boxing as well as in American boxing. By contrast, my
extra-curricular activities were limited to playing trombone in the marching band and the orchestra. Also, l had parts in most of the stage plays which
were produced while l was in grade school and high school. When lrv had been
out of high school for ten years many of the records he set there were still in force. None of those who considered lrv a friend liked his propensity for street
fighting. Having an opinion at odds with lrv's relative to street-fighting could bring reaction. With me, though, he was always loving and giving. And l tended not to press him on issues which might get his dander up. He was as generous
as anyone l've known; even with his time. To make the Taos trip with me he had to take off from work in Vegas and he insisted on sharing the expenses of our trip.
l'd been back to "work" at P.V. four days when l realized that none of the staff
was willing to forgive me for my little trip. Everybody loved Deanne (Mgr. of the lead generation department and second-in-command of P.V.) Obviously,
in her position my absence would necessarily add to her work. Before the Taos trip Deanne would be at work an hour or more before l would arrive. She would bring her coffee to my desk and drink it while she went thru the stack of paper
work that was really for me to do. But since the lead generation dept. didn't
start 'til 9:30, Deanne would go thru my paper work and finish the pile for me.
So after Taos, she let me do my own paperwork. So then l at least a little something to do when l came in in the morning. l just didn't have a staff that revered their manager.
l felt very bad about losing Deanne's (and her husband's) friendship. But two
weeks after l returned from Taos, the staff was still relating to me as though it was their first day on the job. (stay out of sight;speak when spoken to.
Worse yet. The first day after returning from Taos, l had called Thom and got
his answering machine. l left some inane message, informing him that l had
returned and that everything was fine in San Jose. A week passed with no call-back from Thom. l left another message on Friday nite of the same week.
The next day l was visited at about 10AM by a man whom l hadn't met before.
He turned out to be Thom's emissary. He had a Patio Village check for me. lt represented what l was owed at that point. A shoprt. hand-written note from Thom instructed me to give the emissary my keys to P.V. and to remove from my desk and the rest of the store any personal property. l did as much and
went home for lunch an hour early.
l really wasn't that worried about being suddenly unemployed (UE). Based
on my income at PV, my UE check and Dahlia's paycheck would still cover our monthly obligations, and my personal checking account balance was over $2k.
That was way more money in 1964. Enough to pay the rent on the apartment
in which we then lived, eight times.
So we were not destitute. Besides Dahlia's income was nearly equal to mine and her's was all salary whereas a sizable amount of mine was commissions and over-rides.
Since my separation from PV came about two weeks before Thanksgiving.
there was little chance that l could schedule an interview, let alone nail down a job before the new year. That was really not a big problem. lt just meant that l could take a nice vacation until mid to late January and then line up some interviews. After that, it's time to put some of what l learned in the "Speaker's
Club" while at Soledad North to work at the job interviews. In interviews one is called on to present one's self in a conversational manner (without notes or
prepared speeches. The Speaker's club encouraged members to write their speeches but we could not read them or use them as notes.Great training for
a salesman closer: The prospect doesn't want to be read to,either.
l know. l've already told you about the Speaker's Club, but l wanted to connect
how it can benefit someone in executive sales. Or Politics, or Teaching. Just anyone whose work requires vocal communication can benefit. Outside of
prison, what we called the Speaker's is called Toastmasters International. I'm
sure you could get more information on the internet.
Apparently, the trip that Irv and l took to New Mexico wasn't enough to quench my travel junky. Dealing with a lot of disapproval from formerly fellow workers
(and home mates)l've found it can be somewhat alleviated by a few-hundred
mile change of scene. But before leaving, l needed to make sure l got everything from my desk. Some framed photos a few paintings. Everything easily fit into my car's trunk. But the big comfortable' swiveling,reclining chair
that l owned and had used at 2 or 3 of my previous jobs' just would not fit in the big car's trunk or inside the cabin. Almost at the same moment l realised
my predicament, l saw Adolph Malterer, in his pickup, just pulling into his parking spot. Adolph is the guy that worked closely with Irv to transform a
five-bedroom house on a four acre lot into Patio village. He was, at that moment PV's San Jose installation manager. He asked if l was really through.
l told him yes, l'mjust here to pick up my stuff. l'm unable to get my chair in the car. When you are ready to leave. could you help me put it in your pickup and carry it to my house? You know where it is? He said he knew and he'd be glad to help. "If you throw in a couple Heineken l'll help to put this stuff in the house".
The mid-60's was only twenty years after WWII so, to some, Adolph was still a bad word. Of course it wasn't a bad word to Adolph, but he suggested that we might be more comfortable calling him Mark, his middle name.Mark Malterer. Sounds German, but more civilian. and german civilians were considered victims of the Third Reich. l called him Adolph most of the time because he introduced himself to me as such.Whatever he was called, we all knew he was great at his work. His crews put up the best mistake-free jobs
that required fewer man-hours per sq.ft. of constructed cover than the industry standard. He was very good with customers,too.Something with which most installers had difficulty.He and Irv became close friends during the time they had worked together. Irv's endorsement is what moved Thom to make Adolph Installation Mgr.
After we got my stuff in the house, we had a couple of beers and a bunch of talk. The subject of travel took us immediately. The xmas holiday being a time when anythingbut that gift which can be considered a christmas gift will
be very difficult to sell. So...We decided to go to LA. To leave before dawn on Christmas day (very few cars on theroad) We would return the day after New Year.
l called my friend Chuck C. (my co-worker at Soledad) who lived in Pasadena at that time. He was glad to hear that we would visit there.He even had a few extra beds at his place where we could crash. He was the custodian of a building that was in the process of being made into a n up-scale restaurant
and bar that was scheduled to open on January 25,1965
.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Monday, November 7, 2016
Employed 14 Part 4
Before we married,Dahlia had worked for a Building Contractor as an executive secretary. when l took the job as an assayer for A.R.D. Corp. in Nevada, my salary was sufficient to allow Dahlia to be a stay-at-home mom for Reyann. Since l did the assays in a building next-door to the house we rented, on a given day the three of us spent much of the day together. That situation turned into a memory when our produce "business" failed. Luckily, it was about that time that we met Aylene Lawson, a professional contestant, who taught a quite-popular class in "The Art of Contesting". She had many students who found success in contesting, as did Aylene. She also ran a child-care business. Her rates were good, as l recall and our giorls never complained about her care. (When they had been out of her care for a few years though, they admitted that they never liked her as much as Dahlia and l did. We saw her as a very pleasant person who used her contesting income to full advantage and helped her students to replicate her results. She made it possible for both Dahlia and l to have completely safe and sane care for our kids while we concentrated on our jobs.
She was absent from her day care on more than a few occations. Quite often she was on some cruise or trip that she had won, but no worries; She worked together with a group of child-care pros who filled in for each other. with that much going for her, she made it easy for us to hand over our kids and happily take our places in our workplaces. At the time Thom was offering me the Branch Managers position, at Patio Village, Dahlia was already several months
into her Executive Secretary position at IBM in Southern San Jose. That was a giant step from the Building Contracting company for which she worked previously. As we will learn later, she was to rise to much greater heights at IBM
and beyond.
l have neglected,'til now, to mention one of the most important persons who worked on the construction of Patio Village; My bio dad, Leon Gideon. A person
can have step-dads as many as are chosen by one's Mother, but there is only one bio dad to a customer. Mine had a varied work history, ranging from working as a cook on a merchant marine ship during WWII, to (when we first met) work-
ing as resident manager of Sunnyvale Mountain Park. Along the way, he had many other jobs, in shipyards after the war and in the logging industry after
that. He had also done a lot of carpentry, both framing and finishing. He, with
a couple of very competent helpers,did the re-construction of the big house.
Dad took some accumulated vacation to work there and my step-mom took charge of the park, in his absence, which she was well-accustomed to. Dad didn't really need the work though l guess he had an idea for using it. l was totally please that "the masterpiece in mohogany", which l called his work there,
would surround me, where ever l was in the office building.
The nearly two months that he was working at Patio Village, was the one time
we were able to spend most of a workday focusing on the same project and maybe having lunch together , some days a couple of beers after work. His
input visible in every square foot of the interior and exterior of our main building, l always felt that l belonged there.
One evening, after a particularly good day, about six months after our opening,
one of the closers and l were talking and half-listening to the TV in the back-
ground, After a while the show's host interviewed a guy living in New Mexico who was building a place near Taos where he intended to make a self-supporting
commune, where he and his family would share the place with other families.
Before long, most of the staff, still in the building, had pulled up a chair to watch TV with us. For the next few days, "the Northern New Mexico Beatnic" (that was
some time before the word "hippie" had reached the vocabulary)was the main topic of our conversations at work. l was very interested and l began to think l should go to New Mexico (Taos) and check out the commune, first hand.
Within a few days l prepared Dahlia for my being gone a week-or-so and asked
Deanne to cover the store for a few days.My brother Irv was in Vegas at the time so l stopped there on my way to New Mexico. l was surprised to learn that he had seen the same video about the commune and l convinced him to go with me to Taos . We left for Taos before sunrise the next day. We spelled each other with the driving and only stopped to use the rest area or to eat. We were well past Kingman when the Sun rose.
It was a good thing that both Irv and l liked travelling for travelling's sake, because we knew in the first half-hour in our visit to the commune at Taos that it was not going to be something we'd like to be involved with. We left there with promises that we would return soon. We then headed North and West
with Durango Colo. our new destination. Irv had a friend there that he hadn't
seen since she moved from Elko County a couple of years before. By noon the next day, we had decided to return to San Jose via Salt Lake City and Reno. we
stopped in Elko County for a couple of days and visited some of Irv's friends
Most of my old friends no longer lived there, or were unwilling to even talk on the phone or have anything to do with an old friend who had recently become an ex-convict.
At our Elko stop, Irv called a friend (David) who lived near Irv's place in Vegas
but at the time was visiting family in Lovelock. David was about to return to Vegas and agreed to wait for us to arrive in Lovelock. so Irv could ride home with him.
l decided to stop for lunch in Fernley for lunch. l had a couple of whiskeys before eating and then a couple more instead of eating. In an hour or so l was too drunk to drive, so l took a room at the Fernley Inn. l was having trouble
getting my room key to work, when the lady from the room next door came out of her room, noticed me and my predicament and offered to help. She had a little trouble with the lock as well, so by the time l was able to enter, we were well into conversation. She picked up the smaller of my bags and followed me
into the room.
l almost never get picked up by pretty ladies. And the only reason l can say "almost" is that it happened that time. This lady was way out of my league.
Most of the one's l like, are. But she seemed unaware of the imbalance. l sure was, though and l couldn't help but be a bit suspicious, but soon was convinced she was just a nice, self-confident pretty lady who was not opposed to casual sex. We sat and talked for about an hour before we decided to have dinner,
where we must have spent another hour, talking and laughing at each-others'
stories.
We returned to my (our)room, continuing our conversation as we undressed each other and slid between the sheets. It just happened as though it was scripted. Some time during our second day, she told me she would have to leave
in two more days and after that, we could not be together again or have anything to do with each other.
At first l was crushed. Hell, l had already figured how to break the news toDahlia. (And to Thom Kessler, if the change would involve crossing some stste lines)
During the fourth day l employed my sales personality, which almost always wins (93% closer). And it worked; Before we went to sleep that fourth nite, we
had decided to continue our friendship. We would spend a fifth night together to celebrate our decision.At least, that was our plan. On what would have been our fifth day together,l woke up at three PM with a bad headache and a missing room mate. l felt very bad for spoiling our last day together, by being a posessive asshorn. She had had a schedule to keep and she shared it with me.
Her having to "mickey" my drink was my fault for assuming that her schedule was less important than my need to win.
By 4PM l had showered, dressed for work and phoned the Patio Village office to
say l'd return that evening. l ate a late lunch, gassed the car and got on the road by about 5PM. l was in my office at 10 PM. (and that was before I80 was
built. Pulling into the parking lot at Patio Village, l noticed three employee parking spots were vacant; mine, and those of two closers, that are at that time no doubt, closing contracts. Before long the two closers showed up (each with signed contracts)Then all of us sat down for a couple hours QandA l won't bore
you with the details, but closers and their enablers were a bit unhappy about my recent absence, but they wound up welcoming me back.
This trip exemplified a tendency that l got caught-up with almost every time l was making more money than l deserved and just couldn't get enough travelling. this time was one of the less harmfull of the bunch.l got my butt chewed, but the job (and my salary) remained the same
She was absent from her day care on more than a few occations. Quite often she was on some cruise or trip that she had won, but no worries; She worked together with a group of child-care pros who filled in for each other. with that much going for her, she made it easy for us to hand over our kids and happily take our places in our workplaces. At the time Thom was offering me the Branch Managers position, at Patio Village, Dahlia was already several months
into her Executive Secretary position at IBM in Southern San Jose. That was a giant step from the Building Contracting company for which she worked previously. As we will learn later, she was to rise to much greater heights at IBM
and beyond.
l have neglected,'til now, to mention one of the most important persons who worked on the construction of Patio Village; My bio dad, Leon Gideon. A person
can have step-dads as many as are chosen by one's Mother, but there is only one bio dad to a customer. Mine had a varied work history, ranging from working as a cook on a merchant marine ship during WWII, to (when we first met) work-
ing as resident manager of Sunnyvale Mountain Park. Along the way, he had many other jobs, in shipyards after the war and in the logging industry after
that. He had also done a lot of carpentry, both framing and finishing. He, with
a couple of very competent helpers,did the re-construction of the big house.
Dad took some accumulated vacation to work there and my step-mom took charge of the park, in his absence, which she was well-accustomed to. Dad didn't really need the work though l guess he had an idea for using it. l was totally please that "the masterpiece in mohogany", which l called his work there,
would surround me, where ever l was in the office building.
The nearly two months that he was working at Patio Village, was the one time
we were able to spend most of a workday focusing on the same project and maybe having lunch together , some days a couple of beers after work. His
input visible in every square foot of the interior and exterior of our main building, l always felt that l belonged there.
One evening, after a particularly good day, about six months after our opening,
one of the closers and l were talking and half-listening to the TV in the back-
ground, After a while the show's host interviewed a guy living in New Mexico who was building a place near Taos where he intended to make a self-supporting
commune, where he and his family would share the place with other families.
Before long, most of the staff, still in the building, had pulled up a chair to watch TV with us. For the next few days, "the Northern New Mexico Beatnic" (that was
some time before the word "hippie" had reached the vocabulary)was the main topic of our conversations at work. l was very interested and l began to think l should go to New Mexico (Taos) and check out the commune, first hand.
Within a few days l prepared Dahlia for my being gone a week-or-so and asked
Deanne to cover the store for a few days.My brother Irv was in Vegas at the time so l stopped there on my way to New Mexico. l was surprised to learn that he had seen the same video about the commune and l convinced him to go with me to Taos . We left for Taos before sunrise the next day. We spelled each other with the driving and only stopped to use the rest area or to eat. We were well past Kingman when the Sun rose.
It was a good thing that both Irv and l liked travelling for travelling's sake, because we knew in the first half-hour in our visit to the commune at Taos that it was not going to be something we'd like to be involved with. We left there with promises that we would return soon. We then headed North and West
with Durango Colo. our new destination. Irv had a friend there that he hadn't
seen since she moved from Elko County a couple of years before. By noon the next day, we had decided to return to San Jose via Salt Lake City and Reno. we
stopped in Elko County for a couple of days and visited some of Irv's friends
Most of my old friends no longer lived there, or were unwilling to even talk on the phone or have anything to do with an old friend who had recently become an ex-convict.
At our Elko stop, Irv called a friend (David) who lived near Irv's place in Vegas
but at the time was visiting family in Lovelock. David was about to return to Vegas and agreed to wait for us to arrive in Lovelock. so Irv could ride home with him.
l decided to stop for lunch in Fernley for lunch. l had a couple of whiskeys before eating and then a couple more instead of eating. In an hour or so l was too drunk to drive, so l took a room at the Fernley Inn. l was having trouble
getting my room key to work, when the lady from the room next door came out of her room, noticed me and my predicament and offered to help. She had a little trouble with the lock as well, so by the time l was able to enter, we were well into conversation. She picked up the smaller of my bags and followed me
into the room.
l almost never get picked up by pretty ladies. And the only reason l can say "almost" is that it happened that time. This lady was way out of my league.
Most of the one's l like, are. But she seemed unaware of the imbalance. l sure was, though and l couldn't help but be a bit suspicious, but soon was convinced she was just a nice, self-confident pretty lady who was not opposed to casual sex. We sat and talked for about an hour before we decided to have dinner,
where we must have spent another hour, talking and laughing at each-others'
stories.
We returned to my (our)room, continuing our conversation as we undressed each other and slid between the sheets. It just happened as though it was scripted. Some time during our second day, she told me she would have to leave
in two more days and after that, we could not be together again or have anything to do with each other.
At first l was crushed. Hell, l had already figured how to break the news toDahlia. (And to Thom Kessler, if the change would involve crossing some stste lines)
During the fourth day l employed my sales personality, which almost always wins (93% closer). And it worked; Before we went to sleep that fourth nite, we
had decided to continue our friendship. We would spend a fifth night together to celebrate our decision.At least, that was our plan. On what would have been our fifth day together,l woke up at three PM with a bad headache and a missing room mate. l felt very bad for spoiling our last day together, by being a posessive asshorn. She had had a schedule to keep and she shared it with me.
Her having to "mickey" my drink was my fault for assuming that her schedule was less important than my need to win.
By 4PM l had showered, dressed for work and phoned the Patio Village office to
say l'd return that evening. l ate a late lunch, gassed the car and got on the road by about 5PM. l was in my office at 10 PM. (and that was before I80 was
built. Pulling into the parking lot at Patio Village, l noticed three employee parking spots were vacant; mine, and those of two closers, that are at that time no doubt, closing contracts. Before long the two closers showed up (each with signed contracts)Then all of us sat down for a couple hours QandA l won't bore
you with the details, but closers and their enablers were a bit unhappy about my recent absence, but they wound up welcoming me back.
This trip exemplified a tendency that l got caught-up with almost every time l was making more money than l deserved and just couldn't get enough travelling. this time was one of the less harmfull of the bunch.l got my butt chewed, but the job (and my salary) remained the same
Sunday, October 9, 2016
A note to the reader
"Realgideon" is so named because it recounts events that really happened. l give all the people names that l choose for them, but they are all real people. Those whom l expect are now deceased are given their actual names. Businesses are given fictitious names, though their locations are accurate:Patio
Village was an actual place of business, actually located at the corner of Moorpark Ave. and Winchester Blvd., but it's actual name was Patio City. When the five-bedroom house and it's surrounding attached and free-standing displays
were complete, l thought the place looked more like a village than a city, so,here at least, it's Patio Village.
Item Two: l apologize for slowing the flow of episodes in "Employed". Recent happy events at our home have had effects on my schedule that have left me with little to none in the way of time to write. l feel like l'm more than half-way
thru "the bulge" now ,so it won't be much longer before l'm caught up. Do you
ever re-read any of Real Gideon? Recently, l was looking for a reference in "Giant Stepping" and l wound up reading it all. l think l enjoyed it as much as l enjoyed recalling it and writing it, initially.
Thanks for your readership.
Village was an actual place of business, actually located at the corner of Moorpark Ave. and Winchester Blvd., but it's actual name was Patio City. When the five-bedroom house and it's surrounding attached and free-standing displays
were complete, l thought the place looked more like a village than a city, so,here at least, it's Patio Village.
Item Two: l apologize for slowing the flow of episodes in "Employed". Recent happy events at our home have had effects on my schedule that have left me with little to none in the way of time to write. l feel like l'm more than half-way
thru "the bulge" now ,so it won't be much longer before l'm caught up. Do you
ever re-read any of Real Gideon? Recently, l was looking for a reference in "Giant Stepping" and l wound up reading it all. l think l enjoyed it as much as l enjoyed recalling it and writing it, initially.
Thanks for your readership.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Employed 14 Part 3
l think it was adding radio and TV advertising to the full-page newspaper ads of yore, that made Patio Village (PV) such a big success. Duhhh. Of course, employing ten top-of-their-class sales professionals( TTCS Pros) to chase the results of that advertising, contributed to our result, (greatly). l used that phrase in the help-wanted ad l placed in the Mercury News for PV staff (including Lauralai Timmons, the voice l hired to be the first sound our callers heard. There is no way l could make the reader know what a wonderful voice she owned. So moving, so pretty, musical, yet so in charge. She so reminded me of Lil, our receptionist at the Bascom Ave. location. Voices aside, Lil was my favorite receptionist. But, from her first day Lauralai was a close second and eventually she took first place, in my opinion. For sure, Lauralai was a big boon to our business. She really was something special, drawing prospects to our place like a magnet. And when she set up an appointment (lead) all the blanks are filled in, all i's dotted, all t's crossed.
As sales manager, much of what i did was paid by the modest sales mgr's
salary. When l was "managing sales" time could be taken from my closing leads, and dollars from my bottom line. So, early-on at PV, l made less in sales commissions than any of my salespersons. But they were doing so well that my overide on their sales more than made up for the shortage. Sometimes (almost
always) l was blown away by what ten TTCS Pros could do with a plentitude of quality leads. There were a few moments at PV, when l thought l might be on the road to millionarity. (lt turned out to be miscalculation).
Our highest quality leads (those that resulted in closure of high-end jobs) whether they came from newspaper, radio or TV ads were all made in PV's lead
generation department, led by Deanne Drake. Her artists (4),and placement agents (2) generated so maany great leads that all the sales staff got more leads than could be scheduled without extending appointments into the late evening. Some of us would probably have been happy with fewer leads, but none of us ever complained, you can be sure.
Deanne worked well with the sales staff. We all appreciated the high quality leads that came from her department. She and her staff of six (together comprised our own "Magnificent Seven" ( M-7),and when you consider that all the advertising that we did in all three media employed was created and produced,except for TV taping, which Deanne's crew taped at KNTV.
M-7 was Thom's brainstorm; he called it "integrated lead generation"and it involved all the media of the time; Newspaper, broadcast radio and TV. On Thursdays and Fridays ads which the M-7 made in house for the Sunday Mercury News and for Thursday and Friday radio commercials on four San Jose
area stations. Also, on Thursday afternoon, M-7 produced a one minute taped commercial which would be played at agreed times on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday evenings on radio. All the ads of the week were linked to each other
and focused on the current weekend. The very first week our integrated lead-
generating program was employed, two of it's main legs,full-page newspaper ads and half-minute, TV spots both brought many leads, but radio brought few
and most of them didn't seem to understand what our product was,let alone any interest in acquiring any of it. To me, it was apparent that our product's appeal was visual and radio doesn't do visual. Original thinking on this was that be integrating our message, one to another, they would each broadcast the current
week's offers. So, it was possible what might have been first heard on radio, could wind up a TV or newspaper lead. So, while my first thought was to cancel the radio ads, cooler heads prevailed, radio ads continued and the total number of leads per week continued to grow. When we got so busy that Lauralai couldn't
keep up, we asked all employees who happen to be present at PV to answer the phone if it hasn't been answered before the third ring. Eventually, everyone who might find himself at HQ during business hours was taught the right way to turn a caller (on the phone or afoot) into a M-7 lead. Patio Village was a vast improvement over the Bascom Avenue. As our one-month Grand Opening slipped int history, we found ourselves achieving weekly grosses four, five, even six times our best weekly grosses at Bascom Ave.
When PV had been opened for two Months Thom began work on two new Patio
Villages; one in Hayward and one in Walnut Creek. At that point, Thom hired a
three-person crew to investigate some California cities with the goal of determining which would be good locations for future Patio Villages. He settled
on a team of three brothers who first spent six weeks under Thom's (and a couple of Thom's best closers) in training for the job. Thom was definitely taking PV to heights that Cal-Lum had never seen. Corporate staffers in Hayward said
the only thing that would have made Thom's transition better was it's happening sooner.
Some of the things that contributed to my having so many jobs in my life: l like
to talk to total strangers; and a hand-full of jobs came from that. And when newspapers were relevant, l read the classified section every day. l found what l consider the best job of my life in the SanJose Mercury News classified. Add to that a sort of sales-slut personalty,if you will, that had me, on many an occation, leaving a good job with a good company to join some "promising" start-up which turns out to be anything but what l expected. That scenario became reality more often than what could have happened if l had looked at the situation a little more closely and completely. Even so, in those years, when we lived in the south Bay, l broadened my horizons, learned much, made many new friends and forged more than a few connections. lt is just as well that l seldom think of the real opportunities while l sometimes chased air.
lt soon became apparent that l would not have the time to both manage Patio Village and sell jobs. Since we had such a great sales force already, l wasn't
really needed there, though l thought not selling jobs may leave me a little short
of income. My first check after Grand Opening Month settled it for me;There was no money for product sales, but my salary and overide checks exceeded my earlier salary and commissions checks and l became the full-time branch manager of Patio Village and l liked it. Only one person (of the 17 employees
at PV) was kind of an A-horn but never to the extent that firing was considered.
The rest were a pleasure to work with. The work of the lead generators made many high quality appointments for our closers, who, overall closed above 75%
of our class one, in house leads.(the fruits of M-7). The leads themselves contribute much to the high percentage of closes. By the time the prospect welcomes our represenative into his home, he has already had s much as 15 minutes of affirmative input, relative to PV during routine communications leading up to the appointment. All of it part of our pre-sale which greatly reduced missed sales and appointment cancellations. l should say eliminated,
because, in all the time l managed there,we never had a cancellation. All that stuff adds up,too. The nearly unanimous success of the ten closers and sheer dedication of every employee there, especially Adoph's five installation crews,
who, unlike some of our competitors,never failed a post-construction iinspection.
For me, the job changed much when l stopped closing contracts; l'd come in about nine. Thom would call about 9:30 if he was going to call. Sometimes l wouldn't hear from him for a few days but we did work pretty closely. l spent the most of every day talking to walk-ins and counselling closers who stop by with a "Yah got a minute, Prince ?" (Prince being a nickname given me by one of Adolph's crew leaders, one Orville Lytle, a craftsman of superior constructions, who became a good friend.
When l realized that l needed to stop selling and become a full-time manager, l thought that might reduce my income considerably, and as much as l liked my overall situation, if l was to make much less, l'd have to look for something else.
But, from the start the income was more than enough and grew continually. At
first l sorely missed the give-and-take of closing contracts but learned to accept my new life and the increased income that came with it
As sales manager, much of what i did was paid by the modest sales mgr's
salary. When l was "managing sales" time could be taken from my closing leads, and dollars from my bottom line. So, early-on at PV, l made less in sales commissions than any of my salespersons. But they were doing so well that my overide on their sales more than made up for the shortage. Sometimes (almost
always) l was blown away by what ten TTCS Pros could do with a plentitude of quality leads. There were a few moments at PV, when l thought l might be on the road to millionarity. (lt turned out to be miscalculation).
Our highest quality leads (those that resulted in closure of high-end jobs) whether they came from newspaper, radio or TV ads were all made in PV's lead
generation department, led by Deanne Drake. Her artists (4),and placement agents (2) generated so maany great leads that all the sales staff got more leads than could be scheduled without extending appointments into the late evening. Some of us would probably have been happy with fewer leads, but none of us ever complained, you can be sure.
Deanne worked well with the sales staff. We all appreciated the high quality leads that came from her department. She and her staff of six (together comprised our own "Magnificent Seven" ( M-7),and when you consider that all the advertising that we did in all three media employed was created and produced,except for TV taping, which Deanne's crew taped at KNTV.
M-7 was Thom's brainstorm; he called it "integrated lead generation"and it involved all the media of the time; Newspaper, broadcast radio and TV. On Thursdays and Fridays ads which the M-7 made in house for the Sunday Mercury News and for Thursday and Friday radio commercials on four San Jose
area stations. Also, on Thursday afternoon, M-7 produced a one minute taped commercial which would be played at agreed times on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday evenings on radio. All the ads of the week were linked to each other
and focused on the current weekend. The very first week our integrated lead-
generating program was employed, two of it's main legs,full-page newspaper ads and half-minute, TV spots both brought many leads, but radio brought few
and most of them didn't seem to understand what our product was,let alone any interest in acquiring any of it. To me, it was apparent that our product's appeal was visual and radio doesn't do visual. Original thinking on this was that be integrating our message, one to another, they would each broadcast the current
week's offers. So, it was possible what might have been first heard on radio, could wind up a TV or newspaper lead. So, while my first thought was to cancel the radio ads, cooler heads prevailed, radio ads continued and the total number of leads per week continued to grow. When we got so busy that Lauralai couldn't
keep up, we asked all employees who happen to be present at PV to answer the phone if it hasn't been answered before the third ring. Eventually, everyone who might find himself at HQ during business hours was taught the right way to turn a caller (on the phone or afoot) into a M-7 lead. Patio Village was a vast improvement over the Bascom Avenue. As our one-month Grand Opening slipped int history, we found ourselves achieving weekly grosses four, five, even six times our best weekly grosses at Bascom Ave.
When PV had been opened for two Months Thom began work on two new Patio
Villages; one in Hayward and one in Walnut Creek. At that point, Thom hired a
three-person crew to investigate some California cities with the goal of determining which would be good locations for future Patio Villages. He settled
on a team of three brothers who first spent six weeks under Thom's (and a couple of Thom's best closers) in training for the job. Thom was definitely taking PV to heights that Cal-Lum had never seen. Corporate staffers in Hayward said
the only thing that would have made Thom's transition better was it's happening sooner.
Some of the things that contributed to my having so many jobs in my life: l like
to talk to total strangers; and a hand-full of jobs came from that. And when newspapers were relevant, l read the classified section every day. l found what l consider the best job of my life in the SanJose Mercury News classified. Add to that a sort of sales-slut personalty,if you will, that had me, on many an occation, leaving a good job with a good company to join some "promising" start-up which turns out to be anything but what l expected. That scenario became reality more often than what could have happened if l had looked at the situation a little more closely and completely. Even so, in those years, when we lived in the south Bay, l broadened my horizons, learned much, made many new friends and forged more than a few connections. lt is just as well that l seldom think of the real opportunities while l sometimes chased air.
lt soon became apparent that l would not have the time to both manage Patio Village and sell jobs. Since we had such a great sales force already, l wasn't
really needed there, though l thought not selling jobs may leave me a little short
of income. My first check after Grand Opening Month settled it for me;There was no money for product sales, but my salary and overide checks exceeded my earlier salary and commissions checks and l became the full-time branch manager of Patio Village and l liked it. Only one person (of the 17 employees
at PV) was kind of an A-horn but never to the extent that firing was considered.
The rest were a pleasure to work with. The work of the lead generators made many high quality appointments for our closers, who, overall closed above 75%
of our class one, in house leads.(the fruits of M-7). The leads themselves contribute much to the high percentage of closes. By the time the prospect welcomes our represenative into his home, he has already had s much as 15 minutes of affirmative input, relative to PV during routine communications leading up to the appointment. All of it part of our pre-sale which greatly reduced missed sales and appointment cancellations. l should say eliminated,
because, in all the time l managed there,we never had a cancellation. All that stuff adds up,too. The nearly unanimous success of the ten closers and sheer dedication of every employee there, especially Adoph's five installation crews,
who, unlike some of our competitors,never failed a post-construction iinspection.
For me, the job changed much when l stopped closing contracts; l'd come in about nine. Thom would call about 9:30 if he was going to call. Sometimes l wouldn't hear from him for a few days but we did work pretty closely. l spent the most of every day talking to walk-ins and counselling closers who stop by with a "Yah got a minute, Prince ?" (Prince being a nickname given me by one of Adolph's crew leaders, one Orville Lytle, a craftsman of superior constructions, who became a good friend.
When l realized that l needed to stop selling and become a full-time manager, l thought that might reduce my income considerably, and as much as l liked my overall situation, if l was to make much less, l'd have to look for something else.
But, from the start the income was more than enough and grew continually. At
first l sorely missed the give-and-take of closing contracts but learned to accept my new life and the increased income that came with it
Saturday, August 27, 2016
Employed 14 Part 2
Thom was planning to open a store on the four acre property with a five-bedroom, three bath house at the Northwest corner of Moorpark Ave. and Winchester Blvd. First, he wanted me to hire and direct an asphalt contractor to pave and mark parking spaces,walkways and driveways. That finished,he wanted brother Irvin to select an aluminum building contractor and direct the construction of ten free-standing models and a half-dozen attached covers at the new location. Thom would pay Irvin $150. a day.
His hand-picked crew would receive the highest rate per square foot. Thom wanted Patio Village to be Northern California's leader in recreational aluminum buildings. He was considering approaching the board of directors to ask them to change the name of the company to "Patio Village". The name was changed before the store at Moorpark and Winchester was complete and doing business. Thom's vision for the place would transform the neighborhood. The huge house, near the center of the property, was completely sided with aluminum panels, matching the material and colors of the awning and patio cover models, including the houses's roof. It seemed comical in concept, but when Irv and his crew finished it, it was fantastic, a real attention-grabber. At Cal-Lum's Bascom Ave. location we almost never had drop-in prospects; at Patio Village we had a regular stream of walk-ins. In fact, all of the ten salespersons volunteered to man the store, one evening in ten days to convert walk-ins to people with
presentation appointments. As the construction of Patio Village progressed, Thom spent more and more time on the site. He liked the general lay-out (he mostly liked Irv's beautiful and unique way
with aluminum panels. Irv had plenty help,too. So the most difficult steps in construction almost seemed to fall together on their own. A week into the project he was a day-and-a-half ahead of
schedule. At completion, he was nearly two weeks ahead.Over the time taken to build the place, Thom got the San Jose bug. The first week we were open, Thom spent four nights at a Best Western in
Santa Clara. He had a great time that week.For years, while he was Nor Cal GM, he had closed next to no customer contracts, but he closed nine customer contracts for screenrooms and more than a dozen awning contracts in the four days that he was "one of my salesmen".(He insisted that since he had made his sales in my store, I was due the overides). How could I argue with that? During that first week,
at Patio Village I made more money (legally) than I ever made at any other job in a week's time,than in any week of my entire working life.Counting commissions for my sales and overides for ten sales-
men (plus Thom's overide) my net check for the week was $8,668.00. My last week's check from Firestorm, before Thom "rescued" me, was $104. (these are all 1964 numbers) I remember the 8668 because because of it's 2 86's mirroring each other. We all know it takes only one 86 to get us thrown out of a bar (or basketball game) but, put a dollar sign to the left of the number; loser becomes win-
ner. When I first saw that 8668 check, l thought of the day I came home from Firestorm in mid-afternoon to find Thom parked on my driveway. He had said that he thought he could help me (find
a way out of Townhouse city).I knew what he meant, in general, but I had no idea what was coming, opr the scale of it.
We gave notice at the beginning of the next month and soon moved to a 3Bdrm, 2 bath apartment on
Williamsburg drive, a block from Winchester Blvd. and less than two miles west of Patio Village,
essentially walking distance. (I did walk to work and back the first day we were at Williamsburg
Drive. After that I would make that walk about eight times a month.
I should mention that the winchester mystery house was (and is, to this day) was, and is, to this day
located about half-way between Williamsburg Drive and Morepark Ave./Patio Village. Just so you'll
know where we were in 1964. In the car, home to work it's four to five minutes. A very comfortable home, very conveniently located near (very) the workplace. A great setup. We had been in the townhouse in North San Jose for only a few months,but our stay on Williamsburg Drive stretched to a little over three years. That place was convenient to more than a few places where I found employment later.
Thom was determined to have a big success with Patio Village in SanJose and then to follow that
with repeats in other California cities. He didn't tell me that in so many words,but that was easy
enough to see in his total devotion to making his newest (and best) location big, beautiful and lucrative. We hadn't parted on the best of terms when the Bascom Ave. store was closed. But, as we
worked together to build the first Patio Village and talked about eventually putting them in many
California cities, we came to be pretty good friends.
In the Fall of 1964 a third baby girl joined us almost in the very middle of September.We named her
Tess, after somebody's grandmother or other. Her just-older sister, Sarah, was only 14 months old at
Tess's birth. Tess didn't like her name and changed it to Aleda before she was out of high-school.
I say more power to her; some of my favorite people have re-named themselves.
We had opened for business a few weeks before Patio Village was completely constructed (at least for in-house presentations). When we were fully opened we were able to close presentations in our offices.
Something that was not done at Bascom Avenue or at any other Northern California branches.At our party
to kick off Patio Village's grand opening, Thom told us that Arden Stark,Cal-Lum's CEO at the time,
would soon retire. Thom would,of course, succeed him. Nothing was said about who would take Thom's
position. I got a little rush when it struck me that I was probably the most likely candidate. When I told Dahlia the news later that evening she also figured me for the job. And she was stoked;"How much does Thom make, do you know?" "I would think at least a hundred and fifty K,but they're not going to pay me that much."
"Why not"
". Thom has been Nor Cal GM since 1958 and he is truly great at the job. I think Ican do better man-
aging Patio Village, San Jose. Remember, opening week I made over Eighty-six hundred bucks. Half that much per week would amount to more than 200K annually and the way Patio Village is coming along, I'm
very optomistic. Besides, I like San Jose, and I don't like Hayward. I like doing presentations and
closing contracts and I especially like meeting new people every work day.And I like working with other front-line salesmen like myself. Sure enough, once Thom was ensconced in the CEO's office, he
called me and said he'd like me to come in for a talk. I asked what the subject would be. He said there was a staff opening in Hayward and he'd like to get my take on how we might go about filling it.
I told him that my wife thinks that I should apply for that job.
"And You?"
"I think I would be honored to have any job that you had held and I think I could do it. Just not as good as you. Now that I think of it, one of my new salespeople, Alice Johnson, strikes me as being a few cuts above the rest of us (her percent closed number currently beats everybody at Patio Village
and this is her first try at direct, in-home sales)". And Howard; his percentage is close to Alice's,
but he has a way that is confident in himself and his plan. I know he could do my Job. With your direction I think he could be your successor."
"But my job is in Santa Monica, now."
It was clear that Thom didn't want my recommendation for his replacement. He wanted me to want the job
and to appreciate his offering it to me. I would have, if I could do the job from my new office in San Jose. But I knew that was not a possibility. I half-expected Thom to take back my new job as Patio
City's San Jose Sales Mgr, for declining the promotion.I don't know why, but he didn't. Not then. Not
a few weeks later,not, in fact, before I decided to leave Patio Village to take another position some
months later.
When Irv and his crew finished the display part of his Patio Village contract, he and his friend Adolph, whom he met in Alberta while traveling in Canada.Some months later when we startedconstruction
Irv had hired Adolph to be part of making the 5 bdrm house into a sales building with a large entry and reception area and ten salesman's offices. The large manager's office doubled as a conference room
with twelve chairs around a large table that was also my desk, at one end. I know it sounds kinda weird but it looked great and especially as conference room, it worked great.
When Patio Village was completely constructed, Irv got back to his world travels and Adolph became our
installation chief supervising five crews. I'll tell you this: we were cuttin fat hogs in the ass in a
wholesale way, but chargin retail prices. What could be better?
Even though we were making relatively much money again, rather than go out and buy a house, right away, we played it cool and stayed in our very comfortable (and reasonably priced) apartment until
we left San Jose altogether.
Monday, August 8, 2016
Employed 14 part 1
Officially, Lil was the last person of our Bascom Avenue contingent, as she called us, to leave 983 So. Bascom Avenue. I thought Thom would re-staff the Bascom Ave. location and buy some ads, but as the weeks after the close rolled by, no new staffing or other signs of business life were to appear there. A couple of months later, I noticed a used radio and TV store open for business at that address.
I missed being with Lil and the salesman and realized it would be forever before I found myself in such good company at work. But it was good to be involved in a kind of work completely new to me.
We bought a 2 1/2 ton refrigerated container truck. We took it to Sanger, Ca. and loaded it with 300
boxes of fancy grade Sunkist oranges sizes 118 and 88. We had sold the last of them before noon
Sunday, that first weekend. During the following week we hauled three loads @ 300 boxes each of
choice grade oranges, which we put in the large, cool garage of our Eichler on Goodwyn Ave. We began our produce business in the same week (early July 1963) that our daughter Sarah was born. What a neat kid. Early on she was so aware of her surroundings and so likely to be moved to laughter. Her big sister Reyann, three at the time, became her favorite. They spent a lot of time together and enjoyed each other greatly. I was so pleased with the family that Dahlia and I had made.
The first day that we tailgated at the Skyline Blvd. wide spot as an actual business, there were three other tailgaters who set up shop. At sundown on Sunday we still had about a quarter of our second load of the weekend unsold. Not a very good omen. Aware of how well Roger and Hazel's fruitstand on Bascom Ave. did, we thought it might be a good idea to look for a location where we might operate such a stand. At the South edge of Mission SanJose ,about 12 miles north of San Jose city, we found just such a place. Open and airey, with plenty of display bins and a full roof. It only needed to be stocked and connected to electricity.It was about thirty miles from the fruitstand in Mission San Jose (FSM) to the Oakland wholesale produce market. Roger was a regular buyer there and invited me to accompany him there to observe how he conducted himself as a wholesale produce buyer. I was struck by how much Roger was like my stepdad,Eli, when doing his main work. Actually their main work. You buy stuff.Then you sell that same stuff after adding a nice mark-up.When it's done skillfully and with integrity, a good time can be had by all involved.From my perspective,Eli and Roger both had a great time at work. Most of the time. Most of the time they and their prospects were obviously having a good time.Much of the time they could be found laughing. Watching Roger at the Oakland Market had me laughing most of the time. The more I saw, the more I thought "I can do this work". And I did.I got along with the guys at the market just fine. I was kind of a half-assed comic there from 4AM to breakfast two or three mornings a week while we operated the fruitstand at Mission San Jose. Which was not what I would call an extended period. our quick thinking (and poor managing)convinced us to close that place in our second month there. During our last week there,Dahlia covered the closing of the fruitstand while l carried (aboard our reefer truck) three loads of oranges from Sanger to super-markets in Reno, Lovelock, Winnemucca, and Elko. Pretty good produce-peddling,Huh? It was in that month that I met Ed Dursee, manager of the Steven's Creek Blvd. office of the California Pacific Finance company. We were to have a long and active business reelationship. At first he put up the money to get the duece-and-a-half back on the road after it ate a clutch and chased it with the contents of the cooling system,leaving the engine unworkable. Ed's help quickly fixed the truck, but we sold it just as soon as it was fixed, to a couple of business men who took the truck to Costa Rica where they planned to haul fish. Using money from the sale of the truck and that which Ed advanced me I bought a little larger truck with a V-8 engine that I thought I'd use it to do some tailgating as well as trips to Nevada. The newer truck, though without refrigeration could carry more weight in less time and the insulated box that I built on it held the temp of the load very well to destinations as far away as Salt Lake City, though I never made it that far east; I usually had sold the load before reaching Wells. We were beginning to feel the effects of my losing the job at Cal-Lum. The produce business can be a bitch. The bigger, faster, newer truck that Cal Pac finance and I bought, broke down with a load of bell peppers aboard, 500 miles from their buyer. By the time the truck was fixed,I had managed to sell a few hundred pounds of the peppers to the produce mgr.at a nearby Ralph's Market, who, fortunately had brought his pickup to work that day, which made it possible for him to haul the peppers to Ralph's,about a half-mile away. Once the truck was running again,I went to the local waste area and paid most of my cash-at-hand to dump the rotten peppers. While I was trying to "make a killing" with a load of peppers, Dahlia was selling our beautiful Eichler to her parents.(She always did have a better understanding of our assets, liabilities and etc. She said the house was our only chance to recover financially. we rented a 3-Bdrm townhouse in North East SanJose. I removed the insulated box from the truck and with Roger's permission left it in the back yard of his fruitstand. I hope he made good use of it because I completely spaced it and never returned to dispose of it. My excuse is that I had my hands full, keeping my head above water. For a string of months , I went from one stupid sales job to another and another.One day I found myself at work in a Firestorm store, standing around waiting for a customer, mostly thinking about all the failures in attempts to get back in the stream. To make serious bucks like Cal-Lum had produced. My thoughts came up with Thom Kessler. I'll bet he's not suffering for lack of a high income. I wondered again why Cal-Lum hadn't opened a new San Jose store.Some weeks earlier when I was working at Commercial Carpet Outlet I encountered Russ Eames, one of the salesmen who had worked at Cal- Lum .He said he had heard that Cal-Lum was looking for a property in San Jose.I wasn't surprised.and while it wasn't going to do me any good,I was pleased to hear it. I left Firestorm at about 1PM and went home for lunch.Driving home I was thinking of some of the jobs I had done since Cal-Lum:Of course the produce business was first, followed by a few weeks as a Fouler Brush Man,Salesman for a distributor of draperies,Then sales of China and Silver place-settings, then kitchen cutlery. I even spent a couple of months selling a best-known brand of encyclopedia of worldly knowledge. It was while I worked for Commercial Carpets that one of the biggest news stories of the decade took place.I had a mid-day appointment in Los Gatos. When I arrrived there and knocked on the door,there was some delay before an answer.The lady that cameto the door was crying. She showed me to the rumpus room where she and her husband were watching TV.Walter Cronkite said that the president had been shot at Dealley Plaza in Dallas.The next thing he said was that President Kennedy had been pronounced dead. None of us was interested, right then, to be involved in a pitch for a new carpet.I excused myself and said I'd be in touch to make a new appointment in a few days. I got so caught up with the recent past jobs as I drove home from Firestorm that I nearly missed my exit. As I approached our townhouse, I noticed a black, new, (64) Olds 98, parked in our driveway. Thom Kessler?!!! Hey Thom, what are you doing in this neighborhood? "Just slummin',What are you doing here?" "I'm waiting for the next bus out, but I don't think it's been scheduled yet. "Can we go inside,I think I might be able to offer some suggestions, where is your brother Irvin?" "Last I heard, he was in Nashville".
I missed being with Lil and the salesman and realized it would be forever before I found myself in such good company at work. But it was good to be involved in a kind of work completely new to me.
We bought a 2 1/2 ton refrigerated container truck. We took it to Sanger, Ca. and loaded it with 300
boxes of fancy grade Sunkist oranges sizes 118 and 88. We had sold the last of them before noon
Sunday, that first weekend. During the following week we hauled three loads @ 300 boxes each of
choice grade oranges, which we put in the large, cool garage of our Eichler on Goodwyn Ave. We began our produce business in the same week (early July 1963) that our daughter Sarah was born. What a neat kid. Early on she was so aware of her surroundings and so likely to be moved to laughter. Her big sister Reyann, three at the time, became her favorite. They spent a lot of time together and enjoyed each other greatly. I was so pleased with the family that Dahlia and I had made.
The first day that we tailgated at the Skyline Blvd. wide spot as an actual business, there were three other tailgaters who set up shop. At sundown on Sunday we still had about a quarter of our second load of the weekend unsold. Not a very good omen. Aware of how well Roger and Hazel's fruitstand on Bascom Ave. did, we thought it might be a good idea to look for a location where we might operate such a stand. At the South edge of Mission SanJose ,about 12 miles north of San Jose city, we found just such a place. Open and airey, with plenty of display bins and a full roof. It only needed to be stocked and connected to electricity.It was about thirty miles from the fruitstand in Mission San Jose (FSM) to the Oakland wholesale produce market. Roger was a regular buyer there and invited me to accompany him there to observe how he conducted himself as a wholesale produce buyer. I was struck by how much Roger was like my stepdad,Eli, when doing his main work. Actually their main work. You buy stuff.Then you sell that same stuff after adding a nice mark-up.When it's done skillfully and with integrity, a good time can be had by all involved.From my perspective,Eli and Roger both had a great time at work. Most of the time. Most of the time they and their prospects were obviously having a good time.Much of the time they could be found laughing. Watching Roger at the Oakland Market had me laughing most of the time. The more I saw, the more I thought "I can do this work". And I did.I got along with the guys at the market just fine. I was kind of a half-assed comic there from 4AM to breakfast two or three mornings a week while we operated the fruitstand at Mission San Jose. Which was not what I would call an extended period. our quick thinking (and poor managing)convinced us to close that place in our second month there. During our last week there,Dahlia covered the closing of the fruitstand while l carried (aboard our reefer truck) three loads of oranges from Sanger to super-markets in Reno, Lovelock, Winnemucca, and Elko. Pretty good produce-peddling,Huh? It was in that month that I met Ed Dursee, manager of the Steven's Creek Blvd. office of the California Pacific Finance company. We were to have a long and active business reelationship. At first he put up the money to get the duece-and-a-half back on the road after it ate a clutch and chased it with the contents of the cooling system,leaving the engine unworkable. Ed's help quickly fixed the truck, but we sold it just as soon as it was fixed, to a couple of business men who took the truck to Costa Rica where they planned to haul fish. Using money from the sale of the truck and that which Ed advanced me I bought a little larger truck with a V-8 engine that I thought I'd use it to do some tailgating as well as trips to Nevada. The newer truck, though without refrigeration could carry more weight in less time and the insulated box that I built on it held the temp of the load very well to destinations as far away as Salt Lake City, though I never made it that far east; I usually had sold the load before reaching Wells. We were beginning to feel the effects of my losing the job at Cal-Lum. The produce business can be a bitch. The bigger, faster, newer truck that Cal Pac finance and I bought, broke down with a load of bell peppers aboard, 500 miles from their buyer. By the time the truck was fixed,I had managed to sell a few hundred pounds of the peppers to the produce mgr.at a nearby Ralph's Market, who, fortunately had brought his pickup to work that day, which made it possible for him to haul the peppers to Ralph's,about a half-mile away. Once the truck was running again,I went to the local waste area and paid most of my cash-at-hand to dump the rotten peppers. While I was trying to "make a killing" with a load of peppers, Dahlia was selling our beautiful Eichler to her parents.(She always did have a better understanding of our assets, liabilities and etc. She said the house was our only chance to recover financially. we rented a 3-Bdrm townhouse in North East SanJose. I removed the insulated box from the truck and with Roger's permission left it in the back yard of his fruitstand. I hope he made good use of it because I completely spaced it and never returned to dispose of it. My excuse is that I had my hands full, keeping my head above water. For a string of months , I went from one stupid sales job to another and another.One day I found myself at work in a Firestorm store, standing around waiting for a customer, mostly thinking about all the failures in attempts to get back in the stream. To make serious bucks like Cal-Lum had produced. My thoughts came up with Thom Kessler. I'll bet he's not suffering for lack of a high income. I wondered again why Cal-Lum hadn't opened a new San Jose store.Some weeks earlier when I was working at Commercial Carpet Outlet I encountered Russ Eames, one of the salesmen who had worked at Cal- Lum .He said he had heard that Cal-Lum was looking for a property in San Jose.I wasn't surprised.and while it wasn't going to do me any good,I was pleased to hear it. I left Firestorm at about 1PM and went home for lunch.Driving home I was thinking of some of the jobs I had done since Cal-Lum:Of course the produce business was first, followed by a few weeks as a Fouler Brush Man,Salesman for a distributor of draperies,Then sales of China and Silver place-settings, then kitchen cutlery. I even spent a couple of months selling a best-known brand of encyclopedia of worldly knowledge. It was while I worked for Commercial Carpets that one of the biggest news stories of the decade took place.I had a mid-day appointment in Los Gatos. When I arrrived there and knocked on the door,there was some delay before an answer.The lady that cameto the door was crying. She showed me to the rumpus room where she and her husband were watching TV.Walter Cronkite said that the president had been shot at Dealley Plaza in Dallas.The next thing he said was that President Kennedy had been pronounced dead. None of us was interested, right then, to be involved in a pitch for a new carpet.I excused myself and said I'd be in touch to make a new appointment in a few days. I got so caught up with the recent past jobs as I drove home from Firestorm that I nearly missed my exit. As I approached our townhouse, I noticed a black, new, (64) Olds 98, parked in our driveway. Thom Kessler?!!! Hey Thom, what are you doing in this neighborhood? "Just slummin',What are you doing here?" "I'm waiting for the next bus out, but I don't think it's been scheduled yet. "Can we go inside,I think I might be able to offer some suggestions, where is your brother Irvin?" "Last I heard, he was in Nashville".
Monday, July 25, 2016
Employed 13 part 5
Working with the Oakwoods, Ross learned the produce business in the first few months that he worked for them his enthusiasm about the money that could made selling fruits off the truck that brought them from the packing shed to a wide place on a well-traveled roadway. On one of the three day holidays (probably July 4th) in 1963, Ross invited me to observe a day of tailgate produce commerce. l was amazed; the wide spot that Ross chose was on a very busy hiway (California 35, aka Skyline Blvd). and the wide spot had space for about forty cars at once. So it went well; Roger had back-up fruit in his garage,
maybe 15 miles distant. l don't remember the exact numbers, but l do remember Roger(who had seen it all in produce) said it was a stand-out week end. l was impressed and this was happening during what i would characterize as my most acquizative period. "Again?" "Well, this time it is legal...and mora".
"OK, as long as it is."
About ten AM one morning after l had managed Cal-Lum's San Jose office for about three months, Lil buzzed me.
"Yes, Lil ?"
"There are two gentlemen here who have identified themselves as FBl agents. They want to talk to you".
"Show them in". lt was about Paul Darden. He had gotten married to a woman
considerably older than he. that woman had an aunt of very advanced years. Paul, using a disguised voice (which the old aunt immediately saw through and recognised in the mix. As l recall, they ( the FBI) either had him in custody or they were about to. When they learned l hadn't been in touch with him since
Lovelock, they thanked me for my time, congratulated me for successfully completing parole and continued on their way. l never heard Paul's name again,
after their visit. They must have caught him. He needed catching...We, society,
needed him caught. l'm convinced, he was a real sociopath, yet before l learned
some of his self-admitted history, l found him smart, humorous, fun to be around.
Speaking of smart, humorous and fun to be with, brings Frank Paulsen to mind.
He and l were in the office one night after a long day and evening of presenting
Cal Lum products to valley home owners. We were mostly recalling some of our triumphs and defeats of the day,which we often did and which could often extend our visits well past the patience owned by our wives. On this night, though Frank left early, saying he was feeling a little rough. l encouraged him to go home and get some rest "and feel better". His being only twenty-nine years
old and not being noticebly overweight, it never entered my mind that he might have serious health issues. But, about an hour after he left, Mrs. Paulson called.
She said Frank arrived home and went directly to the bathroom, saying he had to go, RIGHT NOW. When she realized he had been in the bathroom fo more than twenty minutes, she went to check on him. He was lying face-on-floor, legs
around the bowl. She called 911. They arrived, found Frank unresponsive, and pronounced him dead. l had tears before she got to the 911 call. l hate to admit this, but the second thing that crossed my mind was how much money Frank's
sales contributed to my over-ride balance and how much l would now be missing. More importantly, and involving everyone at Cal-Lum, Frank was just the greatest people person: New customer or old friend and fellow-worker, everybody loved Frank and he reciprocated.
l needed to replace Frank quickly to avoid losinf numbers, not just for my income but for the store's numbers, too. Ross reminded me that our brother lrvin might be able to take over for Frank. And lrvin was already in Santa Clara
Valley (Mountain View) and he wasn't really happy with his job. lrvin had been a record-setting track and football player and straight A student in highschool
and a life-long artist (drawing, painting drafting and construction/sculpting) The more l thought about lrvin and his history, the more l was convinced that at least among anyone l knew, who l thought could do it,lrvin was far and away the best choice.
lrvin liked the idea, too. He had been working for some accounting firm or someplace that was heavy into numbers. He did numbers well and his pay was OK too, but there was no fun, no creation, no feeling of acomplishment. He decided to give Cal-Lum a try.
l sent "lrv" to Tom Kessler for for some interview, some appraisal and some
potato piercing. Toward giving lrv the full effect of his encounter with Thom, l didn't give him any information about what the interview might comprise. The first time he heard anything about piercing potatoes was Thom directing him to push the straw through the potato, as Thom did the same to his. After lrv left the interview, Thom called with the good news; He said he was convinced that lrv would be a great aluminum salesman.
He was, too. For starters, he was not comfortable with leads generated with full-page ads in the leading newspapers. He would accept the leads, and he maintained a high-closing percentage of those leads, bur he spent hours every day on the phone with his own prospects. He called people that he had known a while and people he just met. lt seemed that they all would eventually from him. One call he made in his first week at Cal-Lum was to a friend of his in that little town in Elko County (about 500 miles from San Jose).He and his friend had done the whole K thru 12 thing together. The friend,Harry Bruce was then a business man , owning a few different businesses in the county, including a Dairy Queen franchise. lrv remembered that, some months ago,when they last talked, Harry had mentioned that he needed to provide his customers a covered area for chairs and tables for outside shaded seating. lrv called Harry and they spent a half-hour co-designing a free-standing cover on a large concrete slab.
lt was obviously a special cover, located far from the stamping mill in Hayward and beyond the area in which Cal-Lum installers were licensed. So Cal-Lum
sold the custom cut parts to lrv, he sold them to Harry with little mark-up.Then,
the two of them, with the help of two of Harry's full-time employees, installed
(constructed, really.) The little town's first all aluminum, kidney-shaped free-
standing shade-caster. lrv lost a couple of hundred dollars on the job but Thom
thought lrv had done wel not to have lost twice as much. Especially considering
it was, at the time, unique.
lrv went on to become, in just a few months, the highest producer of gross sales in all of Thom's Northern California empire. (Yes, his numbers exceeded mine)
Month after month he led Cal-Lum North California gross sales. Then one day,
about six or seven months into his stay at Cal-Lum, lrv arrived at the office about three hours late. He pulled up driving a near new '64 lmpala. He said he was tired of the everyday salesman routine and was going on the road for a while in search of something good.l wished him well. (And wondered how l was going to make up for the loss of his business.
The relationship l had with Thom suffered for some reason with lrv's continuing
absence. l began to spend one or two weekend days with Ross, tailgating oranges apples, peaches,and some other available fruits. lt was all available in season from packing houses in the central valley and at what l remember were priced (wholesale) to leave the retailer a good profit. l started spending more time with the produce business than at my sales mamager job, to say nothing of my salesman job, which was where most of my Cal-Lum income came from.
Also, at that time, Vic Demos and Russ Eames called my attention to what looked like shorting contract figures to facilitate paying less commissions than were actually due. l looked at their evidence and to me it seemed they were right though l didn't see any evidence of shortened pay in my records. l accompanied Vic and Russ to their hearing where Thom and l exchanged words.
l don't actually remember being fired. l do remember leaving the Bascom Ave.
office and never returning.
Now. we could get 100% into the produce business.
maybe 15 miles distant. l don't remember the exact numbers, but l do remember Roger(who had seen it all in produce) said it was a stand-out week end. l was impressed and this was happening during what i would characterize as my most acquizative period. "Again?" "Well, this time it is legal...and mora".
"OK, as long as it is."
About ten AM one morning after l had managed Cal-Lum's San Jose office for about three months, Lil buzzed me.
"Yes, Lil ?"
"There are two gentlemen here who have identified themselves as FBl agents. They want to talk to you".
"Show them in". lt was about Paul Darden. He had gotten married to a woman
considerably older than he. that woman had an aunt of very advanced years. Paul, using a disguised voice (which the old aunt immediately saw through and recognised in the mix. As l recall, they ( the FBI) either had him in custody or they were about to. When they learned l hadn't been in touch with him since
Lovelock, they thanked me for my time, congratulated me for successfully completing parole and continued on their way. l never heard Paul's name again,
after their visit. They must have caught him. He needed catching...We, society,
needed him caught. l'm convinced, he was a real sociopath, yet before l learned
some of his self-admitted history, l found him smart, humorous, fun to be around.
Speaking of smart, humorous and fun to be with, brings Frank Paulsen to mind.
He and l were in the office one night after a long day and evening of presenting
Cal Lum products to valley home owners. We were mostly recalling some of our triumphs and defeats of the day,which we often did and which could often extend our visits well past the patience owned by our wives. On this night, though Frank left early, saying he was feeling a little rough. l encouraged him to go home and get some rest "and feel better". His being only twenty-nine years
old and not being noticebly overweight, it never entered my mind that he might have serious health issues. But, about an hour after he left, Mrs. Paulson called.
She said Frank arrived home and went directly to the bathroom, saying he had to go, RIGHT NOW. When she realized he had been in the bathroom fo more than twenty minutes, she went to check on him. He was lying face-on-floor, legs
around the bowl. She called 911. They arrived, found Frank unresponsive, and pronounced him dead. l had tears before she got to the 911 call. l hate to admit this, but the second thing that crossed my mind was how much money Frank's
sales contributed to my over-ride balance and how much l would now be missing. More importantly, and involving everyone at Cal-Lum, Frank was just the greatest people person: New customer or old friend and fellow-worker, everybody loved Frank and he reciprocated.
l needed to replace Frank quickly to avoid losinf numbers, not just for my income but for the store's numbers, too. Ross reminded me that our brother lrvin might be able to take over for Frank. And lrvin was already in Santa Clara
Valley (Mountain View) and he wasn't really happy with his job. lrvin had been a record-setting track and football player and straight A student in highschool
and a life-long artist (drawing, painting drafting and construction/sculpting) The more l thought about lrvin and his history, the more l was convinced that at least among anyone l knew, who l thought could do it,lrvin was far and away the best choice.
lrvin liked the idea, too. He had been working for some accounting firm or someplace that was heavy into numbers. He did numbers well and his pay was OK too, but there was no fun, no creation, no feeling of acomplishment. He decided to give Cal-Lum a try.
l sent "lrv" to Tom Kessler for for some interview, some appraisal and some
potato piercing. Toward giving lrv the full effect of his encounter with Thom, l didn't give him any information about what the interview might comprise. The first time he heard anything about piercing potatoes was Thom directing him to push the straw through the potato, as Thom did the same to his. After lrv left the interview, Thom called with the good news; He said he was convinced that lrv would be a great aluminum salesman.
He was, too. For starters, he was not comfortable with leads generated with full-page ads in the leading newspapers. He would accept the leads, and he maintained a high-closing percentage of those leads, bur he spent hours every day on the phone with his own prospects. He called people that he had known a while and people he just met. lt seemed that they all would eventually from him. One call he made in his first week at Cal-Lum was to a friend of his in that little town in Elko County (about 500 miles from San Jose).He and his friend had done the whole K thru 12 thing together. The friend,Harry Bruce was then a business man , owning a few different businesses in the county, including a Dairy Queen franchise. lrv remembered that, some months ago,when they last talked, Harry had mentioned that he needed to provide his customers a covered area for chairs and tables for outside shaded seating. lrv called Harry and they spent a half-hour co-designing a free-standing cover on a large concrete slab.
lt was obviously a special cover, located far from the stamping mill in Hayward and beyond the area in which Cal-Lum installers were licensed. So Cal-Lum
sold the custom cut parts to lrv, he sold them to Harry with little mark-up.Then,
the two of them, with the help of two of Harry's full-time employees, installed
(constructed, really.) The little town's first all aluminum, kidney-shaped free-
standing shade-caster. lrv lost a couple of hundred dollars on the job but Thom
thought lrv had done wel not to have lost twice as much. Especially considering
it was, at the time, unique.
lrv went on to become, in just a few months, the highest producer of gross sales in all of Thom's Northern California empire. (Yes, his numbers exceeded mine)
Month after month he led Cal-Lum North California gross sales. Then one day,
about six or seven months into his stay at Cal-Lum, lrv arrived at the office about three hours late. He pulled up driving a near new '64 lmpala. He said he was tired of the everyday salesman routine and was going on the road for a while in search of something good.l wished him well. (And wondered how l was going to make up for the loss of his business.
The relationship l had with Thom suffered for some reason with lrv's continuing
absence. l began to spend one or two weekend days with Ross, tailgating oranges apples, peaches,and some other available fruits. lt was all available in season from packing houses in the central valley and at what l remember were priced (wholesale) to leave the retailer a good profit. l started spending more time with the produce business than at my sales mamager job, to say nothing of my salesman job, which was where most of my Cal-Lum income came from.
Also, at that time, Vic Demos and Russ Eames called my attention to what looked like shorting contract figures to facilitate paying less commissions than were actually due. l looked at their evidence and to me it seemed they were right though l didn't see any evidence of shortened pay in my records. l accompanied Vic and Russ to their hearing where Thom and l exchanged words.
l don't actually remember being fired. l do remember leaving the Bascom Ave.
office and never returning.
Now. we could get 100% into the produce business.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Employed 13 Part 4
At Cal Lum, sales people and installers were independent contractors. Our customers paid for their awnings, patio covers and screen enclosures by the square-foot amount of the materials used to build the job and the number of square feet installed times the price for each square foot. The salesmen at Cal Lum really were independent, as were the installers. Payment for salesmen was based on a "par" system. All materials and the labor to install them had a par price. The total par price of a job was the company's share of the job. The actual price of a given job, minus par on that job, was the salesman's share. So, the salesman needed to sell jobs priced well over par, so as to leave himself with a good profit. Obviously that's not always possible, but the company had a wide array of alternative models of their products that were priced more affordably &
with lower par prices to boot.The installers were paid an amount per square foot of finished and installed product. (Thom Kessler had started at Cal Lum on an installation team and was paid an amount that he thought was fair and he liked the work. But, one day the salesman of the job Thom was helping to install, stopped by the job to check on some detail and he and Thom got to talking and, at some point Thom, noticing how the salesman was dressed and the brand of car he drove, asked how much he would make on the present job. On that particular job, the sales man would make an amount ten times that of the installers take, on the same job. The very next day Thom applied for a salesman's position. When l first met him, Thom was Cal Lum's Northern California General Manager. When l left Cal Lum, he was General Manager for all of Cal Lum.
l felt privileged to be hired and trained by him; it sure did bump my income into an area that l had not previously visited to the extent that Dahlia and l began to think that paying rent was wasting money. We figured we were ready to buy a house and start building equity. My commissions and overides would,( if they continued) easily pay the mortgage , maintenance and insurance. We found a twelve-year-old Eichler at the North/East corner of Goodwin Avenue and the southwest expressway, in San Jose (just 1.8 miles from my office.)
in San Jose. Purchase price was $17,950. The mortgage payment was $159. At that time (we moved in on Oct.6, 1963, just exactly two years from the day l left Soledad.) my average income per day was nearly twice the monthly mortgage payment. A very comfortable margin.
Only a couple of months after we moved to 890 Goodwin Ave., our pretty little Corvair Monza started to behave like some of the cars in Ralph Nader's book,
"Unsafe at any speed". The combination of a rear-mounted engine with rear wheel drive caused drivetrain problems that culminated one day at about fifty miles per hour, in the drive wheels suddenly locking up and throwing the car into several spinning rotations. No one was hurt. The car came to a stop without hitting anything. But, even thought the repairs made the car drivable (and presentable). We decided to get a car with front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels. l decided it was time for Dahlia, who had grown up riding in her dad's Buick company cars, to finally step up to Cadillac. And for me to share legal ownership of one . lt was a '61 DeVille, 4-door. White exterior. Black with gold trim interior. We bought that car about three and a half years after l was forced to stop stealing cars. We were at least pointed in the right direction, now.
Vic Demos and l were both in the office one day, waiting to go to our next appointments and we got to talking about specific things we do or say during a presentation to soften the prospect's resistance. l told him that l thought being punctual was, at least a good start. lf you say you'll be there at 3:15PM and you are there, then,you are not only punctual, you're honest; you did what you said you would. Having the prospect think of you as honest is going to make all the difference when you're closing the sale. Vic agreed; punctual is good. But,for himself, getting the prospect's sympathy worked best, though he said that he wouldn't discount punctuality in future. He owned the only 1963 Buick Riviera
l had seen, up to then (they were new, that year)but rather than let the customer see his expensive car (and maybe take him for a high-pressure, big money salesman) he would park his car a few blocks away and wait 'til he was a few minutes late for the appointment. Then he would run to the prospect's home, arriving sweaty and full of contrition. He was SO sorry to be late, but he was new to this work and had an old broken down car that usually let him down,
"like it did today". And, the customer! he hated to think how many of them he had let down. And, it usually worked for him.
My routine was to arrive in the prospect's neighborhood about ten minutes
early. At a minute early, l drive my car to the prospect's house and park it on his driveway and knock on his door. Almost every time, someone in the house makes mention of my arriving exactly on time. No one ever said anything about my choice of parking spot.
During a recent break, l opened a beer and it reminded me of another example of the benefit of doing what you said you would.
l'm not religious, but l've always liked to take Sundays off when it's possible. At theSan Jose branch of Cal Lum l had asked everyone to not schedule appointments for me unless no one else was available to a Sunday caller/prospect. One Sunday, in the Summer of 1963, l got a call from Lil: She knows she's not supposed to call me, and says so, but she had to because a prospect had spoken to the answering service and said he was almost sure our screen room is the one he wants. He all but promised to buy the room if some one could see him that day. l called the guy and told him l'd come to his house and show him the screen rooms. Before we hung up, he lamented the recent
demise of his last case of beer."Could you possibly bring one with you?" l said l would , if he promised me he wouldn't buy the room from somebody else before l got there. What kind do you want?"
"Oly", he said. "My favorite", l said. on the way to his house, l stopped to pick up the OLympia beer, then arrived at his front door precisely on time, leaving the "Oly"in the car. l proceded with the nearly one-hour presentation. Near the close, the subject of my veracity came up relative to the job's general construction quality and it's ability to last thru the years. how could he be sure l had been honest with him, Kyle (the prospect) wanted to know.
"Well, all the specifics of your job, as l've have told you, are in the contract.
Besides, my contract with Cal Lum requires me to be honest with prospective
buyers. l can be fired for just being accused of mis-leading a prospect. ls there
something specific that you think l havn't been honest about?"
"Uh, well,it's not about the job, but you did say you'd bring me a case of "Oly".
"You're right, l did say that and l also brought it. But, in the interest of my being able to provide you with a good presentation and you being able to clearly understand it, l decided it would be best to add the beer to the mix after the
presentation. lt would make a great signing bonus, don't you think?"
"Uhhh. Uh, l guess".
"Fine, l'll go get it, but don't start the signing without me.
l went to the car, got the "Oly" and returned to the kitchen. l drank about half a beer before l picked up the contract, put in front of Kyle and told him l'd need both his and his wife's signatures. He signed it and said "Hon, you hafta sign this too". She did. l gave them their copies and my business card and my direct office phone and told him to call that number if there were any problems with our job. Kyle said he certainly would and he thanked me for coming on Sunday.
Most people who were interested in a screen room were usually in need of a floor to which the room can be fastened. Cal Lum had contracts with six concrete patio specialists available on one day's notice. That made it possible to do all of the labor on the same day, which gave the salespeople's commissions a good bump.
Somebody had designed our system to be very beneficial to the sales staff and l thanked them.
Even while l was making more money in less time than l had before Cal Lum, l was always looking for ways to increase my income.Eli's son Ross moved to San Jose and stayed with us for a short time, until he was able to find a spot for himself. It was very fortunate that he was staying with us, on the night that our dishwasher malfunctioned and caught fire after we were asleep,but at nearly the
same time that Ross returned home after a late date. He got the garden hose on the fire and put it out before we even awoke. l'm sure that without his quick thinking and correct action, our home and our lives would surely have been lost.
Thanks again, Ross.
Just a couple of hundred feet south of the stripmall that contained Cal Lum's San Jose office, was a fruit stand operated by Roger and Hazel Oakwood with the help of their teen-age daughter, Jesee. Ross had discovered the place when he first stopped there for some local plums, in season.He wound up working with the Oakwoods full time for a few years. When Roger left the San Jose stand, and leased another in Milpitas (About ten miles from San Jose) Ross went with them. Ross and Jesee were married when she graduated high school. They had three boys and later adopted a girl child. They were together over twenty-five years, before they divorced.
twice the monthly mortgage payment.
with lower par prices to boot.The installers were paid an amount per square foot of finished and installed product. (Thom Kessler had started at Cal Lum on an installation team and was paid an amount that he thought was fair and he liked the work. But, one day the salesman of the job Thom was helping to install, stopped by the job to check on some detail and he and Thom got to talking and, at some point Thom, noticing how the salesman was dressed and the brand of car he drove, asked how much he would make on the present job. On that particular job, the sales man would make an amount ten times that of the installers take, on the same job. The very next day Thom applied for a salesman's position. When l first met him, Thom was Cal Lum's Northern California General Manager. When l left Cal Lum, he was General Manager for all of Cal Lum.
l felt privileged to be hired and trained by him; it sure did bump my income into an area that l had not previously visited to the extent that Dahlia and l began to think that paying rent was wasting money. We figured we were ready to buy a house and start building equity. My commissions and overides would,( if they continued) easily pay the mortgage , maintenance and insurance. We found a twelve-year-old Eichler at the North/East corner of Goodwin Avenue and the southwest expressway, in San Jose (just 1.8 miles from my office.)
in San Jose. Purchase price was $17,950. The mortgage payment was $159. At that time (we moved in on Oct.6, 1963, just exactly two years from the day l left Soledad.) my average income per day was nearly twice the monthly mortgage payment. A very comfortable margin.
Only a couple of months after we moved to 890 Goodwin Ave., our pretty little Corvair Monza started to behave like some of the cars in Ralph Nader's book,
"Unsafe at any speed". The combination of a rear-mounted engine with rear wheel drive caused drivetrain problems that culminated one day at about fifty miles per hour, in the drive wheels suddenly locking up and throwing the car into several spinning rotations. No one was hurt. The car came to a stop without hitting anything. But, even thought the repairs made the car drivable (and presentable). We decided to get a car with front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels. l decided it was time for Dahlia, who had grown up riding in her dad's Buick company cars, to finally step up to Cadillac. And for me to share legal ownership of one . lt was a '61 DeVille, 4-door. White exterior. Black with gold trim interior. We bought that car about three and a half years after l was forced to stop stealing cars. We were at least pointed in the right direction, now.
Vic Demos and l were both in the office one day, waiting to go to our next appointments and we got to talking about specific things we do or say during a presentation to soften the prospect's resistance. l told him that l thought being punctual was, at least a good start. lf you say you'll be there at 3:15PM and you are there, then,you are not only punctual, you're honest; you did what you said you would. Having the prospect think of you as honest is going to make all the difference when you're closing the sale. Vic agreed; punctual is good. But,for himself, getting the prospect's sympathy worked best, though he said that he wouldn't discount punctuality in future. He owned the only 1963 Buick Riviera
l had seen, up to then (they were new, that year)but rather than let the customer see his expensive car (and maybe take him for a high-pressure, big money salesman) he would park his car a few blocks away and wait 'til he was a few minutes late for the appointment. Then he would run to the prospect's home, arriving sweaty and full of contrition. He was SO sorry to be late, but he was new to this work and had an old broken down car that usually let him down,
"like it did today". And, the customer! he hated to think how many of them he had let down. And, it usually worked for him.
My routine was to arrive in the prospect's neighborhood about ten minutes
early. At a minute early, l drive my car to the prospect's house and park it on his driveway and knock on his door. Almost every time, someone in the house makes mention of my arriving exactly on time. No one ever said anything about my choice of parking spot.
During a recent break, l opened a beer and it reminded me of another example of the benefit of doing what you said you would.
l'm not religious, but l've always liked to take Sundays off when it's possible. At theSan Jose branch of Cal Lum l had asked everyone to not schedule appointments for me unless no one else was available to a Sunday caller/prospect. One Sunday, in the Summer of 1963, l got a call from Lil: She knows she's not supposed to call me, and says so, but she had to because a prospect had spoken to the answering service and said he was almost sure our screen room is the one he wants. He all but promised to buy the room if some one could see him that day. l called the guy and told him l'd come to his house and show him the screen rooms. Before we hung up, he lamented the recent
demise of his last case of beer."Could you possibly bring one with you?" l said l would , if he promised me he wouldn't buy the room from somebody else before l got there. What kind do you want?"
"Oly", he said. "My favorite", l said. on the way to his house, l stopped to pick up the OLympia beer, then arrived at his front door precisely on time, leaving the "Oly"in the car. l proceded with the nearly one-hour presentation. Near the close, the subject of my veracity came up relative to the job's general construction quality and it's ability to last thru the years. how could he be sure l had been honest with him, Kyle (the prospect) wanted to know.
"Well, all the specifics of your job, as l've have told you, are in the contract.
Besides, my contract with Cal Lum requires me to be honest with prospective
buyers. l can be fired for just being accused of mis-leading a prospect. ls there
something specific that you think l havn't been honest about?"
"Uh, well,it's not about the job, but you did say you'd bring me a case of "Oly".
"You're right, l did say that and l also brought it. But, in the interest of my being able to provide you with a good presentation and you being able to clearly understand it, l decided it would be best to add the beer to the mix after the
presentation. lt would make a great signing bonus, don't you think?"
"Uhhh. Uh, l guess".
"Fine, l'll go get it, but don't start the signing without me.
l went to the car, got the "Oly" and returned to the kitchen. l drank about half a beer before l picked up the contract, put in front of Kyle and told him l'd need both his and his wife's signatures. He signed it and said "Hon, you hafta sign this too". She did. l gave them their copies and my business card and my direct office phone and told him to call that number if there were any problems with our job. Kyle said he certainly would and he thanked me for coming on Sunday.
Most people who were interested in a screen room were usually in need of a floor to which the room can be fastened. Cal Lum had contracts with six concrete patio specialists available on one day's notice. That made it possible to do all of the labor on the same day, which gave the salespeople's commissions a good bump.
Somebody had designed our system to be very beneficial to the sales staff and l thanked them.
Even while l was making more money in less time than l had before Cal Lum, l was always looking for ways to increase my income.Eli's son Ross moved to San Jose and stayed with us for a short time, until he was able to find a spot for himself. It was very fortunate that he was staying with us, on the night that our dishwasher malfunctioned and caught fire after we were asleep,but at nearly the
same time that Ross returned home after a late date. He got the garden hose on the fire and put it out before we even awoke. l'm sure that without his quick thinking and correct action, our home and our lives would surely have been lost.
Thanks again, Ross.
Just a couple of hundred feet south of the stripmall that contained Cal Lum's San Jose office, was a fruit stand operated by Roger and Hazel Oakwood with the help of their teen-age daughter, Jesee. Ross had discovered the place when he first stopped there for some local plums, in season.He wound up working with the Oakwoods full time for a few years. When Roger left the San Jose stand, and leased another in Milpitas (About ten miles from San Jose) Ross went with them. Ross and Jesee were married when she graduated high school. They had three boys and later adopted a girl child. They were together over twenty-five years, before they divorced.
twice the monthly mortgage payment.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
Employed 13 Part 3
As we more closely approached the day on which my parole would expire, we stepped up the frequency of our visits to San Jose. Almost from the start of the assay job, we spent weekends there, mostly reading the Sunday papers in search of our next employment. Weekends were good for learning about available positions, but interviews are almost always conducted on weekdays.
l asked Felix if he knew someone, real smart, who might be able to quickly learn
the assay procedures and had time to work on some Mondays and Tuesdays so l could start interviewing in San Jose. He referred me to a guy named Scott Henderson. He had considerable experience (some as an assayer's assistant and needed very little training to do our assays.)
l ran my plan past Willy, our mining
operations manager, without mentioning that l was looking for my next job, l
told him that Dahlia was pregnant and wanted to be seen by her Doctor in Saratoga, (which was true). So we started adding Monday and sometimes Tuesday, to our weekend visits there. l paid Scott what l earned for the days he worked, so it did have a noticeable impact on our income, but we had saved a bunch by that time, so we didn't run short.
Time flies and suddenly (it seemed) it's April 6, 1963, my last day on parole. l had given my notice a couple of weeks earlier, so we were on our way back to San Jose. l was pleased that Scott applied for my job and was hired. Given his good work during my absences, he was a natural for that job.
l must admit that the news of Dahlia's "condition" surprised me a bit. At that point in time, l had pretty much left behind any notion that l might, or could ever be fertile. But, here was evidence that what seems is not always what is.
Some years later l learned that the type of undershorts worn by men have a direct effect on the wearer's fertility. l had learned in George Jeffs' seventh grade zoology class that the testes are contained in a skin sack which holds them a couple or more inches away from the man's body, because, for some reason, normal body temperature is too hot for the millions of microscopic
characteristics carriers. Jockey shorts hold the testes tightly against the body.
Boxer shorts allow hanging loose. l had worn jockey shorts from the time l left diapers behind, and until the Army started clothing me. Since then, and until now,l have worn Boxers. lt takes time, though. Six years passed between my
beginning to wear Boxer shorts and the first evidence of my fertility. lt's just for comfort that l wear them now. Dahlia and l got together sometime after mid-
October '61. Her doctor in Lovelock pronounced her pregnant in late December
'62. At first l thought it might be a good idea to postpone our return to San Jose
for a few months or more, figuring the move, by itself would be a big deal, to say nothing of the hunt for residence. And my job hunt. And...Dahlia said "l'm
not going to have our baby in the Lovelock hospital. Reyann was born at O'conner hospital. they did what they were supposed to do and everything went fine. Why tempt fate?"
"Well, she's the one doing the having and l say (said) more power to you, Honey".
We had planned, well before we went job-hunting in Nevada, to leave Lovelock (or wherever we might have found a good-paying job like the assaying job, as soon as we had accumulated X amount of assets and had successfully completed the 18 months parole, to return to California and seek interesting and lucrative opportunities in sales and sales management. Dahlia would continue to be a stay-at-home wife and mother,at least for as long my income was sufficient to meet our needs.
We accumulated considerable stuff while we were in Lovelock, much more than we could carry in our little VW. l had thought to rent a pickup, but when Ely called to learn how our return to California was progressing,and Dahlia told him
we would rent a pickup, he offered us the use of his pickup. She accepted. That was no small contribution; a round trip, Elko County to Santaclara county and return put more than a thousand miles on Ely's pickup.
Ely's son,Ross volunteered to drive the pickup, a huge contribution that saved us several hundred miles driving to return a rented truck and all the help with loading and unloading our junk that Ross did.
Once ensconced in our two-bedroom apartment in Campbell (just a little bit North and West of central San Jose), We were finally totally focused on finding and securing employment as a Salesman, Sales Manager, or some combination of the two. On the third day of the quest, l saw an interesting ad:Salesman/Manager, Salary and commission. Call Thom Kessler, 9AM to Noon
today.
Very strange interview: About a dozen applicants in a classroom setting. Thom takes the teacher's part. first, he hands each of us a russett potato and a drinking straw. (the old type small bore paper straw) He says our task is to hold the potato in one hand, the straw in the other, then simply stab the potato with the straw, so it sticks out the other side of the potato. Thom stabbed his potato
as he spoke, leaving his straw sticking out both sides of the potato. Seeing his success convinced me that it was possible and in an instant my potato was pierced by my straw, just like Thom's. Only three of us in that room (including Thom) passed their straw thru their potato on the first try. Our reward was an
interview. After that we were both hired. Me, for the San Jose store and the other guy,Rod Upmann, for the Hayward store. The company was Caluminum, a home-improvement company, specializing in aluminum awnings and patio cov-
ers, as well as fibre-glass screening to enclose the covers. Cal Lume, as we called it,
had three stores in the bay area:in Hayward, San Jose and San Rafael. Customer leads were generated by full-page ads in the Sunday editions of the
San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune. With the help of a telephone receptionist (who turned inquiries into "no obligation" appointments). Four other direct salesmen in a small store in a six-unit strip-mall at 983 South Bascom Ave. made easy work of it. l was paid a fair salary,
(about $500. per week in today's money)to manage the store. Additionally,on jobs l sold myself, l received the same percentage commission as my salesmen did on the jobs they sold. l also received a percentage of the face value of every
contract sold in the San Jose store.(Manager's overide)
First things first: Ad in the Merc; "Telephone Receptionist, needed yesterday. Call xxx xxxx for telephone interview". Phones in the store were yet to be hooked up, so l put my home phone number in the ad. My very first caller had an extremely beautiful and cultured voice. l couldn't imagine that any other voice l might yet encounter could be near as nice. So, after talking/listening to
twenty-five additional voices after hers, l still held the same opinion. Lil Wallace
was her name and she was a sweetheart and a fine receptionist;if she didn't turn a call into an appointment (l learned as l got to know her) some detail beyond our control prevented it. But those were rare: a vast majority fell under the spell of her voice and the lead slips piled up in the in-boxes of what she came to call her "Big Five".
Being one of them, let me introduce the other four:
Frank Paulsen...Well spoken, overly dapper, gregarious, no excuses,lotsa results.
Vic Demos...Quiet,earnest,persuasive, very high closing percentage.
Murray Acevido...Loquacious, craftsman, smooth closer.
Russ Eams...Wild man,funny, deep,Red hair, Closerola!
Out of nine applicants, l picked those four and never once regretted it.Later, in fact, they all had something to teach me that was really beneficial.After all, they
were all some years older than l was. ln fact, they were all mentors to me.
On this job l was making so much money so soon and so consistently that l
figured (about three weeks into the job) that l should buy a new car. l did not like the VW at all, and l had my eye on a Corvair Monza coupe painted fire engine red.When they offered what l thought was a great price for the VW, l had to go for it. l immediately went to our store to show "the other four" what great taste l had in cars. My taste,they weren't interested in; but they liked the Monza a lot.
l asked Felix if he knew someone, real smart, who might be able to quickly learn
the assay procedures and had time to work on some Mondays and Tuesdays so l could start interviewing in San Jose. He referred me to a guy named Scott Henderson. He had considerable experience (some as an assayer's assistant and needed very little training to do our assays.)
l ran my plan past Willy, our mining
operations manager, without mentioning that l was looking for my next job, l
told him that Dahlia was pregnant and wanted to be seen by her Doctor in Saratoga, (which was true). So we started adding Monday and sometimes Tuesday, to our weekend visits there. l paid Scott what l earned for the days he worked, so it did have a noticeable impact on our income, but we had saved a bunch by that time, so we didn't run short.
Time flies and suddenly (it seemed) it's April 6, 1963, my last day on parole. l had given my notice a couple of weeks earlier, so we were on our way back to San Jose. l was pleased that Scott applied for my job and was hired. Given his good work during my absences, he was a natural for that job.
l must admit that the news of Dahlia's "condition" surprised me a bit. At that point in time, l had pretty much left behind any notion that l might, or could ever be fertile. But, here was evidence that what seems is not always what is.
Some years later l learned that the type of undershorts worn by men have a direct effect on the wearer's fertility. l had learned in George Jeffs' seventh grade zoology class that the testes are contained in a skin sack which holds them a couple or more inches away from the man's body, because, for some reason, normal body temperature is too hot for the millions of microscopic
characteristics carriers. Jockey shorts hold the testes tightly against the body.
Boxer shorts allow hanging loose. l had worn jockey shorts from the time l left diapers behind, and until the Army started clothing me. Since then, and until now,l have worn Boxers. lt takes time, though. Six years passed between my
beginning to wear Boxer shorts and the first evidence of my fertility. lt's just for comfort that l wear them now. Dahlia and l got together sometime after mid-
October '61. Her doctor in Lovelock pronounced her pregnant in late December
'62. At first l thought it might be a good idea to postpone our return to San Jose
for a few months or more, figuring the move, by itself would be a big deal, to say nothing of the hunt for residence. And my job hunt. And...Dahlia said "l'm
not going to have our baby in the Lovelock hospital. Reyann was born at O'conner hospital. they did what they were supposed to do and everything went fine. Why tempt fate?"
"Well, she's the one doing the having and l say (said) more power to you, Honey".
We had planned, well before we went job-hunting in Nevada, to leave Lovelock (or wherever we might have found a good-paying job like the assaying job, as soon as we had accumulated X amount of assets and had successfully completed the 18 months parole, to return to California and seek interesting and lucrative opportunities in sales and sales management. Dahlia would continue to be a stay-at-home wife and mother,at least for as long my income was sufficient to meet our needs.
We accumulated considerable stuff while we were in Lovelock, much more than we could carry in our little VW. l had thought to rent a pickup, but when Ely called to learn how our return to California was progressing,and Dahlia told him
we would rent a pickup, he offered us the use of his pickup. She accepted. That was no small contribution; a round trip, Elko County to Santaclara county and return put more than a thousand miles on Ely's pickup.
Ely's son,Ross volunteered to drive the pickup, a huge contribution that saved us several hundred miles driving to return a rented truck and all the help with loading and unloading our junk that Ross did.
Once ensconced in our two-bedroom apartment in Campbell (just a little bit North and West of central San Jose), We were finally totally focused on finding and securing employment as a Salesman, Sales Manager, or some combination of the two. On the third day of the quest, l saw an interesting ad:Salesman/Manager, Salary and commission. Call Thom Kessler, 9AM to Noon
today.
Very strange interview: About a dozen applicants in a classroom setting. Thom takes the teacher's part. first, he hands each of us a russett potato and a drinking straw. (the old type small bore paper straw) He says our task is to hold the potato in one hand, the straw in the other, then simply stab the potato with the straw, so it sticks out the other side of the potato. Thom stabbed his potato
as he spoke, leaving his straw sticking out both sides of the potato. Seeing his success convinced me that it was possible and in an instant my potato was pierced by my straw, just like Thom's. Only three of us in that room (including Thom) passed their straw thru their potato on the first try. Our reward was an
interview. After that we were both hired. Me, for the San Jose store and the other guy,Rod Upmann, for the Hayward store. The company was Caluminum, a home-improvement company, specializing in aluminum awnings and patio cov-
ers, as well as fibre-glass screening to enclose the covers. Cal Lume, as we called it,
had three stores in the bay area:in Hayward, San Jose and San Rafael. Customer leads were generated by full-page ads in the Sunday editions of the
San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune. With the help of a telephone receptionist (who turned inquiries into "no obligation" appointments). Four other direct salesmen in a small store in a six-unit strip-mall at 983 South Bascom Ave. made easy work of it. l was paid a fair salary,
(about $500. per week in today's money)to manage the store. Additionally,on jobs l sold myself, l received the same percentage commission as my salesmen did on the jobs they sold. l also received a percentage of the face value of every
contract sold in the San Jose store.(Manager's overide)
First things first: Ad in the Merc; "Telephone Receptionist, needed yesterday. Call xxx xxxx for telephone interview". Phones in the store were yet to be hooked up, so l put my home phone number in the ad. My very first caller had an extremely beautiful and cultured voice. l couldn't imagine that any other voice l might yet encounter could be near as nice. So, after talking/listening to
twenty-five additional voices after hers, l still held the same opinion. Lil Wallace
was her name and she was a sweetheart and a fine receptionist;if she didn't turn a call into an appointment (l learned as l got to know her) some detail beyond our control prevented it. But those were rare: a vast majority fell under the spell of her voice and the lead slips piled up in the in-boxes of what she came to call her "Big Five".
Being one of them, let me introduce the other four:
Frank Paulsen...Well spoken, overly dapper, gregarious, no excuses,lotsa results.
Vic Demos...Quiet,earnest,persuasive, very high closing percentage.
Murray Acevido...Loquacious, craftsman, smooth closer.
Russ Eams...Wild man,funny, deep,Red hair, Closerola!
Out of nine applicants, l picked those four and never once regretted it.Later, in fact, they all had something to teach me that was really beneficial.After all, they
were all some years older than l was. ln fact, they were all mentors to me.
On this job l was making so much money so soon and so consistently that l
figured (about three weeks into the job) that l should buy a new car. l did not like the VW at all, and l had my eye on a Corvair Monza coupe painted fire engine red.When they offered what l thought was a great price for the VW, l had to go for it. l immediately went to our store to show "the other four" what great taste l had in cars. My taste,they weren't interested in; but they liked the Monza a lot.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
Employed 13 part 2
When Paul and l walked the yard and talked the talk at Soledad, l never thought the time would come when he'd be in the same town as l, still jazzed about the plans he had shared with me and which l shared with oblivion pretty much completely by the time he showed up in Lovelock. Right. l was fascinated by his history; growing up in Chicago with mob connections and the disposition and will to use them, to his extremely acquisitive benefit. l had first met Paul while l was still interested to make connections with guys that might be beneficial to me later, outside. But, when my first parole board apparently saw thru me and shot me down, l mostly lost interest in "connections". Even before that hearing though, l had decided Paul and l would not work together on the outside on legal or illegal projects when he told me about the bust that ultimately brought him to Soledad, he revealed that, when the police stopped him and his partner somewhere on US 395 in Nevada, he was on his way to Mono Lake where he intended to murder his partner with a .22 pistol and leave his body in the lake.
His partner owed his life to the fact that the arresting officer thought it suspicious that a man would have nine pairs of pants in his suitcase and only three shirts and two pairs of sox, and took them in for investigation. When l talked to my parole officer, l told him that l was not going to be working with Paul. l would encourage him to return to the Bay Area since my assayer job required a big part of my intellect and l already had additional endeavors
(designing the circular dream house and painting in oils). ln the few days that Paul was with us, he and l visited Felix's. Slot machines are not unknown to people in Chicago, especially those with connections. But Paul knew enough about how they work (in Lovelock as well as Chicago) that he was able to provoke machines to provoke machines to drop impressive amounts of coins.
l'm almost certain that he had some kind of tool that made it happen, but l never saw anything of that kind. l had been around slot machines since in my teens and before Paul at Felix's l had never even heard that such a thing was possible. l warned Paul to be careful; cheating any casino games was against State law and casino owners always file complaints against cheaters, to warn off others. He was very careful and put quite a bit of Felix's money in his pocket with Felix none the wiser. Paul was disappointed that we would not be working together, but he understood that, with so much on my plate then, it just wasn't
possible then. Once that was settled, he was anxious to get back to his work in
San Francisco. We would cross trails with him again, in the no-too-distant future.
When we were at the VW dealer in Reno, buying our first new car, we encountered Harley Latta, a good friend and fellow high-school student that l hadn't seen since then. He had a business, and his home in Shurz, Nevada, a tiny town near Hawthorne, Nevada. He owned a service station, cafe (with slot machines) and a motel, two rooms of which served as Shurz's Post Office. Harley's wife, Ruth was the Postmaster. (Postmistress?) Harley invited us to visit them in Shurz to see what they had built there. Walker Lake (about 1/10
the area of Lake Tahoe) was located about seven miles south of Shurz on U.S.
Hwy 95. After Harley and Ruth showed us around their little town, we all got in their station wagon and rode to Walker Lake and visited the bar/cafe located about a mile from the lake's west shore. The back bar was all window and afforded a stunning view of the lake and the sage and juniper covered hills beyond, from any bar stool in the house. The view from most tables in the cafe
was the same. They had brought us to the lake to show and tell us about their plan to put a casino on a boat on the lake. He had already done a lot of ground-work and was sure (from talking to Mineral County officials) that, if the casino/
boat was properly constructed,as well as the facilities for servicing, maintenance
and repairing it, the plan could be approved. Art's problem was that constructing a full-scale, paddle-wheel "river boat" would require a huge amount of money;
more than either or both of us could possibly raise. Art knew that l had lived in California in recent years and asked me to check with some boat dealers to learn where we might find something to fit his need. He was thinking of some degree of partnership between us.
That eventually led me to an old SanFrancisco Bay Ferry, the "Stockton", then resting in drydock in SanCarlos, Ca. l was told that the owners wanted to sell it,
though they had yet to advertise it's availability. l thought that a boat of it's size
and design might make it possible to appear much like a river steamer with side-mounted paddle-wheels and other identifying characteristics. Harley and l talked about it on the phone about it. He liked it, and thought it was worth a trip to San Carlos to check it out. The only person l knew who had a lot of boat knowledge was my friend and fellow locksmith at Soledad, Chuck C. l had been thinking about him since Harley first mentioned the boat on the lake. l decided
to attempt a call.Pasadena information had a number fo him. l hadn't forgotten
the fraternizing prohibition, but felt if the parole officer would allow Paul and l
in the same room, he was going to be OK with Chuck and l having a short meeting to survey the usefullness (if any) of the old ferry.Chuck had a couple
days to spare and agreed to meet me at the dry dock in San Carlos. Well. l liked
the Stockton and what l imagined what it would look like in it's planned identity.
Chuck liked it too,but thought it would be impossible (or impossibly costly) to
move to Walker Lake. He said that the Stockton, when delivered new, weighed
2,000 tons. He showed us (Dahlia and Reyann had accompanied me) places where concrete had been poured to provide more ballast. He estimated that at least a few hundred tons were added to the boat's weight by those pours. Chuck's advice was to forget the Stockton; build a big raft on the lake. then build a 3 or 4 story casino/hotel on the raft. Doll the whole thing up with nautical touches (don't forget the paddle-wheels, and rig them to actually propel
the boat). This project kept my attention for a few weeks but the more time l spent on it the less likely it's fruition seemed. Eventually,l had to see it as failing
and decided to stop.
The samples l received for assay were always in my in-box no later than 6PM. They were almost always brought to me by Willy Sherman, Mining Operations
Manager of A.R.D.'s Coal Canyon works. He loved running the mines, but, like most of us, he had good things to do after work, too. ln his case it was what he called "bustin' horses". Willy had never so much as heard the phrase "horse whisperer". He'd pretty much have to be called a "horse shouter". l accepted an invitation to see his operation, once. l would not say that his treatment of his horses even approached abuse, though it seemed that his horses would just as soon have lived somewhere else. But then any horses, captive as they were, would choose to roam the plains. Willy knew that too. Once he had broken a horse to carry saddle and rider, he kept in a locked stall or the fenced exercise
yard when it was not at work. l was impressed with Willy's ranch, especially in
the way it was laid out to operate with high efficiency and little difficulty. Far and
away, a much better ranch operation than l'd ever seen before. Some years later, l saw Willy and his wife with a few of their best horses on RFD TV. Probably
among the best horsin' around l've EVER seen. Those horses, by the way, appeared to be having a grear time.
We had been in Lovelock about six months when l learned that Dulce and her husband,Bob Wright lived in Lovelock. l called her and we had a pretty good
talk. She invited me to visit and to meet Bob. She answered the door, then
quickly returned to Bob and sat on his lap. l only stayed twenty minutes or so
but when l left she was still on his lap. l couldn't help but think she liked him more than she ever liked me, like l was probably supposed to. Our visit was good though. None of us displayed any bad feeling, nor had any reason to.
Especially since we did have families of our own. Bob and Dulce lived on the eastern outskirts of Lovelock. Dahlia,Reyann and l lived near central downtown.
Lovelock's 25-mile-an-hour speed limit extended from town central, three miles
to the west and three miles to the east. Six miles of 25-mile-per-hour limit, most of it outside the town limit. The chief of Police, GordonRichardson,stopped
me, but didn't ticket me. He just followed me at 25MPH as l led the parade back
to town central. After about a ten minute sermon he let me go with a warning.
Pretty serious Police Business? lt was for Gordon.
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