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.

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.

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.