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.
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