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
.
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