Some stories are better watched than read

These recordings bring memories to life with the advantage of hindsight and a slightly improved sense of humor.

Included here are autobiographical stories about business, survival, changing times, unexpected interruptions, and the strange timing of history.

THE WORLD CHANGED ANYWAY

Chapter 1: The Early Spark

I took to business at the age of seven, which is younger than most fellows take to sense but about the same time they take to trouble. Mine happened to pay a little.

It began with comic books. Not the reading of them that’s a harmless vice but the copying. There were contests, you see, where a boy could send in a drawing and, if the judges were feeling charitable or inattentive, he might win something for it.

THE WORLD CHANGED ANYWAY

Chapter 2: MASTERING THE ART OF SIGNAGE


It came to me at an age when most boys are still deciding whether to climb trees or fall out of them that a man might earn an honest living telling other people when they were open for business and when they were not. It struck me as a respectable line of work, requiring very little lifting and even less explaining.

With the knowledge I had gathered from the old man’s shop, I began producing “Open” and “Closed” signs for the local merchants.