Pages From A Changing World
These written accounts are drawn from memory, experience and the occasional collision with history, regulation, politics and timing.
Included here are autobiographical stories about business, survival, adaptation, unexpected interruptions and the strange ways ordinary lives get redirected by larger events.
Pages From A Changing World
These written accounts are drawn from memory, experience and the occasional collision with history, regulation, politics and timing.
Included here are autobiographical stories about business, survival, adaptation, unexpected interruptions and the strange ways ordinary lives get redirected by larger events.
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. I sent in my share. Turned out I had a talent for imitation, which is a fine skill in youth and a dangerous one later on.
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.
THE WORLD CHANGED ANYWAY
Chapter 3: The Fast Lane to Customization
By the age of fifteen, I had acquired both a car and a willingness to go wherever it might carry me, which is a dangerous combination in a young man and an excellent one in a businessman.
I took to visiting paint and body shops, the kind that specialized in turning ordinary automobiles into something loud enough to be noticed from a distance and admired up close. Southern California in those days was full of such places, each one convinced it was improving the automobile and perhaps the world along with it.
THE WORLD CHANGED ANYWAY
Chapter 4: From Art Class to Scholarships
By the time I reached high school, I had developed a strong and reliable instinct for finding my way into art classes and out of most everything else. This arrangement suited me well, as I had yet to discover any great talent for subjects that required sitting still and agreeing with the teacher.
My art teacher, however, took a different view of me. He seemed to think I had ability, which was encouraging, though a little suspicious. Instead of leaving me to my own devices, he put me to work.
THE WORLD CHANGED ANYWAY
Chapter 4: Unexpected Twists and Turns
At eighteen years old, I believed I had life reasonably well figured out. I owned a Porsche Speedster, was making money with my artistic skills and had little interest in spending my days inside a factory. Unfortunately, my wife and her family had a different vision for my future.
My wife could not drive the Porsche and regarded it as impractical.
LOST AT SEA
A TEEN’S ADVENTURE
At fifteen years old, along with my best friend Willie McNeil, known to most everybody as Jay, I took my first deep sea fishing trip out of Pierpoint Landing in Long Beach, California. I got hooked quicker than the fish did. The smell of salt water, diesel fuel and fish scales suited me better than school ever had.
I struck up a conversation with the skipper and offered a deal that favored him considerably more than me.
