It has been so long since the last time that I planted anything in the garden that I am not really sure where to start. I guess an apology is deserved to whatever creature may be considered a loyal reader. I have had an interesting summer. I knew that Chick and I were going to try to sell our house and move north (and buy a farm and get a goat and maybe a hawk) but I didn't think that it would consume as much of my time as it has. I also knew that I would be spending some time working a graveyard shift in August as I have the past three summers. It has always been something that I cherished and for those of you that received 'Nightswimming' emails in the past, you know that those late night writings are the basis for the Dandelion Garden. But I was thrown a very big curvebal in the middle of this summer - my father decided to sell our family business. It's not that I really care about the company too much, but it was a place that I ran for a number of years. It was also a place that may have had the greatest impact on my life. But, really, the fact that we sold it is not a problem. The problem as it affects the Blog is that I had to do some work at the old company while I was working a night shift at my other job. So, for about three weeks, I was working six to eight hours during the day and then putting in another eight to ten at night. If you do the math, you should be able to determine why I haven't written much lately.
I am unbelievably proud of that paragraph. I wrote it in a matter of minutes without editing. Other than a few paragraphs on Barry Bonds and Ichiro, it's the best writing I've put down in a month.
While I'm on the subject I'm going to explore what my family business has meant to me. So, from this point on, things may get boring. If you're not interested in me than you should probably go Google something else. If you've never wondered why someone would give up what many considered to be a dream job, than you should probably go Google something else. If you never wanted to examine the brain of a completely disfunctional, babbling idiot, than you should probably Google something else. If not, read on.
My first day at my father's company, a food distribution, was December 24, 1984. Stop. Think. Yes. Christmas Eve. Hey, it's the food business and in the food business holidays are mandatory. But I was fourteen. My dad had bought me an Apple IIe computer the previous Xmas and I had created some pretty cool stuff on it. Along with a very cool Lode Runner game and, of course Zork, I wrote a program that ranked girls, 1 to 10, based on their appearance. Now he wanted me to create a purchase order program, a truck mileage tracking program and a weekly gross profit report. I was fourteen. What the fuck is gross profit?
Within a few months I had all of those reports and more. Keep in mind this was 1985. Lotus and Excel were not created yet. I was using a spreadsheet called FlashCalc. And to dial up to get the cattle and hog reports (other than from Les Nesman) I had to put the phone head onto the modem.
The thing that was the greatest about those early years was that I was working with adults that couldn't do what I did. I can't tell you how many times I heard the word genius when people were talking about me. There were actually other companies that wanted to buy the programs (spreadsheets really) from my father. They had never seen anything like it. To me, it was just silly. I would have rather been playing Zork. But that word, 'Genius' is disturbing. I'm sure I let it go to my head - what 15 year-old kid wouldn't? But more than anything I just wanted the respect of those people. I wanted to be treated as an equal, even though I was just a kid. Even more so, I wanted the respect of my father.
I did not graduate from High School with my class in June. I had a fantastic senior year, but I didn't spend enough time in a music appreciation class. My father was not happy about it and it cost me my job at the family company. You see, I wrote him a letter explaining that I shouldn't be judged by what I did or didn't do in a stupid music class. I was able to do things at his company that no one else could even fathom. As a good father would, he took away what meant the most to me and taught me a lesson.
This is getting much longer than I had anticipated. Please feel free to stop reading, but I need to keep on writing.
It's my Blog - bite me.
There are T-shirts at bookstores in Athens that state, "I Spent the best five or six years of my life at Ohio University." I don't have one of those shirts, but I need one. In the years that I spent at OU I screwed up a lot of things in my life. But concerning my family company I learned a lot. I spent one summer working in shipping on the night shift and another working in the sausage plant. I never minded the work, but in retrospect, I knew I would be getting out of the job and for the poeple I was working with, that was their life. Which reminds me of a little story - on one of my first night's of the summer there was a bunch of us sitting out on the dock smoking a cigarette. Most of the guy's there didn't know who I was and one worker in particular spent the entire break bad-mouthing the company. I didn't really care, but another guy came up to me afterward - he knew who I was - and told me not to worry about what most of those guys say. I certainly didn't, but the guy who told me that is now the plant manager. And that's no coincidence.
Obviously I could write a book about this frickin company. So I'll try to condense some things. In 1995, after college, I started working at the company full-time. Within a few years I was completely in charge. To my fathers credit he interfered very rarely and really only showed up when I needed his advice. My younger brother and sister were also at the company full time and our relationships grew closer than ever. The company had it's best years in the late 90's, as most companies did. Sales were up. Profits were up. Everyone's attitude was awesome. Then, the economy turned and apparently I didn't have what it took to carry on. There were many events that lead to my leaving the company but the most poignant came from my dad. He told me that every so many years you have to go through good times and bad times. Well, I didn't see my self selling bologna through the hard days, so I opted to get out.
When my father told me that he was selling the company, I was not surprised. When my friend K asked me if he would have sold the company if I were still there, the answer was obvious. And the answer was basically confirmed by my father a few weeks later. He asked me to help out with the closing because we ran into some accounting problems. That was enough to boost my ego for a while. After being three years removed from the place, no one knew the finances and operations of the company better than me. And the people that I got to see again, people who I have known since I was a snot nosed, computer geek, know-it-all teenager, well, we were happy to see each other.
I'm still fighting for my father's respect. I think that every male of our species is doing the same. As a young teenager I did things that were considered 'genius'. In my late twenties I led his company to the best years it ever had. Now, here I am in my mid-thirties and I don't know how to impress him next. And I'm still frightened that I'll let him down.
The next time you hear Harry Chapin, think of me for just a second.
Thank You,
Jr.
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