Chapter 5

Of course, the dustup at Mrs. Smith’s party made all of the news outlets. Pitzer Security got a mountain of favorable publicity. The combination of us all being high school students and Mrs. Smith being the wife of the mayor of Worcester made a story that even made the national news. What the hell? I was even interviewed by USA Today.

There was nothing secret about our phone number, and we had to hire a firm to screen our calls. There were a few hate and scornful calls, but most were congratulatory, and a few wanted to hire us to cover more parties given by the rich and famous. The main thing I learned from this adventure was that favorable publicity was worth its weight in gold!

All 68 guests at Mrs. Smith’s garden party were favorably impressed by our performance, and several of them called for our services. In fact, we got so many calls to hire us that I had to turn some of them down simply because we did not have the personnel to cover every job offer.

Mom suddenly woke up to the kind of service that Pitzer Security was offering and how it conflicted with her pacifist philosophy. However, Dad had a few talks with her, and convinced her that we were doing a public service by protecting people who could not protect themselves. She had to admit that the general level of violence was down now that everybody could arm himself. Statistics showed that there were fewer muggings and rapes than had been common around the turn of the 21^st Century. Simple murders with guns were about the same total as before guns became easily available, but there were fewer burglaries and other such assaults on the public. The chance of getting your head blown off was a much better way to discourage criminals than the threat of prison time ever was.

Our business was so successful that I was approached by four other people who wanted my help in getting them started toward organizing their own version of what we were doing. There was certainly enough business in Central Massachusetts to warrant more companies like mine. I talked the situation over with Dad, and he suggested that I hire these four teens, three boys and a girl, as my assistants. That way, I could teach them my philosophy for running a security company, and I could get some good use from them while I was doing it.

That’s what I agreed to do, and all four signed on. I was hoping that one of them would take over the company’s general operation from me so that I could concentrate on other phases of the security business. I really wanted to move my personal activity toward the bodyguard phase of the business. However, I was so busy working on the current phase of the operation that I had no time to branch out.

Nancy agreed with me in wanting to run our own bodyguard operation with just the two of us involved. We didn’t want to abandon our friends who were also our employees, so we needed someone to take over the management job that I was doing. None of our current employees wanted the responsibility of running the company, so we were forced to look for outside people.

The girl and one of the boys who had contacted me were from Worcester (pronounced Woos-ter), so I was hoping that one of them would take on my job. The other two boys were from other cities, one from Leominster (pronounced Li-min-ster, the “o” is silent) and one from Gardner. Either one of them were acceptable, but they were living 40-50 miles from Worcester, and might not take as much interest in Worcester as someone who lived here might do. Oh, well, I might be worrying too soon. I figured that it would be six months or more before I could make a firm decision.

I explained my plans to all four of the new employees, and got them the tuxedo and baton for their uniforms, and took them with us to the next Worcester Country Club dance. Fortunately, nothing untoward happened, and we had a quiet night. That let me focus on the new people and show them in detail how we operated. The next dance at the country club was pretty much the same, except that we did have one gate-crasher who was high on something I didn’t recognize. It didn’t take long to convince him that he was outnumbered, so he left without causing any trouble.

Our next garden party was held at the estate of Mrs. Herkimer. Talk about a ritzy joint! The out-buildings had fancy decoration, I think it was Art Deco, and those buildings had out-buildings. She got a bill for $29,000 because of the four additional guards, and she was pleased at the modest price! Sheesh, what do those people consider to be expensive!?!

This was a relatively quiet affair with 72 guests, including Mrs. Smith, the mayor’s wife. We only had five invaders, and they were easily and quickly disposed of. Unfortunately for them, they got carried away, literally, in body bags. They would just not listen to reason. There was no big disturbance, and none of the guests knew of the invasions. Of course, I had to tell Mrs. Herkimer of the invaders, and she was so pleased with the way we handled the situation that she added a 10% tip to the bill. This, I divided among my employees, and they were thrilled to get so much money for a relatively boring afternoon.

The rest of the summer went like that, with us taking in more money than I ever thought was possible. By the end of the summer, Pitzer Security had a net profit of $123,000. Neither Nancy nor I had taken a penny out of the company, and Mom was after us to take a salary, at least, to keep from screwing up the books as far as taxes were concerned. We each took a salary of $6,000 per month for the year through September. That left some money in the bank for operating capital, but now Nancy and I each had $54,000 we didn’t know what to do with. Mom pointed out that we were going to have all kinds of college expenses, so we did not need to worry about where to spend the money. We took Mom’s advice and put the money in a bank account. We promptly forgot about the money and resumed our lives as high school seniors.

Our conversations with various people had convinced us to go for a BA (Bachelor of Arts) degree, and to spend most of our time with appropriate electives. We talked to our mentors in the police department and got their advice on what courses to take. To our surprise, they advised us to take as much psychology as we could cram in. We signed on to Craig University in Clinton, MA, so we did not have to live away from home. The Griffin house was large enough that Nancy’s parents were going to let us move into the “mother-in-law” apartment over their garage. We considered the options and decided not to get married until after we graduated from college. Nancy planned to continue to take the Pill, so we were not worried about her becoming pregnant before we were ready.

Pitzer Security continued to operate during the school year just as it had the previous year. Jack Harlow was to take over the day-to-day operation of the company. He and I thought enough alike that I expected the company to operate without a hitch without my constant supervision. That was going to make life a lot more fun this year. Nancy and I continued to work as guards, but we did not work every weekend. That left us some time for a social life, and the break was more than welcome.

The company now had a full contract arrangement with Worcester Country Club for the Saturday-night dances. That provided us with a steady income. We did raise our price to them to give us a more reasonable income, but they did not complain too much, especially since both Mr. Smith, the mayor, and Mr. Herkimer were on the Board of Directors. We also did Saturday-afternoon garden parties as long as the weather held out, so Pitzer Security closed out the year with a comfortable profit, even after Nancy and I received our monthly checks.

Jack Harlow asked about buying the company at the end of the school year. He and Mom worked out a payment plan that would let him do that. It would take him two years to complete the purchase, but that was OK with us. Hell, we were going to make enough money out of the sale to pay for most of our college expenses. Not many high school graduates could make that statement!