Chapter 2

On the drive home I began to reflect on what I had done. I knew that I had taken on a huge task and I hoped that it wouldn't cut into my studies too much. The apartment building needed a lot of work but I figured that I could have it fixed up in two years or less. In a few weeks the college students would be moving in. I had to get started.

I stopped by the Dan Longren's office to quit my job. I wouldn't have time to work for him and also fix up the building. It would hurt not having the money that I would make by working that summer, but with living rent free I would be able to squeak by.

Dan Longren was sitting at his desk when I walked in. Dan and I had always gotten along. He always treated me more like a son than an employee. He always watched out for me and I'm sure that he paid me more than I was worth. My father had worked with Dan at one time and that's how I came to meet him. I told him what I was doing and told him that I wouldn't be able to work for him that summer. Dan sat there after I had finished talking with a far away look in his eyes.

It was a long time before he spoke, "We're a little slack right now. I've got some of my men over at my place working just so that I won't lose them. Let's go over to this place that you agreed to fix and see what needs to be done. Maybe I can help out a bit and keep my men busy at the same time."

"Dan, you can't do that," I protested, "You don't have to do that. I made this deal on my own and I'll live up to it on my own."

Dan got up from his chair and grabbed his hat, "Let's go. I want to see this place. "

He walked out to his pickup and I had to race to keep up with him. I jumped into the pickup just as he started to pull away. I explained what had to be done before the students started arriving for the fall semester. He listened but I got the impression that he was only half-listening.

Dan Longren had gone into business at just the right time. In the fifties, Phoenix was a small to medium size city struggling to grow. Water was always a problem and the scarcity of it held Phoenix back. Although the canals had been put in during the eighteen-eighties, it wasn't enough to support rapid growth. After the Federal government chipped in some cash to bring enough water to Phoenix to support major development the city began to boom. Then Luke Air Force Base was made into a permanent military base and the Air Force dumped tons of money into the economy. Before that Luke was classed as a temporary facility and everything was built with the idea that it was only temporary. Dan and Abby, his wife, rode the boom and made a lot of money. A lot of Dan's contemporaries told him that he should grow into an international company but Dan loved Phoenix and stayed in the Arizona area. It turned out to be a wise move. There was more work for Dan's company in Phoenix than he could handle.

When we pulled in front of the apartment building Dan made a joke about getting several sticks of dynamite out of his shed. We walked to the garage and tried to peer in the grimy windows. Dan walked back to his pickup and got a crow bar and came back and pried the lock and hasp off of the garage door. When we opened the garage door it almost fell on us. Dan checked the structural integrity of the garage while I checked out the contents of the garage. There was a lot of junk that had to be taken to the dump but there were several pieces of furniture that could either be sold or used for my apartment.

Dan finished his inspection and stood looking into the garage, "Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. We can build up the floor and get a wooden floor put in. It'll be easier on the feet. The structure is Ok. We'll put up some walls and leave it open like a studio apartment. We'll close in the bathroom and kitchen though. The roof is Ok so we don't have to do anything there. I have most of the materials that we'll need in my warehouse. It's left over from other jobs. I need to get it out of there anyway. It's in my way. The biggest expense will be the plumbing. We'll have to locate where it goes into the apartment building and tie into it. I think that we can get this livable in two weeks maybe three. Let's go into the apartments and see what has to be done there."

Dan walked around the apartments taking notes on the major items that needed repairs. Several times we opened an apartment and Dan would stand in the doorway shaking his head. He made a few comments about how some people lived.

When we walked back outside Dan turned to me, "I'll have my dumpster brought over tomorrow. I'll have a bunch of laborers start cleaning out that garage. I want that garage cleaned out by noon so that my men can start working on the inside. My plumber owes me some money so I'll get his ass over here and start on the plumbing. If you don't get too fancy on me we can have you real comfortable before school starts. "

"Whoa, Dan. You can't be working on this. This guy doesn't have the money to put into it. His mother is in a nursing home and I'm not sure that all of the apartments were rented lately. Some of the apartments don't look like they've been used in a couple of years."

Dan put his arm around my shoulder, "Now, let an old man do something right for once. You're a good kid and I'm a little slack right now. There's no way that you can get all of the things done that need to be done. We'll be keeping my people working and I'll get some of that junk out of my warehouse. I'm not going to be able to do everything on the apartments that needs to be done. There will be plenty for you to do after school starts. Now let's go back to the office and get things rolling."

Dan's face lit up on the way back to his office. You could tell that he was really beginning to get into this project. Once he got back to his office he called in two of his foremen and started telling them what he wanted to do. After about an hour they both left and began assembling the crew and materials they would need the next day. Dan shooed me out of the office and told me to go home. He told me to be at the apartment building at six o'clock in the morning the next day and to be sure that the garage was cleared out by noon.

I went home and told my parents what Dan was doing. My mother started crying and my father got real quiet. I think that he was a bit ashamed that he couldn't be more help. I quickly turned his attitude around by telling him that I needed him and expected him to help out on the weekends until the fall term started. It turned out that my father did the work of two men on the days that he worked. He told everyone in Glendale that his son was going to college to become one of the titans of industry.