Chapter 28

Somehow, Mama got the idea I was working too hard, and that I hadn't been able to enjoy my vacation from school. Each time she brought it up, I'd tell her I was having a good time, and that I was learning a lot from going to work with Dad. I was busy though.

Uncle Bunny took me to Bolling to get my permit to begin learning to drive. The written test was easy, even though I'd only been able to look it over for about two hours before I took the test. Uncle Bunny took me to a farm road, and gave me my first driving lesson. If you can stay on a cart path with a golf cart, you can stay on a road with a car. I had some trouble not pushing down on the brakes too hard, and learning how much gas to give it when I was trying to accelerate. Uncle Bunny took me to lunch, and filled me in on all he had done for the Coulter's. After lunch, we drove by their house, and I could already see a tremendous improvement to the way the house looked from the outside. The house had been painted, new screens were put on all the windows, the front screen door had been replaced with a new one, and it looked like someone had come in and redid the whole front yard. It didn't look like some abandoned, weather beaten derelict home anymore. When I asked him how much it had cost so far, he told me not to worry about it.

Uncle Bunny told me that Mama had decided to send Brenda away to a girl's school, in Ohio, for her sophomore year. He said it was a very strict school, one that spent as much time delivering behavioral and psychological therapy to its students as it spent on the academic curriculum. Mama wanted to undo Brenda's conditioning from her mother, and to have her find out things about herself that she could value, in addition to her looks. Mr. Connor had refused to permit it until Mama went and had a talk with him First, she revealed some of Brenda's behavior, behavior that he had previously been unaware of. He still resisted sending her, right up until Mama explained that she was going to be paying all of Brenda's school and living expenses. Brenda put up some resistance of her own, but only until Mama threatened to wash her hands of her, and to abandon her whole family, if she didn't change her mind and agree to go away. It was when Mama told her that most of the other girls at this school came from wealthy families, and that some of them certainly had brothers back at home, that Brenda decided to give it a try.

At work, things were going well for me. The three John's in maintenance did a wonderful job converting Miss Walters old office into the new phone order room. Instead of putting in a window, so that Edith could see Ellen, they opened the entire front of Miss Walters office, and created a single, very large room. As promised, there were two nice mini refrigerators and a brand new sectional sofa that matched the blue carpet nearly perfectly. There was a television set on an elevated wall stand. I didn't question them about the antenna they said they had up on the roof of the building, but, judging by the number of channels we were getting, and the box that unscrambled programming, that came with the TV, I had to guess it was either a satellite system, or some kind of a cable feed.

Ellen and Edith loved everything that had been done, and they also loved Myra and Linda, the two new phone workers that they were training. The new girls were brought in to take over some of the workload that Edith and Ellen had been handling by themselves. Myra was about thirty years old, a new hire, and she was a real talker. Almost nonstop, unless she was on the phones, taking an order.

Linda was in her mid to late forties, and had transferred from the bakery production line. She said her feet hurt her on the line, from standing all day. The fact that she was about one hundred pounds overweight might have had something to do with her feet hurting too. All four of them seemed to get along well. The new room looked so nice, that the three John's told me they needed to renovate the old phone room also. I suspected that the hundred dollar bill I donated to the maintenance department's entertainment fund encouraged them to make sure everyone was happy. When one of the John's showed more than a passing interest in Edith, I found out his real name was Earl, and that the only one whose name really was John, was the one I'd been dealing with, for Miss Walters new office.

After two weeks, it was apparent that our new policy of not having the route drivers assist in the loading of their own trucks was a big success. All of the route drivers worked for a base salary, and commission paid based on gross sales. Before the changed procedure for loading, commissions hadn't been a meaningful component of their total pay. Now, the commissions for some of the drivers was greater than half their base salary. For that kind of money, it was worth it to them to try to increase their sales. Most of them had started making sales calls on the smaller stores within their territory. None of the smaller accounts, individually, accounted for much sales volume, but, collectively, they were enough to make a serious impact on a driver's commission checks. For the first full week after the transition, route sales were up over twenty eight per cent.

Dad and I flew to Chicago to look at two buildings that David and Craig had found for their new vending machine fabrication and assembling plant. One was offered for a long term lease, and the other was offered for sale. The one for sale was larger, and had easier access to major highways. It was also a newer building, and in better condition as far as regular maintenance was concerned. Dad phoned Uncle Bunny and asked him to contact the broker listing the property for sale and try to negotiate the purchase at a better price than they were asking.

As far as equipment went, David and Craig both wanted to pick up good used equipment. Right then, a lot of small sheet metal and steel fabricators were going out of business. High interest rates had strangled many under capitalized businesses, and there was a real buyer's market for barely used equipment.

The good news was that they were able to buy a lot of nearly new equipment, all for less than half of what it had originally sold for new. The bad news was that they wanted to purchase quite a bit more of it than Dad had initially budgeted for, even at those fantastic prices. When Craig explained to Dad that they were buying not just for current needs, but for future growth and expansion, and that they had never seen so much good equipment selling so cheaply, Dad authorized them to buy what they had indicated they wanted and could use. Even that wasn't enough. Two days later, Craig called Uncle Bunny with what he claimed was a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy up the contents of an entire state of the art machine shop, for less than ten cents on the dollar, from the bank that had foreclosed. Uncle Bunny wired the funds into their equipment acquisition account.

That next Friday, we flew up to Omaha to spend the day with Rob and Virginia. Dad had decided that the only way he could really find out for sure how Virginia would handle the responsibility for running the Lucas Company, was to put her in charge and watch how she operated. He called it a test under fire. We had a muted celebration, going out to lunch with them. Rob seemed happy that Virginia was going to really get her chance, and a little wistful that, with this appointment, he had slipped another spot down in the company's chain of command. Dad didn't give him any time to dwell on that though, as he passed over a twenty three page outline, one that enunciated exactly what Dad expected Rob to get accomplished in the following six month period. Rob quickly looked the outline over, and then he and Dad started discussing what assets Rob would have to work with in attempting to meet these ambitious goals.

That's when Dad told him about Ron Jones, and explained that Ron would be the in-house sales manager, in charge of hiring and training the new outside salesmen. Dad quickly explained that he was interested in freeing Rob up to concentrate strictly on opening new outlets for the vending machines, as well as setting up a system for servicing whatever machines were installed. I knew that Dad had been concerned with how Rob would take the news. It seemed to me that a good part of his job was being taken over by Mr. Jones. He didn't seem upset at all, in fact, he only asked two questions.

"Who do I report to? Who does this Jones fellow report to?"

"You still will only be reporting to me. Of course, you'll be coordinating all your manpower requirements through Ron. Ron will be reporting to both of us, but he is a well trained professional at hiring and training sales forces. You tell him what you want, and his job its to go out and get the people you need, and to train them so they are capable, and ready to handle a sales territory for you. Once the sales force is in place, all salesmen are strictly under your control."

"I like it. I never liked sitting around the office. I'd much rather be out there, opening new locations and checking on the rest of the sales force."

"I figured that's where you'd be the most valuable to us, Rob. I don't want you getting bogged down in anything that takes away from us opening new locations as rapidly as we have machines to put in them. We won't have that long before the competition for locations gets fierce. I want another six thousand of our machines, in place and operating, within the next thirty six months. We need to get it done, and I won't be very willing to accept any excuses, not after all the expense I'm currently underwriting to make sure you have the necessary equipment and sales product to do this."

"You get me the machines, I'll make the new openings for them. Speaking of machines, Jim Tanner has been calling me for the past week. He wants to build us three hundred new machines at $550.00 each. He says that's all he can make now that the boys have quit. I gather that his son and son in law decided to not hire three of his workers. I told him I'd need to check with you about it. I've known him, and done good business with both him and his late brother, Leon, for the better part of twenty five years. I don't know what happened over there at his plant, when you went to visit him, but, if you can afford for us to do it, I'd really like to get those machines from him."

"Call him up and make the deal. I want all of it in writing, giving us the absolute right to reject any machine that's not up to his previous specs. Hell, tell him we'll take all he can build us for the next three years at that price. I didn't go over there wanting to start any trouble with him or his family. What happened had been brewing for a long while. If it hadn't been us, it would have been someone else that set those two boys up in business. They were ready to make their move."

"Good. That makes me feel a lot better then. The fact that you'd do more business with Jim like this, it goes a long way with me. It tells me that I was right about you when I agreed to sell. Nothing you've done since you bought me out was one whit less than you said you'd do. I appreciate that. Virginia told me that you'd give her a chance too. You won't regret it. Nobody knows this company better than my Ginny."

We said our goodbyes at the restaurant. Dad needed to get back to Bolling, before three, for a meeting he had with one of the restaurant supply executives he was interviewing. We made it back to his office with ten minutes to spare. I didn't really have much to do, or much time to do it in, so I decided to walk around and check with most of the people I knew. I went to maintenance first, and spoke with the two John's that were there. I had spent half an hour with the girls in the phone room, ten minutes of it being embarrassed by the things all four of them were saying to me about how they thought the reason I'd come back to see them was to give the sectional a workout with one of them. They referred to it as the 'honeymoon suite'. I told them I didn't have the time then, but I'd be back later, and they could hold a raffle to see which one of them got me. After I left, I hoped that they knew I'd only been kidding. I saw Ellen and Edith cutting a piece of paper into four squares when I went out the door.

At four, I knocked on Miss Walters office door. After I was inside her office, I asked her if everything was all right, or if she needed anything else.

"I hate to ask you for anything more, Kenny, but the nearest break room is upstairs, over near accounting. It wouldn't do for me to become too familiar with the people I'm responsible for auditing. I do like my coffee though. Would it be all right if I brought my own coffee maker in and brewed some in the office? I asked for permission before, when I was in my other office, but they said it would be a fire hazard. I'd be careful, and I'd never leave the pot on when I went home. I'm very methodical."

I knew my Dad's secretary brewed coffee in her office, and Edith and Ellen always had a coffee pot going in the new phone room. I asked Miss Walters if I could borrow her phone to check for her. I had Myra transfer my call over to maintenance.

"Maintenance, John."

"John, this is Kenny. Is there any reason why Miss Walters can't brew her own coffee in her office?"

"Do you want her to be able to, or is she just being a pain in the ass again?"

"I want her to be able to. The nearest break room isn't convenient for her."

"I'll need to come up and make a safety modification for her. Where is she planning on putting the coffee maker, and how many cup capacity?" I turned and asked Miss Walters.

"She said eight cups, and she can put it wherever there's an outlet. There's one behind that little refrigerator you put in here."

"Give me five minutes and I'll come up there to measure."

"Miss Walters, John said he needs to make some safety modifications. He's coming to measure."

"I called maintenance before, and they were the ones who told me it wasn't possible. I'm sure it was someone named John who told me no."

"There's three John's that work in that department. This one is the big boss. He can override the rest of his department."

"He's a department head, then?"

"He is. My dad really relies on him. You might say that he has Dad's ear when it comes to doing almost anything involved with this whole plant."

"Really? I wish I'd known this when I was sending all of those memos through accounting, about my office being unsatisfactory."

"John was the main one who took care of this for you. When he wants something to get done, it does."

Just then we were interrupted by the youngest John. He was about thirty five or so. I hadn't talked much to him. He was the quietest of the three.

"Miss Walters, this is John, the head man of the maintenance department. John do you know Miss Walters?"

"Sure, I moved most of her things up here, and I worked over the build out ticket for the new place here. Where did you say you wanted this coffee maker?" Miss Walters and I both pointed at the mini refrigerator. John walked over and placed a twenty four inch by about twenty inch steel plate about an eighth of an inch thick on the top of the refrigerator. He looked behind the refrigerator at the outlet. I saw him take out a small spiral notebook and make a notation on it.

"All set. Go ahead and bring it in, and fire it up."

"Really, that's all I needed?"

"Miss Walters, what you just saw is why John runs his department. Every pertinent safety code is already lodged in his memory. He always knows exactly what's needed to be in compliance. That's why he's able to address your concerns so speedily. If it had been one of the other John's, it probably couldn't have been done."

"Well, that's good to know. I will certainly keep that in mind in the future. Thank you, John. May I ask your last name so I can put you in my Rolodex?"

"Just ask for Stewie. Any of my men will know that you want me." That's how I found out the third name of the three John's. Stewart, Earl, and John. I left the office with Stewie, listening to Miss Walters praise us both for solving her break room problem.

"You learn quick, kid. You told her I was the one to see, right? Built me up with her? I've been here for six years, and always wanted to make a run at her. Couldn't ever see any opening, because she treated all of us like crap. It's different now, now that she's seen how handy we can be to her. She wouldn't ever lower herself for a regular maintenance guy, but, what did you say I was? Oh yeah, the guy who runs my department. Now I have a shot with her. I'll let you know if it pans out. She can be a real pain in the ass, and what a ball buster, but did you see those milk factories? Do you think she'd maybe like her own wall mounted television set?"

I left Stewie to pursue whatever dreams and ambitions he might have with Miss Walters. I already knew that each of the John's had places in the building where they pretended that they were the head maintenance person. What I'd done with Miss Walters, was to bypass the middleman, in this case me, and go directly to the source for all future requests. Earl was already dating Edith, and I knew that the real John was in near constant demand from the ladies on the floor of the production lines. He was always being called in to cut and fit some repair on the rubber mats that covered the floor down there. I was almost positive that each of them had a special, private, place where they could take someone to discuss complex maintenance projects. All three were really knowledgeable, and they did excellent work, in a very timely manner. I'd never heard anyone complaining about them as far as delaying any needed work.

Back home by five thirty that Friday night, I ran to the phone and called Shirley. We had spoken on the phone during the week, but I hadn't seen her since the night of my birthday. I'd been thinking about her though, and I wanted to see her in the worst way. I missed just seeing her. Mama and Dad were going out with Uncle Bunny and Elizabeth. They had tickets to some play being put on in Bolling. It was one of those benefit performances to support the drama department at the college. Dad had bought a lot of tickets through the company, and had passed them out among the employees. I had been invited too, as had Jane and Grace and Hans and Gerta. All of us had refused. Dad didn't want to go either, but he felt like he had to attend, to make an appearance for the sake of all the people at the company who would be there at his urging. Mr. And Mrs. Jones were going also, as a new employee of the company, Dad thought this would be a good way for Mr. Jones to meet some of the other executives, in a non business setting. The six of them would be riding in the limo together, plus Gerta would be riding up front with Hans. They were planning on visiting with the Kleinsmiths while the play and the after play party were going on. I had already arranged with Jane to drive me over to pick Shirley up, and then take us somewhere, if Shirley was able to go out with me. We'd be going in my new car, the one I was only barely able to drive at all yet.

"Hi Shirley, I'm home. Did you ask your folks yet about what I asked you?"

"I didn't exactly ask them, Kenny. I told my mother I might go out tonight, with some friends. She didn't ask me who. I have to be home by eleven thirty though."

"Mama said they'd be leaving at six fifteen to pick up Uncle Bunny and Elizabeth, then they're coming over to pick up your parents. Uncle Bunny is always running late, so they probably won't get to your house before six forty five. Why don't you call me when they get to your house, and I'll get Jane to drive me over to pick you up?"

"Okay. You want me to call you when they park, or wait until they come inside?"

"I don't know. We can get to your house in five minutes from here. Maybe you should wait until they all leave before calling. Did you think of anything you want to do? The last movie starts at eight o'clock."

"Do we have to go out? I thought we could go to your house, and maybe watch some TV or something. I haven't seen you since last Friday."

"We could do that. I'd like to, but Grace and Jane will be here too."

"Will they be in your bedroom, watching TV with us?"

"You want to watch some TV in my room?"

"You have a TV there, I saw it. Doesn't it work?"

"Shirley, I'd love to have you come over here, and we could watch TV, or do anything else you'd like to do, but, if we're alone in my room, there's a good chance that I might get carried away with you."

"So? I thought we already settled this, Kenny? Don't you want to anymore?"

"No, I mean I do want to, but what I meant was we didn't actually settle it. We spoke about it, and we both said we wanted to, but, do you mean tonight? Tonight's fine with me, but, only if you're sure. I don't want you thinking we have to do that right now, not if you'd rather wait."

"Kenny, you sound more nervous than I am. I already decided, I told you. Mom measured me on Wednesday, did I tell you? I'm officially a six footer now. Six feet and one quarter inch. At the rate I'm growing, I'll have to kneel down to give you a kiss soon."