Chapter 37

School was not that different for me, but it was for some of the grade nine students. The girls took a class with a woman teacher that taught how to service a car. One young and good looking female cook from the Mandarin Restaurant showed how it was really done in a kitchen. I had a difficult time understanding her but her class was in quite a demand. The restaurant was not finished yet but the roof and walls were up. It, like the dojo, showed the peaked roofs of eastern architecture.

Mai did not have a teacher's licence so Mrs. Cameron had to watch and learn too.

After the first three days I had my own first class in Home Ec. I asked in class, "Mrs Cameron, how are your new grade nine classes working out?"

She gave me a smile and said, "You are a sneaky young man. I thought I would have to come down on the boys to take the classes. The boys race down the hall to make sure they have a seat near the front."

"Mrs Cameron, you wound me to the quick. All I did was remember the proverb about honey and vinegar."

"Now your comparing me to vinegar, Mr Congdon?"

"Never Mrs Cameron. I see you as more of a full bodied wine as opposed to a young one that has not aged to bring it to perfection."

"Mr Congdon, you are digging your way deeper into the hole."

"Yes, Mrs Cameron. I'll be quiet."

After class, Paige, Jamie and I stayed back for a moment. I said to Mrs Cameron, "Do you think the class will be a success?"

"It can't fail. You have the deck stacked and that woman certainly is."

"Not jealous I hope."

"Not really but it's been — "

"Yes I know. Young males and their hormones —. You are the one to spring the news about the class excursion."

"It's going to have to be all the classes."

"I'm happy with that. It comes out of the R&D fund."

"For a restaurant?"

"Why not? This type of restaurant is new. We have to make new recipes." We left a perplexed teacher and had to hurry to our next class.

The television licence was not in but I had a building constructed and an antenna erected. This was used for our trucks and to send encrypted data between plants. This was now obsolete because we could hook up to the phone lines now.

We had fair computers that we bought but we were making our own. Our aim was for the home market. Microprocessors were made but they were much too slow and error prone. We hired young graduates when we could as long as they looked like they were not going to just take our ideas and run. A year's worth of work did not go very far but we were ahead of everybody else. This meant we had lots of security.

Edgar had to switch hats and head our security section. His devious mind and military attitude caught a lot. One of the high-tech devices we made was the fax machine. These went on our lines and the standard telephones were wired into them. Buttons though did the dialling but they were still pulse. Tone had not come out yet.

In a good will gesture, I sent some of these machines to Bell in Canada and AT&T in the US. Being underhanded, I sent thousands of units to both governments and the military. Of course they could not legally attach the machines but I was sure they chose to ignore this. So far, we were the only manufacturer of the chips and the sensors. We had half of a million units in storage waiting for the green light to start to sell them.

The music business was good. The girls were very famous. The cassette tape recorders were selling better and better. Sam Houston ordered three more tape copying machines as well as half a million blank cassettes. He sold only ten of the machines himself at the convention but after that we sold one every two weeks. The supply of blank cassettes was not growing any more.

Tiny Talent Time began even without the television. There were hundreds of parents that just loved to see their little darlings up on the stage. Jena now had a dance studio and she hired her sister Laura to help after school. Jena also ran the show for me so she would get some experience. She even had to use a microphone so she could introduce the acts.

By mid October I got the television licence and immediately the orders went out. I needed trained people and some from all across North America found they would like to try the weather in North Bay. In two weeks the equipment was delivered and cinematography was now taught.

Jena was petrified but I showed her how the parents just had to watch the television receivers in our buildings instead of seeing their darlings live. Soon it was only some people in the city that could see this but eventually it would be broadcast to Toronto.

The thoughts of building the CN Tower was not mentioned to anybody because I was still buying old businesses on the Toronto lakeshore and then buying the railway right of way. The tower in my time was 1,815 feet high and provided the mast for all the television channels as well as the radio too. Since it was superceded by other towers soon after I was going to shoot for 2,200 feet.

Before Christmas, there were a lot of people getting a bonus. I had the money though there was little left of the money from AT&T. This had gone to open new plazas in Hamilton, Windsor, Ottawa and my old home of London. These sets of buildings would not be the small ones we had in North Bay. This meant I needed lots of trained staff. James had thought he was going to get a breather but it didn't happen.

Starbucks was not costing me anything. The new units were paid out of the profits of the ones in place. To get away from trash, a patron would buy a cup from us and they would get their morning jolt a lot cheaper than the ones that had to have a paper cup.

All the trucking to North Bay meant the roads had to be repaired and improved. Highway 400 was in the future and looked good. It had also taken a long time to build. My businesses and those that supplied me or the city were encouraged to get the road built. So far it was too little too late but that was the way of governments sometimes.

Jack was doing better and was preparing to drive the tractor again to pull the children up the hill after they slid down. He was much better but not like he was before Nora left to be a chaperone.

Just before Christmas, Mrs. Cameron took us to the Mandarin but I was the one that showed them the kitchen. I purposely pointed out how the cooks flipped what was in their pans or woks and avoided using a spatula. Mrs Cameron gave me a dirty look.

Many of the waitresses were the unwed mothers that had been to our old house. The children were taken care of by the daycare facilities I had set up. I was also working on getting the various levels of government to finance places where these children could go in sixty to seventy years when they became senior citizens. I wanted hospices too that would be a lot cheaper than hospitals.

They all believed me but none of them could find the money to help. This is where the social conscience of the women would kick in. Mrs Warren was going to retire at the end of the school year and go into politics full time. The year after, I wanted her to run for a seat in the provincial legislature.

Mrs Warren had really come out of the closet. She had not actually burned her bra but she had admitted that she had a child out of wedlock. The school board did nothing. This in a way disappointed her because she wanted a fight.

She had a lot of support in the community and part of it came from the women I hired as managers, engineers and tradespeople. I was starting now to hire the minorities and one segment was women.

My 16^th birthday was in a few months. I remembered the time from when I had this event last time it was sixteen. The week before and after were fantastic when it came to the weather though it was not good for the family.

A year ago, I began preparations for my own version of Woodstock. I canvassed for acts but few bands responded favourably to the invitation. This original concert was free only because the promoters could not say no to a mob that wanted in later. Tickets had been sold but the whole process was full of problems. My tickets were going to be fairly expensive but they would get the right to camp for two days and got fed two simple meals a day. They would come Friday probably by playing hooky then leaving Sunday night

The details had been not thought out very well in 1969. People were in place but not enough of them. The towns cried about the long haired hippie trash invading them. The hippie culture had started already but the beatnik culture had not died yet. I did what I could to not fight this counter culture but still show them to be responsible citizens. This is where I tried to guide the hippies but as yet I did not know how successful I was. My venue was not for the hippies though because I did not promote bands and singers that used drugs openly.

All sorts of legal problems resulted in that other time. The authorities did what they could so another concert like that could not happen a second time. Only a small part of it was the biggest traffic jam in history. The roads could not handle the traffic and the police did not assist in getting people to park logically and walk the remaining distance. Emergency crews could not get in. The entertainers could not get to the concert. Food could not arrive. Helicopters were used in 1969 to bring some of the performers as well as emergency food.

The problem was that there were simply too many people for the plans. In 1969, all sorts of ads had been placed in the magazines that people read about musicians. I was going to cut the coverage and hope that I did not get too many. The original concert was stated as 400,000 but was really 150,000 when people were counted from aerial photographs.

There was no way I could have the concert in North Bay. I owned a large tract of land in northern Toronto that would get swallowed up by the city in years to come. My Home Depot and Zehrs were there as well as the framework for Costco, Best Buy and Walmart. The last three had a high roof and a concrete floor but no walls. The services were in so I could use portable toilets. Medical staff were hired and facilities prepared. The biggest problem was the amount and strength of the fencing required. It had to be very long. I had no troubles with the neighbours because they were far away.

I tried to lease a Sikorsky for the last six months. I did not want an old unit but something that was fairly modern. It was only recently that I managed to call a few favours in to get to the head of the list. This meant I had to have pilots and people to service the machine. I had people clamouring for these jobs.

I gave the machine to security and this meant Edgar. "Don't break it and you now have to be a chauffeur." Edgar just looked at me and I could see the wheels going around and around.

Another major requirement was the sound system. Instead of a few large units, I was going to go with many more smaller units. All would be elevated on the steel poles that supported the lighting. The construction was simpler this way but the overall planning was a logistical nightmare. That is why I had managers.

Elvis was going to show up and this would ensure that the other singers and bands would come too. Sam Houston would send me all his entertainers to make sure we had a full card. This alone showed people that we were not catering to the hippie culture.

We signed up the Everly Brothers, Connie Francis, Bobby Rydell, Marty Robbins, Roy Orbison and the Ventures. More would come if their schedules allowed. These performers were very good but not what some people would come a long distance to hear.

The interest in attending the concert increased as well as that of the singers and band. Advanced ticket sales started to be brisk.

Our channel 5 went on the air with a lot of hoopla. Almost everybody was interested in the station because nearly everybody had something to do with my businesses. The schools even had a chance to go on the air to teach students what was hard to teach in a classroom.

There were a lot of half hour long infomercials that highlighted one or more business. The audience learned that the students working for me were given time and help in doing homework. They also learned how desperate I was for quality help in running my businesses.

By the year 2008, I had seen a very wide variety of movies and shows. The newest fad had been out for three years where it involved repairing a home for a needy person or repairing the body of a similar individual. I did this too. We practised on people and buildings in the city then in nearby areas before going to Toronto. The structures coincided with the opening of my Home Depot at that location.

Local construction companies were asked to work for free. In return, they would be seen on television so homeowners could see just how good the company was.

The cameras rolled up and down the aisles of Home Depot as articles were picked out by decorators and contractors. The fifth show was sold to the Toronto, Hamilton and a Buffalo NY television stations. I just had to make sure the quality of the show continued.

The external shots at the Toronto store showed the preparation for 'Concert Toronto 1962'. This way people could see what they were getting into. It was also a plug for the concert.

The people in need of repair saw specialists that again worked for free. We had to work for eight months before the first show could go on the air. People took a while to heal. This meant I had a lot of my money wrapped up in this type of show.

Shoppers that made the trip to northern Toronto to buy their food or building supplies got a chance to see where the concert was going to be held. When I was interviewed by people other than at channel 5, I put plugs in as well.

Paige said, "I thought we were going to have a quiet birthday party for you. It looks like the concert is part of the party."

I hid my smile because of a big secret I had planned. "It is. Part of being a salesman is selling yourself. It's something like being a politician. So many things have to be changed and they cannot be done by just talking about it."

Paige smiled at me and said, "Did you change your mind and want to go into politics now?"

"No, but you could. You can start as an alderman and work your way up."

"I couldn't do that."

"Sure you could. You're my Superwoman." I got a big smile and was pulled to bed to show just how super she was.

The helicopter came in but now we had to get people certified to work on it or to fly it. Travel time from the Bay to the concert site would be a lot less in the future.