« FULL GALE DALE – SOCIALIST NATION???? | Home | GEORGE, COFFEE, REFLUX, FART & OTHER IMPORTANT SUBJECTS »
EVERYBODY’S DANISH – Poly High & renewed friendships
By fred | June 26, 2009
EVERYBODY’S DANISH – Poly High
BUT first a tale of —
MEMORIES & renewed friendships
Today memories came flooding back – a gusher of memories from days so very long ago. It all happened a few weeks ago quite by accident. A young lady by the name of Allison that by some God given moment in time joined my BLOG and read something I had written about my business life in the 1950’s and 1960’s a few names jumped out at her. Her Grandmother had worked for and still worked in the office one day a week to help out an executive that had the name of a person in my writings – so she called her Grandmother and asked her to contact Mark Levey and see if he remembered me. He did and related almost word for word what I had written about the incident. Mark phoned me yesterday afternoon.
I guess I am getting to be a sentimental old fool as hearing his voice brought tears to my eyes. Mark and I are the same age, he is a few months older at 80 plus, but what really brought tears to my eyes that he did not realize, was his voice. He sounded exactly, just the same as his dad Ralph. Ralph was closer to me in those days, actually he worked for me for a time as an advisor, and he also fired himself to go into business with his son Mark. When I think of Ralph Levey I think of another guy like my Dad, highly principled businessmen with warm hearts not like a few others it was my misfortune to meet back then.
Someday I will try and relate those days of business in my never ending book ‘Everybody’s Danish’– a very long, long period of well over 30 years. The struggles of a small import food and beverage distributor fighting the huge titans – importers with millions of dollars in assets – something – sometimes I just do not want to think about. Running a successful business takes smarts, brains — and a lot of money. I thought I had a bit of the first two, maybe not enough but a little of both, lacking sadly was the big money, a hundred thousand plus even back then was peanuts if running an import / wholesale business of any size. Never enough buying power, Mark and Ralph were wise to stay only in the brokerage business where selling for manufactures was their business, maintaining a dollar inventory was never their concern.
A fellow that gave me a lot of excellent advice – helped me a lot was Mark’s dad Ralph Levey one of the nicest, decent, honest, straight forward business men I ever knew. Mark Levy was nothing but a chip off the thousand carat diamond that was Ralph. Two super people. Ralph died years ago but Mark sounded super, very much enjoying the fruits of his long career. He related that their brokerage firm had over 300 employees when sold, Wow, that is one hell of a big business with offices all over the west coast.
So Allison – I have to thank you and your Grandma for getting Mark and I together.
Before I get into the next chapter of ‘Everybody’s Danish’ I have to tell you about a simple sales tool Mark taught me fifty or sixty years ago. One day Mark and I were going somewhere, a dinner maybe, I have no idea where we were going, I remember we stopped at his house for some reason, we were in his car. On the seat next to the driver where I was to sit he had a small card filing box. I asked Mark what it was.
Both of us were in sales, he was starting his own food brokerage firm, Normark & Associates I was running our import company. Mark explained that many of his customers he would call on once a month, some every two months, naturally as a salesman you make very attempt to be on a friendly basis with your clients. So what he would do if a customer mentioned something personal, like his wife just had a baby, or something happened in his life be it good or bad. When Mark got into his car he would make a short note a card of that personal event in that customer’s life.
Two months later when he visited that customer before he walked in for his appointment he would review the card. It would jog his memory of that last visit. So when he walked in and sat down the first thing he might say is “Charlie, how is you wife and the baby doing now? Didn’t you say her name was Ann?”
Can you imagine what that buyer thought – here is this salesman, this guy I buy a few things from, he only sees me every few months but he cares enough about me to remember my new baby’s name. Wow, he seems like a nice guy. After a few months or a year this buyer becomes a bit more than just a buyer, he now becomes a friend. A friend that makes damn sure that Mark Levey gets his share of business. This friendship so important to Mark’s business started with that card file and the few seconds it took to make a short note after each visit.
I loved it, Mark detailed it to me, and I developed a similar card file, of customers and had it on the front seat of my car for years. Had that file all the years I sold in the field. That card file made me a lot of money – made me a lot of friends, a few are still getting these messages, like Eddie Jue in Ventura, so now Eddie you know the tricks of the trade.
Mark and Ralph went on to develop a brokerage company billing hundreds of millions in sales. Mark says that one of their major lines was from a meeting and a connection I helped develop. All I can say to Mark is that business is like the game of football. If you are a quarterback you can only hand off the ball. You need a great running back to take it from there – Mark and his Dad were that great running back they sure as hell knew what to do when they got a break. Neither Mark nor his Dad, my beloved Ralph were lazy, they knew what to do with that ball – super people that deserve all they developed.
To know that Mark is now on my list of old friends makes me feel good. Mark said he will try and put me in touch with yet another friend of those days Sven Jensen an executive with East Asiatic Company, God willing he can do that.
BACK TO –
My unfinished book – ‘Everybody’s Danish’
The John H. Francis Polytechnic High School 50th reunion where old friendships are renewed.
(NOTE – To those of you that have come in late and would like to go to the beginning of Everybody’s Danish – just go to – “THIS AND THAT from Uncle Fred” – in my BLOG – All prior chapters are there.)
EVERYBODY’S DANISH – CHAPTER Returning to memories!
THE REUNION
October of 1997 I flew to Southern California to attend my fifty year high school class reunion. I normally did not go to reunions, but since this was the big fifty, and since I was the Senior Class president a few of my buddies said, “You gotta do it.”
To go or not to go was a difficult decision. Sally knew how bad I wanted to go, she said, “Go for it.” I always wanted Sally to travel with me, she never would. Sally hated getting old, I guess a lady as beautiful as her would hate it more than most, but it was more than that. She said she wanted to remember her friends as they were then, so young, so beautiful, and so full of life; she did not want to all of a sudden see old people. She is and was so sincere about that, it was enough us getting old, watching her brother, her beloved sister in law Janet getting old, she had enough of ‘old.’
I do not regret that decision. The sheer enjoyment of meeting all those wonderful gals and guys would be hard to describe. Many I had not seen or heard anything about in all those fifty years. It was truly the experience of a lifetime.
It was a good thing they had little name tags with pictures of each of us fifty years back or it would have been impossible to know who anyone was. To say the least, it was a ball! I have not had that much fun in years. Hearing about their lives, what they did for a living, their kids, telling stories, and just generally reliving those years in our memories. To say that the stories told of our high school years were in many cases, slightly ‘shaded’ would no doubt put it mildly.
Many over the years were very successful, some quite wealthy, others maybe not so successful, it has to depend on what standard you would measure success by. All however, looking well, and most of all, still alive. One thing about the reunion was very interesting. Many of the guys that came were athletes in football, both B and Varsity. A few of our track team came. The ratio of those that were in some athletic program at Poly High to persons that were not was very noticeable.
I have a hunch that in many of us it was the attempt to recapture the feeling of being together. That feeling of being a team, with all that goes with it. I just had the feeling that the guys in sports probably felt closer to the school. Much more so than students that did not have the same emotional involvement as those in athletics.
My old buddy ‘J.B.’ John Brewer and his spouse Loraine was there. Rolf Fromme, our hard nosed guard came. My best buddy, (also best man at my wedding) Hugo Valasquez and his beautiful spouse Beverly came as my guests. George Haddad our reserve quarter back, and hard nosed center, and student coach, Herb Temple all were there. Herb still is a good looking SOB. All the girls used to flip over him. Old Herb must have learned something as a student coach cause he ended up as a three star Lt. General in the army, a rank few could reach, you have to have your act together for something like that.
A bunch of guys from our championship ‘B’ teams were there, Joe Kinda, Dale Martinusen, Chuck Brennaaun, to name a few. Also Ray Toohey, our classmate that was the sports writer for the school newspaper was there.
Track guys like Walt Thompson and Harold Garrison.
It was also amazing what was remembered, and how each of us remembered the other. At that reunion several of the girls in our class were talking to me at the bar, when one of them said, “I always remember you as a football star.” I remember being shocked. I guess I finally answered with some stupid remark like, “That was the nicest thing anyone ever has said to me.” It was! I walked on air the rest of the night, and still feel good about her saying that. She made my day, month, and year all rolled up in one. I will probably look back on her saying that for the rest of my life. She had a wrong perception of a football star, a star I was not – but who am I to correct her? It is probably a good thing that most of those ladies will not read these chapters, because the star would become somewhat dim if they knew the truth.
I will always look back on my so called high school sports career, with a profound relief that it is over, the feeling that I do not have to do it again. I have absolutely no glowing memory of track, and football, my senior season was a nightmare worry, constant worry to me.
On our football team there was a bunch of players that were excellent athletes. At that period of time I was exactly 200 lbs playing football and 190 lbs running track. At six feet two inches, strong as a bull and lucky enough to be a bit faster than anyone else, I often wished I was slower, then I would have played tackle and had fun playing football.
The coaches equated speed with football and so for that reason my senior year I was constantly played by Coach Brennan, the only time I left a game was if I was bleeding too much, needed my shoulder put back in place from being dislocated, being taped up by doc – otherwise you played both offense and defense.
We had some good football players that I would have loved to share playing time with. That was not our old Coach’s method of coaching. He said he wanted the best players on the field.
When it is 90 degrees in the third or fourth quarter and your butt is dragging, who is the best guy? – the guy dragging his ass or a fresh buddy sitting on the bench ready and eager to play? In my opinion the fresh buddy eager to play would be the best, at least for five or so minutes until the first string could recoup a bit of poop. This never happened on our varsity football team under Coach Voyle Brennen.
MEMORIES
Those terrific guys yes, those are the memories I cherish. The game of high school football, especially my senior year, and worse yet, track, sometimes I would like to block some of those periods from my memory.
You want the truth? To me – football was a constant worry. I would imagine every disaster possible, with me as the star performer in all the ‘screw ups.’
Just thinking of dropping the ball, fumbling the damn ball, missing a tackle, all this could leave me in a cold sweat. I loved playing football, I loved the hitting, being able to move faster, hit and tackle a back behind the line of scrimmage, if there is a greater thrill in sports I don’t know what it is. BUT I wanted nothing to do with that damned funny shaped ball. Maybe it was fun throwing the thing around for fun, but not in front of hundreds of people it was not my idea of fun. I guess you can say I had a lineman’s mentality and be right.
I begged Coach Brennen my senior year to let me play tackle on our football team; he said there was no way the fastest guy (me) on the football team could play in the line. Big Al Masciello, a freshman was not yet as good as I was but he would do, I was to be the left half, on offense, his power back and that was that – he told me to shut up and do it. He did let me play left end on defense – that was about the most fun I had on a football field as a senior, no team made yardage around our end, with my buddy Cookie Higgins as left side linebacker, we stopped em all.
During my senior year for some reason or other I was always playing with some injury, the hurting, the playing hurt all the time. Let’s see if I can remember all those aches. I first dislocated my left shoulder my Junior year in practice Ed Bravo did it quite by accident, likely my fault for not doing something he was teaching me right.
I dislocated it three times more my senior year yet only missed one game. Add to that a dislocated left thumb, water on the knee so every week or so Doctor Novotny had to take the water out with a looong needle. Add three separate broken noses, so many black eye, seemed they were black most of the season as we did not have those bars to protect a nose they now have, if you didn’t have a black eye or a broken nose you were likely not playing first string. Lets see, then there was three inch gash in my right calf from a player’s cleat, they stopped the game for that one to find the player that had lost his cleat. In those days football shoes had cleats that you screwed on, without the cleat the three quarter inch screw could do a lot of damage, Doc Novotny had to wrap it up good so I could get back to play. Of course, there were the usual black and blue spots.
Hey, I wasn’t the only one that played hurt; a ton of buddies did too. Hugo I remember always had bad ankles, yet it never stopped him from playing, they could be swollen to twice their size, the doctor wrapped them and he played.
Funny, once the game started you never felt pain, never. When the referee stopped the game because of the gash in my leg I had never felt it, didn’t realize it – yet there was blood all over the field, my shoes. It never really hurt until much later when the game was over and the bandage was removed and stitches etc. took place.
You hear stories of bravery in battle, where a person is shot, badly hurt yet he or she does something heroic, a person that never played a sport like football may wonder how that could be. I believe if combat is like football you would likely not even know you were hit, shot, whatever – you are so focused on what is happening that you have no feeling of pain. Others I played ball with have said the same thing, pain is for when you have the time for it, if it does not halt your functioning as a player, it is likely not felt until the play or game is over.
What scared the hell out of me were those dreaded hours before a game, that ‘rock in the stomach’ feeling, it was more than just a game – we felt it was life or death. Just forget the fun! If only one of our coaches had come into the locker room and said, “It’s just a game, have some fun!” Then maybe things would have been different. Never happened – that intense feeling that the whole world was on your shoulders presented a pressure of unbelievable proportions on most of us.
A kid dreams of excelling in football, being a star. Scoring touch downs, making that ‘saving’ tackle, always in front of thousands of people, most of which in my dreams were gorgeous looking females. What a joke that is! In my later years I find that those sweet young, beautiful, high school girls could have cared less if you played football. Contrary to what most of us young males thought at the time, football had little meaning with the ladies – I believe they would have preferred their men to excel in something less smelly, less sweaty, less hurtful so they would not be limping around when they wanted to dance. If I knew then what I know now – I would likely never have played the game of football.
NEXT WEEK WE WILL CONTINUE – LIFE SO MANY YEARS AGO!
Topics: THIS & THAT from Uncle Fred | 1 Comment »
June 27th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I am so happy you were able to reconnect! I love how after all these years, no one has forgotten the significance and impact you left on one another. Reading this made my day!
I hope to start a career in sales (as soon as I can find a job in one, haha!) but I can’t wait to use the file card technique. And I’ll make sure to tell you about my future successes with the system, and will also remember to thank you for sharing the idea with me/your readers =)
ANSWER
Dear Allison, One thing related to a sales career. Mark made a huge business out of selling on commission OTHER PEOPLES GOODS. I made a business of selling imports that I owned and purchased, I remained small, Mark made a fortune. Having to build a dollar inventory is tough, yes, Mark lost some lines, had to take reduced commissions when he built them up from asshole principals, HOWEVER, if I knew now – I would never have tried to build up a business owning and buying inventory, you never have enough and the big, big money boys killed me constantly. So remember get into sales where you take only the commission the rake off, bet your Grandma will agree with me, I know Mark will.
Love ya, Fred