20. GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS AND EDUCATING BLAIN

I quickly settled in and started reorganizing the Charlotte district to make it more profitable and more efficient. This required a lot of travel to Lancaster and Florence S.C. I also felt it necessary to visit the Myrtle Beach area often since it was in my assigned territory even though we had no customers there. There were many potential customers and a great many beautiful golf courses that I felt required my attention. What a wonderful job this was. All those golf courses and an expense account were all I needed to really enjoy myself as well as please a great many potential and current customers.

One of my first major actions was to close the Lancaster Branch and work it out of Charlotte. We had a repair truck there that had all flat tires, no gas cap which allowed the gas tank to be filled with rain water and had not run for many years. I asked John Hovis, the branch manager if it was worth saving and he said, “No.” I then called Barbara’s brother, Ralph, in Danville and asked if he wanted it. Of course he said, “Yes,” and came down to get it. After a lot of work he got it running and drove it back to Danville where he sold it immediately. As a reward, he presented Barbara with a beautiful clock that we still enjoy.

Reorganizing the district went on for several years and the profits were improving substantially which was my overall goal.

Blain had settled in pretty good and, as usual, made many friends. His favorites as I recall were Scott Patterson and Brian Ranson although he had many more. They congregated at the house frequently. Blain became interested in computers at school and never let up. They were to be a major factor in a very successful career.

Near the end of Blain’s freshman year at West Mecklenburg High School, he and his best pal, Scott Patterson had arranged a date with some girls from way over in northwest Charlotte and asked if I would chauffer them over to pick up the girls and drive them to the Pineville Dinner Theater in South Charlotte. I agreed to do it and on the way asked how they knew these girls? When I found they had been riding their bicycles all the way to their homes, which was many miles away, it became a real problem for Barbara and me because of the huge amount of traffic all over the Charlotte area. It was very frightening to learn this. The girls were sisters and older than Blain and Scott. They never had the opportunity of going with them again so far as I know. I think it was because of some peculiarities on the girls’ parts.

After Blain left for college, we were shocked to learn that he actually walked on the ice that had frozen over on the pond behind our house. It was so dangerous and scary; it was difficult to get over the thought of it and the fact that he could easily have drowned.

During Blain’s sophomore year [1981] I purchased an MGB sports car for him, it was a nice car and he really loved it. It also was identical to his sister’s MGB except in color. It was very expensive to keep up since most repairs would double those for an American built car. Near the end of his freshman year in college, I bought what I thought would be the perfect replacement car, a Ford EXP. This was a small car but real sporty and I just knew Blain would love it. As usual, I was wrong since I noticed his first look at it and, although he said nothing, I could tell he did not like it. We d bought it and had it parked in front of the house awaiting his arrival from N.C. State that particular night. One would have thought he would have been elated, but it just wasn’t so.

While at N.C. State, Blain co-opped with IBM and it was the best thing he could have done since they shared a lot of his Georgia Tech costs and provided him with spending money on campus. Obviously, this was to my advantage also. With this working arrangement with IBM, he also was assured of a good job after graduation.
Blain drove the EXP through college and on to Georgia for his Masters Degree. While he was at Tech, but home on a visit, I happened to be in Fayetteville on business at the Kelly-Springfield Tire Plant. My friend, Bob Halbauer had a Toyota for sale that was in excellent shape and I recalled that the EXP was getting a lot of miles on the odometer and the tires were just about slick. In view of this, I made Bob an offer and he took it. I then called home where Blain was busy raking leaves in our neighbor’s yard. I asked if he would like to trade, and he agreed. He flew to Fayetteville where I met him at the airport. He picked up the car and followed me to my good friend, Bob Gentry’s Tire store where I purchased a new set of tires. This was to carry him until he could afford his own car purchases and it did.