Cast of Characters

It was sometime during June of 1972 that I went to work at A-1 Plastic Supply at 13700 Gamma Road in Addison Texas. (A-1 is long gone and that building is currently occupied by an auto repair shop called "Lord of the Rings" - bizarre name) ... I'm really not sure how many blog posts I should devote to this. "Working" was something of a novel experience for me back then so I remember an awful lot of (it in gory detail) - I'm just not sure how interesting (or relevant) most of it is :-)

Since a company is nothing more than the sum of it's employees I figure "roll call" is as good a place as any to start... As I recall, A-1 was comprised of 9 people (including me):

The man "at the helm" was William Tarrant Garrett (Jr?). He was a WWII vet and a product of the school of hard knocks - definitely the "good ole boy" type and decidedly redneck. However, there was no denying that he was an incredibly shrewd businessman. Despite the fact that I found most of his personal attitudes and beliefs "distasteful" I did have a tremendous amount of respect for his knowledge and leadership skills - and (whether he intended to or not) he taught me a lot of valuable lessons.

His son Billy, a recent college graduate (business?), also worked there. I think he mostly did sales and I recall that he was not much like his father - more of the shy, nerdy type. As I recall, there was a lot speculation about whether he was still a virgin :-)

Then there was the accountant - a middle aged woman with dark hair. I don't remember much about her other than I had to make sure all the invoices were properly filled out and signed before I turned them in or I'd catch hell... Hmm - now that I think about it, she seemed to be kind of angry in general :-)

I'm still not sure exactly what Bert did. I think his official title was VP and his job seemed to have something to do with advertising and marketing. Regardless, it was clear that he was the second in command...  I recall that he had "Dick Clark hair" and could have easily passed for a televangelist... He was always upbeat and seemed to be a genuinely nice guy.

The "hotshot" salesman was a young guy (probably in his mid 20s) named Ivan Angott. He was quite the talker and came across as the type you'd see hitting on women in bars... He knew a ton of jokes and often talked about having business cards made up with the name "Jock Strapinger" on them. For some reason he thought that was freaking hilarious...

Aside: It was Ivan who informed me that many of the secretaries in downtown Dallas didn't wear panties. When I expressed disbelief he suggested that the next windy day I rearrange my route to pass through downtown during lunch hour... Yeah - he was right :-)

There was an old black man named Sam who had been with the company since the 1950s. He ran the warehouse and did all the cutting and machining for custom orders... I recall that he drove a Dodge Colt with the personalized license plate "John 316". We had some pretty interesting conversations and he was genuinely one of the nicest people I've ever met.

The former delivery driver was an ambitious young fellow (maybe 21?) named Jim. He was transitioning into sales but he had to spend some time working in the warehouse first (learning the inventory)... I was surprised to discover that he was on his third marriage. As he explained, when a woman told him "not until we're married" that was the obvious solution...
BTW: Things had gotten rather awkward at his prior job when he proposed to his boss's wife. (Her divorce was already in progress and yes, she did marry Jim.) So that's how he ended up at A-1... He must have been one heck of a charmer because he (obviously) had an incredibly cavalier attitude toward women and relationships...

And that leaves the 19 year old receptionist. I don't recall her name but the boss called her "Sugar Booger" when she was sitting on his lap. (Apparently one of her duties...) She "played along" but it was obvious (at least to me) that she really disliked it... I'm sure I'll have lots more to say about her later :-)
 That was a definitely a different era... The boss was (in my estimation) a decent man and I suspect (hope?)  he only behaved that way to show off when " the guys" were around... Luckily, it wasn't much longer before the state legislatures stepped in and put a stop to those kinds of "job requirements"... And not a moment too soon.