MEECHIE AND ME #43

Today is December 25^th 2010, and I hope you'll forgive me if I digress from "Advice for my Daughters", to record a current event. I would like to tell you about a very special Christmas gift that I received from my daughter Karen, who lives in Napa, California

Let me give you a little background. In 2000, we had a little girl come into our lives. Amelia and I adopted "Garbo", a beautiful white Schnauzer. We were living on Marathon, in the Florida Keys. Her parents lived on a boat tied up at Hawks Cay. She barked so much that they had to put her up for adoption through the Key West S.P.C.A. I happened to be friends with Dr Gwen, the director, and casually mentioned to her, to let me know if the shelter ever received a Schnauzer. Kathy, Karen, and Kirby had a Schnauzer earlier in life and I would like very much to have another one. To my great surprise, two weeks later the SPCA got Garbo, who we quickly adopted. Now you would think a small SPCA in Key West would hardly ever get two Schnauzers, but they did. It took a little longer, but two years later, Gretchen came into our lives. Gretchen had been found running around, chasing chickens in the streets of Key West. When we saw her for the first time, she looked like a street dog. Her fur was all chopped off in places where they had cut out the burrs and pulled out dozens of ticks; she looked like she had been living out of garbage cans for a long time. She was a salt & pepper Schnauzer. Our hesitation about adopting her disappeared when she jumped up in Amelia's lap and gave her a kiss.

We went from a no dog family to a two dog family. Garbo and Gretchen became great friends. It was surprising how beautiful Gretchen became after her hair grew back in and she became part of our family. We often wondered how she became a street dog in Key West. Someone lost her; she was too nice a dog for someone to just turn her out on the street. Perhaps some tourist lost her and had to leave without her. In any event, the SPCA had tried to find the owner without success.

In 2005 Garbo contracted cancer and in spite of Chemo and special care from our Veterinarian, she passed away in 2006. In 2007 Gretchen got cancer; Dr. Jutras, her Vet, tried every treatment possible, but she died in late 2008. I thought that we should try to find another dog. Amelia thought that we were getting too old to go through the trauma of losing another pet. I was 83 yet still felt that another dog would be good for us. I did have to agree with Amelia about the trauma and the costs when they got sick. We both loved and missed our dogs and found ourselves constantly reminding each other about little incidents from the many years we had with Garbo and Gretchen .After all, they had become our children.

On December 22^nd, I answered a knock on the door to find two young ladies standing there. They had a Schnauzer dog with them. I thought that they were probably going door to door to solicit donations for a Christmas fund. They asked if they could come in; I thought that was a little strange, so I asked them why they wanted to come in. I almost went into shock when they said they wanted to come in so they could give me the Dog. Just then Amelia came to the door and recognized the girls as being from the Highland Animal Hospital. I still couldn't believe they wanted to give the little Schnauzer to us. He was beautiful, full of energy; it was jumping up as if to say, "Here I am, I'm your new puppy". I'm not ashamed to say that I cried, and Amelia sobbed. It was like looking at Gretchen's puppy. I think the two girls were touched, too.

My daughter Karen and John, her husband knew that I missed our dogs because I was always talking about them. They decided that they wanted to send us a dog for Christmas. They knew what Gretchen looked like, so they decided to try to find a Salt and Pepper Schnauzer to send us. I understand that they consulted with Kathy and Kirby about sending us a dog. Kathy thought it would be great. Kirby was afraid that Amelia and I may not want another dog. However it was a two to one decision that it would be a great gift. They searched everywhere and finally found just what they wanted, on Craig's List. A young man in Miami had purchased Meechie and only had him a few months when his employment changed; the odd working hours made it impossible for him to keep Meechie. Karen and John contacted the man and made arrangements for him to drive Meechie from Miami to Sebastian, take him to the Highland Animal Hospital for Dr. Jutras to check out and deliver to us. Miami to Sebastian is a six hour trip!

It is now December 25^th and we have had Meechie for four days. Amelia and I argue over who's going to walk him, in spite of the chilly winter weather we are having in Sebastian this year. We have both fallen in love with Meechie and will love him for as long as nature lets us have him. We hope it will be for years and years.

WELCOME TO DETROIT #42

I'm afraid that our welcome to Detroit was not exactly what I expected. We had driven from Hartford to Detroit, arriving in the early evening; we checked into the down town Howard Johnson Motel. They didn't have any adjoining rooms available. In fact the only two rooms available were on the second floor, one room on one side of the motel, and the other on the far side. All the rooms faced outside, with a walkway all around. We put Kathy, Karen and Kirby in one room and we stayed in the other. This arrangement was to be just for one night as I had rented a 3 bed room apartment in Southfield, Michigan, on a month to month basis until I could find us a house; however it was not available until the next day.

We had been in the motel for about an hour or so, when I told Helen that I was going around to the other side to check on the kids. Leaving our room, I just pulled the door shut, but not enough to make it lock. I was only going to be gone for a couple of minutes, after all. The kid's room was all quiet and dark, so I returned to our room and pushed the door open. To my amazement, there was a strange man in the room. I quickly backed out, thinking that I had entered the wrong room. But, looking at the number on the door, and confirming it was our room, I entered again. I asked the man what the hell he was doing in our room. He said that he was looking for Mabel, or some such name, and when he called her name, she had said "come in". He was wearing a short jacket and his hands were in his pockets. I said that there was no one by that name here. I went over to the bathroom door and called out for Helen to be sure that she was alright. In the meantime, the man said: "I'm sorry. I must have misunderstood", and ran out of the room.

When Helen came out of the bathroom, she said: "Where's my purse. It was on the bed." When we looked for it, we found it under the bed; it was empty. The guy had stolen all her money and credit cards. She said, "I told you I didn't want to come to this G.D. place". There was a rather funny ending to the story. About a month or so later, Helen received an envelope addressed to the Connecticut address and forwarded to her in Detroit. Inside were her driver's license, credit cards, and a note that just said "I'm sorry". It had been mailed from Toronto, Canada. Just another aside; when I called down to the front desk of the motel and asked them to call the police because we had been robbed, the front desk clerk said I was nuts, people don't get robbed in our hotel. I had to go down to the front desk and yell at them to call the police. Of course it was too late for the police to do anything, as the guy was long gone. I guess the only thing I can say is "Welcome to Detroit".

The Detroit office was located down town in the Gateway Center Building. There was a staff of six, three outside sales reps, Don Barrows, Dean and Bob, and the inside staff were Betty Carl, Helen Mackey, and Joann. The office was on the third floor next to the Eastern Airlines Regional Office. I was happy to learn that their local Detroit manager was a man that I had known when I was with Eastern in Miami.

Ken Becker, the former KLM manager had already left for Los Angeles but was coming back in a few days to turn over the office to me. There were certain documents I had to sign for ticket stock, cash working funds, bank account, take over the company car etc. Becker had left everything in good shape. All the account records were up to date, so it was going to be an easy transition.

First priority was a staff meeting where I could evaluate what functions each were doing. Betty Carle had been Ken's secretary; he had referred her to me as being a good and efficient person, so I decided to leave her in that position. Helen Mackey and Joanne were ticket agents whose job was to take care of reservations and issue tickets. Don Barrows and Bob were Passenger Sales Reps; Dean's job was to handle cargo sales. From what Ken had told me, all the people were good and he would recommend that I keep them all on, which I did. The second priority was to get out and visit the top agents. To do this I scheduled two or three days on the road with each sales rep to meet the agents they were responsible for. Our territory covered the areas of South Michigan and Northern Ohio, and the other was North Michigan. Dean's job was bringing in freight business; he covered the whole state, as there were not too many commercial accounts shipping abroad at the time. I decided to handle the important Dutch Immigrant Society, in Grand Rapids and Holland, Michigan, by myself.

This was late February and the weather was still pretty cold. Helen's job was to find a place where we could buy a home that she would be happy with, and get the kids into school as soon as possible. I was not happy to leave the search all up to her, but I had to get busy handling the income side. Roger Ackley, the Midwest Regional Manager in Chicago, was already after me to come down to Chicago to meet with him. Since he was going to be my new boss, I didn't want to keep him waiting.

 

THE MOTOR CITY #41

It was a pretty frosty day when I arrived home on Friday, and not all the frost was outside. Without going into all our conversation pertaining to Helen's refusal to move to Detroit; I'll just say that she finally came around. I gave her all the details about the move, and told her that we didn't have to live in Detroit; we could look for a home in the suburbs.

We put the house up for sale in Hartford and hoped that it would sell quickly. I didn't have a firm date for the move, as I had commitments to finish the sales budgets for the Eastern Region. We had put the house on the market that first week of January, and Asjes said that I should take over Detroit by mid February, giving me time to sell the house. Also, Ken Becker, the current Detroit manager had to sell his house. Hopefully, all this would come together. Unfortunately, except for some weekends, I still had several weeks of travel ahead of me. To cap it all, my temporary boss Silton was in the hospital, which required me to take over some of his responsibilities.

By the end of January the house was sold; we had to be out by February 15^th, when the new owners wanted to take over occupancy of the house. I was able to get a few days at home to help out with the packing up and attending the house closing. During the first two weeks of February, I had meetings with Fritz Kielman and Luke Asjes on various subjects pertaining to both Hartford and Detroit. Asjes had a map of the USA on his office wall; attached to the map were pictures of each District Manager in the area they were responsible for. This could be a little intimidating.

Just before leaving the Eastern Region, I had an experience that I regretted greatly. Asjes asked me to go to Pittsburgh, do a thorough investigation of that office, and report back to him on the results. I called Gus Mize and told him I wanted to spend a couple of days with him to go over his top accounts. I had spent time with Gus several times and always found him to be a reliable manager. As I wrote previously, Gus was well liked by his travel agents and commercial accounts. He could be very funny and friendly to everyone. Not exactly a sharp dresser, with a physique that did not make it easy to look like a fashion model. But, really, is that so important? After all, he was working for the airlines, not for GQ magazine. On this particular visit, Gus invited me to his home for dinner. He had a lovely wife and daughter, and I enjoyed a nice dinner. I found everything in order and reported this to Asjes upon my return.

A week or so later, I encountered Gus coming out of Asjes office. I stuck out my hand in greeting, but before I could get a word out, he called me a S.O.B. and accused me of putting a knife in his back. I was flabbergasted. Gus turned his back to me, got into the elevator, and was gone. I later found out that Asjes had asked Gus to come into New York for a meeting. When Gus met with Asjes, Asjes fired him. He told him that he couldn't stand the way he looked and that he was not the kind of man that he wanted representing KLM. Apparently, Asjes had hoped that I would find some good reason to fire Gus. When I reported that Gus was doing a good job, he just called him in and fired him anyway. Since I had just been with Gus, Gus thought that I had caused his dismissal. I tried to call him several times, but he wouldn't talk to me.

He certainly didn't deserve the treatment he got. He did his job well, and that's the way I judged him. By the way, I understand that he found a job with L.O.T. the Polish airline.

February 15^th rolled around and we vacated the house. I had a moving company enroute to Detroit and our furniture was to go into storage until we found a house. Now the whole family, Helen, Kathy, Karen and Kirby were heading to a new adventure in Michigan, although I'm not sure Helen shared my enthusiasm. Now the first thing we had to do was find a place to live.

1966 STILL IN NEW YORK, BUT CHANGE WAS IN THE AIR.

Another year, and it was budget time again. It was hard to believe that I was still in that same job situation. What had started out at the end of 1964 as a temporary position, seemed to be developing into a permanent job. My home life had become stressful to say the least. I had become a part time father and husband, if I was lucky, I was home two days per week. When I got home, on Friday night or Saturday morning, I arrived with a suitcase full of dirty laundry. I would pick up a suitcase full of clean laundry on Sunday night, kiss the family goodbye, and leave for the week. It was getting pretty "iffy" in the Kitchener residence.

If I remember correctly, it was around the middle of January when I spoke to Luke Asjes, the Dutch General Sales Manager in charge of North America. I told him that if he wanted to keep me in my present position I was going to have to move to New York. He had told me, that the job was going to be temporary, until KLM had a District Managers job for me. I had come to the end of the road with my family. Over a year and a half had passed and I needed some resolution. Luke Asjes was very apologetic, telling me that the company never intended to leave me in that position for this long. He promised that he would have an answer for me by the end of the month. Asjes was an honorable man, well liked, but stern and dedicated to KLM. He was the one who had saved my job when I had the problem with the former Regional Manager. I had hung in for over a year, so what was another two or three weeks? I called Helen, and told her about the conversation with Luke Asjes. She didn't seem too happy, but at least she knew I was trying my best to get a solution. I know that she was still hoping we were going to Miami.

The next few weeks were very busy; I had promised Asjes that I would get the yearly budgets completed by the end of January. I had scheduled a two day visit to each district and told everyone that they had to complete their sales and costs budgets during those two days. We got it all done, and I felt good about it. Luke Asjes spoke to me at the end of January and told me that he and Fritz Kielman, the Vice President for North America, wanted to see me Monday morning, February 7, in Mr.Kielman's office. That weekend, I told the family about the meeting and I promised to call Helen at the conclusion.

Kielman and Asjes were very friendly; they told me how much they appreciated the work I had been doing and apologized because it had been much longer than anticipated. The plan they wanted to put into effect was for Jack Bussian to go from Miami to Los Angeles, and I was to take over Miami. However, Bussian turned down the move. The alternative plan that they now wanted to do, was to send Kenneth Becker, DSM in Detroit, to Los Angeles, and they wanted me to take over Detroit. They had considered sending me to Los Angeles, but Detroit was actually a much more important station for KLM due to the very large Dutch population in Grand Rapids, and in Holland Michigan. They wanted me in Detroit because they felt I would be more important to them there, rather than California. They were also working toward getting a permit to fly from Europe directly into Detroit. I had a suspicion that they were just trying to boost my ego, but I knew Asjes pretty well, and I didn't believe Kielman would say that to flatter anybody. They went over the new salary, moving expenses and resettlement allowance.

I was in the meeting for over two hours. After telling me the plans and getting my agreement, they wanted to discuss the areas I had been covering with Silton. They were interested in my opinion about certain individuals, they gave me some in depth thoughts about the Detroit office and the importance of Detroit in future company plans. As soon as the meeting was over, I called Helen to tell her the news. I was hardly prepared for the reaction.

Helen and her sister were born in Detroit, her father was a tool and die maker and had worked for the Rickenbacker Car Company. The family had left Detroit and moved to Little Falls, New York, where he worked for the Cherry Burl Company. Helen and her sister had both attended State Teachers College in New York. Helen and I visited Little Falls quite often but I had never heard any discussion about Detroit. Apparently, Helen hated Detroit. She had never expressed that to me, so her response to my telling her we were going to Detroit was explosive. I expected her to be disappointed over not going to Miami; I was too, but her reaction took me by surprise. She more or less told me what I could do with Detroit. She was never going to go to Detroit, and she hung up the phone. I didn't call her back until the next day. She reiterated her position about Detroit; my response was that we discuss it that weekend when I got home. I was not looking forward to the weekend.

 

1965, AN INTERESTING YEAR CONTINUES

Now it was budget time, and Peter wanted me to not only work with my assigned offices, but also to assist him with the budgets for Miami, Boston, Buffalo and Washington. Budgeting was often a guessing game. The revenue side was based on the history of the previous year with a prediction for the current year. The cost side was always "where can you cut costs" or "why do you anticipate a cost increase". A year or two earlier, KLM had a study done on the "Future of air travel" outside of the regular travel agency sales. One of their predictions was an increase in "Group Travel" from company employee clubs, University "Study groups" especially from language and history student, and also "religious groups" planning to visit the Holy Land. I was very successful in developing business from these sources. For instance, I was able to interest the University of Hartford in starting "French language study tours at the "Institute d'Etudes Francaises, at the University de Poitiers, in Tours, France. My contacts for these groups were Dr. Irving Starr, Dean of Admissions and John Balmer, Professor of Arts. These University of Hartford Study Groups were always sold out and KLM was always the preferred carrier. Even after I left Hartford for New York, I kept up my contacts with the University for over five years. I also developed some religious travel through a Polish lady and her Parish Priest for a yearly visit to Lourdes, France. These were large groups of up to fifty people each. I also developed several "Incentive Groups" for Chrysler Motors and the Auto Owners Insurance Company.

Because of my success in developing group business, Peter Silton and Luke Asjes wanted me to work with the district offices in their development of this business. So, when budget time rolled around, I was expected to encourage the local offices to budget for exploration of group travel. Some of the district offices did very well and I was often asked to accompany them to some local University or meet with a local religious leader. However, some of the managers were hard to convince. Once we got them to do this, it was amazing how much more revenue they were able to generate by getting out and "prospecting".

It was in October of '65 that I had a special surprise for the kids. We took a trip to Jamaica for a week, from Oct 29 to Sept. 4^th. . Both Kirby and Karen have their birthdays in September, so we decided to celebrate them at this beautiful island. Actually it was more for Karen as she was born on Sept. first, and Kirby was born on the 23^rd. . We arranged with the hotel to put on a special party for Karen. They decorated a dinner table with little flowers all around the edge plus lovely flowers in the center. The Hotel Chef baked a wonderful cake; it was truly a masterpiece. We had a wonderful birthday celebration.
I had to cut our visit short, because I received a phone call from Peter that I had to accompany an "agents' study tour" to Scandinavia. The agent who was to escort the tour fell ill and they wanted me to take his place.

As soon as we arrived back home on Saturday, it was time to leave again for New York, where I would be leaving for my tour to Scandinavia, with twenty five travel agents from all over the USA. This familiarization tour was organized by the Scandinavian Travel Agency in New York. The travel agency's manager met me at the Kennedy Airport, gave me $250.00 to cover any expenses not include in the tour. He called the agents together and said "This is Ray Kitchener from KLM, he's going to be your tour escort." That was my introduction to the group. The itinerary was great. We were to spend three nights in Amsterdam, two days in Bergen, Norway, two days in Stalheim, by overnight boat up a beautiful Fjord, two days in Flam, four days in Oslo, four nights in Rattivk, three nights in Stockholm, three days in Copenhagen, then back to Amsterdam for a couple of days, and then back to New York; a 23 day journey. I was a little tired, however I learned a lot about Scandinavia: Norway was impressive, with its beautiful Fiords and waterfalls. We visited the birth place of Grieg, the most famous Norwegian classical music composer (I actually sat at his piano!). Grieg and his wife are buried in Bergen, on the side of a mountain. Every day, that spot on the mountain, gets the final rays of the setting sun. Denmark was beautiful, with its lovely gardens and, of course, the Little Mermaid. Everyone loved Copenhagen; it is such a beautiful city.

The Agency that planned the trip did a great job. Practically everything was included: tour guides, hotels, meals etc. About all I had to do was to be sure everything went well and the agents were happy. I made many friends among the travel agents. Out of the $250.00 the Agency had given me, I gave a farewell dinner at one of Amsterdam's famous Indonesian restaurants. The group presented me with a beautiful crystal decanter that my daughter Kathy still has in her home.

Back in New York, I was ready for a day off, but duty called. Our manager in Buffalo had to go into the hospital and would be out for two weeks. I was asked to" Shuffle off to Buffalo" and cover for him for the two weeks. I often say, "Yes, I know Buffalo, I spent about a year there".That's how long those two weeks felt.

 

Time flies and so did I

When I accepted the Assistant Regional Manager's post, I was sure that it would be demanding. I enjoy working and I enjoy the challenges that sales targets, budgets, and developing a client base brings. Encouraging others to do their best and helping them reach their full potential has always been a personal goal.

The last couple of months in 1964 were a pretty good indication of what would fill my time while I waited for whatever my future would be. I usually left Hartford's Bradley Field on the 7:30 A.M Eastern Air lines flight to Newark N.J. I would then ride the limo into 42^nd street and after that, walked from 42^nd to KLM's offices, at 609 5^th Avenue. This got me there a little before 9: AM. I always planned my week during the previous week, so that when I arrived in New York I already knew what I was going to do. I would check in with Peter to see if he had any special instructions. He knew what my plans were, as I had given him a copy on the previous Friday. If everything was OK with Peter, I would ask Margaret to call the local managers in the cities I planned to visit in order to give them a heads up. Then, off I went to La Guardia, Kennedy or Newark airports. Back in those days, Kennedy was called Idlewild airport.

Depending on my schedule, a typical week would involve a flight to Pittsburgh to spend a couple of days with Gus Mize. We would have a few hours in his office, discussing his area and anything he was currently working on. We would then make some joint calls on a few of his travel agents, or perhaps I'd go with him on some prospecting calls for group business. Often, I would spend time with him going over his sales target. After a couple of days, Gus would drive me to the airport and I would head down to Atlanta to visit with Tom Hut, our Atlanta Manager. After a day or two with Tom, I would fly to Charlotte and spend time with John McAninley, or Johnny Mac, as everybody called him. John was a great salesman; everybody seemed to like him and he was very popular with his travel agents. While I was flying to the next city, I would write notes about my visit, what I had accomplished with the local manager etc., while flying back to New York at the end of the week, I would finish it as a report and give it to Margaret for typing. Eventually, my reports went into Peters file. Flying back to New York was also a good time to set up my agenda for the following week and give it to Peter. This was a typical week; only the cities would change. I used to keep a flight log in which I would list the flight, destination, and the miles flown for the week. It averaged out to be a little over 6,200 miles per month.

Just a note about all these travels: KLM supplied me with annual passes on about a dozen domestic airlines. As I mentioned previously, there was an agreement between the airlines to provide annual passes to other airline executive personnel who needed to travel. It really didn't cost them anything as the passes were on a "space available" basis. If there was a seat available at time of departure you were accommodated; if not, you had to wait for the next flight. Fortunately, I also had an annual pass on New York Airways helicopter service. As often happened, I would get out to Newark airport but the flight I wanted was full. I would jump on the helicopter and go over to Kennedy. If the Kennedy flight was full, I would try LaGuardia, and then perhaps back to Newark. If all failed,
it was the helicopter to the Pan AM building in the city, overnight at the Edison Hotel, and start over the next day. This back and forth between airports was mostly on a Friday night when I was trying to get home for the weekend.

It was sometime in January or February that, for a couple of weeks in a row, the morning flight that I took every Monday out of Bradley Field, was delayed due to weather. The result was that I didn't arrive in the New York office until 9:30 or 10:00 AM. Peter Silton didn't like the fact that I was late getting in. I told him that this was completely out of my control. Silton told me that he didn't care about flight delays; it was my responsibility to be in the office on time. Unfortunately, Silton could be pretty thoughtless at times. In any event, I didn't want to get into a fight with him. I told him if he would approve a Sunday night hotel in New York, I would fly down on Sunday night instead of Monday morning. It meant an extra night away from my family, which was a sacrifice for me and my family. I sure was not willing to give Silton any excuse for complaint. I was hoping KLM would solve my position soon and I wouldn't have to deal with Silton much longer. I could never have believed that this job would drag on for over a year.

In February 1965, I received a call from B. C. Packers, the company that employed my Dad. He had worked for them for more than fifty years. I spoke with the President of the Company, to the effect that they thought it was time for my father to retire. They thought very highly of Dad and believed it would be better if the idea of his retiring came from his family, rather than the Company. Dad was 84 years old and like the man he was, thought that he would be at B. C. Packers until he died. I agreed that it was time for him to retire, and decided to fly up to Vancouver to discuss the sensitive subject with him.

The following week I was in Vancouver. I had rented a car and drove up to the house that the Company provided my Dad. We drove together down to Stanley Park and parked at Prospect Point, a very beautiful location which looks out at the Lions Gate Bridge and Grouse Mountain. I told Dad that it was time to give up the job and come to live with us in Connecticut. After lots of conversation, he agreed that he was getting older and he would like to come and live with us. Then, he wanted me to drive to the cemetery where his parents were buried, I waited in the car while he kneeled by the graves and said his goodbyes. To see my Dad kneeling next to his parents' grave, no doubt telling them that he was going away to live in another country with his son, is a moment in life that I will never forget. I drove him back to his house where we arranged for him to fly down to Hartford in the next week or two. It was about two weeks later that I picked up Dad at Bradley Field and took him to his new home.