I did something stupid this week, and while I won’t be writing about it, it did remind me of another of the many stupid things I’ve done over the years.It was while I was living in Harrisburg in the late 70’s and working at Channel Home Center. I owned a 1978 model blue Volkswagen Rabbit … Continue reading A Blue Rabbit Stuck in the Snow
Autobiography
The Signed Playbill
As I wrote a couple months ago, I went to see the Walnut Street Theatre’s production of Legally Blonde: The Musical after meeting my neighbor’s future daughter in law, Lindsey Bliven, who was appearing as “the mean one” in the show. Well, Lindsey got the entire cast to sign a Playbill for me, and … Continue reading The Signed Playbill
Directions
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but I don’t think I’ve written it up on this blog.In November of 1994 when I moved into a condo in the Old City section of Philadelphia, my parents came to help me with the move, as was their wont. Toward the end of the afternoon, when … Continue reading Directions
The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister
The vast majority of the episodes of the first season of the Perry Mason show were based directly on novels of Erle Stanley Gardner. As I was watching the show I recognized several of the titles as books that I had read as a teenager, not that I recalled the plots anymore. Then when The … Continue reading The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister
The PACE Test
By early 1980 I had become seriously dissatisfied with working at Channel. View fullsize We had a new manager, and he and I did not see eye to eye, although it was probably more my fault than his. He admitted to me that when he learned he was being given the Harrisburg store, he was … Continue reading The PACE Test
The Shopping Mall Looker
Amy was clearly agitated. View fullsize I had known her for several months and she was always cheerful and upbeat, but now something was wrong.As the story emerged, it turned out that this had been a long time brewing situation. The shopping mall that she and her friends frequented had a looker.They had only gradually … Continue reading The Shopping Mall Looker
The Sun’ll Come Out
Working at Channel Home Center in Harrisburg was not my idea of fun. And I never thought of it as a career. At the time in 1977 it was the only job outside of Richland that I could find, as I had experience working at my parents’ hardware store. Guess who is playing Annie? That’s … Continue reading The Sun’ll Come Out
A Badly Managed Business
Once I became a Channel group manager I frequently had to deal by phone with the head buyers at the Whippany, NJ headquarters. They were all idiots. View fullsize When we passed on the customer complaints to them that Channel’s prices were too high, they always shot back that Channel was not a discount store. … Continue reading A Badly Managed Business
A Very Merry Christmas
It was my first Christmas working at Channel Home Center in Harrisburg, and as I recall the present that Channel gave to all its employees that year was a bottle of wine and a set of wine glasses. The glasses were real crystal, the wine was nothing to write home about. Mateus, if I remember … Continue reading A Very Merry Christmas
The Fast Track Management Trainee
In case any of my former co-workers from Channel Home Center in Harrisburg should ever find their way to this blog, I’d like to point out that in the previous post one of the details I changed was where the events occurred. So don’t waste your time trying to figure out which employee I was … Continue reading The Fast Track Management Trainee