major snowstorm with about a foot of snow already on the ground. With a rented vehicle, I carefully drove to the salesman’s office in the Denver Merchandise Mart. By lunch time no trace of this major snowstorm was visible outside, as all the snow had melted. Needless to say, I was happy to return home when this learning experience was over.
As the job responsibilities became more known to me, I realized the seasonality of this business with times of the year that were hectic and other times of the year that were dull, with little to do. I did not like the fact that the job was not consistent in work and daily routine. This city job also exposed me to more immorality. One afternoon, a police officer informed our office of a “peeping Tom” who was apprehended in the ladies room lavatory who was observing women from a toilet stall in the bathroom. I wondered about the time I used the ladies room that day and the subsequent possible violation of my privacy, and was perturbed and embarrassed. Another time someone claiming to be from a messenger service, walked out of our office with bags of apparel. After verifying that no messenger service was called by office personnel, I pursued this individual following him onto the elevator and demanded that this apparel be returned. The potential thief released the bags of apparel from his hand and I took this merchandise back up on another elevator to our office. A short time later, a police officer was investigating an assault on a man in an elevator. The assaulted man cited me as a possible corroborating witness to his assault. I stated that I did not see this man assaulted but was merely reclaiming stolen merchandise. Apparently after I reclaimed the merchandise from this thief and left the elevator, the thief assaulted someone else on the elevator. Later, the manager of the office chastised me for pursuing the thief. The manager stated that the thief may have had a gun and used this against me or other people. At this job, the women who worked in the office did not take an outside lunch break and were expected to remain in the office throughout the entire day which resulted in the mid day meal being procured, through food delivery services. I found this expectation to create fatigue in me as I always seemed to need a breath of fresh air sometime during the work day.
At various times during the year, sales meetings were attended at different locations across the United States. After one sales meeting, I decided to join a group in a golf game. As I never golfed before, the ball landed far from the hole. I became the brunt of jokes and mild ridicule from this group that I had joined. However the group quieted down when I accomplished a hole in one. The circumstances of this unusual achievement involved me hitting the ball and watching it skip over a pond, ascend onto an embankment and enter the hole at the top of the hill. No mention was made of this feat, but I was laughingly cited at dinner time for my poor golf performance and given a gift of “super grip” to use during my next golf game.
After a sales meeting scheduled in Colorado Springs, the sales representatives and managers were invited to attend a barbeque at the top of Pike’s Peak where a picnic area was established. One sales person remarked to me that the view was astounding from this vantage point. Looking at the rolling hills surrounding us and noting burned out and browned vegetation from a drought situation, one remarked that the view displayed was too scrubby and dry for my liking.