A family member invented a helpful and useful tool for the construction industry. The family member believed that this time saving device would be a popular item to purchase by tradesmen and so he sent the plans he had drawn for this invention to the government’s patent office. After approximately a six month waiting period, a patent number was finally issued for this invention. Shortly after receiving the patent number, the family member noticed in a construction industry supply store the same apparatus for sale that he had invented. Upon further scrutiny of the device, the family member detected a small modification to his design.
I worked part time at a department store where I was assigned as a sales clerk to men’s apparel. This position required one to assist customers, restock merchandise, place orders with manufacturers, price label merchandise, tidy the department, merchandise the apparel to appeal to customers, and organize the merchandise for special sales and promotions. I liked this job and enjoyed working with the other clerks assigned to this department. Leisure suits were a popular ensemble during this era and sold very well. Suddenly and abruptly leisure suits crashed leaving the store with huge inventories to mark down to an extremely low price. Still the leisure suits did not sell requiring the store manager to discard these suits. The suits were cut and thrown in a dumpster. I was disturbed by this action of waste and suggested that the suits be donated to charity. The reply was that charitable donations are returned to the store by some unscrupulous and corrupt individuals for a refund of money or store credit.
Driving home from work one night in December, a car in front of me drove off the road and slightly up onto an embankment, knocking a few large boulders onto the roadway. The car returned to the roadway with a driver who continued to drive erratically. I was annoyed as I thought that I might have hit these boulders with my car. Additionally, I thought the driver to be under the influence of alcohol. Driving around the boulders knocked onto the road, I decided to obtain the license plate number of the car. I followed this car into a neighborhood off of this main road and made note of the license plate along with the neighborhood where this person lived. Upon returning home, I telephoned the police department with the above story and the license plate number of the car involved. I was told that the license plate number obtained was not a valid number. Through personal investigation, I discovered that a prominent town official was the owner of this vehicle.
Mother had approached me with information that she obtained regarding weekend dances held at the prestigious military academy that we frequently visited when I was a child. The sister college to the academy was closing its doors for unknown reasons, that removed this possibility for my college attendance. Mother further informed me that invitations from the academy were extended to girls from the community who were interested in attending these weekend dances. I asked three girl friends if they would be interested in attending this social gathering. They said they would like to go and so we attended several of these gatherings at the military academy. These dances however, were held for freshman only. No upper class cadets attended this event and I was more interested in meeting an older group of young men. Also, I sensed that the freshman were not really interested in establishing any relationships due to the stringent requirements of school. Believing that I was wasting my time, I ceased to attend these social events however my friends continued to attend these functions.