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kinds of polo. The outdoor game was played on a huge field and it was hard to see. The indoor game wasn't indoors but in a smaller sort of a stadium. We liked that better.
Mom also got us to try skiing and it wasn't easy. We didn't want to go. Later it became a huge part of life for all of us. When he was about 70, that's how dad discovered he had a form of Parkinson's Disease. He was standing in a lift line, ready to go up the mountain, and fell over for no reason.
As a little kid I went to dad's plant a couple of times and it was like Disneyland for me. Big pulleys along the ceiling with leather belts running down to power the machines. Punch presses, lathes, all kinds of noisy machinery with men running them. My dad was in management, but I thought the plant floor was far more exciting than his office.
In 1957 he had a chance to go into a new business in Seattle, selling hydraulic pumps and valves with two partners. It was a huge decision because he'd been in the Detroit company over 20 years, but he and mom went for it.
Mom, always inventive, hired an auction company to come sell all the stuff we couldn't take with us. I remember them saying they lost money on the big stuff but made a surprising amount on little things.
We drove to Seattle to join dad's two new partners. Dad had only met one of them and liked him a lot. Halfway across the country we got word that that guy had gone boating in the Pacific Ocean and was lost at sea. So now dad was on his way to go into business with the Charlie Fisher, the partner he'd never met. Talk about stressful!
Luckily, Charlie was a great guy and it worked out but being a sales rep. was a very difficult job for dad. He told me sometimes he'd wait outside a company for a half hour or more, building up the courage to go in and try to sell his hydraulic equipment.
I remember one time there was a convention and my dad came up with a display that was simple and really effective. He designed a series of tracks connected with pumps and valves and made a block of wood with the company name painted on it. The block would ride down a track, stop, get turned around, and pushed down another track. At every stop it would get flipped over or turned and at the end it would get lifted up to start over. People were entranced by it.
My dad was successful and deserved it because he worked hard at everything he did. We had a good, middle class life. Not rich, but okay.
In high school I worked summers at a golf course. In college I had summer jobs and also worked after classes. For a year or so I made pizza and washed dishes at Pizza Pete's. I also got fired.