My Story 27

In 1967 Our second son, Paul, announced his presence to this world. He was a big jolly baby, and you could not help falling in love with him from day one! Those days from 1964 to 1968 I was the Credit Manager for Redekopp Lumber. I was promised a raise beginning in January 1968. In lieu of a raise I negotiated to use this amount for a down payment on a house that the company was building. That was going to be our house. Until one day I heard via the grapevine the house was sold to somebody else. I felt betrayed and angry. But things like that happened once in a while, a good profit is better then keeping a promise , at least to some people. OK, then in my logic I needed a retroactive raise!

I never got it, and decided it was time to quit. I found a job in Brandon, Manitoba, at Simplot Chemicals. Simplot was an American Company, who had branched out into Canada. They generously paid for our move over to Brandon. My job started with setting up a Credit Policy with the lawyers and seek the approval of various managers as well as Head Office. It took me a year and a half to do that, and every body was satisfied. Then I had to train our sales staff in the Credit and securities required of their new customers. Everything ran smoothly, and I did not have enough work to do anymore to keep me busy.

I kind of knew this was coming! But the way they went about it was unprofessional. I received a call from the Credit Institute in Winnipeg that my job was in the paper. I marched over to my manager and demanded to know what was going on. They had decided to combine the Credit function with another function for which I was not qualified. That may be so, but I don't think I deserve to be treated like this. They apologized and gave me a generous separation package.

I found another job soon, Back in Winnipeg. TransAir! That was the worst job I ever had. In just two years I had four different managers. The fourth was unbelievable. Within five weeks all of our billing clerks were gone, and no one knew how to operate the National Cash Billing Machines. If you do not send out your bills, you will interrupt the flow of incoming money and in addition pay heavy for an overdraft at the bank.

Mr. Packer called me into his office. "Why are you not collecting enough money lately, you are slipping!" I had enough! I decided I was going to be honest. " Mr. Packer it is your own fault. You should have hired staff by now to do billing, you are now two months behind, and that means millions of dollars I cannot collect. He turned red in his face, and shouted "I am going to fire you". I said " No, I am going to quit". I did and I went to the nearest phone and told Trudy, "That's all right", she said, It was a lousy job anyway".

The next day I went fishing, to unwind and seek the Lord about this. My brother John was over with us for a visit and he came fishing with me. It is not often that God speaks to you, but He often plants little signs along your path. The following day I heard a friend from church had called, and it was that call that introduced me to the sign business.