I sat on the "Party Patio" with The Big Ranch (TBR). I was rambling on about something as he was pretending to be interested. He read and sent various text messages to his friends and or family or while he checked in on the latest face book posts on his I Phone 4 as I continued to blab. Although he currently works a job that provides for his family, it requires that he spend a substantial amount of time away from them. At times I actually think that he enjoys his time away. Most of the time I feel he really wants to get off of the road.Beginning in 1958 until I was well into college, my father worked "on the road". Dad was home most weekends and we spent every summer with him. Even though I feel my father did a wonderful job in making up for his time gone, he and I still missed out on many things. As a grandfather to The Big Ranch's daughter, Little Cat, I want to facilitate my son in law to be more of a stay at home dad. In our chats, TBR , has confided with me that his goal is to obtain a college degree in history, education and kinesiology. He wants to be a high school history teacher and football coach. My mother was a teacher. I have the highest respect of teachers. I am honored that my daughter is married to a man who has his sights on such a noble vocation. During some of those chats TBR has modified his goals. He still wants to get off of the road and get his degree but he wants to open a local "fitness center". He has a "friend" who purchased a franchise from a national "fitness" chain and he want to emulate same. He proposes to open a center and after an appropriate amount of time and effort, and when it is up and running and making him a substantial sum of money, he wants to pursue his teaching and coaching career at a small rural school similar to the one he graduated. Personally I admire his goal. As a father figure, I want to support his dream yet I want to temper his dreams as well. He seems to be rather naive but that very well may be a good thing. Our banter back and forth could be construed as augmentative but it is not intended to be so. Me playing Devil's Advocate is not intended to shoot down his dreams but rather solidify them. I too have dreams and I am not too pleased to have them squashed as well. In our chats, he gave me one idea as to how the plan would work while I gave him multiple examples of how it would not. The other day he mentioned to me he should begin to start working out. I suggested that he join a local fitness center and his reply was that he could save money and do all he needs at home. I quickly pointed out that should he open a fitness center I hope that his potential customers did not take the same position that he was taking. "Damn, there you go shooting me down again" he laughed.
So back to the Party Patio (by the way TBR is who first named it). On one of the those occasions I countered his dream with one of my own.......
In early February 1989 I sat in front of the Vice President of Engineering of the company I had been an employee for nearly fifteen years. Two of his sons were drinking buddies of mine. As a "hard shelled Baptist Deacon, I am sure he was not too pleased with that. He had "come up" through the company with my father. Although Dad was not an Aggie Engineer, he did pretty well and up till his retirement he was at about the same level as the VP. I do not think my boss was happy with that either. My Dad always thought he was a simple minded hard headed German. For over a year, I had been a thorn in his side at weekly Monday morning status meetings. I tended to always debunk some of his ideas or I would provide information that prohibited some of his pet projects. At one meeting I even implied he was a fool because of a decision he made against my advise. He made a poor decision and it was costing the company nearly a half of a million dollars. I did not actually call him a fool. What I said was " Who ever made that decision after I specifically warned of the consequences is a fool". Once again, I do not think he was happy with that either.
Our company had been having what seemed to be quarterly employee lay offs or purges for a while. The latest one was upon us. I was not too surprised when when he said "Your job position has been eliminated". I am confident that I made his day.
A few months later I learned that The Mrs. The Third was "with child". I began looking for work and I found a few odd jobs here and there. Most were contract jobs wherein I would work for a few weeks at a time. I also "drew" unemployment benefits. I went to work with a friend who installed ceramic tile. I was his helper. He paid me cash and I did not have to claim it as taxes and it did not effect my unemployment payments. I learned a few things from that year or so. First of all nothing is forever and as long as you work for someone else that someone controls your destiny. Secondly I learned how to live on a lot less money than I was accustomed to. Finally I learned that hard work alone did not always mean more money. Oh yea, I learned I did not want to install ceramic tile for a living.
Eventually I took a job working in Southern California. My first pay check nearly equaled what I had earned installing tile for six months. Yes I had to be away from my family and yes it was emotionally difficult, but I realize it was something I had to do at the time.
While in Bakersfield, I began to accumulate new friends. It only took a few weeks before I was singled out above my fellow employees and I was promoted to supervisor over 22 other employees. I was the boss yet I still had bosses too. One of my of my subordinates was a poor little rich boy named Jim. Jim's parents were in their late forties when he was born. His older siblings were all all over twenty years his senior. His parents were very wealthy. When he was nine he was sent to a military San Marcos Texas and upon high school graduation he attended the University of Texas where he received a degree in Petroleum Land Management. Many of his childhood summers were spent on month long world tours. His apartment had framed photographs of hm and his mother standing in front of the Sidney Opera House and on the Great Wall of China. He had pictures of him in Peru and Ireland. He had a pictures of him standing in front of the Taj Mahall and the Leaning Tower of Pizza. He even had a picture of him and Pope John Paul II. It was just the two of them. It was not one of those "waiting in line" type pictures. He and his mother actually had a personal audience with The Holy Father. I was very impressed. To my knowledge Jim was not even Catholic.
From time to time, Jim and I would visit various restaurants and "clubs" in and around Bakersfield. We also visited places down in "L.A" Jim always knew the really cool places.
One night we drove to downtown Bakersfield.
I have posted here about many different bar, taverns, pubs, dives, lounges etc that I have visited. Each one them hold a special "something" in my memory. But if I needed to single out one single place that I would consider the most profound, it would have to be Guthrie's Alley Cat. I agree Bakersfield, California is not known for it's night life. It is not a tourist destination. But that bar was amazing. Each time I stepped inside it was magical. From that point till today, it is the standard of which I compare other bars, taverns and pubs.
My escapades in Southern California ended in February of 1992. The original crew of over sixty people had been dwindled down to only my boss and me. We were informed that our jobs would be ending on Feb 1. I was offered several other jobs. Each would require that I leave Bakersfield. Each job paid about the same. What I was looking for was longevity. Eventually it was down to two jobs. One was located in a small town in Oregon named Bend. Several of my former co workers and employees had already gone to work there. Many of them were calling me telling me that I should come on up. The job was scheduled to last about two years. The other job also had a few of my former employees and co workers working. The office where I would be working out of, was located less than ten miles from where I used to live back in Texas. That job also was supposed to last nearly two years. I learned that my father would be working for them as well. I still wanted to work in Oregon but The Mrs. The Third wanted to return back to Texas. So back to the Tomball area we went.
Upon arrival back in Texas, one of the first persons I met was a man by the name of Joseph. He was not a very friendly sort of guy but he tended to like me and I liked him as well. Through the years, Joseph and I never became close friends yet we always enjoyed each others company. He had a son named David attending the local Catholic School. I think David must have been nine or ten at the time
On many of my times at our Church or while I was doing something on the Church property, I would see David and I would make a special point of saying hi. He was a kid and most of the time he had very little to do with me.
As I have written in the past, I eventually became the adult sponsor of a male youth organization sponsored by the Knights of Columbus. When I accepted the position I informed my "brother Knights" that I would do so only one condition. I agreed to be the adult leader of the group. I acknowledged that I had no male children thus no son involved with the Squires. I demanded that each father (who was also a Knight) of each boy in the Squires must volunteer his time to help the group as well. I did not think that would happen. I was wrong.....Within days, I had Joe, Mark, Darrell, Gary, Robert, Chris, and Joseph (as mentioned above) all show up to the meetings of the group. Within weeks I witnessed these men not only "show up" but actually do something.
As a Catholic adult, I must admit that one of the highest compliment/honor one could ever have been bestowed, is for someone to ask me to be their confirmation sponsor. Some people take this lightly but it really is a big deal. Most people are never asked and only a fortunate few are asked twice or perhaps three times. I have been asked nine times and I sponsored Anita, Cody, Danielle, Matthew, Adam and David (as mentioned above).
David is now around 23 or 24 years old. For over five years David has continued to call me from time to time and we just talk. He really is a good friend. Sometimes he asks me advise and I pretty much give it to him regardless if I tell him what he want to hear or not. As a young man he too has many dreams. One is to own his own business. We have talked about my fantasy of owning a brewery and or brewpub. All we ever do is talk. We surely have not acted upon it.
In our conversations I have fine tuned some of my dreams. From those conversations I finally laid out a clear path of which I pointed out to TBR on the PP.
Stage One. Open a brewery in the State of Texas. Name it (two) Brewing Company
Only distrubute/sell product in bottles and kegs within the boundaries of the State of Texas.
Stage Two: Open a minimum of two pubs called "roots Public House". The locations could be anywhere withing the United States. Such locations must be carefully considered and selected.
This brewery (two) Brewing Company will produce beers and ales that will only be distributed in kegs, bombers. Each pub will have the ability to brew the same beers as 2 Brewing Company. Each pub not be real large or real small. I plan that it will be an eclectic bar that is a combination of many components of what I feel is the perfect bar. The sound system will be amazing and the 'background music" will be good. The bar will have a huge selection of craft beers as well as well stocked bar. The brew pubs will brew a few identical beers but each one of them will have the ability/option to brew brews that are only available at that specific location.
In addition to these "pubs" having all of the features already mentioned, they will each have a an actual kitchen and or grill and the foods served will be amazing. Who knows Guy and his Camaro may pay a visit to one of them.
Stage Three: Create a Reality Television Show detailing the day to day trials of operating a brewery and opening and operating multiple bars. This process should make root Public House a household name. It is great advertisement and it is completely free. Hell, we would MAKE money with it.
Stage Four: Once the pubs and the brewery have been opened and gain notoriety, the plan is to sell or divest of the two pubs and begin selling "franchises" for future roots Public Houses. Of course we would reap a small portion of the profits from each new venture. Who knows we might purchase a sports franchise with our profits. I hear the LA Dodgers might be up for sale.
Stage Five: Sell or divest ownership in the brewery and simply live on the profits of all of the pubs.
Finally we should follow The Third's Ten Commandments:
1. Think Big. Dreams never have limits.
2. Make a Decision, stick with it.
3. Be willing to listen to all advise but be able to heed good advise.
4. If you have a good idea, be assured others do too.
5. Be grateful not greedy.
6. If you build it. Other will copy it and try to run you out of business.
7. Negative thinking does not always mean negative doing.
8. Seek wisdom always.
9. Know when to say yes and no when to say no. Be able to admit fault or defeat
10. Loyalty should always be your biggest trait.
The Third, CEO ,
Big Cat Brewing Sciences, Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment