The house on Babcock Street had been owned by Geoffrey’s father — Alan’s grandfather. Geoffrey had been paying Jeanne alimony and child support since the divorce, and his father had covered certain other expenses — use of his car, Liz’s wages as housekeeper, and the house itself, since Jeanne paid no rent. In 1970, Geoffrey told us that since we had been living together for 2 years we were in a de facto common-law marriage, and that under Massachusetts law at the time that entitled him to stop paying alimony. He also told us he wanted us to leave the house.
Category Archives: Part Five: Sherborn
The Road to the Shell Station
In the fall of 1970 I realized I had to start making money. MIT was too great a financial burden to continue, and I was 27 years old and no longer subject to the draft. The engineering job market was not strong — there was a mild recession and it was not easy to find work in the computer industry — so I started researching going into business instead.
The Shell Station
The Shell station was on Route 9 in Wellesley, a busy divided multi-lane highway with heavy traffic and strong competition. At that time the oil companies were putting gas stations wherever they could, concentrating on market share rather than profitability, so there were many stations competing for the same customers. The location itself was good — Wellesley and nearby Weston were upper-class residential communities with well-maintained cars and people who cared about quality service.
Three Fires
One thing I learned at the station was how to handle disasters. We had several, and the lesson each time was the same — there is no time to think, only to act.
The Gas Shortage
In October 1973 the oil shortage hit suddenly and without much warning. The oil company informed us that our allocation — the quantity of gas we were permitted to purchase — had been cut to a fraction of our normal supply, based on our past purchase history. From the first day, cars began lining up as soon as we opened, and within 2 hours we had sold what would normally have lasted a full day.
The IRS Visit
About 6 months after opening the Shell station, a man came in and introduced himself as an IRS agent. He said they had not received payments for employee payroll tax withholdings and wanted to see my accounting books immediately.
Learning to Run a Business
When I started at the Shell station I was not a good salesman. I felt embarrassed, for example, to check a customer’s oil and tell him he needed to add a quart, worried he would think I was trying to sell him something he did not need. On the repair side I charged too little for labor, and even when I charged what others charged I felt uncomfortable about it.
Employees
One of the ongoing challenges was managing employees. I was demanding when it came to the gas attendants — full service at the pumps, windshields washed, oil checked, everything done properly. The attendants were paid minimum wage, since the gas side of the business actually lost money once you accounted for all the associated costs. The oil companies justified this by arguing that pump traffic brought customers into the repair bays, which was where the real money was made. Most of the attendants were part time. If I caught someone skipping the windshields and they refused to do it, I fired them on the spot.
Interesting Customers — The Russian Millionaire
We had many interesting customers over those years. A few are worth mentioning.
Continue reading Interesting Customers — The Russian Millionaire
Interesting Customers — Tocci
One customer I was never entirely sure about was a man named Tocci who owned a large construction company that built schools and other public buildings on government contracts.
Interesting Customers — Sal
One evening a man dropped off his car, a nice one with an oil leak from the rear differential. Vasek was working that night and fixed it while the customer waited. His name was Sal Macarelli. He was relatively short and stocky, with shoulders about twice as wide as mine — a very powerful man.
Life in Sherborn
We enjoyed living in the house on Maple Street. The Shell station was considerably closer than the Texaco had been, which made the long hours more manageable. Jana and Milan married and took the master bedroom. I married Jeanne, which made my mother very happy. When I went to the immigration office in Boston to obtain my citizenship it was the first time I had ever been treated pleasantly there — the employees were kind and welcoming, as opposed to every previous experience I had in that building.
The Vacation with Zdenek Renftel
Zdenek Renftel was one of my closest childhood friends. We had been in the same class from 1st grade through 8th grade in Prague and stayed in touch right up until I left Czechoslovakia. Zdenek had married young — he and his wife were both eighteen when their son was born, about a year before I went into the army. To avoid his own 2-year military service, he took advantage of an exemption that was available at the time: he signed up for 10 years as a coal miner in Ostrava.
Trying to Go Back
In 1975 I learned about a new diplomatic arrangement between the United States and Czechoslovakia that had come out of the Helsinki Accords. Under this agreement, naturalized American citizens traveling on US passports would be guaranteed consular protection and could not be detained for previous offenses against the state — provided they obtained a Czechoslovak visa legally in the United States. For people like me, who had left without permission and faced criminal charges for doing so, it was the first time returning to Czechoslovakia had seemed legally possible.
Separating from Jeanne
At some point I told Jeanne that I wanted to have my own family. She did not want more children. Together with everything else that had happened over those years, we decided to separate. I moved out and rented a room in a house in Weston, not far from the station. We stayed in touch and the parting was without bitterness.
Passing the Station to Jana and Milan
At the station I was paying Milan good wages, and Jana helped part time with the bookkeeping, for which I also paid her. I covered my mother’s health insurance as well. Milan was an excellent mechanic and a reliable worker, but he had no interest in the headaches that came with running a business. He was strictly 8AM to 5PM.