One of the things I remember my dad telling me was, “Never start a fight, never run from a fight!” My dad was a red haired Irishmen so that statement kind of makes sense.
I remember talking with a fellow named Henry, who at that time was the age of my dad, Henry was the owner of a construction company that did electrical work. His company bought a lot of their electrical supplies from GESCO (General Electric Supply Company) and that is where I worked at that time.
One day Henry asked me who my dad was, and I told him my dad’s name was George. Henry said he knew my dad when they were kids. Henry said that my dad, when he was young, would rather fight than eat. Evidently Henry found out the hard way that dad liked to fight.
Another good thing about Henry and his company, they were contracted to do the electrical work on The HWI building (Hardware Wholesalers Inc.) that was being built in Cape Girardeau. I would ask questions all the time about the progress of their work, and our company sales person Bill always had info about the progress of the construction. I had it in mind to apply when the building was getting close to completion.
When HWI began taking applications, the fact that I worked at GESCO for a couple years gave me a leg up on other applicants. I was experienced at loading and unloading trucks, checking product in and stocking the items. The inventory was kept on a card file, I entered all the receipts and deducted all the sales. I was experienced in inventorying, there wasn’t much warehouse work that I had not done.
The day came that I applied at HWI, I was given a math test. The test wasn’t very difficult but I could not remember how to divide. I might have been nervous. I skipped the division problem, answered all the rest and then when I went back to the divide problem, I remembered how to divide.
I was interviewed by a person whom I later learned would be the General Manager at the Cape center. I was then asked to talk with another person who was at that time a Director of Finance. I could be wrong on the title but he was basically a Vice President.
He went over the application and asked a few general questions. He then asked how much my rent was each month. I explained that I was buying and not renting. That seemed to impress him. He then asked if I had a car and if so how much did I owe on it. I explained that I had a car and it was paid for. That also seemed to impress him. He actually quizzed me about my finances, wife and child, more than any other subjects.
I left the interview believing that they would hire me, even though they did not say that.
Returning to my job at GESCO, my boss Paul asked, how did the interview go? I was a little surprised that he knew, but since I had missed work that morning and there was an ad in the paper stating they would be taking applications, I guess he had put two and two together. I said they will hire me! Paul laughed and said, “I bet they do”!
They Did!
HWI made the right decisions building in Cape, and hiring me!
Don Ford
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