Questions  - Talk Radio

 

·        What prompted you to write your book?

 

I initially wanted to write my childhood story for my great nephews. When reading the draft, their father suggested I continue writing a complete story.

 

·        Tell us a little of your family background.

 

I was born in Vancouver, Canada. My family came from Scotland in 1830 and settled in Southern Ontario. Our family is still farming the original property. In 1905 my grandfather moved their family to Saskatchewan via covered wagon. My father was 5 years old and remembered the long journey. My grandfather prospered and had a wheat farm of seven square miles.

 

When my father married, his father leased farmland for him to get established. When he received payment for his first wheat crop he entered a wild poker game at the grain elevator and lost it all.

 

My father left home and moved his family to Vancouver. My grandfather died shortly thereafter leaving his estate to his younger son.  In 1934 in the heart of the Depression, my father visited his brother for financial assistance. He received nothing and returned to Vancouver unexpectedly finding another man in his bed.  The cheater jumped out of a window and my father told my mother to leave. My father was now a single-parent to Laura who was 6, me 3 and Marjorie an infant.

 

The following day I was rushed to the hospital with acute appendicitis and remained there for seven weeks. When I returned home, I soon learned that we now had a housekeeper - paid by the provincial government.

 

·        Describe living with a single parent and your ‘Waltonesque’ years.

 

At age seven, we moved with the Inglehart family. A single father with five children and similar circumstances. We rented a large house with a vacant adjacent lot overlooking vast meadows of railway property. The Ingleharts had two goats and chickens and we constructed a goat shed and a chicken coup on the vacant lot. We cultivated kitchen gardens on both properties. We had a wonderful life. It was near the end of the Depression and the beginning of WWII.  Unfortunately, four years later the house was sold and sadly, our families parted.  

 

·        Tell us about your life after leaving the Inglehart family.

 

My father rented an old two-story apartment. My older sister went to live with a wealthy family, leaving me at age eleven, as chief cook and bottle washer, and partially responsible for my younger sister. Our home immediately became a mini Grand Central Station with weekend parties or poker games lasting all night. I was relegated to clean up the mess. As a basically quiet and neat person – I hated that environment.

 

·        Talk about your leaving school.

 

At age thirteen, in the seventh grade, the boy sitting in the desk in front of me, stole another student’s pen and when things got hot – he planted it in my desk. The lad sitting behind me witnessed the incident. I denied taking the pen but said nothing more. I was devastated, played sick and never studied thereafter. I failed, repeated the grade and bowed out of school as fourteen.  

 

 

 

·        Tell us of your runaway travels to the other Canadian western provinces.

 

I immediately got a job as a busboy at a large Vancouver hotel. I stayed there for a few months. My sister Laura and her boyfriend were living in Regina, Saskatchewan and coming to Calgary, Alberta for Christmas. I quit my job, packed my bag and purchased a train ticket to Calgary. I was off to see the world with $27.00 to my name.  Before leaving, I called my father and he was furious. In Calgary, we put a plan in place. I would visit several relatives during the winter and spring months. Thereafter, I would join my sister and her boyfriend to work on a carnival. He had an animal act and a popcorn concession that I ran until early fall – returning home thereafter.

   

·        Talk about returning home and the Dutch uncle speech and its outcome?

 

My father got me a job working in a sawmill throwing log-ends off of a conveyer belt. When I was seventeen, a theological student from the University of British Columbia came to one of our parties. We became friends. One evening he came to deliver a Dutch uncle speech. He said that I was working in a dead-end job with no future planning. I countered by saying that I was a failure, a grade-school dropout. He said he didn’t want to hear my sad circumstances – I want to discuss your potential. He said that I had above average intelligence and I needed to get me butt moving in the right direction. He suggested I get a white-collar job with growth potential and take basic evening classes in typing and accounting.

 

I took those classes and started working at Eaton’s a major department store. I performed well and stayed for a couple of years, and then obtained a position at the Canadian Pacific Telegraph Office. After a year, I became a relieving supervisor in their communications department with a staffing of twenty persons. I stayed there for four years. I met and married my wife there – she was one of their branch office managers.

 

I worked at the British American Oil Company in their credit department.

I started as an assistant to a senior credit rep, and quickly moved up the ladder becoming a senior within a year.  

 

·        Why did you move to Los Angeles?  And tell us your work experiences.

 

I had a serious sinus condition and I needed a drier climate. I obtained a position at Standard Oil of California, worked successfully but I realized that their promotional considerations were limited. I left after three years.

 

I obtained a position at Richfield Oil Corporation and quickly moved up the ladder. I was scheduled for a junior executive position in their home office. I thought sooner or later, in considering climbing up the ladder, they would question my educational background. With that in mind, I thought I should consider another field.  One of my Richfield colleagues, while obtaining his Master’s degree worked in a clerical position in a major hospital. He suggested that I should seek employment in hospital administration. He thought my business acumen and personality would blend in well in that setting.

 

·   Tell us briefly about your 39 years in healthcare.

 

I obtained a position, with the title of consultant, at The Hospital of the Good Samaritan in Los Angeles. At that time, it was rated one of the five best hospitals in the USA based on their medical staff. I was involved in all Business Services, and independently working with all departments, administration, their medical staff and their patients, insurance companies, intermediaries, etc.

 

I was in command at our main entrance, during the time Bobbie Kennedy, who had been shot, was hospitalized. I was at that hospital for nine years and met many interesting people from all walks of life. I was successful at work, but sadly not at home. My wife and I divorced. She was the love of my life – but I just didn’t like her.

 

I spent the next fourteen years at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, California. I was in charge of Business Services, all Admitting and Registration areas, also involved in marketing and special administrative projects. Our administrator moved to Alaska. His replacement unfortunately was not my ‘cup of tea’.  The prior administrator - now at Providence Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska encouraged me to join him as his Director of Business and Admitting Services. I spent four productive and challenging years in Alaska.

 

I returned to California and had similar positions at Delano Regional Medical Center for a brief testing of a smaller environment and finally at Orthopaedic in Los Angeles for eleven wonderful years.