Chapter Thirty-Two Change in Personal and Career Paths

Chapter Thirty-Two
Change in Personal and Career Paths

Pat Miller, Art Romans and I left White Productions and formed our own audio visual company. We had a fourth partner Cal Currens who was an integral part of our company. He was an ex-Playhouse student also like the three of us. I don’t think Pat was ever a student but he had performed there and had association with the Playhouse. Cal had a full time job in sales for McCulloch chain saw company. He was our source for contracts to produce sales and PR films for McCulloch which turned out to be our only client. I ended up doing some more traveling to produce these films. On one film which was a sales type film we went to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hyannis Port, Massachusetts and Bar Harbor, Maine. In Baton Rouge we filmed in a large Sporting Goods store and the owner invited us to his home for dinner. After dinner we went out to his backyard which was a large lawn leading down to a stream running across the back of his yard. He warned us not to go too close to the stream because there were alligators. While in Massachusetts we went to Plymouth Rock where they had recreated a pilgrim’s village complete with people in costumes. That was cool. Also, we flew in and out of Boston; so, I had an opportunity to meet up with my schoolmate from Topeka Carter Umbarger. He was the friend I campaigned with for Sophomore Rep. He lived in a tall multi-floor house in which his home was on three floors. The tall narrow homes were quite common in Boston. I also remember in the older parts of Boston the streets go back to the colonial days and are very narrow, just room enough for carriages. I Googled Carter’s name the other day and found that he is a published author of books on Psychology and a co-founder of the Family Institute of Cambridge. It doesn't surprise me that he has done well, his father was the business manager of a medical clinic in Topeka and his mother was prominent in the field of education. He has good genes.

A safety training film for McCulloch took us to Bellingham, Washington north of Seattle. The footage we were shooting there was cutting down of the big trees with the McCulloch chain saws. Working there among the big trees was very impressive.

Unfortunately Pat, Art and I did not engage actively enough in marketing our company but relied too much on the work that Cal brought in. We made some good films but were not clearing enough money after expenses to live on. We eventually had to close up the company and go our separate ways. One last thing to say on Art. Gary, Art and I would play golf at the Altadena public course. Gary and I would go to the driving range and the putting green preparing to go out and shoot a great round of golf. Art would just sit under a tree smoking in his bare feet. He didn’t use golf shoes. Then when we would play our round he would always beat us bad. It just didn’t seem fair to us.

After dissolving our company I went to work at Bank of America’s Real Estate Loan Service center in Pasadena. I believe by that time Sue had been working at the telephone company for awhile. When Brad reached the age of about twelve the relationship between Sue and I had become strained and we divorced.
Divorce is never a good thing. The only contention that came up in the divorce proceedings was who would get custody of Brad. As far as the breakup of our marriage I believe we both shared responsibilities for it failing. To our credit I think we both did well in not putting Brad into the divorce proceedings; however, in the custody dispute it was not possible to not involve him. If I remember right he had to make an appearance in court. In the end Sue was granted custody. There was some irony in the matter though. Due to some issues in Sue’s new living arrangements, she asked me if Brad could stay with me for about a year. That was fine with me. My memories are a little confused here because it seems like Brad was in his pre-teens and yet I remember he went to Muir High school in Pasadena for at least a year. He did pretty well at Muir except for a math class. I went to the Open House there and sat in on his teacher’s open meeting with the parents. I could see that the teacher knew his subject well, but his teaching skills were lacking. He got me confused. I believe Brad ended up with a “C” in that class.

Not too long after the divorce one of my co-workers at Bank of America, Pat Arnold, noticed that I was often upset. So, she and another co-worker, Ellen Pratt, started witnessing to me. At first I resisted. I remember accepting either a Watchtower or Awake article and writing a rebuttal, but my argument didn’t hold water. They invited me to an assembly in Woodland Hills and I was quite impressed with it. I could see a group of people who really believed in living a clean and moral life. I liked that.

I developed a close friendship with Pat and Ellen. Pat had four kids – Barry, Elizabeth, Greg and Eric. Brad and Barry were close to the same age. I became more interested in Jehovah’s Witnesses and started studying with Charles Clark. He had a son and a daughter named Paul and Rachel. Paul was about Brad’s age and Rachel a year or two younger. So Brad and I enjoyed a lot of activities with Pat and her kids, Ellen and her husband Gerry. Also, we did things with Charles and his family. In the next chapter I’ll spend a little time on my every-other-weekend with Brad and our two trips before he reached his senior year in high school.