Horn Williams Ford
My first job at Horn-Williams Ford was (believe it or not) watering the bushes behind the white brick wall on Conner Drive. Yes, it was a hot, dry summer and their bush investment was being attacked. The service manager, Bill Wages, had me fill up a 55-gallon drum in the back of an old pickup and take it out there and splash water all over these bushes.
I had been looking for a job in the summer of 1980 and Mr. Wages was going to have me do some odd jobs, thinking that a permanent position would make itself available soon. Within the week I was notified that I ought to go up there and hang around because some things were happening.
Jerry Reynolds put me in the make ready department as the assistant to Rex, the make ready manager. Rex was a laid back guy who wore Hawaiian shirts while supervising the make ready mechanic and cleanup guys. I walked with Rex all over the place and he showed me how to get cars ready, the check off lists, the entry board, where all the supplies were, and how to sign parts out of the parts department. He also taught me about checking in cars when they showed up on the transport truck. (This would prove very valuable in the years to come. And just for the record, Rex showed me how to do it the RIGHT way). When not assisting with the administrative duties, I cleaned cars with a couple of other youts.
Rex seemed to be showing me all he could as quick as he could. It was if he knew his days were limited. After about a week, Rex came in and told me I was now the manager and he was no longer employed there. He gave me a few last words of wisdom and told me everything would be ok, and I could do it. Then just as quick as he came in, he was gone and I never saw him again. The job paid two hundred and something dollars a week, plus two bucks per car.
I liked working make ready. The problem was I didn’t like supervising people. The mechanic, Charlie, was a quiet guy who did his work, cooperated, and didn’t really need much supervising. The clean up guys on the other hand, were just immature fresh out of high school young men who wanted to party more than work. They needed proper supervision and I tried, but I never could get them to cooperate because it wasn’t my personality. I guess I didn’t have their respect. But they were not disrespectful, they just concentrated on goofing off more than cleaning the cars.
After about two weeks as manager, Mr. Reynolds called me into his office. Charlie, the mechanic was already there. Mr. Reynolds told me that Charlie was being fired and I really didn’t understand the reason why, but it seemed that I was being used as a witness to the firing. Charlie was as confused as I was, but left when the meeting was over.
I used the service department to do the mechanic work until I could locate another mechanic. The dispatcher told me he had a friend who was a mechanic who was looking for a job. His name was Danny.
Danny came by and talked to me and I hired him. I think the mechanic job paid a little more than my job because he was paid something like $15 per car and we were selling about 100 cars per month. I could be wrong.
Danny’s first day on the job, he called in and gave some excuse as to why he would not be at work. I was pretty trusting (naïve) so I didn’t make a huge deal over it, although I probably should have. Johnny, the dispatcher also came back and assured me that Danny was ok. The next day, Danny showed up and fessed up that he had actually been taken to jail for overdue tickets or something and apologized for not leveling with me on the phone. So he got busy working on the cars.
The clean up guys by now were almost completely uncontrollable. They did what I told them, but I had to tell them and sometimes couldn’t find them because they were driving cars around and racing on the lot. They were a pair. Their names were Anthony and Tony.
Tony was about two years older than Anthony, and I can’t remember exactly when he left, but another gentleman was hired to take his place. This was Robert, and he was in his 40’s or 50’s. I wasn’t sure about supervising someone that much older than myself, but from the first day Robert came in, he respected me and I never had to tell him to do anything. He did it. Robert worked as hard and was as good a person as anyone I’ve ever worked with. Thank God for Robert.
Robert tried to mentor Anthony, but it couldn’t be done. Anthony had found himself a Futura and made it his personal demo as long as he could. He came in late and took long lunches. When I had plenty of documented proof of his late arrivals, and timecard abuse, I asked Mr. Reynolds if I could let him go and he said to go get his timecard and give him the axe. I blamed it on upper management, that his “timecard had been pulled” the next day when Anthony showed up late. He asked what that meant and I said “You no longer work here”, but I did try to make it sound like “they” did it. He looked like he really didn’t want to lose his job, but I told him there was nothing I could do about it. The funny thing was that Anthony kept showing up at work and hanging around with guys in other departments. I know he wasn’t working there because everyone knew he was a goof off. What was going on was that Anthony was afraid to tell his dad that he got fired, and his dad continued to drop him off at work every day.
By now, Danny was pretty much unsupervisable. I wanted him to go by the actual checklist that Ford provided and he signed off on. I wanted to actually do the things that we said we were doing. I had nightmares about someone buying a new Crown Victoria and driving off and locking the rear end up because it had not been greased. Danny was pretty much putting an inspection sticker on and signing off on overything. That got to be a lot of stress for a young supervisor. It’s a good thing I could count on Robert to make sure the cars were clean and he was actually supervising the other clean up man. I didn’t have to worry about the cars being clean.
One day, the axe fell and Mr. Reynolds told me that layoffs were at hand. He told me I was being layed off, but “it always picks back up in the spring and I will need you then”. He didn’t need me then and I believe it was related to my work performance which was not as good as it should have been so Jerry was just being nice to me. The date was December 15, 1981.
As it turned out, it was probably for the best. I got a full time job at Coach and Carriage (where I had been working nights) within an hour after leaving Horn-Williams. 1981 was a good year for me as I obtained a wife and daughter, and would have a son by the end of the year.