Author: Jay Patterson

Remembering what was and what we have lost over time has become quite a hobby to me recently. Tonight, for some reason my memory was triggered on stores that are no longer some of which include Woolworths, White Drug, Gibsons. Pamida, Montgomery Ward, Tempo, Leevers, and Red Owl. How we have lost part of our history as these businesses have vanished.

North Dakota is pretty much out of the way when it comes to locations and growing up in the fifth largest city in North Dakota with a population less than 15,000 makes the area even more remote. I vividly remember my childhood and the stores I visited.

Woolworths, White Drug, Gibsons, Pamida, and Tempo were are discount or dime stores and some of them had small cafeterias and some only merchandise. They all had specialties but I will always love Woolworths for getting me into assembling models of cars. Woolworths had the models, the paint, the glue and all accessories and they were located downtown USA. White Drug was a close second and had a great burger in the cafeteria. Gibsons, Pamida and Tempo were all early version Walmarts or K-Marts. Perhaps K-Mart now fits into defunct stores.

Montgomery Ward was similar to Sears and JC Pennys in its heyday and this is where my sister and I always purchased our clothes for the year prior to going on summer vacation. Wards did not have the cool vacuum tubes for transactions that Pennys had or the lawn mowers that Sears had but they had class.

Leevers and Red Owl were grocery stores in the local area that just disappeared over time to be replaced by newer grocery stores. Much like the neighborhood grocery stores fifty years earlier, they just disappeared.

Life was much simpler when I was growing up and I miss many of the stores I grew up with beyond the stores listed above. Probably one of the coolest things was as a kid you could buy or get for free stickers from the local auto parts stores for STP, Edlebrock Manifolds, etc and put the stickers on your bikes.

It was not Mayberry RFD or Andy Griffin but it was home.

Best wishes and have a great night.

Jay Patterson

Thank God Its Friday (TGIF).

I have been tied up in South Carolina the last few days and this trip has taken me back to my teenage years when the first manager I ever had at a steakhouse taught me about Pride and Ownership.

I was fourteen years old and was working as a line cook at Wagon Masters Steakhouse in Jamestown North Dakota. Our head cook was an eighty plus year old immigrant named George who had worked at most of the decent restaurants in the local area and was guiding Wagon Masters through its grand opening during the holiday months.

George taught me how to clean the meat saw, meat slicer, steam tables, grills, deep fryer, steamer and all other associated equipment since I was new to the business and through our entire time together I was called “Boy” by George because that is what I was.

I learned how to properly prepare, cook and serve all menu items from George and truly looked up to this gentleman. One day when we were cleaning after closing time, I was sweeping the grill area and George absolutely came unglued and called me “Boy” numerous times. I was clueless on what I was doing wrong so once George settled down I was properly trained in the art of cleaning.

Proper training in the art of cleaning around the grill included George getting on his eighty year old hands and knees and taking a radiator brush and reaching way underneath the grill to pull out all the junk, etc… from under the grill. Once he had shown me he told asked me “If You Wash Your Face, Do You Wash Your Neck”? I said of course and he said it is the same with the grill, you clean what you cannot see.

This was a huge slap alongside my head because I was a teenager and what could someone eighty plus years old teach me other than a life long lesson that has stuck. Unluckily, George only made it through the first couple months of operations and passed away but I will always remember him.

I left Wagon Masters and worked at Dales Interstate Mobil where we detailed cars for local dealerships and customers. Again, another lesson on doing things right and between Wagon Masters and Dale Interstate Mobil, I received in depth pride and ownership training prior to leaving for the Navy in 1980.

This same pride and ownership regarding cleanliness was constantly hammered home during my naval career. On submarines, you cleaned your spaces every four hours on your hands and needs with a small broom, dust pan, bucket and sponge since you did not have space for normal cleaning equipment. On surface ships, you would spend hours doing field day with brooms, mops and buckets and again it was pride and ownership.

When I transitioned to civilian life, I was surprised to see difference in cleaning philosophy and I started out as a technician with a primary goal of cleaning the ATMs and other equipment I as responsible since they were pits. Guess what, when the dirt, grime and ghost chunks were removed, the machines worked better. Not a big surprise right.

I transitioned to running logistics departments with hundreds of warehouses and again, I would run into situations where there was no pride and ownership in the cleanliness and/or organization. For the past fifteen plus years I have dealt with this issue thus my current trip to South Carolina takes me back to 1977 when I worked at Wagon Masters and George taught me a life altering lesson.

This lesson was not cleanliness is next to godliness but have pride and ownership in everything you do.

Who has made this type of impact on your life?

Thanks in advance,

Jay Patterson

Can you remember the ultimate connection song of the 70s “Convoy” by CW McCall which was actually a commercial ploy by Mannheim Steamroller to build a war chest to produce instrumental music under the Mannheim Steamroller label.

Think about the craze that occurred due to this single song and the number of CB Radios that were sold by Midland, Cobra and Realistic. Think about all the books that were sold on CB codes (10-4) and call cards that were large business cards for your handle (name). I was the Grouchy Gravedigger and I had a cool call card.

I was in my early teens when Convoy came out and I was not only a fan of Convoy but was also a fan of every other CW McCall song which resulted in my wearing out numerous eight track tapes listening to these songs including Crispy Critters, Black Bear Road, Silverton Railroad, Four Wheel Cowboy and many more. Sadly, I can still sing half the lyrics.

When we traveled across the US on vacation, dad and I would be on the CB talking to the truckers and other CB addicts to reduce our chances of getting a ticket since the speed limit was 55 MPH. Yes, I said 55 MPH and this was the speed limit in most of the nation due to fuel conservation. Traveling in the 70s and 80s was like watching paint dry in the upper Great Plains.

It was nearly forty years ago that I was hooked. Furthermore, I believed in environmental protection, nature, the flag, Ford and apple pies. Today, I look back and even though I am a Libertarian, I believe in the environment, nature, the flag, Ford and apple pies. Hang on one, I am not as fond of Ford since they are proud of $$$ they charge, I cannot support GM because they are Government Motors so I am currently fond of Dodge unless they are sold to the Chinese.

Truly it is hard to believe that my six channel CB walkie-talkie and my 40 channel USB/LSB base station was my internet connection to the world as a teenager and it was so cool to talk not type to someone thousands of miles away.

Think about it, 40 years ago there were no game consoles, no PCs, no internet, cable TV was limited, phones were hard-wired, CDs and DVDs were not invented yet, you had to take film in to be developed. Wow…. it was the technology stone age.

In closing, we would not be where we are at today if it was not for yesterday. On the flip side, the technology of yesterday is not as cool as the technology today so lets keep moving forward and don’t forget the technology of the past.

Thanks, Jay Patterson

Last night I covered a recent encounter with the hillbilly mafia.

Today I was informed that the management group that I call the hillbilly mafia was relieved of all responsibilities.

What is the definition of karma again?

The sum of a person’s actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future existences.

Seems fitting.

Just wanted to leave a short note.

Have a great day.

Jay Patterson

Have you ever taken a job that just did not feel right but you decided to do it anyhow?

Last year I had the pleasure to do just this and I am not joking when I say it felt like I worked for the hillbilly mafia. The question you may have is why do I say this, well let me begin.

The organization that had been ignored for ten plus years and although there were personnel that tried to move them into the early 21st century, they were not allowed to proceed and these personnel were considered trouble makers. This was not evident on the surface.

Why would an organization be ignored for ten plus years? The organization was part of many small organizations that had been passed from one generation to the next and was not critical in the scheme of things. In fact, the management of most of these organizations was moved to a small management company to many which I have identified as the hillbilly mafia.

Prior to accepting this challenge, I obtained assurances that I would be able to do what I needed to do to move forward and I developed, submitted and covered in detail the steps required to transition into the 21st century. I emphasized that it would take a minimum of twelve months for revenue improvement to occur. So, I moved forward with high hopes that this company could be revitalized within twelve to eighteen months.

Within two weeks of taking this challenge over I ran into my first indications of trouble. These issues worked hand in hand with each other and I should have known immediately the game was up and this was not a good fit but every challenge can be addressed right. What was the challenge?

• The company sold new and used equipment and primarily sold used because there was no strategy to sell new.
  • The goal was to minimize used sales and scrap much of the used equipment rolling the scrap metal revenue back into revenue. This would happen at the same time as a new equipment sales strategy was developed thus the twelve to eighteen-month revenue turnaround window.
  • In actuality, most of the used equipment was scrapped and the revenue went into the managing companies’ black books accounts.
• I brought the issue up and was immediately informed that this is how we are going to handle scrap metal and not to bring the issue up again.
• Based on this turn of events, there would not be a large amount of used equipment to sell and there would be no scrap revenue to replace. Within two weeks of accepting this challenge, the game was up.

This was the tip of the iceberg and end result was that you learn your lesson, move on and make every effort to not repeat the mistake. An opportunity that is right for you will come so it is best to wait.

Remember, if it smells fishy, tastes fishy and feels fishy, it is probably fishy.

Have a great one.

Jay Patterson

Wishing safety and health for those in Hurricane Irma’s path. We have been lucky for many years in the US but 2017 appears to be a heavy blow year,

Who remembers when we were told that PCs would make the world paperless? Well I remember and this is my story.

In the 1980s I purchased my first computer which was a Tandy 1000EX where you had to boot off a large floppy and soon after I joined one of the first online access companies “Prodigy” which utilized a dial-up connection. I was in the Navy at the time working as a Technical Instructor and Curriculum Developer at the submarine base in New London Connecticut and we have frame systems. I like many reading this were clueless where technology was going to take us.

In 1990, I was transferred to Kings Bay Georgia to work on older Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarines on the USS Canopus and was assigned to a hotel load division responsible for repair planning and estimating.

• A hotel load division is a work center that is manned by personnel reassigned from primary duties to do a job outside of specialty.
• Planning and estimating researched and developed all repair procedures and processes for system on submarines that were critical for maintaining life and safety.

In planning and estimating, I was exposed to PCs and a software package called Word Perfect where you did not need to use specific key strokes to indent, bold, etc. like on the mainframe systems I had worked on in the past.

Word Perfect was the most incredible tool in the world that allowed you to not only build repair packages but you could also share the work packages, review and make corrections without printing paper.

Across the kingdom was cheer and joy because life was going to be much easier since you did not need to type, review, red line, white-out and correct. It could all be done on a CRT screen and we were told the Navy would be paperless within five (5) years.

During my time in planning and estimating we made numerous attempts to move to paperless activities and we even had new fangled laptops to take to repair sites but for some reason they were float tested by the repair technicians so we could not move away from paper repair packages, Do you think they were resisting technology?

Since we could not implement a paperless society on our primary job we attempted to implement a paperless society for general administration, performance reviews, etc. Again, we were met with resistance since the approving officers were not PC proficient and wanted to review on paper. Go figure!!

It has been nearly thirty years since my initial dreams of a paperless world were dashed and although I have seen improvements in time we are still not there. Maybe the next generation will get us there?

How is your paperless world going? Wishing you the best, Jay Patterson

For forty years, I have been involved in Customer Service delivery whether I knew it at the time or not. Although we have made significant strides in technology, customer service is not what it once was and I wish you luck trying to call a real person to assist you on the phone.

Prior to joining the military as a teenager I was issued my initial customer service toolkit from an 80-year-old chef at Wagonmaster’s Steakhouse, from my 25 year old small business idol who owned a Mobil service station in Jamestown North Dakota, and lastly from my mother who was my life coach until early this year.

When I talk about my initial customer service toolkit, I am talking about customer service to not only customers you directly served but customer service to people that hired and/or managed you.

I joined the military at the age of seventeen having limited options in North Dakota and no college fund to attend auto body and/or auto mechanics advanced education.

Once I was in the Navy, I did not live by the old saying of “Never Again Volunteer Yourself – Navy” and volunteers for submarine duty because I wanted the challenge and was afraid of heights so did not want to be stationed on an aircraft carrier.

I cannot give major specifics about parts of my naval career but during my career, I volunteered for must fill critical positions on or at:

• Fast attack submarines.
• Submarine industrial repair facilities
• Technical education centers.
• Squadron operations.
• Local recruiter duty.

My goal was always to provide customer service for those I worked for, my peers, my subordinates, and end customers. Yes, there are customers in the military.
Unluckily or luckily, I retired from the Navy in 1996 due to military downsizing of the submarine force and even though I tried to go to mine sweeps, I was considered untrainable due to my career in submarines so I punched my time card and moved to civilian life.

Twenty years have passed since I retired from the Navy and during this time I have done everything from:

• Remote field technician.
• Trainer for field technicians.
• Regional service manager.
• SVP of Service, Logistics and Operations.
• Consultant for service delivery companies.

In each of these positions, the goal was customer service for my owners/managers, peers, subordinates and end customers in the financial equipment industry.

Now we come full circle back to my point regarding customer service.

I recently visited a Waffle House restaurant and although some may think it is ironic that I am discussing customer service and Waffle House in the same sentence, they are tied together.

Our server at Waffle House was in training and the person training her was a seasoned server who was determined to provide customer service training. She was so intent on providing customer service training that I grabbed a napkin and made bullet points on what she trained her on. Specific topic training topics included:

• Making certain that eating utensils were clean prior to placing on table.
• Making certain the table, seats, salt and pepper shakers, etc. were wiped off.
• Making certain that water was offered along with other drinks.
• making sure cups were full.
• Making certain that the order was repeated to make certain it was accurate.
• Making certain that quality of meal and additional needs was verified after food was delivered.
• Making certain that change was counted back making each dollar whole.

I was impressed that the time was being taken to ensure that customer service was job one at Waffle House. I will always compare all future servers to this visit when tipping and I am happy to report that customer service may not be dead.

Have a great night,

Jay Patterson