Back in the late 50's I lived in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Long story why I moved there, so won't go in to any details right now.
Klamath was a nice town, Bing Crosby had a place not too far from there, saw his wife on a few occasions in town to do some shopping.
The Klamath Tribe had a reservation not too far from town, they sold off a lot of land, I was there the day they all got their checks. Will save that story for another time.
I got a job working at Montgomery Wards, and worked in the Automotive Department, down in the basement. It was one of those older buildings, a front door which led to a big stairway that took you to the basement, and stairways on the side to take you to the second floor. I think there was an elevator, but not sure.
It was a very busy store, downtown location, not sure of the hours, but I think the store opened at 8 or 9 in the morning and closed at 7 in the evening. Normal "town" store hours for those days.
Our store manager was named Steve Gotschall, have never forgotten that name for some reason.
One morning, almost noon, he came rushing down the stairs to the basement, fuming. The store was on a big promotion selling "service" and he noticed a lady carrying a portable TV up the stairs, and went to her aid, carried it out for her, and helped her load it in to her car.
"Why didn't one of you help her carry it out, the TV was heavy and she should have gotten some help from someone. Here we are trying to promote good service to our customers and something like that happens. We are slow this morning, there is no excuse for it," he went on for quite some time, preaching about good service, helping our customers, etc.
He went on and on, scolding each person in the Electronics Department, one of which was a good friend of mine, who was just standing there, smiling.
He finally told Mr. Gotschall, "We haven't sold any TVs this morning."
Silence.
