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Amtrak was formed, Japanese and German automakers became a major factor, the entire Marshall football team died in an airplane crash.
ESPN starts broadcasting in 1979.
A major development in the 70s was that the role of women gained traction that had started in the 60s. The supreme court’s 1973 decision in the Roe v. Wade constitutionalized the right to an abortion and brought the women’s right movement into the national political spotlight. It is still a major political issue today.
The rise of women across the world was obvious. Women took elected roles as heads of state in Argentina, India, Israel, Peoples Republic of China, Bolivia, Portugal, and The United Kingdom. Isn’t it interesting that the leader of the FREE WORLD had not even had a woman President or Vice-President. We elected some really unqualified dudes and can’t find a woman when we have a number of more qualified women. When we do find a woman to run for the top office, they seem to be the less qualified. That’s my opinion of course.
Music of the 70s was a mixed bag with a little of everything. In spite of that the music from the previous decades continued to hang on. The Beatles broke up, but the individual Beatles released highly successful solo albums. 60s icons like Rolling Stone, The Grateful Dead, The Who, etc. carried over into the 70s. Of course, my friend Elvis remained popular until his death in 1977. His 1973 televised concert Aloha from Hawaii via Satellite aired in 40 countries making it one of the most popular concerts ever.
Country music continued to gain popularity in the 70s thanks to stars like Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Willy Nelson, Waylon Jennings, etc. I read something that included The Allman Brothers band in the country genre, but they were more rock. I don’t think of them as country even though “country rock” is considered in the genre by some. I mention them since I have a connection through my friend Willy Perkins. Rolling Stone named them 52nd on their list of 100 greatest artists of all time.
THE 80s DECADE
The 80s started with a different kind of bang. Ronald Regan was President. Reagan lived up to his promises and made tough decisions when they were called for. He stood up to the air traffic controllers union and fired 13,000 people when they struck defying a law that stated specifically that they were not allowed to strike. He never rehired them. When Libya bombed a discotheque in Germany and blew up an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland. Regan flew fighter jets into Libya and bombed Qaddafi’s home. He got the reputation for being tough and doing what he said he would do. The world learned to walk softly, or President Reagan would use the big stick. We have not had a president like that since Reagan except recently. Coincidentally, Qaddafi has faded into the background and not been a big promoter of terrorism in the world since Pres. Reagan kicked his ass.
To quote one of Reagan’s cabinet members, “The president has a unique talent: When he makes a decision, he lives with it. He doesn’t fret over it. And most of all, he doesn’t change his mind.”
While that was making headlines, I was reading the tea leaves and decided that could better benefit myself and family and started a manufacturing business called Unival (short for Universal Valve). We developed a very unique valve product for which I received three patents. I applied for and got patents for the product in the US as well as duplicate patents in Australia and South Africa, two large markets for Unival. We set up manufacturing facilities in both countries. As a result, I did a lot of international travel during those times and establish some long-term very beneficial relationships.
As I said earlier, the 80s started with a bang on the personal side when The University of Georgia won the national championship in football for the 1980 season by beating Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. For those of you interested in football, they rode on the shoulders of Hershel Walker who had 150 yards running and scored two touchdowns. Hershel should have won the Heisman trophy that year as a freshman, but the voting committee had an unwritten rule that freshman would not win the trophy. They have recently ignored that rule. This time in New Orleans I don’t have the same stories as expressed in the section on the 70s. To start with I didn’t want to jinx the Dawgs so no betting on the game. Not that I am superstitious or that I could affect the game, but you just can’t take any chances!!
Thanksgiving Day of 1982 I’m staying in our condo in Sarasota on Long Boat Key with my two children since Patsy has gone to Georgia for the funeral of her grandmother. I go for a bicycle ride. The next thing I remember is being in the Sarasota hospital. I tried to challenge a concrete power pole and the pole won. I put up a good fight, but the pole severed my right index finger which was reattached. I broke a bone in my left wrist and broke my shoulder blade. Sunday, I checked out of the Sarasota hospital and checked into St Joseph’s hospital in Tampa to have a hand specialist surgeon work on my hand and put a plate in my wrist to set the broken bone.
An interesting aside, I don’t remember anything about the accident but was completely conscious and communicating with the ambulance attendants. I gave them the phone number of the apartment where my children were. I explained that Patsy was in Georgia, etc. The point is that your brain goes into “protect mode” when you are in that much pain. It shuts down that function but lets you function in other aspects.
Picture this – I’m in my hospital bed with both hands bandaged (see picture) and in walks my friend weird Jody. The first thing Jody ask is “how do you wipe your ass” to which I answer, I have to wait on a friend to come by to help me. Jody turned on his heels and I didn’t see him again for two months.
As you can guess I was traveling a lot during those days. Patsy and I decided that I should do something on a one-on-one basis with Holly who was 10 at the time. I decided that a rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon would be the thing to do. So, we did it. The experience of a lifetime. The river guides do all the work. They prepare the food set up all three meals and the food is very good. We were on the river for 8 days and seven nights. You sleep on the ground under the stars (no tents). Holly was a timid youngster when we started. After 73 rated rapids including 9-10 (out of a possible 10) rated Lava Falls, side trips up the canyon, jumping off a 60-foot cliff into a postage stamp pool along with the boys on the trip, her confidence soared. Holly has told a number of people that the raft trip was a life changer for her, and I totally agree. You could see the difference. She believed she could do anything. There are pictures of that jump here as well as our raft through Lava Falls.
I’m going to skip forward 7 years when Austin, my son, was 10 years old. I took Austin on this trip but this time we did a shorter trip of 6 days and 5 nights. That is a better choice, and they helicopter you out, which is fantastic experience in itself. Even though it was shorter, it accomplished the same end result.
During this trip I managed to fall off a cliff and live to tell the story. As I was falling, I realized I should cover my head, so I balled up and rolled after I hit ground. I had scrapes, bruises, and cactus stickers from elbow to asshole and was plucking them for months. They wanted to helicopter me out, but I refused since nothing was broken. The one thing I remember as I was falling was Austin screaming.
The flights to get there from Tampa were to Las Vegas with a puddle jumper to the river. Holly had been to an all-American volleyball camp in Colorado and joined Austin and I in Las Vegas. We spent two nights in Vegas. We went to a few shows, and I was able to slip the kids to a crap table and they got a great life lesson on how to shoot craps. I know, I probably should not have exposed them to the “gates of hell” but there are more than clean lessons in life.
This is a University of Georgia story with national implications. In 1994, John Berendt wrote a book about a true story involving the 1980s four murder trials of Jim Williams of Savannah, Georgia. There were 4 trials due to the first three being miss-trials. The title of the book and subsequent movie (directed by Clint Eastwood) is MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL. MIDNIGHT was on the New York times best sellers list for four years. In 1981 51-year-old Williams killed his 21-year-old gay lover. After four trials my friend a Savannah Lawyer Sonny Seiler finally got Williams acquitted in 1989 in (yep) Augusta, Georgia. Clint liked Sonny enough to have him play the judge in the movie. Kinda weird, Sonny was the lawyer in life and the judge in the movie.
Sonny owns the University of Georgia mascot named Uga. The mascot is a white male English bulldog. Sonny and his wife Cecelia brought Uga I (one) to football games when they were in school at Georgia. The school asked them to continue to bring him and they are now on Uga X (10). I personally had the honor of tailgating with the Seilers at the Outback Bowl in Tampa and watched a part of the game with Uga on my lap. Some of you are saying, “so what”. Ask any UGA fan and they will explain it to you. As an aside, Uga has a part in the Midnight movie, attended the Heisman trophy presentation to Herschel Walker and was recently named by Sports Illustrated as “The Greatest Mascot in College Football History”. I have included a picture of the Uga Vl and me and one with the Sonny and Cecelia Seiler.
I tell another Clint Eastwood story in the 90’s chapter coming next.
As compared to the previous decades, the 80’s didn’t have many life changing events.
Ronald Regan’s election was definitely a significant event in the 80’s.
The 80’ brought us two pairs of very smart people who revolutionized the computing business. Bill Gates and Paul Allen gave us Microsoft and eventually became two of the richest people on earth. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak arrived with Apple and also became very wealthy. Both companies continue to play a prominent part in our everyday lives.
The Car Guy and The Donald and the Mouth of the South played prominent roles in the 80s. Lee Iacocca saved Chrysler and Donald Trump “liked playing real-life Monopoly. Two completely different people of the 80’s. Trump’s net worth was estimated at between $1-$3 billion and Iacocca $20 million. Iacocca’s following urged him to run for President. I wonder how that worked out. Ted Turner (The Mouth of the South) started CNN and changed the way we see the world. Ted is the second largest landowner in the U.S.A.
Sports brought us the Miracle on Ice (see my Winter Olympics experience in the 90s decade), Carl Lewis, Mary Lou Retton, Joe Montana and the 49ers, The Bird and Magic show, Pete Rose, Iron Mike, and Sugar Ray among others.
The 80s brought us the greatest surge of immigrants since the early 1900s. Unlike the European wave of the early 1900s this wave came from Hispanic Central and South America and Asia.
At midnight on November 9,1989 within 48 hours nearly 2 million East Germans had visited West Germany, and many did not return. The Berlin wall was destroyed as was the Russian control of East Germany. This was a symbolic end to the cold war. President Regan helped make it happen when he famously said in a speech, “Mr. Gorbachev tear down this wall”.
On a last sad note, we lost a major social influencer in the 80s. John Lennon was shot by a nut on the streets of NYC.
THE 90s
In the early 1990s I sold Unival to General Signal, Inc. and took the job as VP Sales and International Operations for the DeZurik Valve division of the company. That jig lasted a year since I was commuting to Sartell, Minnesota from Tampa. We had operations in India, Japan, Australia, Europe, and Africa which led me to some consulting opportunities after my departure. The Indian connection helped with my next company Resource Providers, Inc. which I started in 2001.
I consulted with the Republic of South Africa (RSA) Fisher Controls affiliate to start the manufacture and sale of the UNIVAL products. That consulting gig covered a month in 1990 and a month in 1993.
On my first trip, we did a good bit of sales work, and I was in diamond mine processing plant. I had a habit of collection ore samples from the different types of mines where we had Unival products in service. As I was touring a diamond mine, I picked up a baseball sized rock and asked the mine manager if I could take it. He said sure if you want to go to jail. I dropped the rock like it was a hot potato. They grind up the rocks to extract the diamonds that MIGHT be inside, so no rocks left the site. In fact, the security was extensive. The workers changed into uniforms when they arrive for work. The uniforms had no pockets or any way you could carry anything in them. They would do random body searches, etc.
On the that trip, I was lucky enough to spend 5 days on the Mala Mala game reserve and got to see a bucket-list-view of African wildlife. At the time I was pretty good with my camera and got some good stuff. I have included a collage of pictures.
On my second trip, I attended a trade show held at Jan Smits airport. The white apartheid government was negotiating with Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) to hand over the RSA government to the black majority of the RSA. Those meetings were held at the convention center at the airport and our trade show was there also. Nelson Mandela attended the reception to start the show. I was honored to meet him. Me being from the U.S. interested him enough that we talked for a while. He was a very impressive man.
To illustrate how my luck was running in those days, British Air had their 50th anniversary on the day I left the Republic of South Africa so British Air flew everyone free that day. So, my ticket home was complimentary.
I also did two consulting gigs in Australia to help with the manufacture of the Unival product and assist with the sales training and introduction of the product to the chemical and mining industries there. I don’t have a lot of stories during my two months there but did see as much as you can see of the country in a two-month period I did scuba dive on the Great Barrier Reef. The reef is 1000 miles long so you could spend a lifetime and not see all of it. I always laugh when someone says I dived the Great Barrier Reef. I want to say all 1000 miles?
Between consulting gigs, I worked for two years for Siebe, Limited, a British company. They owned the Foxboro Company in you guessed it Foxborough, Mass. Both spellings are correct. I was hired to help them start a valve division to bring their European valve products to the U.S. I had offices in Foxboro and Atlanta. I left the company when they had me order $1 million products from their European manufacturers to be delivered to our U.S. warehouses and reported it as European revenue for the division of the company I was managing. In addition, they capitalized every penny of operating cost for the division, as research and development, which was amortized over 5 years.
I was spending time in my Atlanta office during the Olympic games in Atlanta. My son Austin and I spent a few days enjoying the Olympic experience, since I had a regular place to stay.
We had one special night on July 26, and which lasted into the morning of the 27th. James Brown was performing at the House of blues. The venue was in an abandoned church next to the Olympic Park. James would not perform in a church. They set up a large tent next to the church for the evening. Mr. Brown was fantastic as usual.
During an intermission or at the conclusion (I don’t remember), Austin and I worked our way in a position to engage him in conversation. James and I had a number of things in common; we were both from Augusta, our love for UGA, we were both from the other side of the tracks, there were three sides of the tracks – po whites, po blacks, and rich folks. James moved to the third side when he bought a mansion among the rich folks (moving on up). James and I became “best friends” for about 15 minutes and I have now met and smoosed with the KINGS of Soul and Rock-n-roll, James and Elvis.
As Austin and I walked back to our car we went through the standing crowd at an ongoing concert at about 1:00 am. After JB, we were not much interested in the concert. We notice some commotion but assumed it was an alcohol-late-night happening. It took us 40 minutes or so to get to our room. We get to our room and flip on the TV and see “BOMB EXPLODES IN CENTENIAL PARK”. We had walked within 50 feet of the bomb within 30 minutes of detonation. WOW WHAT A NIGHT!!!
Clint Eastwood did 2 movies bout Georgia events both of which I had an indirect connection. This time the movie was RICHARD JEWEL about the Olympic security guard that discovered the bomb and saved lives by an early warning and then was wrongly accused of being the bomber. I had better be careful or Clint is going to start following me around looking for his next Georgia movie. Hehe.
CHARLES BARKLEY AND TIGER WOODS
Charles, better known as Chuck to family and friends, had a celebrity golf tournament in Orlando from 1993 to 1997. The tournament was staged by my good friend, Martha Korman. My assignment was David Robinson (The Admiral) and his family. I would pick them up at the Airport and lookout for them for the weekend. There are not two nicer people on this earth than David and his wife, Valerie.
After David it goes straight downhill with Charles, just kidding. Chuck is as nice as they come but a complete opposite to David in every way. Chuck is 6’5 and David 7’1, Chuck is a battler and David is smooth as glass. Chuck is loud and David is quiet. I could go on forever, but you get the picture. What they have in common is both are Hall of Fame basketball players, and both are good guys.
Example of Chuck being loud: Chuck, David, Michael Jordan and Chuck Daly (coach of Detroit Pistons) are playing golf together we are following in golf carts. Chuck helped Marie (Austin’s girlfriend get into Auburn) and yells from the green they just finished, “Austin am I going to have to get you into Auburn?” Austin shrugs and Chuck says, “All it takes is 20 -10, 20 points and 10 rebounds a game and you are in anywhere”. That is vintage Chuck. Chuck’s mother, Charcey Glenn was Charles all over again or I guess it was the other way around. She was funny, said what she thought, and he could thank her for his genes because he has her physical characteristics. I mean that as a compliment.