Ted

Well, It's Monday again.  At least I think so, I went to Church yesterday, so that must have been Sunday.  Monday still follows Sunday right?  So....Monday again.

Now that we've got that straight, plan of attack for the week. Today...Travel to Moscow on the Colorado (AKA Austin for those of you that got confused Saturday,  Moscow because it's overrun with leftist, progressive, communists (but I repeat myself thrice) and "on the Colorado" because the Colorado River runs right through it.  In fact the reason Austin was settled was because the River ran through it. Texas, being Texas, having a water supply handy is important.)

Anyhoo....Where was I?  Oh yeah, Moscow on the Colorado.  We'll initially be traveling to one of the Suburbs of MOTC, known as Pflugerville.  (Beans, the P is silent.  Flu is pronounced like the disease.  Ger is pronounced like what you say when you think about leftist, progressive, communists (but I repeat myself thrice...again), and ville is pronounced like Bill.  Just so you know.)

We have an appointment with the Pflugerville Police Department  and the Officer from the Hayes County Sheriff's office for to identify and recover our stolen stuff.  Once that's done, we're going to spend the night and have dinner with MBD and SIL.  We did that so as to avoid having to deal with Austin traffic thrice in 12 hours.

Cause the Mrs and I are taking a little trip Tomorrow with our winemaker friends.  We're going to travel out west and spend some time at the Unified Wine & Grape Symposium.They go every year, just to see what's new. The plan is to spend a few hours looking at wine doodads, then go and visit wineries and drink wine.

We thought the latter might be fun.

Since you have to be in the wine industry to attend, evidently, I'm their new Marketing Director. Mrs J is their new event coordinator  I expect we'll be fired sometime next Saturday.  So, regretfully, my pithy, pointed, astute and, otherwise, spot-on usual commentary might be a bit....well....spotty this week.

But,  since we're on the subject of Wine, most long time readers (and those newer readers, who for lack of a life, started at the first post on this blog and read each and every one, one after another, without stopping for food, water, sleep or any other bodily functions (Ewww!) until completely up to speed.  You know who you are!) will remember that on retiring from the Air Force, Mrs J and my first foray into civilian employment was the purchasing of a Wine Tasting Room in our town.

The store specialized in Wines from Texas exclusively*  and Beer from around the world.  (Budweiser, Coors, Miller need not apply.)  However, at the time, 1999, there were only 20 or so wineries in the whole state and many of them bought grapes from that state out west.  

The logistics of the situation were interesting.  Texas Liquor laws were... well.....difficult.  Distributors decided who and what they'd carry.  We had to know which counties (sometimes even which portion of a County) we could ship to. Tourists flock to this town from all over the state, they'd taste our wine and, if they liked it, asked if we could ship.  We would pull out the most current version of this document 

Source

Now, this doesn't look too bad in 2017, but back in the day, by Cracky, things were different!.  The source of the map says in 2017 only 6 counties are dry.  However, in 1986, 62 were dry and about half the rest were partially dry, I don't think it was any different in 1999. The distributors and a particular religious group where a form of the word baptism features prominently in their name, had a very successful campaign going to keep things that way.  So, not much had changed by the time Mrs J and I got involved.

As an aside, typically, Interstate 20 was the wet/dry line. If the county was below that line, sale and shipment of wine was usually permitted.  Exceptions were well known. Above that line, virtually all counties prohibited it.  The City of Arlington was actually divided in half.  There was one road, that one side was wet, one side was dry.  We went with "We don't ship to Arlington."

Obviously, we had to be careful, the liquor license took quite a bit of time to get, and could be lost for a myriad of reasons.  So, hired help, good hired help, not your deadbeat ex brother-in-law hired help was hard to find.  Fortunately with one or two exceptions, we did quite well in that department.

There were only two distributors at the time and they controlled which wines they carried and how much. 

This presented an inventory problem.  Our liquor license allowed us to buy wine at wholesale, but the wineries not carried by the distributors were not carried because they were too small as far as the distributors were concerned.  So...as president and CEO of my C Corporation, I was also the Inventory manager.

You do realize that Texas is a big state. right?  Fortunately the two wineries that were carried were also the two furthest from us.  Llano Estacado (Yawn-oh, Beans) in Lubbock and Messina Hof in Bryan/College Station.  

The rest I had to visit, purchase, carry, load, transport, carry and store myself.  That is why I drive a pickup to this day.

But....I got to meet a lot of good folks.  One of my fondest memories is standing at the counter looking out at the store's bins after a busy Friday before Spring Break (make or break week for a small store) and noticing empty bins.  I got on the phone and called the Winemaker at Sister Creek and explained my predicament.  He asked how many cases and what kind.  I told him and said we needed to pick it up about 7 in the morning.  He said "no problem". 

The next morning, I arrive in beautiful downtown Sisterdale at 7 AM sharp.  Very dark.  The winery is dark.  The Winemaker's house is dark.  "Ruh-Roh!".  Thinking he may be awake and in the winery, I walk up to the door.  Give the handle a twist, it's not locked.  Push it open, there's my wine stacked neatly by the door and a note saying "leave the check on the Bar"

My kind of folks.

Anyhow, we're pretty successful, meaning, we're paying our rent and employees and are still in business a couple of years later and having relieved our self of the brother-in-law issue, have advertised for somebody to work the tasting room, pour tastes, ring up sales, restock and so on.

The going rate at the time was $8/hr.  We were offering $10.  So, the ad has gone in the paper, and early Saturday morning, I hear a ding on the door.  A little early for a customer, but someone in the Store is always a good thing.

"Hi, how's it going?  How can I help you?"

He's a tall guy, white hair a little longish on the sides, short white goatee, Late 50's maybe Early 60's.  Hawaiian Flowerdy Shirt.  Short Pants and sandals.


"I've come to apply for the job.  Here's my resume."

I'm thinking, "Resume?.... that's interesting".

"OK, well have a look around while I look at it."

He wanders off.

I look at the name.  Likes to be called "Ted".  Fair enough.

Last Employer.  Lowes.  (Liking him even more.)

Position.  Western Sales Director Los Angeles CA

My head snaps around as I look at him.  

He's smiling and laughing a little.

"I thought that might get your attention"

"Ted, we're not going to be able to afford you."

"I know, I'm retired, and bored.  I play in a band some weekend nights, but I just need something to do and be able to interact with folks."

Now, normally, I would ponder over a decision for a considerable length of time, maybe even consult with the actual decision maker.  But I stepped out on a limb. I mean, He had me at the shirt.

"When can you start?"

"I'm not busy.....Now?"

He was a natural.  Very outgoing personality which meant he fit right in with Mrs J and I.  He'd have customers eating out of his hand before the door closed behind them on entry.

Made a lot of really good suggestions, He KNEW sales.

Very quickly he started taking over the orders from the distributors.  Sometimes for whatever reason, we just didn't get the wines we wanted.  The Riesling was from the other winery, or they sent Chardonnay instead.  It was frustrating and cost us, because they only delivered a couple of times a week.  If the Friday delivery was screwed up, we were down for the weekend.

Ted started handling the problem,  Things were improving slowly, but improving.

So. it's Friday before one of the Big Weekends in town.  (IIRC it was  Food and Wine Festival--3rd weekend in October, don't miss it. ) We've got a VERY large order being delivered.  I'm back in the office when I hear the driver come in.  Ted's got it.

Shortly afterward, I hear loud voices.  So I go out front.  The driver has brought in Australian wines exclusively.  Ted is beside himself.  He's pointing to the sign above the bar asking the driver him if the first word (Texas) is Australia.  

The driver goes back to the truck thinking the order had gotten mismarked or something.  

Nope.  No Texas wine on the truck.

I see Ted head for the phone.  About 15 minutes later, I hear loud voices again, only one sided.

"Look here, We've been a customer of yours for years.  We have never bought anything but Texas Wine from you.  This is our biggest weekend and you delivered Australian wine?  I want another truck up here this afternoon with OUR order on it, you got it?"

A crash of the phone hanging up.

I remember thinking to myself.  

"Well, this is either going to be fixed this afternoon, or we're never going to get any wine again."

Pretty soon, I hear Ted whistling and talking to folks.  I walk our front.

"So, Ted, that was pretty epic.  Who was on the other end?"

"Oh, that was Bob, the president of XXX (the distributor), He and I play in the same Band."

The wine was delivered that afternoon.

We never had distribution issues again.

A few months later, Ted comes in to the back where I'm working and says "Juvat, I'm sorry, I'm going to be leaving you guys.  I've gotten a job offer that I'm going to take.".

"Ted, I'm sure I know the answer but... anything I can say or do?"

"No, you'd need  3 or 4 more zeros."

"Best of luck to you buddy."

He went to be the Vice President of a VERY large corporation in the Upper Mid-West.

Anyhoo, I'll be out of town, til Saturday.  For some reason, this is stuck in my head.

*Well....we did have one bottle of California wine that we saved for those Wine Aficionados  who would come in and sniff saying "Buffy....I can't believe the nerve....Texas doesn't have a wine that will hold a candle to ANY California wine."  **  That's when the bottle of Thunderbird (made in Modesto California) would come out, followed by.  "I'll take that challenge, pick the wine you want to taste and compare to this."  Reactions varied from storming out of the store in a snit, to a rueful smile and great conversation about  Good and Bad Wine being made all over the world.

** Actual statement made by a couple.  Yes, they were also in the "stormed out in a snit" category.