I spent the years from 1982 to 1986 continuing to work on our telephone management software out of our offices in the Empire State Building. Working in a landmark building like the ESB was pretty cool. Taking the elevator up to the (almost) top was exciting in itself. There is an observation deck on the 86th floor, and, as I explained earlier, we were just right below it. So as it was almost always the case, you took the ride up with tourists. I remember seeing people with cameras and hearing people speaking in foreign languages all the time. Very cool.

    Regarding the software, besides the coding, I wrote the documentation; I would go to clients' offices and help in their installation, etc. It was pretty much a “soup to nuts” thing. We had hired a few other programmers and staff, but the basic software was pretty much mine alone. Or so I thought. We wound up having clients throughout the U.S., so I did a lot of traveling during this period. Saw some pretty cool places.

    Meanwhile, on the “home front,” after two years of living in my own apartment in Staten Island, I moved back to Brooklyn. My sister had gotten married, so the upstairs apartment in my parent’s house became available. I spent the years 1979 to 1981 living back on 11th Street. Another two years of fond memories.

    It was during this period that I finally got to fulfill the goal of reaching the West Coast. I flew to LA to visit a cousin I had not been very close with during our childhood. We then drove up to the Bay Area to visit her sister and their mother who lived there. It was a fun road trip and we made up for all the years we never got to spend together and learned a lot about each other. Same thing with her sister and my Aunt when we got there. Spent some fun time with all of them.

    My LA cousin then flew back home to LA, but I wasn’t leaving to go back home for a couple of days from San Francisco, so I took another little road trip down Highway 101 to Monterrey. Checked out Pebble Beach Golf Course and the Monterrey Aquarium. Awesome! Then on to Carmel. Gorgeous views along the way. And a little, kinda, “Brush with Celebrity”. Here’s my story:

    I took some really nice pics of the ocean and sunset along the way and then stopped in Carmel and got a room for the night. I had a flight out of San Francisco the next day back to New York. I asked the people at the Motel if there was any place I might get something to eat. They pointed me to a place named Hog’s Breath Inn. I went in, sat at the bar and ordered dinner. There was a cute bartender who took care of me. We chatted some and I thought, hey, you never know.

    Well, a little while later, someone walked in who would eventually become the Mayor of Carmel, namely Clint Eastwood. The cute bartender ran out from behind the bar and jumped into his arms. It seemed he owned the place. So much for that. Needless to say, I went back to my room alone, got up early and drove back to SF to catch my flight home.

    My LA cousin is still in LA, but her sister and mother have moved nearby here and I see them occasionally.

    Meanwhile, my sister was no longer married. So she and I, with help from our parents, bought a small house in the Borough Park/Midwood area of Brooklyn in 1981. I also have some pretty fond memories of living here. One in particular, I think you know who you are... As I said, life was good. Maybe too good.

    Christmas time, 1985. We had a party in our offices. My friend, who was the one who asked me to write the software and whose name was on the office door and on my paychecks, announced that there was a company interested in buying us. It sounded great.

    At the time, he and I had a “handshake agreement.” I was being paid as an independent consultant, so I dealt with my own taxes, my own healthcare, everything. I was also allowed to use things as expenses, lease cars, etc. so this was beneficial for both of us. We were told that basically nothing would change, but we would now belong to another, larger entity. And so 1986 came along…

    It happened to be the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, and the city had a huge celebration. Fireworks in the water surrounding it and a whole big deal. We happened to be on the side of the ESB facing south, and so we, literally, had a bird’s eye view of the entire affair. We decided to throw a party. We invited a bunch of people and had a great time. I imagine it was probably nice up close too, but it was most likely a zoo, crowded, traffic, noisy, etc. I have some pretty awesome pictures of the Statue of Liberty, with fireworks exploding in the air and, sadly, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. We had a client in 2 WTC and I would spend some time at their offices on the 61st floor occasionally. To this day, I wonder how the people I met there fared on that sad day.

    During the year, everything seemed to be going well. We were acquiring new clients and growing. I thought that maybe I should have gotten a “piece,” but I had gotten another handshake agreement that if the business took off, I would be “taken care of.” His exact words. I was still traveling and making pretty good money, and everything was cool. Until the end of 1986…

    I need to go off on a little tangent here, and, go back in time for a bit (Hey, if it was OK for the Terminator…).

    When I worked at the publishing company from 1975 to 1979, I was on their softball team. I met a young lady also on the team, and we became friends. And then we became more than friends. One of the few I still keep in (sort of) contact with to this day. She is someone who is instrumental in this fork, so I have to give her a mention, I still think of you fondly, my dear (I do use the word fond a lot, don't I?).

    Anyways, we eventually drifted apart, but remained friends. She wound up heading west and moved to a town near San Diego. It so happened that, in 1983, we were both “unencumbered” and still talking to each other. We decided that I would fly and she would drive and we would meet in San Diego. It was around the 4th of July, and she gave me the grand tour. La Jolla, The Hotel Del on Coronado, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach, the works. It was so much fun. I went back to New York reluctantly.

    I was still in touch with my ex-wife’s brother (this gets a bit complicated). He had recently married a young lady from the Caribbean. She didn’t care for the climate in NYC, so I told him how wonderful I thought San Diego was and that they should check it out. Long story short, they went to visit and wound up moving there. For a couple of years, whenever I wanted to take some time off from the business, I would crash with them.

    He was a tennis teacher, and I was a decent player. He had access to courts, ball machines, etc. It was a lot of fun, plus I got to hang out in San Diego. I distinctly remember one February leaving NYC with snow on the ground and the temperature in the 20s and playing tennis that same day in S.D. in my shorts.

    On more than one occasion, he said to me, “Jim, if you like it here, why don’t you move out”? I had started working on the business while I was still married to his sister and, when we lived in Staten Island, he lived in the same house. It was like having a kid brother. I still love him to this day.

    Anyways, I replied, “Hey, you know I have been working on that software for so long and now we have an office in the Empire State Building. I can’t walk away from that.” So I would “shuttle” for a while.

    The end of 1986 came around and my business friend and I had a chat. Apparently, he had overstated the income-producing capability of our business, and our new owners weren’t happy. (This wasn’t going to be the last time I had to deal with being a part of a company changing ownership. There hasn’t been a fun one yet).

    In any event, our owners decided to cut in half our consulting budget. Which was pretty much ME. I asked, “Couldn’t you explain that I was around from the beginning and I was almost TOTALLY responsible for the software, not just some consultant?” He said that in their eyes, I was an independent consultant, and his “hands were tied.” Not the first time I would hear that platitude. Then he dangled a management position in front of me, saying it was “just around the corner,” and the business would be thriving and on and on. I was crushed.

    I thought about it for a while, called my ex-brother-in-law in San Diego, and said I was interested in coming to stay. I went in January of 1987 and the three of us (he, his wife, and I) wound up signing a lease on a spacious townhouse near La Jolla, CA. I came back to New York, got my affairs in order, and told my now ex-friend that I had had enough and I was leaving.

    To this day, I feel very ambivalent about this. I felt so betrayed. I had spent years working on the software, and now I had to walk away from it. On the other hand, I am very satisfied with my life in San Diego, and have no interest at all in ever leaving (I tell anyone who will listen, “this is where I’m going to die”.) And he was the person that provided the impetus for me to move. So I guess I should be thankful to him.

    Early in March, I packed my stuff, and reluctantly left my two cats in the care of my sister (so sorry, Meatball and Scruffy. I loved you guys, I really did. I hope the rest of your lives was happy). I directed the movers to my new address, got in my 1986 Toyota Celica GT-S (loved that car), and drove across America to my new home.

    The longest fork in distance, by far.