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    An Entrepreneur Grows in a Capitalist Culture: Preparation and Luck
    An Entrepreneur Grows in a Capitalist Culture: Preparation and Luck
    An Entrepreneur Grows in a Capitalist Culture: Preparation and Luck
    Ebook206 pages2 hours

    An Entrepreneur Grows in a Capitalist Culture: Preparation and Luck

    By Taylor N Thompson Sr

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    About this ebook

    The life of the author illustrates the process that teaches and inspires individuals to become entrepreneurs. He reveals the straight forward ways to start a business and survive roadblocks like fires, lawsuits, union organizing, and personnel problems.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBookBaby
    Release dateAug 4, 2015
    ISBN9781483557731
    An Entrepreneur Grows in a Capitalist Culture: Preparation and Luck

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      Book preview

      An Entrepreneur Grows in a Capitalist Culture - Taylor N Thompson Sr

      Survived

      Chapter 1

      1934 to 1941 Greeneville, Tennessee to Pittsburgh, PA

      I think some greater power decided that it would be character building to be born with a rusty shovel in my hand rather then a silver spoon in my mouth. TNT

      Linda Worley is the first daughter of my second brother Ralph. She is very interested in studying the family tree and has traced many of the members back to the Civil War. She has asked me many questions so I decided to prepare a short summary of my life. The characters are: Dad- James H. Thompson, Mom- Gladys Burkhart Thompson, James (Walter), Elizabeth (Betty), Ralph, Virginia, Taylor (me), and Lafe. All are good southern names. I was named after my maternal grand father Taylor Burkhart who my mother said was a strikingly good looking man on horseback (ooh well!). My middle name is after Senator Norris who was responsible for the Tennessee Valley Project which was one of the most successful energy projects in the USA, and not far from our farm.

      I’ll start from the beginning to provide some framework and structure for understanding.

      Life has been a combination of preparation and LUCK.

      1934 to 1941

      I was born very young on a small farm (48 acres) in Greeneville, TN. A two rut country road meandered along the front of the farm. I was fifth of six children. We grew everything we needed to exist. We had cows, horses, pigs, chickens, rabbits, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, ……………………..and lots of backbreaking work. Fortunately I had four older siblings and a hard working mom so I got off easy – they did most of the work. Dad spent much of his time in town – I think he was working as an electrician and BSing at the bus station?? We went to school in a one room school house. My brother Ralph used to keep kids from fighting with me. He was known as Silver because he was strong and would carry kids on his back and they would yell Hi O Silver. It was the time of the Lone Ranger. But we didn’t have a radio. In fact we didn’t have much of anything. We had an outhouse for a toilet. No running water. We had a well with a hand operated pump on top to draw the water. We had NO electricity. We used the fire place for heat, candles and kerosene lamps for light. We only bathed in a big tub about once per week – if Mom could catch us. But we were happy because we didn’t know any better! My grandfather Thompson died when I was four and I remember riding to his funeral. It was the first time I was in a car. It had big grey seats and they let me sit in the front seat. It smelled funny! We lived in a house back off the road on his farm. After his death we moved to his house down by the road. On my fifth birthday July 8, 1939 my mother made me a picnic which consisted of a sandwich and some water. It was a beautiful day and I took it up the hill in the back of the farm overlooking the 48 acres with its fields and houses and barns. I day-dreamed about how lucky I was.

      I remember planting tobacco. This was our best cash crop, we also sold pumpkins and watermelons. We needed the money to buy salt, sugar, and some staples. To plant tobacco one person would dig the hole, then the next would put the plant in the ground, the next would pour in some water, the next would cover the roots. I usually poured in the water. It was back breaking and I usually made some excuses to go back to the house – mom saw through the scheme but she always let me go! The worst tobacco job was when the plants were grown – they would be attacked by BIG green worms. We had to go down the rows and pull off the worms and pull them apart to terminate their life and save the plants. When we harvested the tobacco the leaves were twisted into bunches and tied like a tie at the top. They were then hung in the barn to dry. I forget how long it took but it must have been about four to six weeks. The barn had slats that were opened to permit air to pass through. My brother Ralph would roll some of the tobacco when it was dry and light it up. He let me puff on it but I didn’t see why anyone would want to do that. I really don’t think Ralph liked it much either – but he thought it was exciting – about as exciting and risky as you can get on the farm.

      We also had about one acre of watermelons. I remember when the cows got loose they would wander through the watermelons and break many of them open so we had to be careful the cows didn’t get loose during watermelon season. Of course we had to eat the watermelon immediately so it wouldn’t be wasted. But there is nothing as good as a watermelon picked from the vine. We put it in the stream to cool then cut it open and eat it right at the stream – oh boy was that good! The other taste that I distinctly remember is tomato. When the tomatoes ripened we would bring the salt, go into the garden, and eat the tomato right off the vine. I love tomatoes because I remember the way they were on the farm and I look for that taste – you just can’t get it from the store!

      Another vivid memory was when the pigs were slaughtered. Dad started very early in the morning before I got up. Usually some neighbors helped. They boiled huge containers of water so they could remove the hair. They tied the pigs up to the branch of the tree and slit their stomachs. The entrails were removed. They always gave me the bladder to use as a balloon. They had to show me how to blow up the bladder and then tie it up.

      Rabies was always a problem in the country. My Uncle who lived up the road had two puppies and he gave me one as a pet. After about a year my Uncle’s dog got rabies and my dog had been playing with him….so the doctor said I would have to get rabies shots since I had played with my dog…ugh! This involved about 5 shots with a big needle in the stomach…that was not fun. On top of it all my father had to take my dog behind the barn and I heard a rifle shot ..he didn’t say anything to me but I never saw my dog again!

      Games on the farm

      No electricity, TV, radio, computer………there wasn’t any entertainment on the farm. We take a lot of entertainment for granted today. So we had to make up our own. One was to assign a fruit or vegetable to each family member……

      It was a serious selection…in fact Jim Walter and Betty had a fight at the dinner table over the selection of tomato and Jim threw his fork at Betty and it stuck in her shoulder.

      Then we called each other by our new names. It’s amazing how the names stuck with us. Ralph always called me Spud or Tate until years later he returned from the Navy….then I think he forgot.

      We would sit in front of the fire at night and sing or once Ralph found, or borrowed a Jew’s harp. It was a small musical instrument that looked like a harp …he would hold one end in his teeth and the other end with his hand ….then stroke the strings with his fingers. One evening I used a rubber band to imitate the harp….they didn’t think that was so good.

      Dad was intelligent but not very ambitious or hard working. Dad took a civil service test and passed at the top so they assigned him as a government inspector for the Navy department in the steel mills of Pittsburgh. He inspected the steel and approved it for use in Navy ships. We moved to Pittsburgh in 1941 (Pittsburgh was described as Hell with the lid off). We lived in a government housing project. It was like a military barracks with eight families to the row house. There were probably fifty row houses and they were perched on top of a hill overlooking the Monongahela River. The project was filled with people working in the steel mills so we were all in the same boat financially and socially. These were young families with lots of children. So I had many playmates and opponents to fight. We had indoor toilets and a bathtub with running water and electricity for lighting – this was heaven!!! I still didn’t take a bath everyday!

      Homestead Works of the Carnegie Illinois Steel company – This is where dad worked and we lived on the hills in the background. The mills ran 24 hours a day so the smoke was constant. When we opened a window the sill was black in a matter of minutes.

      Chapter 2

      1941 to 1952 Grammar School to College

      Chapter 2 is about High School and college. I could make this chapter larger but for now it’s a quick summary. Maybe later I’ll add more when I have time. TNT

      I attended school at Burgwin Elementary School – I was in third grade. After sixth grade I went to Gladstone Junior High School – it only had seventh to tenth grade because most of the kids were going to work in the steel mills so they dropped out of school after tenth. My brother Ralph dropped out to go in the Navy – now he wanted to carry the country on his back! But about ten of my classmates and I wanted to go to college so they transferred us to Taylor Allderdice High School in Squirrel Hill after ninth grade. This was luck – it was one of the best schools in the Pittsburgh Public education system which was an excellent system. TAHS was in the wealthy section of Pittsburgh and about 75% of the students were Jewish (and smart) and studying hard to go to Ivy League Schools – like Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell etc. I had all A’s from ninth through twelfth grades accept for English where I had two B’s and one C".

      I graduated fifth in a class of 402 students. I remember the four ahead of me –

      Elinor Aaron

      Ronald Berkman

      Judith Hirshfeld

      Elaine Heller

      They must not have gotten any C’s.

      I was also elected as vice-President of the senior class. I was the first gentile (Christian) to be elected to this position in the history of the school. The principal was surprised. I’m not sure I was a very good officer since I had to leave school after the last class to get to my paper route so I couldn’t do much organizing after class.

      I became a paperboy when I was 12 years old. This was my first exposure to Business. I liked it because I was my own boss and I could make more money if I worked harder. I made $6.00 to $10.00 per week. It doesn’t sound like much but it was enough for me to buy my own clothes, furniture, spending money and save for college. Mom and Dad never had to give me money for anything. In fact, along with other jobs, I was able to save $600.00 towards my college education. My paper route included the entire housing project so I had to walk for about two hours every day. It was good exercise and I don’t remember missing any time since I had no one to fill in for me. The job required me to get along with people since I was in daily contact with the community. This was a tough neighborhood and I had to fight my way through until I gained the respect of the other kids. The project was segregated into four white and black sections and I covered them all. I continued the paper route for five years until

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