4If you could come to my office in California to visit with me today, you would see that one side of the room is occupied by a beautiful old-fashioned soda fountain with nine leather-covered seats. Unusual? Yes. But if that soda fountain could speak, it would tell you a story about the day I almost lost hope and gave up.
It was a recession period after World War II and jobs were scarce. My husband had purchased a small dry cleaning business with borrowed money. We had two darling babies, a tract house, a car and all the usual monthly payments. Then the bottom fell out. There was no money for the house payments or anything else.
kidnapping an heiressI felt that I had no special talent, no training, no college education.
I didn't think much of myself. But I remembered someone in my past who had thought I had a little ability --- my high school English teacher. She had inspired me to take a course in journalism and named me advertising manager and feature editor of the school paper.
I thought, "Now if I could write a 'shoppers Column' for the small weekly newspaper in our rural town, maybe I could earn that house payment."
I had no car and no one to look after my two children. So I took them with me to the newspaper office, pushing them before me in an old broken-down baby stroller with a big pillow tied in the back. The wheel kept coming off, but I hit it back on with the heel of my shoe and kept going. I was determined that my children would not lose their home as I often had as a child.
But at the newspaper office, there were no jobs available. Recession. So I got an idea. I asked if I might buy advertising space at wholesale and sell it at retail as a "shoppers Column." They agreed.
The newspaper column idea worked. I made enough money for the house payment and to buy an old used car. Then I hired a high school girl to look after my children from three to five each afternoon. When the clock struck three, I grabbed my advertising samples and flew out of the door to drive to my appointments.
But on one dark rainy afternoon every advertising prospect I had worked on turned me down when I went to pick up their ads. "Why?" I asked. They said they had noticed that Ruben Ahlman, the president of the Chamber of Commerce and the owner of a big drugstore, didn't advertise with me. His store was the most popular in
town. They respected his judgment. "There must be something wrong with your advertising," they explained.
My heart sank. Those four ads would have been enough for the monthly house payment. Then I thought, I'll try to speak with Mr. Ahlman one more time. Everyone loves and respects him. Surely he'll listen. Every time I'd tried to approach him in the past, he had refused to see me. But I knew that if he advertised with me, the other merchants in town would follow his lead.
As I walked into Mr. Ahlman's drugstore, he was there at the prescription counter. I smiled my best smile and said, "Everyone respects your opinion, Mr. Ahlman. Would you just look at my work for a moment so that I can tell the other merchants what you think?"
Without saying a word he firmly shook his head, "No."
Suddenly all of my enthusiasm left me. I made it as far as the beautiful old soda fountain at the front of the drugstore, feeling that I didn't have the strength to drive home. I didn't want to sit at the soda fountain without buying something, so I ordered a Coke. I wondered desperately what to do. Would my babies lose their home as I had so many times when I was growing up? Was my English teacher wrong? My eyes filled with tears.
A soft voice beside me said, "What's the matter, dear?" I looked up into the sympathetic face of a lovely gray-haired lady. I poured out my story to her, ending it with, "But Mr. Ahlman, who everyone respects so much, refuses to look at my work."
"Let me see that Shoppers Column," she said. She took my marked issue of the newspaper in her hands and carefully read my column all the way through. Then she stood up, looked back at the prescription counter and in a commanding voice, said, "Ruben Ahlman, come here!" The lady was Mrs. Ahlman!
She told Ruben to buy some advertising from me. His mouth turned up in a big grin. Then she asked me for the names of the four merchants who had turned me down. She went to the phone and called each one. She gave me a hug and told me they were waiting for me.
Ruben and Vivian Ahlman became our dear friends, as well as steady advertising customers. I learned that Ruben was a darling man who bought from everyone. He had promised Vivian not to buy any
more advertising, and in turning me down he was just trying to keep his word to her. If I had only asked others in town, I might have learned that I should have been talking to Mrs. Ahlman from the beginning. That conversation at the soda fountain was the turning point. My advertising business thrived and grew into four offices, with 285 employees serving 4,000 businesses.
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