Admirable Employer……………#152 (the 70’s)

A passing thought when discovered, but just a thought.

.  Gary having accepted Bill Guice,  the owner of Busy Bee Exterminators, offer to enclose the front porch for a his recently purchased house on southwest 29th street for a business office.  Bill explaining his resources were limited,  the company was on a tight budget.   The business employing his sister Helen, abiding as the bookkeeper, office receptionist and client dispatcher, his two  sons, Tim and Tom, a third son, Terry, available after school and on weekends.   Busy Bee was a full service extermination enterprise,  including pest control,  termite prevention, foliage treatment,  liquid lawn fertilization, coloring, and maintaining three apply administered fully equipped trucks.

.  Bill and his youngest son Terry having moved in to the recent purchase,  asking Gary to expedite the residential part of the house.  Gary being more of a layperson than a  journeyman carpenter or electrician,  the remodeling blueprint conceived as an idea, and was pretty much fixed in his head.  The porch already framed with studs, needing the framing for windows, office door, and interior sheetrock before adding the exterior sheathing and later the asbestos siding.  The progression was deliberate, the interior work more detailed than expected, especially when Bill decided he wanted the attic crawl space insulated, Gary taking advantage of Sears loaning a blower when you purchased a quantity of insulation.  The new office addition beginning to come to fruition, the replacement of the ancient fuse box with a  breakers box the finale, even with the additional projects the job was completed in six weeks.

.  Gary being asked to accompany Bill and his sons on an extensive  termite job, Busy Bee having been awarded the termite prevention bid for the Midwest City Library,  which meant drilling  treatment holes every 18 inches around the perimeter of the outside and inside  walls of the building, which had concrete carpeted slab floors.  With the completion of the library project, Gary wasn’t surprised when Bill proposed that he  remain as a fulltime employee, adding,  he needed someone to reinstate customer termite damaged,  and to assist with pest extermination.  Gary suspecting the real reason was to supervise his three sons, Bill’s sister Helen having related,  she had received complaints about their lack of enthusiasm on the job when dad wasn’t around.    Gary finding Bill’s soft-spoken demeanor, his older sister Helen,  and the three boys easy to get along with, their relationship beginning to feel more and more like family, Gary agreeing to the proposal.

.  The Musician discovering the exterminating business to be intriguing at times and mundane at others.  A most interesting aspect was the roach treatment of a complete apartment complex, gaining entrance to every apartment and observing the diversity of the apartments physical environment.  Gary witnessing everything from passed out naked person,  to a stash of drugs left on a table. It never amazed him of the denial expressed by some customers to the extent of their roach problems, especially those living in the upper echelon Nichols Hills community.  The most thorough method to rid a residence of an extensive roaches problem is to don a  mask with a fogger filled with pyrethrum, the pyrethrum affects the roaches nervous system making them scurry from their hidden recluse before succumbing leaving an unexpected visual host of expired roaches

.  During the servicing of the Apartments near the state capital, which served as an auxiliary residence for many of the congressional delegates, a surprising event took place.  The complex management providing a passkey,  and as always Gary announcing himself before entering.  During an entry with no response  the occupant  apparently having left, the suite being maintained by E Melvin Porter,  a notable black State Senator from Oklahoma City District 48, and the past president of the Oklahoma Chapter of the NAACP.  Starting as usual, he began spraying the diazinon along the baseboards in the main room, upon entering the bedroom,  he stopped noticing that on the bed in plain sight was an open metal carrying case,  it contents drawing his full attention, it looked to be  filled with bundled 20 dollar bills. A passing brief thought about the mother lode of bills, but only a thought. without hesitation, he immediately left the room deciding it would be best to continuing his work in another apartment.

.  The Musician beginning to have a concern about his undertaking,  a musical endeavor several night per week and his Busy Bee employment.  Jan was approaching the final days of maternal expediency,  and once again, even when reminded Tiffany Rose came into the world as a Robert, she still insisted the newly arrival would be a girl.  Her and Robert spending more time with family in Kiowa, Gary could see a change in Jan, the Apostolic Christian Church having a profound influence on her, the absence of makeup and jewelry, her hair styling or lack of it in keeping with Church tradition.   The visits to Kiowa, the Murrow family, the introduction to the Apostolic Christian Church, its old world approach to a new world America had its influence.

.   Gary noticing a change in himself, for the first time questioning his presumptuous objective in music, accepting the precept of obtaining a music goal which was once foremost,  and had influenced all his adult world decisions for better or worse.  Music still flourished within, but with an open mind,  and new sense of approach, this time when an alternative opportunity knocks, he would answer

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