I was the middle child of seven kids. My father was a good provider, but quite distant. He delegated the raising of his children to my mother. He’d come home from his job in the aerospace industry, have dinner at the head of the table. Ask each of us about school, instruct the older ones on somethng, then go to his recliner, kick off his shoes, watch the news, then go to bed. I never knew what the guy did for a living when my teachers asked at school. I’d just say businessman, like just about everybody else. Every Spring, he would have a twinge of fatherhood, enroll us all in Little League, and spend time playing catch with us, giving us instruction on baseball. I think that’s what got me into sports. I knew my father was really into sports, so I probably figured I’d get more attention from him if I tried out for them. But he was a pretty busy guy. When I was twenty, he retired and went into the bar business, of all things. He would lease a closed down 7–11 store and turn it into a **** and **** place that served some very special sandwiches. There were a lot of those available in the early and mid ‘70s due to the recession and resultant corporate downsizing. He would quickly build the clientelle, then sell it off to a ma and pa team looking for a retirement business in Florida. Then he would lease another and do it all over again. During this time, I was at loose ends as to what I wanted to do. He said he could use my help if I was willing to work my ass off for little money in the beginning. I jumped at it. It was a chance to finally get close to the old man. What a freaky complicated guy he was. I never knew. LOL. I spent the first year opening these damn places up at 9am, working through to 2am closing, then cleaning them up—and on the nights that I was too tired to drive to sleep on his couch in his condo, I just fell asleep in a booth. I would awaken at 8am, wash up in the men’s room, and start all over again. But I got to know him well. He really was an amazing dude. Totally focussed on whatever he was doing at the time. And I learned a lot about business and life from him in those short years. I learned to love this incredibly complicated, faulty individual. And then he died. He didn’t take care of himself. I learned from that, too. Working for him was perhaps the best decision I ever made in my entire life.