My mother attended art school in the 1930s and became a famous Fashion Illustrator. She had also learned how to sew and designed and made her own clothes all of her life. She moved to New York city in 1937 and was hired by Saks Fifth Avenue to DRAW the daily ads for the New York newspapers. Saks would decide what would be promoted and showed her. Whether MALE or FEMALE, CASUAL or DRESSY, she would draw a model with the clothes shown and the graphic artist would add the type and store info. She was also a fashion model in her teens and won the “Miss Richmond VA” crown in 1937.

I was born right after WWII and she pushed me into art before I can remember. My grandmother was also an artist and painted all her life. All of my school book reports (from animals to astronomy) had binder covers that I illustrated. 

When I was 10 years old I got my first issue of HOT ROD MAGAZINE! I was amazed at how older cars were customized, painted and pinstriped. And the custom cars and dragsters all had sponsors sign painted, not to mention flames and other “HOT” designs. I bought some pinstriping and sign painting brushes and began to practice. Every issue of HOT ROD would provide new ideas.

When I was 12 I pinstriped my next door neighbor’s 53 Chevy. He was 17 and all his friends spent time that weekend watching. I made $40. And got more work from other high school guys while I was still in the 6th grade. Other kids my age made maybe $4. cutting several lawns.

I was in the Cub Scouts and the store that you bought the uniforms at was Dick Felt’s Store for Boys. My mother told him that the posters in the store looked very amateurish, and he said he did them himself but hated to do them. As a result, and after seeing examples of my work, he hired me to use a speedball pen to make the price ticket signs and brushes to do window posters. He got me an easel and a small space to work in his back room. He sent me to University Art store to get poster board and any supplies I needed.

Dick Felt’s also sponsored a junior bowling team. So my dad and I started bowling. I got involved in bowling on the weekends at the INDIAN BOWLING ALLEY (they were the Stanford Indians at that time) in a junior league. We all had bowling shirts with his name on the back and ours over the chest pocket. Then I painted my name on my bowling bag and all the older men wanted their name’s done. I would ride home with an empty bag 2 times a week and get paid. Then the bowling alley wanted me to sign paint water colors on 3’ wide white paper sometimes 40’ long. These would hang in front of the pin machines and advertise bowling specials. I learned how to use an architect’s scale and draw out an accurate sketch. Then roll out about 10’ and use charcoal sticks to “layout” that portion of the banner. Then paint part of the banner and roll it up. It was way cool to see it hang up over all the lanes! He would have me do a new one every 3 months, and he could save the older ones for next year.

I used my pinstriping and sign painting money to buy parts from ads in HOT ROD MAGAZINE so I could build a GO CART. I got the steering column, tie rod assembly, brakes & tires. I made the frame and backrest and my mother fitted and stitched a comfortable seat and backrest. I got a clutch & belt drive and attached it to the rear axle. It had a 7.5 HP Briggs & Stratton gas engine and I could go 40 MPH! I did this in June when I was 13. I was very tall for my age, so I made it so my mom & dad could drive it also. My dad & I would load it up into the trunk of his 54 Olds and we would go to the Stanford campus. By the stables near the golf course were many paved roads that were closed to thru traffic. We all enjoyed that. My father was not experienced working with tools, but my mother was and she did most of the handy work around the house. They were both very proud of me. That I could use her art talents that I inherited, could build things and my dad was happy to see the business side I had developed and that I spent my own money. He graduated with an MBA and many times told me he didn’t want a “starving artist” for a son.

Mr. Zendaya, the tailor at the boys store went out on his own. I made individual letters 18” tall cut out of 1.25” marine plywood. I used a jig saw and primed 3x, then painted all of them in my parent’s basement. I used a paper pattern 25’ long and marked where I had to drill into the building. Naturally I had to use ladders to get up on the parapet where I could stand. Zendaya’s TAILORING…my first public outdoor sign in downtown Palo Alto when I was 14.

In Junior High I took all of the art classes and in High school also architectural, rendering & drafting classes. I still love cars!... I wish I had also taken auto shop!!! But my entire passion was sign painting and making money, even though my skills were good but less than professional. My favorite art teacher, Mr. Alexander was thrilled with my commercial talents.

He also taught us how to silk screen print. This was great for making 10 – 100 signs or T-Shirts in various colors. If you drew something accurately full size, you could cut a transparent film with a clear backing with a exacto knife. You could see the image you had drawn, and peel away the top part of the film where the INK would go on through the silk onto the sign you were printing. The silk had to be stapled to a 2x2 wood frame extremely tight. The frame size had to be about 6” bigger all the way around the sign. The hand cut “stencil art” was adhered to the silk. The Screen frames could be used many times if they were cleaned correctly. Your particular image could be dissolved in water when done… or kept for years to produce the identical signs later without the hours of creating the artwork by hand.

Screens would be hinged on one side on the table and have register marks so that each blank sign would be placed under the screen exactly the same. Then you mix the thick ink just so it wouldn’t run and dry out too fast. A wooden squeegee 4” tall and as long as needed to cover the area you are printing was used to push the thick ink through the silk. The hinged screen would have a spring loaded leg on one end to hold up the screen after printing to allow maybe 20 seconds to remove and also place a new blank sign into the register marks. When the blank 50 signs you are going to print are within 4 feet of the table and an area big enough to spread out the 50 wet freshly printed signs is also close by…then you can start.

HOWEVER, IF ANY PROBLEMS OCCUR YOU WILL BE HIGHLY STRESSED!!! 

And have to spend 30 minutes to clean up and start over. And any misprints are either garbage or can be painted out later. Obviously if you print on T-Shirts and GOOF, they are future RAGS.

As in most things, the PREPARATION was the most important part of the SCREEN PRINTING PROCESS. Because everything has to be done perfectly in advance. You can do this alone if you know what you’re doing. Put in a blank sign, lower the screen, poor the ink on the left side onto the silk & tilt the squeegee and at a 45 degree angle press firmly and using a medium speed go to the right end. Turn the squeegee around, lift the screen and flood the ink to the left where you started. Remove the printed sign and place a blank sign under the screen and lower the screen. Then repeat. In less than 40 seconds you have printed your 1 color image. No time for any breaks or the ink will dry into the open pours of the silk.  In 35 minutes you have printed 50 signs. If 2 or 3 colors are needed, then after spending 30 minutes cleaning the ink off of the screen and squeegee, start to set-up for color #2. It might take over an hour for your ink to dry on the first 50 signs. If you do 250 signs you need a helper so you can take turns and relieve each other and prepare more INK. Also with that many wet signs you need either drying racks or lots of space to stand the signs to they can dry.

My father had bought a company when I was 15. I SILK SCREENED several thousand 18x24” Signs… Private Property…Patrolled by Hallmark Security Services over 4 years before and during college. He also had 20 Patrol cars which needed lettering on the doors when he got new vehicles. Over 400 security guards (with special clearances – from the local Navy base) located at the new Hi Tech plants to protect their secrets.

When I was 16 I was a Semi Pro at lettering, so I traced the lettering on an older Patrol car a professional had sign painted. Then made a pattern with perforated holes outlining the letters and logo, and could line it up on the door exactly and use a small sock with cotton in it and black powder. This is called a pounce bag. You would slightly tap and rub it over the pattern for 15 seconds, then remove the pattern and do the same on the other door. You could see the small black dots of powder as your only guide. Then with a comfortable stool you would use enamel sign paint and in maybe 5 hours the doors were finished by hand.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHEN YOU FINISH IS YOUR REPUTATION! Sign your name real small on the bottom of the sign and be proud. When you are learning it takes longer and your goal is to do as good a job as you can for what the customer is paying, but always do it better than they expect, and give them good service. THEN EVERYONE IS HAPPY!

Each job is a training and practice exercise to execute the lettering more preciously next time!

THIS IS THE SAME PHILISOPHY THAT I HAVE ALWAYS USED TO LEARN THE MANY TRADES AND SKILLS THAT I HAVE ACQUIRED OVER THE LAST 65 YEARS!

I played basketball at Palo Alto High and the coach also taught typing when basketball season was over. He was also the Director of School Activities, and had a 56 Chevy convertible. The cheerleaders would ride with him around campus and promote Sock Hops, rallies & such.

He knew I was already painting signs for friends running for student body offices, even older guys for Student Body President. He told me he would give me an A in typing if I painted signs for him during class. Some done in oil paints on canvas so he could tie them to his car.

Others were paper banners in watercolor to be hung in the main corridors around campus. For two years I worked making sketches to scale, then rolling out paper in the hallway & doing a rough layout. Then rolling the paper up before kids got out of class. When painting I would have to stop 30 minutes before the bell so the paper sign would be dry so I could roll the banner up. All of this lead to more jobs for me from small businesses that supported our sports program. I would do signs for their companies like front windows, vans & even semi-trucks.

FYI… I NEVER LEARNED TO TYPE until 1983 when I got my first PC with a 20 meg hard drive!

When I was 15 I visited Virg Harkins’ small sign shop & John Chuck’s big Sign Company. Virg was 23 and divorced. His dad was a good sign painter living 50 miles away. Virg liked me and I became his helper part time. It was so much fun... he was very laid back and would drink beer from 4 to 7. He was great at teaching me and a good jokester. Virg’s shop was very close to my school and I could ride my bike from school, then home. My parents checked things out and my mother was thrilled. I still did my side jobs and I even brought bigger jobs to him.

John Chuck grew up in China and learned with a brush how to sign paint the Chinese Characters. He had been in the USA for 30 years and at 60 was the very best lettering artist ever in the San Francisco bay area. His shop was fantastic with all kinds of machines, spray booths and art studios. Though he was impressed that I was so close to being a journeyman at 15 (without spending 10 years as an apprentice in the Union), he didn’t have much time for me then but would let me come by & watch every now & then. He was really too busy with scheduling his crew & also very strict. Most of his employees respected him as he had the high end clients and they were able to do really great work they were proud of. And they got paid well... many craftsmen and artists there got over Union Scale. However most didn’t really like him as he didn’t have much of a likable personality and was very strict. They told me of company meetings when he was trying to remind them they are doing very custom work, like for HP, Memorex, Fairchild & Intel (the first hi tech companies). And making too many mistakes and wasting materials! Some grabbed pencils and with their knives started cutting off the erasers. They said John got furious!

When I was 16 I was one of the top 10 young bowlers in the Bay Area. I had a 192 average and a 279 high game and was in a traveling league representing Palo Alto Bowl. However, this Brunswick bowling alley added a large room onto the large bowling alley. In 1961 they installed (6) 9’ Brunswick Gold Crown 1 POOL TABLES (the absolute start of a legend of tables ranging to model 6 today). I would bowl in pot games with the 50 year old men and win often enough to enjoy gambling.

The high school and college kids started playing pool and gambling on 6 ball or 9 ball. I had to try and soon realized that THERE IS SOOOO MUCH MORE TO LEARN ABOUT SHOOTING GOOD POOL THAN BOWLING! After all, you have to learn how to control the cue ball so you have the correct angle to play the next 2 balls. Always a pattern of playing at least 3 balls ahead and making changes when things don’t happen as you predicted.

I had my driver’s license and this bowling alley was to far for me to ride my bike, like before. But with my own money I bought a 57 Chevy with a 283. Then I could venture out 10 miles in either direction and watch the good players gamble at El Camino Bowl. This is where I first saw an expedition match between Willie Mosconi (18 time WC at 14.1 Straight Pool) vs Tom Ryan, a local policeman who gambled and was the best player in the Bay Area. Willie gave Tom a couple of chances then ran out the entire game and then continued until he ran 100 balls straight. He took a short break and ran 61 more before he missed!

Willie WAS SO GOOD THAT HE WOULD GUARANTEE A 100 BALL RUN in front of the paying crowd or the proprietor WOULDN’T HAVE TO PAY HIM! I was HOOKED on playing pool.

My Architectural Drawing & Dimensioning Class had a 3 month project toward the end of the school year in 1962. You had to pick something involved and make all the working drawings in order to build it. Complete scale plans, with front, top & side with all dimensions, section views and special notes about how it went together. You got graded on completeness, legibility, where dimensions were placed, your detail in section plans, penmanship & quality of your pencil lines. If you repeated dimensions it makes the drawing look too cluttered. If you left out one, or a description of the materials to be used, you were graded down. This was to train you to be a draftsman or an architect.

I picked a 9’ pool table. I would go to the bowling alley when they weren’t too busy, with a tape measure and a notebook. I would crawl under the table and take notes and make sketches. My father drove me when I was still 15 to San Jose Billiard Supplies. I asked how the rails were made and they showed me the rubber and what the inside of the rails looked like.

I saw the pockets and how they were attached. I got a drawing of how the cloth was to be installed. I took notes, measurements and made sketches. During the 3 monthsI finished all the plans in class and got an A! 

I remember the following moment I’m about to describe intensely! Chuck Rumwell was in my class. He was on the gymnastics team, good looking and “popular”. He was also on the Cheerleading squad because he could flip, tumble, spin and toss and catch the pretty girls.

I was so interested in playing good pool and happy with my pool table plans that I said to him “I think maybe I’m going to build a pool table this summer in my parent’s basement.” He responded “You’re so full of S***! You’re only 16!” And he laughed and walked away! At that moment at the end of May, I made up my mind to build it! I had my own money, but knew I was going to college in 2 years, so I didn’t use slate, but 1.25” marine plywood for the base and wooden 2x6 inch rails. And a wooden cabinet. The commercial table I had measured had formica rails, a molded cabinet and stylized legs. I couldn’t afford that, but I did buy Brunswick SuperSpeed Rubber cushions (the very best) and milled the rails to the correct dimensions. I bent aluminum so it could be attached to the rails and my Mother wrapped it with brown leather and sewed the pockets. I bought (16) NEW 1961 “true silver” dimes at 10 cents each and (2) Silver Dollars from 1900 at about $5. Each. One was at the HEAD of the table (heads) (where you stand to break) and the other at the FOOT end (tails). The coins were recessed and glued 1/16” into the rails exactly 12.5” and the play area was 50 x 100”. Under the play surface was a 4x6” beam structure that the 1.25” one piece ply top screwed into. I stretched the green woolen cloth on the table & rails using the pattern I had gotten from Brunswick 4 months earlier. The entire table was stained in Mahogany and the big legs had hex head bolts in the bottom going into recessed nuts, so I could raise and lower the legs to get it level. Many guys found out about this and visited me during June & July, 1962 when I had just turned 16. Even Chuck Rumwell was impressed. Everyone wanted to come play for free. But I really wanted to just practice alone to get to be a better player. “The Hustler” movie with Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason was released in 1961! “Willie Mosconi on Pocket Billiards” also had just been reprinted in 1961. I was so excited!

I went to San Jose State starting in 64. It was located 17 miles away from Palo Alto. I still did work there but San Jose was much bigger and totally new to me. I sold my 57 Chevy and bought a NEW 1964 Pontiac GTO with (3) 2 barrel carbs, with my own money. I got commercial accounts from Western Sign Supplies in Oakland and the local art store. I subscribed to SIGNS OF THE TIMES MAGAZINE and learned from the articles about sign shops around the USA. NOTE: 18 years LATER I was featured in the May (about how I got started) and June 1982 issues about my company Sign Classics, Inc. in Silicon Valley.

My favorite teacher was Roger Condon. He was 65 and a very good all around graphic and airbrush artist. He also taught lettering. We hit it off right away because I was much better at lettering. And I also worked in exterior enamel paints for exterior signs, vehicles and window lettering, and latex paint to use on the sides of buildings. He didn’t have the experience in this kind of lettering. We both used water color paints on poster boards, which is all he worked on. I got an automatic A grade in Commercial Lettering, BUT had to work very hard to get an A in Airbrush art. He was so good at that and had 50 years experience. He could retouch anything and airbrush beautiful astronomy images.

I would sign paint vans for Colonel Sanders, big trucks for San Jose Office Furniture & Supplies and many others and drive them to the Art Department. My signature TODD was on each door. He required me to show him my work because I didn’t have to do the beginning work and practice all the time in class, like the other students. I showed up when I felt like it.

I went to see John Chuck, the master sign painter in Palo Alto that I would drop by and see when I was 15-17. He had recently had his top 2 sign painters go “out on their own” after many years. He hired me to work 3 days a week for my Junior and Senior years in college.

He was so good that I respected him greatly for his skills.

HE TOLD ME THAT I WOULD START HAVE TO START OVER TO LEARN HOW TO LETTER BY HAND! … HIS WAY… AND COPY HIS BRUSH MOVEMENTS. THAT I HAD SOME FLAWS AND BAD HABITS! THEN WHEN I MASTERED HIS WAY I COULD MAKE MY OWN DECISIONS AND HE WOULD LEAVE ME ALONE.

That was the ADVICE I could have EVER HAD! He paid me as a 5th year apprentice (Union Rules) which was less than anyone else would have paid me. But he taught me! He made me wipe off enamel lettering that wasn’t “up to his expectations” and start over many times the first few months. We were so busy and I couldn’t keep up. So he hired a 60 year old journeyman that got paid more than me, and John didn’t bother him. But he didn’t like his skills and said he wasn’t going to waste his time “TRYING TO TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS!” In my Senior year of college he paid me over Journeyman Scale… but there was a problem! The Union said it was unfair because I was only 21 and had not completed a 10 year apprentice program in the Union. They finally said that IF 3 other contractors said THEY WOULD HIRE ME AS A JOURNEYMAN THAT IT WOULD BE OK. So I had to take examples of my work and photos (a portfolio) to 3 sign companies in the Bay Area and they all wrote the Union that I was better than a Journeyman.

In another Commercial Art class Mr. Schmidt was our teacher. He was about 55 and smoked a fat cigar. He owned Sam Schmidt Graphic Designs, one of the best firms in the Bay Area. At that time he only taught one class, and it was hard to get into. He was quite a philosopher in addition to being a great teacher. My Senior year with him was unique. I knew I would work for myself…already was for 10 years. But every other student was interested in getting their first job.

There were several “dream assignments” such as Designing a Wine Logo and Label for a new Napa Valley vineyard. Or a Record album cover for the Rolling Stones! In May we were asked to design a Billboard Ad Campaign for Robert F. Kennedy who was running for President.  (Unfortunately on June 6th,1968 he was assassinated just as our class was ending!) 

Of course I participated in these “DREAM PROJECTS”. But most of the year was dedicated towards creating a DESIGN PORTFOLIO that represented your special skills, imagination and versatility. You also had to learn how to setup interviews, and to speak well with a positive attitude about what you could do for the firm that was interested in hiring you as a designer. He reminded everyone how hard it is to get your first job, and it probably won’t be as glamorous as you hope for. He told us all that there probably would be many rejections and not every job is the right fit for you anyway, so keep your chin up and keep trying.

In January he allowed us to start looking for our FIRST JOB and to report to the class.

He wasn’t thrilled that I wasn’t interested in the concept of looking for a “JOB” as a designer. But I did turn in my designs that I was getting PAID for from my customers, and signs I designed working for John Chuck’s sign company. I already knew how to comfortably speak with potential customers and could always dazzle someone in 4 minutes with a quickie sketch and show them my photos in my PORTOLIFO BINDER! And by then I was good at estimating and also at writing contracts.

He gave me a B+ because I didn’t follow his program. However, only one student got an A, and most got B and C grades. He arranged a party for all of us to attend at the end of August, at his beautiful house with great art and contemporary design features. The plan was to see who had gotten hired and where they worked and what they experienced. It was to be a sharing concept so everyone could learn from and support their fellow students.

Paul Sinn was the student that got the A, and our teacher hired him in June. Another student got a job doing paste up for the weekly PAYLESS black and white newspaper ads showing the product logos that were for sale and the special prices… so low on the totem pole!

The other 30 students had tried for 8 months to get their FIRST JOB, BUT WERE UNSUCCESSFUL!

NOTE: Though other students liked me personally and admired my talents, many looked down at my skills as though I wasn’t a “true artist”. That was the case also in my illustration and painting classes. They all thought you should design, sculpt or paint something first and let a buyer decide to BUY IT IN A GALLERY! Our class program was actually called Commercial Art! But they thought sign painting and being a lettering artist was TOO COMMERCIAL! And some of the 8’ x 16’ small billboards that did had full color architectural renderings of the Hi Tech building under construction. That was the HIPPIE influence!

If I had ONLY KNOWN that I could make millions of dollars painting Campbell Soup Cans, and be forever FAMOUS as a POP ARTIST also, and hang out with the celebrities at the famous Studio 54 nightclub in New York, I would have done that in 1968!

After all, I was a much better lettering artist than Andy Warhol!

NOTE: About 10 years later Sam Schmidt asked me to bid on a big sign system for one of his clients, and he remembered me well. I got the bid and did some other projects for his firm.

After college in 1969 I wasn’t certain if I would be drafted to go to Vietnam. I was married and my son was born in 1970. I did get a good lottery number in 1971 and didn’t have to go. However until I knew that, I concentrated on sign painting I could do out of my apartment, which had a small studio. I didn’t have space to build signs then, just plywood signs, window and truck lettering or on the sides of buildings using tall ladders and planks.

The most impressive lettering involved the use of pure 23k gold, or 16k or 10k.

The most common 23k gold leaf work was done in REVERSE on the INSIDE of the glass window to be seen from the outside. It was expensive because of the price of gold. All Banks, Savings & Loans, Stock Brokers, Title companies, Jewelry and other fine stores would feature 23k and maybe some trim in the lighter 16k. 10k looked like silver (just like a mirror…the gold would reflect like a mirror also). In 1966 I bought the book “Gold Leaf Techniques” by Raymond Le Blanc, published in 1961. Nobody taught me…I practiced what I learned in this book. NOTE: When they revised the book 25 years later they used photos of 6 signs I had won awards for from SIGNS OF THE TIMES magazine in the newer version, with credit to me.

Gold leaf can also be used on surfaces other than clear glass. Law firms would have beautiful Walnut or Mahogany doors. All Fire Trucks had fancy gold leaf. And State Capital Domes and church steeples hundreds of feet high would have pure 23k gold glued to them. Gold could be cleaned and outlast paint, but after 30 years the gold would need to be replaced.

I became a Master at this work because your skills had to be excellent and it paid very well. Most sign painters couldn’t letter as small as necessary (5/8” tall) and to execute the letters backwards was much harder! I had a contract with American LaFrance to Gold Leaf and also pinstripe all the Fire Trucks in the North West for 13 years. They were built in Attica, NY and driven to Santa Clara, CA where their main NW factory was. All the pumps, generators, gages, hoses, ladders etc, were added. Then I would come and Sign Paint with pure gold glued to the tacky letters, then outline the letters and add a shadow effect, with clear varnish to protect when washing the trucks. We would jack up the truck 3” so I could hold a pinstripe brush in the rim and someone would spin the wheel. Later when I had a 15,000 sf building they would park a Hook & Ladder Truck inside for 4 days. In 1973 the garage in my house was carpeted and I had an art studio. Race Car Owners would bring their Show cars or Dragsters in for custom lettering or Gold Leaf and leave them inside also.

In San Francisco in 1964 Carol Doda danced topless at the Condor Club, but no alcohol could be served. But at Go-Go joints girls danced in Bikinis, sometimes up in cages. Goldie Hawn danced as a Go-Go girl on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In” TV show on NBC. One of the writers was Lorne Michaels who went on to start Saturday Night Live! They were both HUGH HITS. Goldie was all painted in water color paint with slogans like “Make Love, Not War” and also paisley Hippy art. Go-Go joints were a hit all over California and they served liquor! Whisky a Go-Go in LA was maybe the most famous, founded in 1964. It was the launching pad for many bands like The Doors, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Van Halen, Johnny Rivers, Led Zeppelin and many more. 

I turned 21 at just the right time, 1967. The Condor Club in San Francisco lobbied the Alcohol laws in California and WON. Soon many of the Go-Go clubs in the Bay Area turned into TOPLESS CLUBS in 1967. And many new clubs opened. There were over 200 topless clubs within 2 years and they only served beer. I was working in Palo Alto on Fridays and hired to go to a local topless club around 7 pm. I would “paint” slogans and paisley artwork using fluorescent water base paint on several girls for $5 each. They had a black light over the stripper pole so the colors were very bright. BUT they also had (4) 7’ Valley coin-op pool tables and it would get crowed around 8 pm. HOW COULD THIS GET ANY BETTER YOU ASK! Well there were no lap dances, but the bar maids and waitresses were all topless and in stockings. Only the big bouncers had clothes on. Tall Draft Beer or Longnecks, but $3.50 each…plus $1.50 tip made it $5. If you didn’t tip the girls they wouldn’t give you the time of day. ALL CASH. AND the Blue Collar workers had just cashed their paychecks!!! They didn’t know how to play pool, they just wanted to be in a topless club on Friday night and have fun!

You would put a single quarter on the pool table to challenge the winner. Every game of 8 ball was for a drink, which was basically a $5 bill. Once I would win 2 beers I would say to the challenger, $5 CASH only, I already have a beer! Rarely would I loose. If I did I would challenge another table. If I won 15 games in a row, maybe some of the new arrivals didn’t know that, but the ones that I did beat would just go to another table because I was too good. Rarely did people get upset when I won. And actually I played only good enough to win! So my plan would fail because I ended up loosing. But that was sometimes a good idea! Sometimes a challenger would say, “Let’s play first to 3 wins $25 or even $50.” Rich guys maybe thought I might get nervous playing for $50 a game. But I would rather play a race to 5 for $100. If the other challengers didn’t mind, it was OK. Some watching would actually side bet on one of us. I had to watch what I drank, and sometimes I poured my drink in the trash when nobody was watching. I had a 45 minute drive home, so around 11 I would drive south to San Jose and go to another club closer to home. I might visit 3 or 4 clubs and leave at 2 am. I usually won at least $250, every Friday night! Sometimes more. There were times I would recognize a very good player from California Billiards, the very top pool hall in the south bay. My friend “Poker Paul” was doing this also. We would never play each other and wouldn’t “blow each other’s cover!”

After I was married and had a son, I would still go out Friday nights. In 1973 when my son was 3 we would all watch “Sanford & Son” at 8:30. What a great show. My son and I would dance to the theme song…with me on my knees. At 9 when the show was over I would be gone until 2 am. My wife would let me sleep in, but pull all the small bills out of my Jeans and count it. She would tell me what I won over Coffee Saturday morning. It helped finance the growth of my sign company with new tools and equipment like a band saw, joiner, table & radial saw. 

I had another 20 x 30’ room added to the back of our garage for this equipment! I continued this off and on for over 15 years. I had a pool table in my house, and sometimes I went to California Billiards to watch the players who gambled everyday, and didn’t have a job.

Since I had my own business I couldn’t play as well as some of them because they did play 40 hours a week and were always in stroke!

My family used to love camping. Yosemite and Lake Tahoe were just 3.5 hours away. South of Lake Tahoe was Silver Lake at the top of Kit Carson Pass from Sacramento CA to Carson City NV. When Silver was discovered in Nevada that was the shortest way to San Francisco where the big banks were. When I was camping in 1969 I found out Kirkwood Ski Resort would open in 1972 and the Pass would then be open all year round. I made a Proposal to do all their main Signs, Area Maps, Trail Signs, Lift Signs, Resort & Directional Signs, as well as 7,500 signs most people never saw. Out of Bounds, Cliff Area Danger, Avalanche Danger etc. My small company at that time was JUST ME, and my wife as a helper. We underbid the very large San Francisco, Sacramento & Reno sign companies. Most work would be installed in the summer, but I would have to go during the ski season (I had a season pass and was a good skier) and sign paint with gloves on and a propane heater in front of me.

This contract lasted 18 years because of the expansion of this great Ski Resort. It only ended when they filed for Chapter 13 and then came out with new owners. By 1998 we were way to busy with SILICON VALLEY clients anyway.

In 1976 I founded Sign Classics, Inc., an Architectural & Electrical Sign company just as Silicon Valley was starting to bloom. I rented a 15,000 sf 2 story building with a large yard for our trucks and 2 boom trucks, one that could go 100’ into the air and lift 2,500 pounds. In 1983 I bought my first PC and wrote estimating programs on Excell. Next year I bought 2 more with 40 meg hard drives. One for the art dept to digitize custom logos and one for the accounting. Also in 1984 my first computer that had a plotter with that could cut vinyl letters and logos. Then in 1988 more computers & larger plotters, a $100,000. Routing table with a milling motor that could cut brass, plastic wood and Styrofoam. We used the Styrofoam inside concrete signs we would pour sign structures onsite in front of major Hi Tech parks and even San Jose International Airport. Some signs were 10’ tall and maybe 75’ long. We would build the forms in our shop in pieces, lift them with our cranes and place them on the foundations we had poured into the big lawns in front of major buildings. Some sign forms were even curved to go on a street corner as an entry sign into an R&D park. Many had holes drilled for electrical wiring for the neon letters we produced and then covered the neon with stainless steel letters we made, but spaced the letters away from the concrete wall so at night the neon (in any color if you use argon gas which is white with painted glass tubes, neon gas is red with clear glass, or neon with pink glass is pink) will glow like a “HALO EFFECT” around the stainless steel letters.

General contractors would hire us to make the signs ourselves because we would do all the details with finesse, since this was to be an architectural concrete sign that usually had some features to match the building. Some of these signs would cost $50k to $100k.

Within 10 years we were the largest sign company in Silicon Valley and competing with larger sign & design companies in SF, LA, Chicago and the East Coast.

But Sign Classics was LOCAL and BUSINESS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER! Large jobs were everywhere and when we satisfied a major Hi Tech company we ended doing maybe 25-50 buildings for them and many other companies over the next 15 years. Referrals and Repeat business was great. These computer companies were and are all household names. As well as Hyatt Regency hotels, Ski Resorts and many hospitals. We even did 556 locations of Chuck E. Cheese restaurants all over the world. That’s because the inventor of PONG, the first video game, founded Atari who was our client for 8 years. Nolan Bushnell sold it for $100 million to Warner Communications in 1980 and started Pizza Time Theater. After their bankruptcy five years later the franchises bought the company stores and changed the name to Chuck E. Cheese.

BTW, I went to Palo Alto High school, which is across the street from the Stanford football Stadium. The SF 49ers won their first Super Bowl there in 1985. My father had graduated from STANFORD with a MBA in 1940. Stanford’s brilliant Physics, Math & Electrical engineering students started businesses that became Silicon Valley. 30 years before I graduated William Hewlett & David Packard went to my same high school…and Steve Jobs lived 15 minutes away, but after founding APPLE he moved to Palo Alto, which is home now to Facebook, Tesla & many other top companies. Google is next door in Menlo Park. I worked closely with many Research & Development property developers 40 years ago doing design and sign systems for their R & D Parks as well as all of their Tenants. Four of my former clients are now Billionaires. HEWLETT PACKARD was the first Hi Tech company in 1939 and over many years they donated over $5 Billion to Stanford’s Medical Research Center and built the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 1984, certainly one of the finest in the world. They partnered with McDonald’s House to with care for kids at Stanford Hospital. Very Cool!

BUT there was stress running a major company with over 50 craftsmen!!! I really learned all of their trades, such as welding, spray painting, fabricating, forming sheet metal and aluminum letters, developing large film positives from the copy camera, operating the computer controlled machines, pouring concrete and operating the crane trucks. The only thing I didn’t learn was how to heat up and bend the neon tubes. When I bought Walker Neon Co., Mr. Walker came to work for me for 15 years. I needed to understand how things should be built so I could design and estimate them to get the project sold.

Every client wanted their custom projects ASAP and the need to keep investing in newer computer systems was a major investment every 5 years as computers improved. The sign painting artwork and individual cut out letters I did by hand in the 60s, 70s and 80s were now done with computers and $100,000. CNC milling machines. I could NOT hire enough skilled sign artists anyway. Estimating custom jobs became MY JOB description as well as President. If I spent 40 hours estimating a $500,000. project and was too high, I might lose this client forever. If I bid too low, I might lose money and tie up my shop for 2 months just to finish the project, and miss other ASAP jobs along the way. If I was involved in a design project I had to do it at night when the phone wasn’t ringing and I could do what I really enjoyed and skillful at in peace. I was in a “CATCH 22” SITUATION! I did not feel I personally had the skills to take the company to $10 million in sales, and I thought the risk of investment was too great for my shoulders alone.

I was and still am an artist that is very skillful with my hands, and wants to do projects very well. I made lots of money in the Sign Business but developed Hi Blood pressure and after 30 years I sold my company when I was 50.

Visiting Corpus Christi, Texas was the key to my decision! I started windsurfing in the Caribbean in 1980 in warm water. Then I bought a wetsuit and equipment. I sailed in SF bay and the Pacific Ocean 2 times a week. Every year I went south to warm water on a windsurfing vacation. I windsurfed islands in the Caribbean, Dominion Republic, Aruba, Margarita Island off the coast of Venezuela, Cancun & Baja Mexico, Key West, Hawaii and Hood River Oregon east of Portland (cold water but great conditions).

But in April 1994 I stayed on North Beach in Corpus Christi for a week. I read about Corpus Christi in Wind Surf Magazine and the US Open Championships were held their for 25 years.

I couldn’t believe you could live on the water (south part of Oso Bay…off of CC Bay), sail out your backyard with no wetsuit, drive around without California traffic, have no state income tax and meet fun Texas folks. In my first week there I dreamed of starting a pool hall. It took 1 year to sell my company and 1 year to work for the buyer as a sub-contractor.

In the last 50 years, I’ve always had a 9’ pool table in my house and been a very good player. In 1994 I became a BCA (Billiard Congress of America) pool instructor.

In 1995 I moved to Corpus Christi and TOTALLY changed my lifestyle, but not my desire to achieve. I bought the land behind the Outback Steakhouse on SPID. A new fun & challenging project for me… design & build a first class Upscale Billiard Room. Paradise Pool & Billiards opened in 1999, and in 2001 Billiards Digest magazine (Nov. 2001 issue) Awarded it in their Architectural Awards the #7 Upscale Billiard Room in the USA.

As a designer, I knew of German Design and how exceptional and stylish the most common products are. From my sign painting days I learned that many of the top FONTS used in typography were designed by Germans. And BOSCH tools and Kitchen Appliances are very top quality, as are Klein Tools.

Actually Marc Lehmacher has another business in Europe that designs and fabricates Custom Kitchens for the upper class that can afford this. Many kitchen and household products are part of the German design. After battling table sales against Brunswick and Diamond in the USA, he closed down the Lehmacher pool table company in 2010. He was successful with his pool tables in Europe and his other design ventures.

Compare a Porsche 911 Carrera with a Corvette. The 911 has not changed its stylish look very much since 1965, but performance and style always improve. Corvettes have redesigned their cars many times. Also compare a Mercedes, Audi or Porsche Cayenne with a Cadillac SUV.

The Germans (and all of Europe) actually install cloth on a pool table differently than the Americans. Their method is SUPERIOR! Especially in the pocket areas where the cloth is stretched along the cushion facings with only one layer of cloth and no wrinkles or folds, even under the nose of the rails. And stretched with gripper tools to be as tight as possible. And using staples to attach the cloth tighter rather than gluing the cloth to the slate. And the pockets fit precisely and flush into the rails.

Rasson, a Chinese Tournament table is now a great tournament table ($8,400. And we are their dealer) that compares to the Diamond ($8,800) & Brunswick Gold Crown 6 ($12,800.) When these tables are used in Europe and Asia the German method of installing cloth is used. But in the USA few table mechanics know how and most use the lesser quality method.

Bobby was a fantastic cue maker in Carson City who used a Pantagraph system on his cue lathe. When he found out my sign company had a CNC milling machine I started making templates for his lathe to help make inlays in his cue sticks. At that time his cues started at $1,500. and up. We traveled to a BCA trade show every year FOR 4 YEARS as I planned my billiard room. He ended up buying a full blown computer controlled cue making system and has become one of the world’s best cue makers. BTW, in 2018 one of his cues won best of show and sold for $18,500.! His excellence and passion in playing pool at the very top level and his desire to design and make the best cues in the world attracted my attention!

We looked at all the tournament table options and realized that the German made Lehmacher table was way better than the Brunswick Gold Crown 3 and the Diamond wood tables available in 1999. Bobby had set up his own tournament tables over the years and was very demanding, but he really didn’t like doing TABLE MECHANICS. His passion was making cues and practicing pool. We talked about what made a significance difference in how tables play and how most American pool table mechanics would cut corners and tables would just be ok. Plus there would be wrinkles and the tables didn’t look like they fit well, and the cloth was loose, the table would play slow and balls would curve slightly. Maybe ok for folks who didn’t care and wanted a cheap price. But not good enough for him. Or me for that matter!

Well my German friend Ralf Souquet was the Pro Player Rep for Lehmacher. Naturally Bobby and Ralf had know each other for years. I first met Ralf at the Sands Regency Open 9 ball event in Reno in 1993. I played at the major Handicap 9 ball event produced by the USPPA.  Out of 450 players I came in 7th Place! The player who barely beat me won the event, and since I was the better player I did have to give him a handicap! But he did play great!  Ralf & I had dinner and played blackjack. When I won and he lost I loaned him money and then we both won more! We had a great time and I saw him every 6 months in RENO for many years at this great tournament.

In 1996 he won his First World Championship in Sweden winning 11-1 in the finals. In 1993 Ralf was slightly overweight and had red hair. He committed himself to training both physically and mentally and lost weight! His new commitment to excellence made him the BEST player world wide for the next 20 years. If you search YOUTUBE for him you will see how calm he his at all times…maybe the very best mental game ever. He has traveled over 2 million miles in 20 years to win events everywhere…Russia, China, Taipei, Manila, Australia, USA and all over Europe. He has represented TEAM EUROPE 17 times in the MOSCONI CUP, way more than any other player ever. When Ralf was elected into the BCA Hall of fame in 2011 he asked me to sit at his table with his wife and fellow countryman Thorsten Hohmann during the ceremony! That year in 2011 Ralf & Thorsten won the World Cup of Pool as a Scotch Doubles Team playing 9 ball! Thorsten will go into the Hall of Fame when he turns 45.

Ralf, Bobby & I loved the Lehmacher Tournament tables and the design was way superior to any other table. Marc Lehmacher, the designer had other design & fabricating companies. The Lehmacher was the first pool table designed with flush pockets that allowed shooting with your cue resting on the back of the pocket area. And also it had 22 leveling bolts that allowed the slates to be adjusted to within .001” or less AFTER the cloth was on, from underneath! And the 4 legs had leveling bolts that allowed for a floor that might change over the years due to a building settling. This table started it all!

The President of Brunswick Billiards met me at the 1998 US Open and made me a very good offer to buy their tournament tables, as did the President of Diamond Billiards. The Brunswick (a famous USA company since 1845) tables were being made in Brazil, and the Diamond tables in Kentucky. None of their tables had the features then in 1998. So I bought 10 Lehmacher Tournament tables in 1999 and had the shipped from Germany.

By 2003 both Brunswick and Diamond tables had copied the Lehmacher table but they do not look as good but do play as well IMHO.

In 1999 my (10) Lehmacher tables were delivered. Two German table mechanics arrived and rented a Renske got the shipment out of customs. My other pool tables were setup by Rick Jones from Tacoma WA. He was a friend and I was way too busy setting up (20) pool tables for the Social Players when my business was about to open. However I watched the German installers work in the tournament room and saw that the rails were covered back in Germany. I could see the extra skill that went into the way the cloth was installed. The Simonis cloth was so smooth and tight it looked like it had been painted on. All the staples on the back holding the cloth in place were in a very steady and consistent pattern. All evenly spaced and with the same stretch pattern. The way cloth was stretched into the pockets was different than I had ever seen. The finished product was beyond A+.

One year later I recovered 28 of my 30 tables and throughout the year had practiced what I had seen on the German rails. I REVERSE ENGINEERED the way the cloth was installed as I removed it and practiced. I was very happy with my new skills.

The next year was to be my first major tournament…the Corpus Christi Classic 2002. I knew many world class champions would attend, as well as top vendors selling high end cues. I wanted my billiard room to get a great reputation so I did my best job. My friend Bobby Hunter and at least 40 of the 128 players noticed how well the tables were covered. How did I do it? Bobby actually said “It looks like the cloth is painted on!” Exactally my impression of what I thought when I first saw the German technique. I was very proud and players would mention my skills every time they came in. I sold all of the T-shirts that were made for the event. BTW I visited Bobby & his family in Chicago in 2019.

In 2002 I produced and was the Tournament Director for the First Corpus Christi Classic 9 Ball Open. For 4 years we had 128 players with between $30k and $60k in prize money. Way more than the Texas State Open in Austin! Great players came from all over the USA, and some from Asia & Europe. Gabe Owen drove 14 hours from Tulsa OK and won both the 2002 & 2003 events, AND in 2004 won the US OPEN in Virginia, the biggest event of the year!

 See TV screen CREDITS of Gabe Owen winning the Corpus Christi Classic shown during a match at the US OPEN before he won the Finals. I saw Rodney Morris, from Hawaii, WIN a Reno tournament and told him about my event in 2004. He was already a US OPEN champion. He came from Florida and won my 2004 event! 

In 2005 Paradise Billiards was selected to be the ONLY billiard room in Texas (we were only room in Texas with over (8) 9’ tournament tables) allowed to do a QUALIFIER for the new International Pool Tour (IPT) which had purses of over $1 million dollars held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas! Karl Boyes flew from London for his first trip to the USA to my room and WON. He said on the internet that my room was a TRUE PARADISE and that I ran the event SPOT ON! Then he said “Cherrio, off to Vegas Baby! In the North American IPT event he won $55,000. because he had won our qualifier! He has since won 3 World Championships.

My close friend Thorsten Hohmann won that North American IPT event and pocketed $350,000. And has won 9 different World championships in 8 ball, 9 ball, 14.1 Straight Pool and Scotch Doubles 9 ball with his German traveling buddy Ralf Souquet since.

Rodney Morris won $99,000. at the next Las Vegas event and Efren Reyes, the very best pool player of all time won $500,000. when I was there in Las Vegas. Efren is from the Philippines and told his older Filipino buddy Jose Parica to come to my event, which Jose won in 2005. All of these players are in the Billiard Congress (BCA) Hall of Fame and many times World Champions.

In 2010 I got Cancer for the first time at 64. I was very sick for a long time. Click’s was a small billiard room 1/3 our size, but with a fun crowd. The owner, Nick Alexander operated about 40 billiard and sports bars from Phoenix to Florida, with most rooms in Texas. Their 20 year lease was up and they talked to me about leasing my billiard room. They would close and their customers would most likely follow. Their headquarters was in Dallas and all operations and bills would be paid by them and they would lease my building as it was. I could keep my office, billiard showroom and my airconditioned shop space in the back.

Nick, the President, was also on the Board of Directors of the Billiard Congress of America since he was the owner of a major chain of pool halls. He formed an LLC and he became my tenant. As my health got better I started running the leagues and helped get company parties for his room earning a commission. I organized the parties as I had for 11 years to the major companies in town, especially before Christmas. My billiard business, Paradise Billiards stayed the same. I just didn’t run the billiard business which was renamed Click’s Paradise Billiards. I only sold new and used pool tables and serviced existing pool tables in South Texas as before. Things went great for 5 years, but they were wasting money IMHO trying to get live music going. They had me take out and sell my 6x12 snooker and a 5x10 carom table because they didn’t think they brought enough revenue per sf. Then they had me take out some 9’ tournament tables to make room for a dance floor. Big mistake on their part.

Around the 6th year of their lease they started to not spend money on landscaping, carpet cleaning, keeping the tables, balls, chairs clean and general cleaning on the building walls and restrooms. It really started to look shabby. I would see their financials and they were making money, but ignoring things like interior painting, changing filters and general cleanliness. All the customers would ask me why? The customers had always liked the way it was when I ran it. But at the time being sick I felt it was the best long term option. It takes lots of effort to oversee a restaurant and full bar, even with computers and inventory control.

However, in 6 months I found out why. Their corporate headquarters was having trouble with 2 new free standing buildings that they owned and operated sports bars and restaurants in Dallas. They were loosing so much money in those facilities that they were facing foreclosure. So they took our manager, and the district manager for all of Texas and sent them to those businesses. Their replacement manager stopped inventorying liquor and new waitresses started giving away drinks to big spenders in exchange for BIG TIPS that they could keep. So money for the liquor didn’t go in the tills. They started losing BIG MONEY right away. As I said I could see their financials. Then they stopped paying the rent. I spent 3 months trying to restructure their lease which had 14 years to go. But my TENANT, THE PRESIDENT OF CLICKS, INC., (who was an extremely wealthy real estate attorney) and had an LLC in his own name and was my tenant, decided his LLC was insolvent. I did have to have him evicted in Dec. 2017. I then tried to find someone else to run the billiard room. I finally listed the building For Sale or Lease and did sell my building in the beginning of 2019.

IT BROKE MY HEART TO SEE MY BEAUTIFUL BUILDING AND BILLIARD ROOM GO AWAY.

Then 3 months later I got Cancer in my tongue and left tonsil. In September 2019 I had surgery, then Chemo and Radiation for 3 months. I couldn’t eat for 5 months and lost 45 pounds. My billiard business kept on going with my small staff. I could only answer the phone and email out contracts and deposit checks and keep the books. No physical labor because I was in bed all the time, except for Dr. appointments and radiation every day.

I have been CANCER FREE since May, 2020. I BEAT CANCER TWICE and at 74 I’m back at work! I still have 40 pounds to gain because I don’t have all my taste buds and saliva. But I do enjoy working and it is good exercise and I do like to meet customers and make them happy!

I know the following from table installers who have worked at these stores, or done work for the billiard chains such as Clicks, Slick Willies, Barney’s or Fast Eddies throughout Texas. These type of pool halls ONLY want to SELL BEER & LIQUOR. Maybe they will have One or Two 9’ pool tables with better cloth for the better players to gamble on. Their installers do only the bare minimum because the owners look at these costs as EXPENSES and not as IMPROVEMENTS!

There are Big Box Stores, such as Billiard Factory stores in SA, Houston, Austin & Dallas, and also Austin Billiards. These stores are located in big cities and will have on display from 15 to 40 pool tables. They carry basically the same brands that Paradise Billiards does, but you can touch and feel them. They still have to order your table. But Corpus Christi is way too small a town for their liking.

However, they train their mechanics to install a pool table in about 3 hours! 

They have a specialist in their shop who covers the rails in advance. Unless major travel is involved the company expects the morning installer team to be back at the showroom by 12 noon. Another crew has already loaded another vehicle for the same team to leave after lunch around 1 pm for the 2nd install of the day. They are NOT permitted to take in a LEVEL, and after setting up the table quickly (not taking the time to stretch the cloth real tight), they will roll balls on the table to see if it is close to level. Since they do not use at least 22 tapered shims around and under the slates, the center slate will ALWAYS be low because the weight of 570 pounds on an 8’ cabinet. With a leg in each corner of the cabinet and no legs in the middle, the cabinet will sag at least .125”. And your floor is NEVER level enough. So the biggest installer will get under the table and “bench press” the table up 1/2“ so his partner can put spacers of various thickness under 1 or more legs. Sometimes they actually tap a tapered shim under a leg until they think it is OK. Then the rest of the shim sticks out for the customer to see on the carpet. When the installers think it is close enough they will leave!

The store managers know MOST CUSTOMERS CANNOT MAKE 3 BALLS IN ONE TURN, so they figure the ordinary customer will not complain, even if the table rolls a little and there are wrinkles in the pocket areas! With loose cloth the balls will slow down quicker!

However, in the very big cities in the USA there are usually one or two PLAYER rooms where the owner buys great equipment and wants to see the best players come almost everyday! BUT sometimes there are not good table mechanics living there who have trained and have the patience to do as good a job as the tournament table deserves. Then after maybe 3 years the tables don’t look and play as well as when they were new! Some room owners will find out who is good in their state and have the good table mechanic to come visit for 2 weeks to recover 20 tables correctly. This happens to me when I am asked to go out of state,

These PLAYER rooms are similar to the Private Golf courses who spend more money on green keeping and keeping the fairways and course “up to PAR”. They appeal to the wealthier golfers who can afford to pay more. Obviously the Municipal Golf Courses DON’T HAVE THE SAME BUDGET and the average golfer complains but understands.