Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/549054
BY GEORGE PORTER SERVICE & SET-UP What A Ride This Has Been! In the very early 70's I had just graduated from Embry Riddle Aeronautical Institute in Daytona Beach, Fla. Went looking for a job as a pilot; me and many thousand others apparently. TWA had just laid off 700 of their pilots and most of the other airlines did too. Bummer! After about a year of scouring the earth for a seat in a plane I had three job possibilities. Flying helicopters above the arc- tic circle for no pay on what was called the DEW line, just to remain current. Or. I could immi- grate to Australia and apply to the Ministry of the Interior for a paid job shooting wild dogs from a hel- icopter because they were eating sheep. Or. A couple of businessmen in the town where I lived had just bought a big pig farm and they wanted to turn it into a trailer park. They asked me if I could do that? I said absolutely! "What does one look like?" They said there were several around the area and they all seemed to be doing OK, so make it look like them. So that was my entry into Manufactured Housing some 44 years ago. I worked at that 39 6-unit development for 20 years. Built it, sold the homes, got them setup, rented the lots, evicted when I had too, chased cats, and occasionally helped little crying kids find their new house when they got off the school bus at the front of the community. I only sold one brand of home. They all looked about the same back then so they would get lost sometimes. I actually sold homes to three generations of people in the devel- opment. I really liked the whole thing. One thing that I learned was that nice people de- serve to be treated very nicely and if you do that for a bum they will think they have found a sucker. I didn't like bums and neither did their neighbors. You could never even think of doing what I did back then today. I had a person who was a big problem and they would not leave. Went to court, I won, but so what? They would not leave the house! So much for the lawyer's advice. Repossessing an oc- cupied home right off the blocks with a truck would definitely make the papers today (or at least You Tube) The neighbors all cheere d! Never saw the bums again. That was then and now is now. Still, sometimes you just gotta' do what needs doing. That is why this is my last article. Jim, Shirley, and Sheila (the Georgia Peach) at the Journal are special people to me. They have treated me well and I hope I have returned the favor; I certainly have intended to. Now it is time for me to stop writing. The last thing I want is to rattle on until I can't do a job worthy of my friends. I don't think that time is here yet but at 72 you know it is coming so I am cutting back a bit. My internet classes at MHEI will continue and I will do an occasional live seminar. This industry has been quite an experience. The people I have met are easy to like and remember. They are all a little bit similar in that they have a determination to succeed and they will work like a demon to make that happen. When I started to get around in the industry I was lucky enough to meet many of the "originals." These were people who started their companies and made it happen. Art Decio, Wally Wells, Sam Widener, Ed Hussy, Jim Clayto n and others were people who would not be intimidated just because it was really hard to grow an industry. They enjoyed it. One of my favorites was a fellow named Ken Brink at Hart Housing. Together we made about 4 hours of video on how to install and inspect a home. It was the biggest investment in preventa- tive maintenance I had ever seen from a manufac- turer. We did good things there and the videos continue to be used to this day, 15+ years later. The very first video series I ever made was for Sky- line Corp. 'Little story here too. I was driving my old Mercury station wagon full of class materials from Kentucky to Wisconsin to do another installa- tion seminar. I got to thinking that Elkhart Indiana was only 150 miles out of the way and maybe I could do some good there. I had been talking to Jim Baker, the Skyline Customer Relations guy at the Corporate headquarters. So I drove up t o the front of the building, walked in and asked to see Jim. Jim was way too nice to turn away some guy who had driven all the way from Delaware (technically true) so he came down and got me and we went up to his office. After a little chatting I asked when we were supposed to see Bill Murschel, the CEO. He looked a little confused and said' "you were sup- posed to see Bill?" I said ' "Don't you remember?" Poor Jim looked a little embarrassed and picked up the phone and called the CEO of Skyline one floor up. Then he said, "We can go now if you like?" OH! I liked alright! When we walked in to that big corner office it took Mr. Murschel about 15 seconds to figure out what was up here, but he apparently decided to be gracious enough to give me five minutes before he tossed me out. I wish I knew what I said in that five minutes but it was an out of body experience and I cannot recall it. It was something about in- stallation being the major cause of his service ex- penses and it needed to be fixed and I thought I could do it. Bill had started at Skyline by working in a factory putting siding on travel trailers many years ago and he knew how things worked. He stood up after I finished whatever it was I said, and he said, "Come with me please?" I had a bad feel- ing at that point! He marched me into his chief en- gineer John Mikel's Office and said, "This is George and he wants to help us with service costs, let me know if you need me for anything".... and walked out. I was in shock! John looked at me for a few seconds and won- dered who in the world is this guy and why do I have to be dealing with him? Over time John and I rewrote the Skyline installation manual and made the first installation video. We also gave installation seminars at every Skyline factory in the country. I worked with him until his retirement many years later; very nice fellows at Skyline every one. Even- tually I worked with nearly every manufacturer in the country and was even sent to Japan to teach them what to do with the homes we sent them. Lesson here? Even the turtle doesn't get ahead un- less he sticks his neck out. In fact almost everyone I have met in the indus- try is great if you give them a chance to be so. Most of all I have enjoyed the installers. Even though they may get a little dirty at times, they clean up fine and they are 99% warm, generous, and smart people. They are like the navy seals of the manu- factured housing industry. They may be a little dif- ferent, but most of them can get it done when everyone else has run out of ideas and ambition. You have to respect that. Last and certainly not least, a thank y ou to my wife of 46 years. Pauline has put up with my travel and involvement with this industry the whole time. It was fun for me but I am sure not always for her. She handled it well with class and good nature. I have been lucky in many ways. Thank you all, see you on the internet. www.George-Porter.com T J