Clayton had joined the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers and had been working as a foreman for one of the contractors
working on the Cadillac Tank Plant in Cleveland, Ohio. The experience and
reputation which he established there made him one of the top electricians in
the area and brought him to the attention of an even larger contractor.
2 At work, Clayton was known as “Ernie,” and everyone
respected his electrical and mechanical knowledge and skills. “Ernie, we have a
job at the Lewis Research Center that we’d like you to handle for us,” Bob
Garland of McCoy Electric told him. “I’m working for Durkee,” he replied.
3 “Ernie, this is big!” Bob persisted. “They want us
to wire some 33,000 Horsepower motors that will drive the compressors for a
wind tunnel that is sixty feet in diameter, and we want you to be our general
foreman for the job.” Clayton was silent.
4 “Of course, you’d be making a lot more money than
you are now,” Garland added. “I’ll have a free hand to run the job the way that
I want to run it?” he asked. “Of course,” Bob smiled.
5 Next, Bob introduced him to one of McCoy’s
estimators who had been instrumental in landing them the job at Lewis. “Ernie,
I’d like you to meet Bill Levenstein – this guy knows the numbers.”
6 “Bill,” he responded as he extended his hand.
“Ernie, it’s good to finally meet you. It’s going to be great to have the
wizard of the Tank Plant on our side,” Bill said as he smiled and shook Ernie’s
hand.
7 From that point forward, Clayton was finally able to
do more than simply make a living. He and Doodle started saving money.
8 “I’d like to buy a little piece of land and build a
house,” he confided to her. “That would be nice but won’t that take a lot of
money?” she asked. “With what I’m making now, I think that we could have enough
in a couple of years,” he replied. “Well, let’s see what we can do,” Doodle
agreed.
9 In the meantime, however, Buck had found himself in
the middle of a real dilemma. The buxom blonde he had married after leaving the
service proved to be ill prepared for marriage and motherhood.
10 “Betty has flown the coop!” he told Doodle. “And I
don’t have nobody to take care of this baby.”
11 Edna fell in love with Donald Ray the first time
she saw him. “This is the baby that Clayton and I could never have together,”
she told herself. Clayton, however, was of another mind. “We’re not going to
raise your brother’s baby!” he declared.
12 Fortunately for Buck, however, there was another
childless couple in the family who were willing to take on a baby. Luke had
married for the third time to a divorcee from Opelika, Alabama where they were
currently living together.
13 “We’ll take him if we can raise him as our own –
without any interference from you,” Delores told her brother-in-law. Buck
agreed, and Doodle was heartbroken.
14 After the work at NASA’s Lewis Research Center was
finished, McCoy Electric was hired to do the wiring for the new Edsel line at
the Ford Plant. It was another big job for Clayton and his associates, but the
new model would prove to be a dud for the Ford Motor Company.
15 Then, in 1958, Bill Levenstein approached Clayton
about a new opportunity that had been presented to him by a group out of
Lorain, Ohio. “Ernie, I’d like for you and Edna to join us at dinner this
evening so that we can talk over some business,” Bill began. “I have a proposal
for you that I think you’ll be interested to hear about,” he explained. “Sure,
I’ll hear what you gotta say,” Clayton told him.
16 That night, as Clayton feasted on prime rib and
Edna nibbled on a filet mignon, Bill told them that he was leaving McCoy
Electric. “I am going to be opening a Cleveland office for Great Lakes
Electric, and I want Ernie to work for me,” he told them. “You would be the
Superintendent of all of the electricians, and you’d be making a whole lot more
money than you’re making now,” Bill continued.
17 Clayton stopped eating for a moment and looked up
from his plate. “I don’t take any shit from anybody,” he told him. “If I’m
going to do this, I will do it my way – without any interference from anybody
else.” Clayton liked Bill, but he knew that he could be a tyrant and a
micromanager.
18 “Of course, Ernie that goes without saying,” Bill
smiled. “If you want to put some money in, we could even do this together,” he
offered. “I don’t have the money to do that,” Clayton responded. “But I do like
the idea of running my own show.”
19 The following year, Clayton and Doodle had enough
money to purchase six acres of land in North Ridgeville, Ohio. “I’ll be a
little closer to work,” he told her. “Yeah, and I like the trees and the
quiet,” she added. They now had the land and the means to build their new
house.
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