Dale Hoffman then had a plan for me.  He was going to take early retirement in a couple of years and sail around the world on his boat.  He could make sure that I would be the new store manager of this store in Franklin Park.  He wanted it to be in good hands.  Now this was more interesting.  There was no guarantee, but a strong suggestion.  Bill Gardner was having a hard time as the appliance manager.  He was going to retire in the next couple of years.  I could become the appliance manager until Hoffman retired.  This was a plan that made some sense.  In the meantime, I would be an appliance salesman since I already knew enough about furniture.  I went from this lunch feeling that things had turned around for me.  Somebody wanted me, even if it was back at Montgomery Ward.  At least, I would have a steady income.  Still, there was the problem that Hoffman might not be able to deliver on any of these promises.  It was ten years since I first showed up at the Franklin Park Ward’s store to discuss my future with Dale Hoffman.  Now I was doing it again.  It all seemed strange.  Have you ever considered going back to the place where you once worked?

The only thing that I could think of was to call my parents to let me know what was going on.  I knew the number by heart.  I would place a collect call to my mother or father.  I was sure that they would accept the charges.  Then I made my first phone call in over ten years.  I don’t think that I ever called home since 1957.  It was a strange experience to be talking on the phone.  I was not accustomed to it.  I think I got my father, who was upset.  He explained that they did not know my phone number so that they went to the Servite parish in Carteret.  Instead of giving them the number, Father O’Connor called me.  I asked what happened.  My father explained that Johnny was on leave after serving a year in Vietnam. He had just visited my parents and Jerry, my other brother, in New Jersey.  It was around his birthday, as he and his twin sister were turning 31.  He wanted to spend his birthday with his twin sister Jenny Elko in Florida.  He died in a boating accident with his brother-in-law in the Florida Keys, as they were out fishing on Sunday, October 19.  His brother-in-law survived and did not die.  I told my father that I would come home.  I would make arrangements to fly from Luxembourg to JFK.  If Jerry could me at Newark Airport that would be fine.  I had already flown Icelandic Airlines twice before.  I had enough money from my weekend work as an auxiliary military chaplain to pay for the round-trip fare.  Besides Icelandic was the cheapest airline.  I think that it cost a couple of hundred dollars round trip.  I would be gone about a week.  I wanted to be with Jerry and my parents.  This must have affected them a lot.  They had seen him just before he died.  Have you ever made a collect phone call?