Chapter 22
Sunday I was at loose ends. I finally packed my golf clubs in the Aston Martin and went to see if I could play eighteen holes at the golf club. I had to wait an hour to get on but I spent it practicing.
I was put in a threesome. They appeared to be nice people but the most I could figure out was that they were from Manchester. I couldn’t understand them. I would catch about every third word. Talk about thick accents. I did understand, “Bloody hell” and “bollocks,” when a ball went out of bounds.
I had a solid round, no records broken but it was good. They invited me for a drink afterward, but I figured if I couldn’t understand them sober it would be a waste of time with drinks.
I had dinner at home with Grand Mum. The Queen Mum had left for some castle or the other. I thought I had a lot of places to live, but after Grand Mum told me about all the residences supported by the Royal family I felt like a piker.
The next day my past caught up with me big time. I had put in place a program to track people I knew if something about them made the newspapers in a good way.
There were also anniversary cards to my now thousands of workers in Jackson Enterprises. I hadn’t really given them any thought, maybe thinking my US office would take care of the cards.
They took care of them all right, in the form of a large package addressed to me. I should never have given Jim Williamson the address of The Meadows.
I spent the entire day signing cards and writing notes. At least there were some preprinted ones for anniversaries, birthdays, and graduations.
Still after signing almost a thousand of those my hands were numb. There would be a whole bunch of personal notes that I would have to write. This paying attention to people was a lot of work.
Moan and groaning aside it was a good thing.
I also got a letter from Dick Wyman. He wanted to let me know that he had started his own company to perform stunts. He was going to specialize in high work, like multi-story building falls, jumping from aircraft, etc. Better him than me.
He asked that if in my work I saw a need for his services to bring his name up, and let him know of the possibilities.
I certainly would as he and Jane had helped me out so much when I first came to California. They still lived in the house where our subbasement tunnel came out so it was in the family's vested interest to take care of Dick.
I wrote him a note back congratulating him on his venture and told him that I would not only bring his name up but that he could count on me for backing if things moved too slowly.
One of the newspaper articles that was clipped for me was about Emily Weeks soloing. Even though I felt she treated me unfairly I wrote out a note. Let bygones be bygones. No sense in carrying any baggage around if I could avoid it.
Another newspaper article was about the trial of the Sheriff who ran the cattle rustling ring. He had gotten ten years. I thought about sending him a note but decided that it would be nasty. Not that I had forgiven that group and how they had treated the tiger incident.
That reminded me that the tiger skin was in my room in Jackson House. Maybe I should have it shipped over here. It would be really cool in my garage apartment.
That got me to thinking about how my life had changed in the last two years. I had to laugh at myself when I remembered when we first started to fix up and rent out houses in Bellefontaine.
When asked how many we should do, I said, “Let's go for rich.” I thought we had nailed that one.
While I was grinding through all my mail the phone rang. Mr. Hamilton let me know it was for me.
It was a producer from the Maverick TV show. He wanted to know if I was interested in doing an episode next week. I would have to fly back to the States for two days of work. I would have to fly back to LA tomorrow ready to work on Thursday and Friday.
My first thought was no, but as we talked it begin to sound like fun. After my work with the military setting up housing in the last couple of weeks, I was ready for something different.
I asked why the notice was so short and was told there was a contract problem with one of the actors and they had to change the episode. When I pursued that further, they said it was James Garner that had the issues.
They hadn’t contacted Sharon Wallace yet. I told him until they did that I couldn’t give them an answer. This was a polite way of saying until my agent negotiates the fee I’m not making a commitment. I did tell him that I would like to take the part if an agreement was reached.
I think they were trying to do an end-run to get me at the same rate as the last time. Now that ‘Over the Ohio’, was such a hit my value had gone up.
Actually, I wanted to do the part but also wanted to be paid fairly. This would also help force the issue with Sharon about finding her replacement.
They would have to make it quick if I was to get a flight home to be at Warner Brothers on Thursday morning.
They did, I was called by Sharon within the hour. She had doubled my fee for the
