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21 which he had covering the top of his desk. A year or so later when they were negotiating with Ford for the additional six units, our Detroit Office called H.L.Andrews up there to put on the dog with Ford. When he got back, he called me into his office and said, "You remember Kellogg up at Ford. Well, I was in his office the other day and he still has that picture you made for the last job under the glass on his desk. That was a couple of years ago and he still got it there!" Andy was much impressed--and so was I. In the meantime, I'd been transferred to the project of promoting the small diesel-electrics in New England and Doc Gillilian was handling Ford. Something about organization of the GE Detroit Apparatus Sales Office maybe interesting. I think this was my first venture into the Detroit area and I found this office something unto itself. In the first place, it was located on the second floor of the GP Service Shop building which in turn was located on Antoinette Street. Now, Antoinette Street sounds very refined and attractive (it always brought back memories of the exquisite Antoinette Nash of my extreme youth) but actually it wasn't because it was several miles out from the high-class downtown business area and bordered an industrial section. Moreover, the building was of poured-concrete construction and looked like what it was basically, a small industrial location. The office area had been fixed up fairly nicely, however, so when you were once inside it, you felt more at home. Our transportation equipment business interests were cared for by Charlie Sibert, the specialist and a veteran, and "Tal" Talentino, the salesman who handled the transportation customers. Tal was a small, stocky man around my age while Charlie was older, say 45-50. Charlie was a plodding, plain-looking, unexciting guy with a high-pitched voice and I never could enthuse about him. Tal was a peppy little guy but he was no worldbeater either. I think they both suffered from the fact that the Detroit area just wasn't our dish. In the lush days of the street car, things had been better and the Detroit Street Railways a big source of business as were the other street railways all over Michigan. But in 1937, all this was on the decline and the bus, the darling of the auto industry, was taking over. The Michigan Central Railroad had an electrified section in their Detroit River Tunnel but it yielded little business anymore. The salesmen were assigned to their work by customers and it was their responsibility to sell their customers any apparatus product the Company made. Since it was manifestly impossible for them to be experts on all lines, they'd usually be well informed on the lines their customers bought the most of, and then call in the "specialist" for assistance where necessary. Charlie was the transportation specialist and he might well be called on for help by an industrial salesman trying to sell an industrial diesel-electric locomotive to a steel mill. Talentino handled the transportation customers such as the Detroit Street Railways and the
