Dear Pals,
Ralston Purina's World Headquarters was in a building at 8th & Chouteau called Checkerboard Square, when I started working there in 1967. I was 19, just a few months shy of turning 20. My Dad had died a few months earlier at age 43 from lung cancer.
I had dropped out of St. Louis University and went looking for a job to help out my Mom who was trying to raise my 2 younger sisters and get back into the workforce after having devoted herself to managing the home for 21 years.
Since I was hoping to find a job with a large company that had a college education program, I put in applications at Anheuser-Busch, Maritz, Emerson Electric, Southwestern Bell and Ralston Purina.
I got lucky, a very nice man in the Ralston Purina Personnel Department named Bob Morton took the time to interview me. At the end of the interview, he said, "We have an unusual opportunity in Hog Chow."
Hmmm...Hog Chow, that sounded exotic and fascinating.
At first, I thought he was talking about a city in China. I had no idea that Purina made food for hogs. I was a city boy, I knew about Dog Chow. But, Hog Chow...well, that was news to me.
Mr. Morton sent me up to the 4th floor and I met with two men in the cafeteria, Bill Sims and Don Peach. Bill headed up the Hog Chow advertising group and Don Peach was his right hand man. They asked me a bunch of questions, and looked at my "art portfolio" - which consisted of a very amateurish bunch of cartoons and charicatures that I had drawn on the cardboard liners that came with laundered shirts. I also showed them my writing samples from the high school newspaper and some of my college "work" - such as it was.
When I look back on it, I wonder how they were able to supress their amusement at my naivete. But they did, and Bill Sims was to become my mentor. And, Don Peach was to become my guide, teacher and father confessor.
Then Don Peach asked me, "Can you drive a truck?"
At last, a question I could answer in the affirmative.
"Yes sir, as a matter of fact I have a chauffer's license and I drove a truck all last summer for St. Louis University's Plant Department as we emptied refrigerators and stoves out of the old Coronado Hotel that the university had just purchased."
Sims looked at Peach and said, "I think we've found our man. Get McGinty to sign off on him."
Next thing I knew I was waiting to meet John McGinty, the Vice President in charge of Advertising for the Chow Division, the agricultural arm of Ralston Purina, headed by Don Danforth, Jr., the grandson of William H. Danforth, the company's founder.
Well to make a long story short, Mr. McGinty signed off on me and I was hired for the glorious salary of $425.00 a month. I was literally in hog heaven.
My first job in advertising was to drive a Checkerboard van from meeting to meeting, across the frozen hills and icy roads of the American Hogbelt - Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri and Minnesota. I was the setup/teardown/speaker support man for the presenters in the winter series of all-day (7 am to 3pm ) hog producer meetings known as "Purina's Big Pig Pow Wows."
Don Peach was in charge of all logistics and he managed all the travel arrangements, pre-event promotion, dealer relations and co-ordination with the sales force and with the Chow Marketing Department which was headed by Tom Barnidge.
My job was to set up and run the Carousel projectors for the speaker support.
The sessions were on Hog Breeding, Genetics and Selection by Dr. Richard Hollandbeck, a Ph.D.,from Purdue; Manure Handling and Sanitation was handled by a local Health Products Specialist; Confinement Housing was discussed by L. Dale Purcell; Hog Health by Joe Hayden, DVM; and Nutrition by swine nutrition experts, Dr. Ray Sewell, Dr. Allen Nuwer or Dr. Bob Johnson. We also had a man from Dean-Witter, who explained the advantages of hedging and how to use commodity markets.
We put on 23 meetings that winter. So I watched each session 23 times...and at night, when we all had dinner together I would soak up the stories from the speakers. They were very nice to me and very helpful in answering all the questions their sessions had raised in my mind.
When the Big Pig Pow Wows ended, Bill put me in the office of Fred Rasche, who was out on vacation and said, "Now you get to write the PURINA SWINE FACTS BOOK." (I still have a copy of this masterpiece.)
My job was to interview and collect all the information from the nutritionists, geneticists, veterenarians and farm management folks and then put it all into a neatly organized and cross-referenced package for distribution at the upcoming dealer and sales force training meetings.
One day Bill Sims asked me, "Birk do you know why I like you?"
"No, sir..."
"I like you because you don't know anything.
"You don't know diddley-squat about agriculture, advertising, marketing or anything. You're are a blank blackboard. I don't have to erase a lot of stupid or preconcieved ideas out of your head. You're the first trainee I've ever had who was so marvelously and completely ignorant."
Naturally, my chest swelled up a bit, because I felt pretty proud of the fact that my most prized assets were total ignorance and the ability to drive a truck.
I loved Bill Sims, he was a 43-year man at Ralston, an accomplished fine artist, cartoonist, writer and a true creative genius. No man influenced me more. He was like a Dad to me.
My teachers at Ralston Purina University were: Bill Sims, Don Peach, Ed Smyth (my dear buddy, the Horse Chow ad manager who gave me the nickname that remains a deep dark secret even to this day), Gene Hoy, Jean Harris, Mary Conners, Ronnie Bogdanovich, Wally Wangerin, Will Haynes, Bob Kurt, Frank Sanford, Don Van Scoyk, Jim Monahan, Carl Lampe, Don Kidwell, Phil Smith, Hank Hoester, Harry Holmes, Jack Duggan, Meade Summers, Lloyd Clay, Louetta Buechler, Bill Bowie, Conrad Berry, Gene Summers, Don Danforth, Jr., Bill Becher, Don Plagge, Fred Rasche, R. B. Thomas, Dick Wood, George Kyd, Hank Thill, Leo B. Gieszelmann, Jr., Al Tolin and Ms Evelyn Leatherbury...they all took "the kid" under their wings.
These wonderful folks gave me opportunities that many people at my young age would never have had for years. I worked with Ralston's top illustrators, cinematographers, photographers, marketing planners, researchers and analysts. I learned to shoot award-winning photos, to write scripts, radio commercials, to produce and direct films and to interview industry leaders as I criss-crossed the country on many assignments for Ralston Purina.
Because I was so young, blissfully ignorant and flexible, I drew a lot of assignments outside of the Hog Chow Group and got a taste of reporting and publishing by interviewing leading cattlemen, hog producers and top sales professionals as part of my duty writing stories for Checkergraph and the Purinagraph, the company house organs.
I was lucky. And, blessed beyond all possible belief.
I was raised in the Danforth "I Dare You " four-square tradition.
I often say, "I did my undergraduate work at the University of Kroger and Schnucks, but I got my Masters and Ph.D. at Ralston Purina University."
There is an old saying that, "Life can only be understood backwards, unfortunately it has to be lived forwards."
Sometimes: Fast Forward!
Looking back on my career, not a day goes by when I do not recall some life lesson or business skill that I learned from my many colleagues, friends and instructors at that marvelously magical and mystical place called Checkerboard Square.
Thanks old friends, I am eternally in your debt.
Birk, Commonsensetarian and Citizen of the Republic
PS: I was also very fortunate to have attended Washington University thanks to Ralston's Employee Tuition Reimbursement Program.
But, that's a story for another day...
_____________________________________
PS2: Think your problems are serious? Imagine being in Teheran.
How about adding the message below to every email you and your pals send out, I'll bet that if enough of us ordinary U.S. Citizens did it, the message would get through to the brave souls there:
To all the liberty-seeking people of Iran from the liberty-loving people of America: COURAGE!
The torch of liberty when lit by even the smallest spark can never be extinguished in the heart of man.
