Ron's Chinese Dinner

Canoga Park, California, Summer 1962: Ron, the Megatar shop foreman, was a junior in High School, and his pal Johnny Blevins worked for Lim's Chinese Food restaurant at Sherman Way and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. One day Johnny told Ron he needed some help.

"I've got to go on a vacation with my parents," Johnny said, "and if I don't get somebody to fill in for me at Lim's, I'll lose my job!" Ron stared.

"What do you do?" he asked.

"All you do is answer the phone," Johnny said. "Mr. Lim doesn't speak English very good, so you just take the orders. It's just for a week."

"OK," Ron said.

"And ask him to feed you," Johnny said, "That's part of the deal. He's supposed to give you dinner."

"OK," Ron said.

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Pankaj, the Exchange Student

San Francisco, 1977: Last Fall, after I'd started Network Answering Service in my studio apartment at 495 Third Avenue, the company began slowly to grow. I'd hired Bob, first just to relieve me, but as clients increased eventually I had to increase his hours, and then we began hiring Operators, which we called "OPs."

During that same time, Doug Faunt wired up my new Cromemco computer, and I wrote a new bookkeeping program, for sending out the bills to this growing number of customers. One of my OPs named Hugh, a lanky jazz pianist, came in all excited about a dream he'd had, in which our Cromemco computer was called "Mr. Suitcase." And from then on, Hugh insisted on referring to the computer as Mr. Suitcase. Soon everybody called the computer Mr. Suitcase.

And before long, I needed to hire a bookkeeper to operate Mr. Suitcase and my new bookkeeping program.

When we advertised, in walked Pankaj.

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