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(This page is currently in a new construction phase so I will be slowly putting this page together)

Yes, Printex was the name of the company.  They manufactured circuit boards for computers. In 1976, I had just left a grocery store job and had applied for this position I saw listed with an employment agency in Mountain View.  I was just sick and tired of everything connected to the grocery business which was the last job I held.

I was initially hired to be a utility person for any of the many departments in the firm.  I just did any menial job that was required.  My first responsibility was to assist the department that handled the inspection/quality control level of the circuit boards after they left the film/silk-screener area of production.  This department was totally staffed by women and they had the tedious job of looking for any defects on the circuit boards.  And they accomplished this with the use of a powerful magnifying glass. 

The circuit boards were positioned/slaight-up on special carrying trays so that they didn't make any contact with the other boards to avoid any scratches. Each tray of circuit boards was required to go through a drying stage for the ink.   Because these carrying trays were extremely heavy, my job was to provide a steady stream of circuit boards for the workers, so they could carry out the task of looking for any breaks or scratches on the flow of ink on the board that had gone through the silk-screening process.  Believe me, the meticulous steps involved made me appreciate the simplest transistor radio being sold from a Radio Shack store.

I mean, it came right down to the point that everybody's job depended on a cirucit board that was perfect, because a circuit board that wasn't perfect was totally useless to a customer relying on Printex to provide them a product capable to accomplish their goals, whatever it may be. 

I really enjoyed this job because of the fact I provided an important role for the women working in the quality control department.  The manager of this department was so sweet, and I remember that she invited me to have Thanksgiving dinner with she and her boyfriend.  I turned down her offer as I was still going through some serious food/eating disorder issues at the time,  which she was totally unaware of.

The manager of Printex really appreciated my work habits and my skill to work with other employees and so he promoted me to be a silk-screener.  You need to understand something about being a silk-screener: It took a lot of time in order to master this particular trade.  

I was really impressed when I watch these silk-screeners being able to lay that special ink onto the mesh/film.  They skillfully meted the ink onto the cooper circuit board to where it would eventually pass inspection by other employees whose job was solely to look for any breaks on the board that would cause the circuitry to fail when being used to properly transmit electricity.  It was a much more difficult job process than what it seemed.  To make it all work, you had to apply an even amount of pressure when moving the squeegee down the screen with a flow of ink.  And if you didn't, it would cause breaks in the circuitry layout which would make the board useless and add an additional cost to the production of these circuit boards. I was told by the operations  manager that Printex provided circuit boards to NASA and other companies during that time period.  I also remember they had tight security where they stored silver and other pricey components used on the circuit boards and other electronic products.

It was all very fascinating and I love every aspect of this job.  I loved the people and I loved being at work.  The same manager who promoted me to be a silk-screener at this facility really liked me as a person and invited me to go sailing with him, out on the S.F. Bay, in his sailboat.  However, I never felt comfortable with that setting so I turned down his offer.  He was a super nice guy who was successfully managing this huge operation in the manufacturing of circuit boards.  I was really impressed with everything about Printex and felt priviledged to work there.

During this time period, I was living with my younger brother, Jack, in an apartment located in the Mountain View.  I also did my all-important running in the area.  Occasionally, I would go over to Stanford University, which wasn't too far away, and use their track to do my long distance running.  

My father had left his job at Raley's in the sumer of 1976 and was hired by a supermarket chain in Reno, Nevada, as a retail consultant and eventually placed on their payroll as a supervisor. I hadn't really talked to my dad much in the previous few years as I was living in Boise, Idaho and working for the Albertson's supermarket chain.  However, he knew I was living in Mountain View with my brother Jack, and he contacted me.

He asked me if I was willing to come to Reno, Nevada and work for him, and this chain of stores?  He wanted to hire me as an undercover retail clerk so I could work inside the stores to be his additional eyes and see what was going on.  It was important for my dad to know if rules and regulations were being adhered to by employees and vendors and so having his son inside the stores made it easy for him to ascertain this information.  

  

Anyway, that Albertson's experience was a total nightmare.  If it wasn't my dad asking me, I would have immediately turned down the offer.  But it was my dad and how could I say "NO" to him?  In addition to that, I didn't know my dad very well. In fact,  hardly at all.  He had nine children and when he was home, a lot of times he just tried get extra rest, or spend time watching his favorite sports team on TV.  So, by accepting this offer from him, I would be in a position of getting to know my dad better.  But still, I loved this new job at Printex, where I was now employed, and for the first time in my life I saw this as an opportunity to find true fullfillment in a job.  

I did a lot to help my dad while he did his usual stuff.  I would help him look through invoices as he instructed me to do.  I would take boxes of them back to where I lived and check for any overcharges that he taught me to look for.  He had an incredible amount of knowledge about vendor pricing on just about anything you could think of being delivered to a supermarket. 

He could spot overcharges/discreptancies on invoices that would really let you know just how smart he was.  And these overcharges would tally up to be huge losses for any supermarket incurring dishonest/bad business practices that went undected.  It's why a lot of stores go bankrupt.  As it is, stores operate on such a small profit margin, that if you have uncontrolled theft, it's only a matter of time when you aren't operating on a healthy quarterly profit but drowning in your daily losses. 

Those losses are only from dishonest invoices.  When you add in the losses that will be incurred at the store level,where the sales at the registers take place, it's becomes even more mindboggling.  Now, understand that when I went to work for my dad, I was placed in a store as a grocery clerk and nobody in that store knew I was really an uncover clerk.  Not even the store manager knew that fact. The only person who knew that I was undercover was the owner of the chain of stores (and he was also the owner of the Shy Clown Sports Casino).  My name was Frank Samuels.  My checks came to me in that name.  I even signed vendor invoices with that name.  Using the name Nordby would alert others that I was related to Charles Nordby.  And Charles Nordby was known by all vendors in Nevada because they knew him when he worked for Raley's.

We also caught the meat manager in his clever way of helping out a Reno casino with meat.  A customer came through my checkstand  with a cart of groceries.  At the bottom of the cart was a large box that had "FREE, CHICKEN PARTS," written on the outside of the box.  The customer, dressed in a business suit, told me that he was from the Primadonna Club and that the meat manager  occasionally gave him unsaleable chicken parts.  So, I pulled the box out from the bottom to look inside (I don't think he expected me to look), and discovered the box was full of sellable steaks. I asked the guy what kind of a chicken did these steaks come from?  LOL. This kind of theft was probably going on a lot at this store.  The store didn't do anything to this guy or the meat manager.

My dad was upset with the owner of this chain of stores because the meat manager wasn't fired.  The owner said the meat manager was a friend and had worked many years for his stores.  Unbelievable.  Still, nobody knew I was related to Charles Nordby.  I was just a clerk doing my job and reporting back to the store manager what was taking place when it came to shoplifters or situations such as the guy with free chicken parts.  The store manager then reported back to Charles Nordby what a clerk (me), in his store, uncovered.  Anything else, I reported directly back to my dad.

As time went on, I became unsatisfied with this job and the nature of doing it.  I finally told my dad I was no longer able to continue on because of personal problems he wasn't aware of...which was my eating.  Oveall, I regret leaving Printex because of the potential future I had with the firm.  However, I am glad I was able to get know who my father was. 

The story I am about to share I mentioned on another page as it really defined for me how honest of a man he was.  And it's a story where I am in a Reno restaurant connected to the store that I am working undercover in. There I was making a purchase when I overheard a couple of salesmen discussing Charles Nordby. Neither of them knew he was my father.  One man said "He won't even let you buy him a cup of coffee."  Charles Nordby was the epitome of a person having good ethics.  He simply knew that if you allow people in business to start buying you things, eventually they start thinking they own you...and it all starts with a simple cup of coffee.

The bottom line is this:  If I hadn't left Printex, I probably wouldn't have ever been employed back into the grocery business.  By leaving Printex, I threw away a great opportunity to expand my awareness and my learning ability while being in a new trade, and in an industry where you had to have an IQ higher than your age in order to get employed. 

By leaving Printex, I would have to continue to rely on the grocery industry that provided a decent income for people.  And continuing to rely on the grocery business for employment, I continued to have to meet some of the most dishonest and rude individuals you can imagine. The rudeness and dishonesty I would later realize again at food chains such as Meijer Thrifty Acres and Lucky Stores.  Meijer was basically a great food operator to work for.  However, Lucky Stores was mostly full of dishonest and rude individuals. 


Wait a second:  If I hadn't quit Printex, I would have never met some of the biggest assholes I ever met by
becoming a member to two gyms in kihei.   I will eventually create a page for those two gyms.

When I quit the job helping my dad in Nevada, I entertained this thought that maybe I could get rehired at Printex in Mountain View.  But I had to forget that idea because when the manager of this facility had promoted me to be a silkscreener, he had asked me directly if I was planning on staying at Printex for a long time and I told him yes.  I felt like I had deceived him when I took the job my dad offered me, and so I couldn't fancy that idea again and decided to go back to Michigan and got a job with Meijer Thrifty Acreas...now, that was another experience

One additional note about Printex:  Years after I left Printex, I found out there was toxic contamination at the Printex facility.  Maybe it was actually a good thing that I did leave Printex to go work for my dad after all.  Read the story here:

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