Thomas Watson wanted to be in the clothing business.  He would sit with my father on the couch that was on our second floor.  Customers would walk up the stairs.  He would see fellow board members, old school friends, and men he knew socially.  He would tell my father he envied the people who we got to interact with on a regular basis.  Mr. Watson would then go up in sit in my father’s office and talk about the clothing business for an hour or more.  My father asked me if I thought Mr. Watson would be willing to consult with an individual who might call Armonk and offer to make a $25,000 donation to a charity of Mr. Watson’s choice?  It was a rhetorical question.  Dad said Mr. Watson would not do it.  He did it 2 or 3 times a year with dad because he liked clothes, he liked my father, and it allowed him to play being in the clothing business.  After my dad passed on, Mr. Watson would talk about the business with me.  After his 80th birthday he asked me if I was surprised that he was still buying clothes.  I told him I had not thought about it, but that I was thank full because he had helped me put my kids through college.  He laughed .  Then he said he continued buying because he liked clothing and because there was an old Chinese superstition that if one had clothing in work at one’s tailor, you would live to pick it up.

When Mr. Watson died it was the first time in more than 50 years that we did not have something in work for him.

Al Capp, who was a Chipp customer, created a character he named Joe Btfsplk. To come in contact with Joe Btfsplk was to be in the presence of the consummate jinx. To give people fair warning, Joe would always have a little black cloud following him. He could be sitting on a beach. It would be a beautiful sunny day for all those on the beach except Joe Btfsplk, who would have the black could above his head raining and dispensing bolts of lightning that only affected him. One of my early lessons: We can fit almost all the bodies but only 90% of the minds.”Perfection” in anything is very difficult. There may only be one true “Perfection”, and no one has seen it. The more demanding one is, the more difficult their life will be. Some day an individual will arrive, I was warned, and the gauntlet will be thrown down. The thrower will say something like, ” I have had custom clothing made by Len Logsdale, Bill Fioravanti, Alan Flusser and Nino Corvato. None of them could please me. I am going to give you a chance.” The lesson continues. Anyone can have a less than satisfactory experience- lack of communication, a personality conflict. But if an individual has had something made by a number of talented individuals and none of them can please him, look for a “black cloud”. In my years at Chipp and Winston Tailors I have had a number of “Gauntlets” thrown down. I never pick up the gauntlet.