In 1986 my brother inlaw was already a millionaire who was running a tire business called The Farmer’s Tire Exchange at the intersection of Baisley Boulevard, and Bedell Street; Rochdale Village area formerly The Jamaica Horse Racetrack. Goodyear had sent one of their former Black chemists, Mr. Matthew Brown, to ask George to join the Goodyear team, by assuming ownership of one of their locations already in business. I guess we would have been given the Five Towns, along Island, Goodyear as part of a diversity program to recruit Black owners who could afford to buy a franchise. George turned them down. Things settled back to normal. Then, one day, some bent nose looking guys came by the Exchange and told George he would need protection to remain in business. George owned most of that side of the street already. He told Goodyear he wanted to build his own building, be his own developer, and told Goodyear he wanted them to carry a 40 year mortgage so that if the business failed, they would be responsible to keep the business going. The major caveat was that we all were hired as employees, even George. He got paid so many different ways. Every month I sent a check to Goodyear, in Ohio, for $6000.00 to pay the rent. As the property owners, and developers, I got a check back for 4K every month. We bought a Bentley, and a Mercedes the first year and let the high level customers drive them while we repaired their cars. Every Black person who was a known celebrity, from the area, was a customer. To my embarrassment, when a lady, whose car I was repairing, showed me pictures of her with some astronauts at NASA, and told me how well they treated her when she worked there. I just smiled and was polite. Thirty years later a movie comes out about her and the other women with whom she worked with, who were also in some of the pictures. I thought they were probably the cleaning ladies. THEY WERE THE HIDDEN FIGURES.😢 Even Roy Campanella’s grandson rented the place and had me managing it one time. George had retired. Oh, that hidden figures story is true or may God strike me dead, and if you know me, you know I don’t play about God! So, yeah, George built his own Goodyear. When the bent nose guys came back, they found everyone, including George, wearing Goodyear uniforms. They were told we all are now employees of Goodyear, and any requests for money would have to be sent to headquarters in Akron, Ohio. We won! To be continued. I’m going to go cry some fish for dinner.
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