Hugh Johnston:  

So much time has passed I don't know where to begin. I'll never cover everything in a single e-mail so I'll piece it out to you, if you have the patience to wait. Marriages first. Joan and I split up in 1986. No particular event precipitated it; just one of those things that time took a toll. As usual, the mother got the children. Perhaps that is for the best. Especially in my case. Teaching in a private school has its rewards, but none of them are financial. I moved to the premier prep school in south Florida, Ransom-Everglades Academy. Pay was dismal and benefits few. The cafeteria did, however, serve great lunches. Mahi Mahi, excellent roast beef and HOT COOKIES made fresh from scratch and put out at morning break. (free to faculty). Even so, I thought the corporate world would be preferable. Because, despite Joan's success I still hd to pay child support. The Corporate world even beckoned. I was hired by Northrop Worldwide Aircraft Service. Northrop had the Treasury Department contract to manage seized property for US Customs Service. It was actually great fun and a lot more money too. We warehoused all the stuff Customs took from cheats. Mostly drug dealers. Houses in the Keys, low flying planes and choppers, cigarette boats, merchandise of all kinds, precious gems, Krugerrands etc. etc. I once suited up in PPE level B, went into a containment area and removed canisters from the center of electric transformers. These were shipped to the US from South America for "restoration and maintenance" (right!!) Typically transformers are filled with a heavy oil that contains PCBs, a hazardous material. The canisters were dripping with the oil. I guess they thought this danger would keep Customs from checking carefully. What do you think was in the canisters? Bags of cocaine. We stored the legal stuff, maintained it, inventoried it and eventually auctioned it off. Cocaine was burnt. Nobody knows exactly where. Northrop lost the contract to EG&G Dynatrend after a few years. EG&G kept some of the original staff on board. Myself included. My responsibilities moved from warehousing and inventorying to the Sales Dept. Every nine weeks we had an auction. On that single day we took in 3 to 9 million dollars. Much of it in cash. My secondary duty was what the government called "destructions". This was the legal disposal of designated merchandise. It was different all the time. Here are som...Expand for more