Lest It Be Forgotten After I Am Gone: The Difficult Years - 4
...Elsa and I were scheduled to arrange the Barmitzvah of our older boy Stephen in May 1966 and we did not have two pennies to rub together towards the cost...
Raymon Benedyk, in dire need of cash, becomes an encyclopaedia salesman.
To read earlier episodes of Raymon's fascinating life story please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/lest_it_be_forgotten_after_i_am_gone/
Elsa and I were scheduled to arrange the Barmitzvah of our older boy Stephen in May 1966 and we did not have two pennies to rub together towards the cost. When in February 1965 I saw an advert offering what seemed to be an exciting and profitable way to earn money I went along to the interview.
It proved to be as a self-employed salesman for the Encyclopaedia Britannica publication. It was suggested that, after an initial intensive training period of three days we would be competent enough to go out into the world with a bag (kit) which contained many different 'tricks of the trade' and sell the 24 volume set for £208, for which we would receive £20 per sale. We were specifically told that, provided we stuck rigidly to the routine we had been taught, we would be successful. We were to make our own appointments during the day working from a central office from telephone numbers provided - at a cost of one penny each - arranging to see potential customers at intervals during the evenings. We were also told that if we made a minimum number of 'presentations' at these appointments, we would make sales.
I thought I could do that and was determined to make every effort to do exactly as instructed. We were warned that if we were not successful in our initial efforts, we should not to lose heart but to continue at the same rate of presentation since, to reduce our efforts would reduce our chances of sales.
It all seemed so logical and I went out on my first night on my own and nearly made a sale. That was not very good but it was only my inexperience that cost the sale. However, it did show me that the system actually worked and, from then on I pushed hard and, by the end of my trial period of one month, completed the minimum 45 presentations required to confirm my position, during which time I sold six sets. I had earned £120 in that month.
During the next nine months, when I continued at the same rate of presentation, I sold 50 sets which just about continued my sale of six sets a month rate, and was a star salesman in that office, earning at the end the maximum possible £39 per set, additionally receiving as bonuses a free set of my own, as well as a set of dictionaries, a set of atlases, a set of children's encyclopaedia, and the bookcases to house them. However, by the end of the year the whole set-up folded, as I suppose the area became flooded and sales were slowing down to an unacceptable level. Nevertheless, it paid for Stephen's Barmitzvah!
I had met some interesting people in the process however,
including a BBC producer who intended to use the books to further his career, a tea-planter returning to his job in Malaya with them, a recently widowed lady whose house was packed with books of all kinds, including catalogues, railway and bus timetables going back to pre war days, besides novels and other publications, blocking passage and stairways and covering all the flat surfaces in her home with them.
I also had a very interesting encounter with one lady who turned out to be rather lonely and, when she started discussing the use of sanitary towels by her daughter, a rather personal matter for her to be talking about with me as a total stranger, I felt worried as to my safety and that it had become urgent that I leave as quickly as possible, especially when I saw a police car pull up outside! It turned out that her husband was a police officer coming off duty! Nevertheless, I forgo the pleasure of attempting to make a sale, made my apologies and departed as quickly as possible.
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If you wish to make a donation to the Elsa Benedyk Memorial Fund, set up by her friends and colleagues entirely without Raymon’s knowledge to provide funds to support the children's ward of the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem to commemorate her life of work with children in her nursery schools, it would be most gratefully received. The amount that you give will not be revealed to Raymon. He is not a trustee of the fund. Your cheque, payable to the Fund, should be sent to the fund's Treasurer Mrs I Dokelman, 14 Charville Court, 30/32 Gayton Road, Harrow, Middx HA1 2HT.
