New Life Service Company was a vinyl and leather repair company run by the Gospel Outreach Church of New York. It was the primary source of income for the communal houses in Brooklyn and Queens. There were also those from the Long Island branch of G.O. who lived in their own homes but were part of the business as well.
New Life Service Company would go to new and used car dealerships in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and in Staten Island. In Long Island, New Life serviced dealerships in Nassau and Suffolk Counties.
New Life Service Company was in the business of repairing torn vinyl and leather car seats. Eventually New Life got into the business of pinstriping cars as well.
New Life's office was in Lynbrook New York in Nassau County Long Island. For those of us commuting from Brooklyn or Queens, this was a godsend because more often than not, we were going opposite of traffic.
At the New Life office, we'd get our assignments for the day. Many assignments were by appointment. Generally if you got an appointment to repair a car at a dealership in Queens, it was likely you'd be at dealerships in Queens the rest of the day. If business was slow, one was assigned territory in one of the boroughs to go through their used car lots, looking for holes and scratches, bringing a list of what you found.
On some days, you'd go out in teams of two, but in most cases, you went out on your own in a car provided by G.O.
After one received their assignments and got general instructions for the day ,the briefing would end with a prayer session and you were on your way.
This was a much different gig than working in a bakery in rural Alaska. I didn't like the speed and agressiveness of New York. Navigating New York's traffic was a difficult endeavor. A day didn't go by where I wasn't cut off, flipped off or yelled at. I should add that I got my first drivers license in New York after failing the drivers test 3 times over parallel parking. In New York City parallel parking is a critical skill to have. Now I can parallel park with the best of em...
I wasn't very good at vinyl repair and I didn't like doing it much either which obviously isn't a good combination. Most people would see it that way, but again New Life was running under a different set of rules. New Life was part of our "Discipleship" journey. God was leading us as bright lights into these wicked car dealerships. Dealerships where ungodly music was played and where mechanics would post pictures of naked women. By overcoming such tempations coupled by our good works, we would bring those sinners closer to the Lord. It also was a primary source of income for the Gospel Outreach Ministry of New York.
To do vinyl repair, one had to work with chemicals, mainly one called MEK. It was used to strip down the paint in the car seat. It had a strong aroma and one didn't want to be in an enclosed space using MEK. It would give you a chemical high and besides not only is a chemical high not healthy but as good Christians working for New Life Service Company, we werent supposed to get high anyhow.
After stripping down the affected area, we'd fill the tear with a liquid vinyl and weld it to the seat with a heat gun. At different times, my arms were full of burns from the heat gun. We had rubber like patterns that once the seat was warm enough, you'd press down on the affected area and the pattern was supposed to match the pattern in the car.
Lastly we had paints which were supposed to match the colors of the seats. We had custom paints for all GM and Ford cars.
We'd charge these dealerships a minimum of $25 which in 1970's New York was a fair amount of money. Of course I'd see dealers change our invoices and charge the customer sometimes over $100. Sometimes a $25 repair would take 10-15 minutes of time. Everyone had an assigned quota to meet.
I was paired up with another person for a long time..longer than the managers who also happened to be church "elders" would have liked. I'd overheat the car seat, turning a simple burn hole into a massive gash, I'd use the wrong pattern and if by chance I got those areas right, I'd mismatch the paint. A 15 minute job would often turn into a 2 hour job much to the dismay of the car dealership and my managers. I'm imagining that the elder/managers had to do a lot of praying after hearing an earful from an angry New York car dealer complaining about my work. I'd get paired up with other New Life workers hoping I'd pick up something from their techniques and methods, but what would happen is I'd slow them down from making their assigned quotas,so it came to a point where I had to sink or swim.
Memorable Moments
I destroyed an entire used car lot by hitting reverse accidently on a Ford Pinto followed by hitting the accelerator instead of the brake. Didnt get hurt,but needless to say the manager/elders were told in no uncertain terms never to send me to that dealership again.
The nice part of driving for New Life when I'd be on my own, was I'd fall into temptation and listen to the radio going between car dealerships. There were the news stations, WINS and WCBS were accepted stations by elder/managers. The mid 70's was an interesting time to live in New York. Garbage Strikes, the .44 caliber killer also known as Son of Sam was running loose and there was the activities of Mayor Ed "How am I doing?" Koch. I found myself listening to the news on National Public Radio NPR's news was particularly interesting to me because they would segue into various features using music. I liked the music and my curiosity got the best of me..up and down the radio dial I'd go until one day I found the music they played on NPR. It was the Pat Metheny Group! I had to hear more,but I knew in doing so I might be going down the pathway to hell.
There was also talk radio. I liked Barry Gray and Barry Farber on WMCA. Both had interesting, thought provoking talk which was great for someone who had to quietly sneak over to the Brooklyn Library to read non Christian books and not tell anyone where I went.
But the music to explore..there was WNBC,Imus in the Morning or the soul sounds of Frankie Crocker at WBLS or Gerry Bledsoe at WWRL. I'd hear International sounds on WLIB where I also once caught my brother repping for the Communist Workers Party. Once you drove up to the dealers,you heard what the mechanics were listening to. If I worked in Brooklyn or Queens,I was likely to hear disco music from WKTU in the work stations. In Long Island it was likely to be Boston or the Steve Miller Band.
Although I wasnt supposed to question that working for New Life Service Company was part of God's calling in my life, I did. I once questioned it in the form of a man named James. James lived across the street from GO's communal house in Brooklyn where I lived. James was about the only person in the neighborhood who would regularly attend our church services in the house and in so doing he and I were the blacks in attendance. The neighborhood was predominately Black and Puerto Rican during a time when disco ran supreme and where I was living amongst all whites where all of us still looked and dressed like hippies from the previous era. James was a caring man. He'd stop by our house on a regular basis to check in and perhaps listen to a bible teaching,perhaps he would engage in prayer with someone in the house. He would always invite us over to his apartment. One day I took him up on his invitation. I remember picking up the strong stench of urine upon entering the apartment building. For more reasons than one,it was safer to use the steps leading to James's apartment than to use the elevator. When I reached James apartment,I realized on one level he wasnt freaked out by our communal presence as he had at least 10 people including babies crammed into his space. I read Bible passages to him. When I handed the Bible over to him,he confessed to me he didnt know how to read. James was my age and I was in my mid twenties at the time.
On another occasion James and I were talking and the subject of the New York City subways came up. James told me he had never been outside of Brooklyn,had never taken the subway into Manhattan. By this time I had travelled through over half of the United States. Despite being "Discipled" by doing and regularly failing at vinyl repair,I never totally gave up the hope of returning to college and finishing off my degree. The elder.managers didnt knowit,but when I'd go to the Library,I'd arrange for college catalogs to be sent to my mom's house. She had told me that if I chose to leave GO she'd help me get on my feet and help get me back into college. Mom was a teacher and for years I rebelled against the very thought of following in her footsteps,but now when faced with James,I thought maybe my "ministry" should be to teach and help people like James to read. I presented this to the elder/managers. It was rejected. In the rejection,it was said that perhaps my failures at vinyl repair was God's attempts at humbling me.
Because both of us were failing at vinyl repair,at one point the elder/managers assigned me to work with a man named Michael Lanzilotta. Michael was an excellent pianist,one could tell from his style at the worship services that he had listened to quite a bit of jazz before becoming a part of G.O. Michael had the same experiences learning the business as I had. On top of it,his hands would react to the chemicals used in vinyl repair. This was particularly disturbing for someone who uses his hands for music. When he brought up to the elder/managers how MEK affects his playing he was told that God was humbling him. Michael and I were paired together to sink or swim as a vinyl repair team. For awhile it worked.We were getting jobs done in reasonable time and no one was complaining about our work. We had fun between jobs. We'd do impressions..various Evangelical preachers,Neil Young,but the one we most enjoyed was Michael as Howard Cosell and me as Muhammad Ali. There was even talk that because the pairing was working so well,New Life would make a general exception and let Michael and I work together on a permanent basis. Then it started to happen again, too long on repairs,wrong patterns,wrong paint. One day instead of being given any assigned car dealers to service,Michael and I were left to try and sell our services to various dealerships. After a couple "You get outta here" and "Didnt I tell your manager never to send you two here again?" things got discouraging. Michael and I pulled over on a street near a grocery store we then went into an impromptu skit revolving around Howard Cosell and Muhammad Ali disguised as janitors. A couple folks gave us money. We didnt make much money but we made more doing the skit than we did vinyl repair
As I mentioned before,in addition to vinyl repair,New Life Service Company began to offer pinstriping in addition to vinyl repair. I was as bad at pinstriping as I as was at repairing car seats. I just never got the knack of making a straight line. Nevertheless on occasion I was sent on a pinstriping assignment.
One particular assignment was at a Used Car dealership in Valley Stream New York (Long Island) I was assigned a number of pinstripes to do. Elder/Manager Steve prior to going out just told me to take my time. The Used Car lot in Valley Stream was an outdoor lot. One of the things I liked to do when I wasnt paired up with anyone besides Michael Lanzilotta was to turn the car that I was repairing on. Most times it was to listen to forbidden music,but on this occasion I had to turn the car on to listen to the American League Baseball Playoff between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. How many times can it be said that I hate the New York Yankees. What made it worse was during that same mid seventies period when I lived in New York was while the Yankees were on top,my beloved New York Mets were at their lowest point,playing their worst baseball since their inception in 1962. I had a fond spot in my heart for the Boston Red Sox being a Connecticut native. The Red Sox hadnt been to the World Series in years while it seemed like the Yankees were in the Series every other year.
As usual as it seemed, I was having difficulty making a straight pinstripe,but the good news was the Boston Red Sox were leading the Yankees. I had attended a Red Sox-Yankees game at Yankee Stadium earlier that season. I remember a couple Red Sox fans being carried out bloodied. This was going to be the game where the Red Sox take down the Yankees and where the bloodied Red Sox fan was going to get the last laugh.The pinstriping was going slowly but progress was being made. Mike Torrez seemed to be mowing the Yankees down and even with a couple Yankees on base,Bucky Dent,a light hitting shortstop the Yankees obtained from the Chicago White Sox was up at bat. No Threat.. Bucky Dent was no threat till he hit a three run homer. Yankees go up,pinstripe in my hand goes slamming down,pinstripe takes out paint on the car. Manager sees the damaged car and tells me to "Get Outta Here" Elder/Manager Steve heard a few choice words too as he was told to never send me there again.
David's Comeback
There was a short period where I was getting by with no complaints and while I had the lowest quota expectation at New Life,I was mostly making it or was coming close enough to it. Thar said,I was still somewhat surprised when I was assigned to repair a scratch on a leather seat at a Mercedes dealership in Manhattan. I heard stories of customers being charged $300-400 for repairs New Life was charging the dealership $100
This was going to be a simple $100 repair. I had sucessfully taken out the scratch and had even matched the color correctly. However,in spraying the seat,I had gotten some of the overspray on the car's back window.
Many Mercedes then had plastic windows. I was afraid to use the MEK on the window. That stuff could kill anything,so I tried some of the rubbing alcohol in my kit. Alcohol took the paint off,but left a fog on the plastic window. I thought it would go away but it wouldnt and the Mercedes manager,getting very nervous wasnt going to sign off until the fog on the window went away. I applied more alcohol to the window,the fogged area on the window grew larger and the Mercedes manager is getting madder. Now thinking I have no other choice,I apply MEK to the window. Not only does it do nothing to fix the window,but the bottle of MEK that I left on the leather seat spills and as a result the entire leather seat begins to bubble up. At this point the Mercedes manager tells me to pack up my stuff and leave.
When I heard from Elder/Manager Steve,he was livid. "We're having to replace the window and the entire leather seat! Do you know whose car you ruined?? REGGIE JACKSON!! For those unfamiliar with baseball,Reggie Jackson was the star outfielder for the New York Yankees. He's been American League and World Series Most Valuable Player. For a time there was a candy bar the Reggie Bar selling in New York.
An immediate inner smile occured at that point. I had (although quite by accident) taken down a New York Yankee.
At one point Elder/Manager Gary was assigned to assist me with vinyl repair.In addition of him being highly regarded in the field,he was there to give me guidance.
Elder/Manager Gary to me: If you dont get this vinyl repair right and learn your lessons from God,I can see in a few years you will be reciting poetry at some bohemian coffee shop.
I guess he may have been prophetic..
