Читать книгу Provence Forever - Massimo Cereso - Страница 11

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Foundation stone

The foundation stone for my present chaotic life was certainly laid by my parents in complete ignorance. As the only son (born in 1935), I grew up with two sisters in a highly respected family of factory owners.

My youth was paradise on earth; everything I ever wished for has come to pass, all problems and minor difficulties have been sorted out immediately. I was never held responsible for any failure. My father – unlike me – was fundamentally honest; his supreme laws were moral and ethical principles. In spite of a large villa on a respectable property with a park and a small forest, where my sisters and I were allowed to spend our beautiful youthful years, my father always remained extremely modest, although on the other hand he was also a person of respect, who also enjoyed great popularity among all friends, acquaintances and neighbors. Unfortunately, my father always tried to protect me so as not to endanger the reputation of his family. I never received a beating or any other punishment for any of my youthful pranks, except for one time when, out of convenience, I instructed my childhood friend to look for worms in our garden for my father, who was a passionate fisherman; the slap I received for this still hurts me today.

In addition, I was no longer allowed to move cars on our private property, although I had learned to drive at the age of ten, accompanied by my father, on the dirt roads along his thirty-kilometer trout stream. In fact, these lessons had also led me, on appropriate occasions and in the absence of my parents, to use one of the cars that were always ready to drive in our factory to make excursions at breathtaking speed through our residential area and the surrounding countryside. On several occasions I met the village policeman, who was riding his motorcycle from one locality to the next to quench his enormous thirst.

My father, who was a sociable man and therefore indulged in his beloved card game several times a week in our village, also met the policeman on these occasions. Although he had told him each time about my forbidden excursions, he never had the courage to file criminal charges against me or my family; if only because my father usually paid his not inconsiderable wine bills when he visited the inn. So the policeman had every reason to resign himself to the situation.

This carefree life without responsibility and consequences has shaped my character accordingly. I am in and of myself an intelligent and clever being who is always concerned about his advantage. Conversely, however, I have not learned to take responsibility myself for mistakes I have made, because the consequences of my mistakes have always been borne by my parents. When my school teacher, who was a friend of the family, wanted me to repeat the third grade of elementary school, my family had no understanding for this request of my teacher; of course, I then attended the fourth grade of elementary school. However, this resulted in big problems at school. But since my family could not accept that their son repeated an elementary school grade, I was placed in a private boarding school that had much of a four-star hotel. In this school I completed two school years without repeating a grade and then rejoined the sixth grade of the elementary school in my home community. Of course, after a short time it turned out that my qualifications for high school were not sufficient, so I was again placed in a private boarding school. In this way, to the great delight of my parents, I was able to complete both elementary and high school without disgrace and without repeating a grade.

After school, although I had expressed my exclusive interest in automotive and aircraft engineering, I had to complete a practical apprenticeship with additional commercial training in my father's food company. During those years of my apprenticeship, however, I spent every free minute in the car garage of a friend of my parents or, as a result of my enthusiasm for flying, at various airfields.

Although I knew every component of a car and had extensive knowledge of aircraft technology, to the great delight of my parents I successfully completed my training and also received the MG sports car promised to me immediately afterwards. Since I no longer had to work daily in our manufacturing plant, I was allowed to visit our customers on my own, after a lengthy introductory period by our sales department. Despite my great sales success, I was not paid the commissions I had been promised, on the grounds that our factory would be transferred to me in a few years. Although I had enough pocket money to live well and everything else was paid, after that my ambition to be a successful salesman dwindled noticeably.

Since I was never enthusiastic about my father's company, I had decided to learn to fly without my parents' knowledge. How I was ever going to finance this endeavor was completely indifferent to me. In fact, my father later paid the corresponding bills, which of course I could not pay, with an unimaginable fury. In a short time, I was able to successfully complete the first stage of my pilot training. When my father then also told me in no uncertain terms that my future workplace had to be in his company and that he was no longer willing to pay even one franc for my flying, I decided never to work in his company.

Today I must confess, as I write my biography, that this was the greatest lack of sense in my still young life. If forty years ago I had complied with my parents' most fervent wish, my life would not have turned out in this chaotic state. My decision to turn my back on my father's company for all time is the mistake of my life so far, because it is impossible to build up an equivalent company again in a single lifetime. If I had had the patience to work for a few more years at that time, I am sure that all my wishes would have been fulfilled in a different way and that my plans at that time would have been realized at a later time. Thus, after these events, I continued to live in my beautiful and familiar home. And although at that time the expenses for my car and other expenses were paid by my parents and our long-time domestic servant Berta occasionally diverted smaller amounts of money from our household coffers for me, I wanted to earn some extra money outside my father's business in the short time until the long military service began. In my home community I had obtained a short-term job in a car repair shop with an hourly wage of two francs. I performed this work for six weeks to the complete satisfaction of my employer and then completed a long period of military service.

As a result of my pilot license, to my great surprise, after completing my military service, I obtained a sales position with an American company that sold sport aircraft, aircraft components, and electronics. The next two years were complete fulfillment for me. However, since the market opportunities were too slim and the desired sales success fell short of expectations, this branch was dissolved. In the meantime, my father had realized that his son would never come back to continue the parental business with success. Then the opportunity arose to sell his block of shares to his brother and business partner. At that time, I was just happy that the issue of my succession in his company was settled for all time. However, if he had known at that time that his son would destroy his entire fortune in the following twenty years — the resulting worries also contributed to his premature death - he would certainly never have sold his company. My mother, who had to live on without an own fortune after his death and was severely marked by this fate, was supported in every way to the end of her life by my two sisters, who were happily and successfully married.