Oral history interview with Alan Cone, 2008

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PRESERVING OUR HISTORY: ROTARY CLUB OF GREENSBORO
ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION
INTERVIEWEE: ALAN CONE
INTERVIEWER: KATHELENE MCCARTY SMITH
DATE: March 25, 2008
[Start Tape 1]
KS: My name is Kathelene Smith and it is March 25, 2008, and I am in the office of Mr. Alan Cone for the Preserving Our History: Rotary Club of Greensboro oral history project. Good morning Mr. Cone, how are you today?
AC: I’m just fine Kathelene.
KS: Well good. Thank you for having me in for an interview today.
AC: Well, thank you for coming.
KS: Please tell me when and where you were born.
AC: I was born here in Greensboro, about – actually a block and a half from where I live right now.
KS: Really, that’s wonderful. So you grew up in Greensboro.
AC: Yes I did.
KS: Well tell me about your family and your home life growing up.
AC: Well, I went to Irving Park School and then I went to Central Junior High School and then I went to Greensboro High, which is now Grimsley. I graduated in 1943. We only had eleven grades then so I was only seventeen. Now, is that – do you want me to continue?
KS: Please do.
AC: How far do you want me to go?
KS: The more the better.
AC: Well do you want to hear about my –2
KS: I’d love to hear about growing up in Greensboro and experiences you had growing up here.
AC: Okay. Well, Irving Park School at that time was a very small school and there was only one class per grade and so every year, you went to the next grade with the same group for six years, so we got to know each other pretty well. Interesting school because it was right on the borderline of the most prosperous area of Greensboro which was Irving Park and one of the most – least affluent parts of the city which was Battleground. Battleground now is all commercial, mostly, and condos and none of those houses that used to be over there and the kids from Battleground, back during the [Great] Depression, were extremely poor and needy and then we, over in Irving Park – and so I would go to school and I would see one of my friends who happened to be from Battleground wearing a pair of pants that had belonged to my brother who was older and I had cherished those pants. And then, of course, my mother had packed up stuff and sent it over to the school and they had been distributed to people who didn’t have much clothing.
It was an interesting time and, of course, people who I went to school with, I ended up going to junior and senior high school with them too. And interestingly, some of them did so well. There was one girl in our class who actually came from the Battleground area, was very, very poor who ended up going to college, getting her – she got to be a physician. And then the smallest boy in the class also was from that area and he was a leader because he was very athletic and terribly smart and he ended up being a bricklayer.
KS: Really. So you never know.
AC: No, you never know. But it was an interesting time to grow up and when I got out of – I had just turned seventeen and World War II was going on and they were recruiting kids to join the Army and Navy and they had these programs, Officer Training Programs, and I had just turned seventeen and I took both tests, for the Army and Navy and for some reason, I passed both tests so I chose the Navy. In July, I signed up and they sent me up to my first billet, I guess you’d call it, and it was at the University of North Carolina. They had these schools all over the country and they called them, V-12s, The V-12 Program, Officer Training, and you were supposed to go for, I think it was ten or twelve months, maybe, before you ended up getting your commission and being sent out to war. But, during that time the NROTC was integrated into the V-12 Program and I signed up for that and so that meant I could stay at Carolina for the entire time and come out of Carolina as an officer instead of going off to something they called a “Ninety Day Wonder School” where they put you through training in a faster way. So I ended up in October of 1945, just twenty eight months after I had gone into the thing, graduating with a degree from Carolina and a commission in the Navy. And at this point, I was nineteen and I often wonder what I was doing at that tender age. But anyway, I guess it was fortunate, but I didn’t think so at the time, the war had 3
ended in July of 1945 and I got out in October, so the war was over. And of course, there were still an awful lot of people in the service who wanted to come home and so we were used to fill those places and they sent me from one place to the other. I ended up in China and spent some interesting months in China before I got out of the Navy.
KS: In China. What did they have you do in China?
AC: Well, I went to China to get on a ship I was assigned to, but back then communications was horrible so I finally got there and the ship was not there. One thing led to another and finally they cancelled my orders and sent me up to Northern China to a Port Director where there was a small Navy detachment was in charge of the port for a large Marine division that was up there at the time and it was a busy port and we were supposed to be directed operations of ships in and out and telling them where to go and what to do. It was just – it had nothing to do with my training which was typical back then so anyhow, that was interesting.
Then I got out and I guess, the following July which was 1946 and I was still too young to go to work, I thought. All my – not all my friends but a great many of them had gone into the service and come back and they had just started college and I had finished college. So I went back to Carolina for a year to waste a year and take special courses and play golf.
KS: Well, there you go.
AC: And so after that I just thought, “Well, I’ve got to do something.” So I went to work for Cone Mills which was sort of planned in the first place, and on and on and on.
KS: You grew up, of course, with a father who worked with Cone Mills. He was the Cone Mills.
AC: He was president. He and his brothers controlled Cone Mills and my father was the oldest and he was the leader and he ran Cone Mills until his untimely death.
KS: Were you very aware of that as you were growing up?
AC: Well, absolutely. My father was a workaholic and he felt tremendous responsibility for this company and he was just dedicated to that company. And he was a wonderful father but he spent most of his time working and unfortunately, he died at the age of sixty, excuse me, in 1955. He was only sixty years old. A lot of people think, well he just, you know, stress. He was under a great deal of stress his whole life, really, because of the burden of that company. And then there were a lot of individuals involved including his younger brother who kind of added to his stress. And that’s another story, about the younger brother. 4
KS: Well, so you got out of college the second time.
AC: Now, do you – you just, okay.
KS: I would love to know as much as you would like to tell me.
AC: Okay.
KS: I would love to know more about you growing up in Greensboro as member of this wonderful family.
AC: Well, let’s go back. Early part of school, of course, school was totally different than it is now and it was a very small school. The rooms were not – it was kind of like a motel. To get from one room to another or get to an auditorium you have to more or less go outdoors. It wasn’t all enclosed. And then I think they finally enclosed the walkway, but it was a very, very hard time in the middle late 1930s and nobody had anything. And my parents made absolutely sure I didn’t either. I mean, I had everything I needed, but nothing to make me stand out in the crowd, which was good. And so I got along pretty well with my schoolmates, despite the fact that my parents lived – they built this, I guess you would call it a mansion back in 1935. So I moved into that house when I was ten years old and it was of course the most impressive place in Greensboro. And my parents had a chauffeur who took us to school. So, this was kind of embarrassing, you know, and we did pick up other people on the way, so it wasn’t just us it was some of the kids in the neighborhood also went with us. So, we would pile out of this chauffer driven car and here were the kids from Battleground walking to school and they didn’t have a, excuse me, “pot to pee in.” And so, we had to learn to get along with each other, which we did; it was good experience.
KS: Definitely. What subjects did you like when you were growing up? Did you like school? Was it a positive experience?
AC: Well I have to say school was just something I had to do. [Both laugh] I never was a really great student and I think I had good teachers but school was something that you had to do and tried to get behind you. And that was all my school life, including going to college. I was more interested that getting out of school than cramming. And I didn’t have a chance in college because we were training; we were in the Navy and training, of course, in all these naval courses in seamanship and everything else and at the same time trying to get a college degree with the general courses you take to get by, and that’s what I did.
KS: Do you have brothers and sisters?
AC: I have a brother, yes, and he had somewhat the same experience. He joined the Navy and then got into the Program.5
KS: Did he travel as much as you did after the war ended? Did he go overseas also?
AC: No, he never did. He was in the Supply Core, because he couldn’t see well enough to be a Deck Officer program. He ended up as a Supply Officer. The furthest he ever got from home, I think, was Washington D. C. So we were very fortunate in one way, that is, we didn’t get shot at.
KS: So when you graduated, it was pretty much predetermined that you would go to work for your family.
AC: I think it was. It wasn’t really discussed very much but it was pretty much determined and so I did go to work for Cone Mills and I worked there for fourteen years. And part of the time I was working in Gibsonville as Plant Manager for a little plant we had over there. And while I was there, of course, I joined the Gibsonville Rotary Club. And this was in either 1951 or ’52 and I can’t remember which year it was that I joined that but it was a tiny little club. I guess there were about fifteen members at most and we met at night, at dinner meetings. I can’t remember much more about my Rotary experience in Gibsonville [Both laugh]
I came back to Greensboro when they changed the operation of that mill, they didn’t need a Plant Manager anymore. They had a Superintendent and we were no longer an integrated mill. We just made, what they called grey goods then, as opposed to when I was there, we made colored plaids and made the finished products that we sold to our customers. But then later on, the grey goods were sent to be printed and so all the mill had to do was make the grey goods and forget about the merchandising. So, I came back and they put me in the Treasurer’s office. By this time, my father had died and his younger brother, Caesar, had taken over the presidency of the company and he was quite an interesting person, as you probably – well, history will show that he had his own ideas about – unfortunately, one idea he had was that the family had no particular right to work for Cone Mills. He – I don’t know why but anyway, one of the first things he did when he took over when my father died unexpectedly, and his brother Ben, the two of them had control, you know, financial control of the company, so they did what they wanted. So they decided that Caesar would be the President and Ben would be Chairman of the Board, which really meant that Ben was going to back Caesar up. He had no executive responsibility. So Caesar caused quite an eruption.
One of the first things he did was he decided that if you’re a family member, you are not entitled to be a part of the stock option plan for the company, so all the family members were ruled out of participating in the profit center. Then they put in an anti-nepotism rule which meant that nobody from the family could come to work for Cone Mills as long as there was any other member of the family there, so that meant children and grandchildren were almost completely ruled out and anybody that was there. I know a number of family members 6
working for Cone Mills at the time and they were grandfathered in and of course, some of them had important executive positions. And so before Caesar had finished, he had let us all know that being a member of the family did not help you any; in fact, he demoted at least two of the top officials and hired outside management to come in and manage these manufacturing plants. And so, I kind of saw the writing on the wall and took the first opportunity to get into something else.
KS: What do you think his motivations were?
AC: Well, people have often wondered about that and it’s hard to say. But that’s what happened, I know. Why it happened, I don’t know. But I found something that I was very interested in and I was able to do so I really bought a little company here in Greensboro called Blue Gem. And they were in the garment manufacturing, mainly dungarees and overalls and it just looked like an ideal situation, so I got into it and that’s where I put in – eventually, I sold part of the business to Blue Bell and then kept a couple of plants until we finally sold the last one about ten years ago. I was lucky because to my knowledge, there are no more cut and sew operations in this country. I mean, they’ve all gone overseas.
KS: Isn’t that incredible.
AC: Yes. And so, I was fortunate in being able to sell the plant to a company that was in the uniform manufacturing for the Navy. So they still had to buy on shore if there was anybody that made the product for them. So we were making that so the company that took over was in the same business and they continued, and continue to this day, to make uniforms for the Navy.
KS: Did you see that coming, the outsourcing; so many people who I’ve spoken to just didn’t particularly see it.
AC: Well, I think I saw it and I know my father saw it because, and this was back in the forties and fifties, and it was perfectly clear back then that textile machinery was beginning to be manufactured in Japan and they could make it just as well as the companies in America. And so the mills started buying Japanese textile equipment and wages, of course, are a small percentage of what they are here and I think the writing was on the wall and he saw it back then. And I have made a couple of speeches on that subject. And of course, it hit the apparel industry harder than the textile industry because apparel is really labor intensive and it doesn’t take nearly as much capital to get into an apparel operation as it does in textile so apparel was the hardest hit and of course when they passed this NAFTA, it was the death knell of apparel in this country. And whether that’s good or not, I can’t say, but that certainly did it and it severely hurt the textile business because people in China and Taiwan and Sri Lanka and all these countries, they can make it just as well as we can and we kid ourselves when we say we’re – technically, we are ahead of the world because in India, you know – I 7
worry about that, our economy from that standpoint. We’re losing our manufacturing base in this country.
KS: Also our communication base. So much of computing and technology is also being exported to India.
AC: Yes and that really bothers me because when you look at the expansion, it’s so much service. Like the hospital is – the hospital and the schools here are by far the largest employers and then, of course, the city and the county are buying and building bigger and better buildings at the taxpayers’ expense and I don’t know where all this is going but we talk about Greensboro making so much progress and it’s such a, you know, I don’t think it is any better place to live now than it was back in the 1940s, quite honestly, it’s different but it was a pretty good place to live back then.
KS: Now when did you meet your wife?
AC: I don’t know. [Both laugh] Sally lived in our neighborhood. She moved here with her family. Her first husband was a doctor and he practiced here and then they got a divorce so she was living here and I knew her casually for, I guess, since she was here. I mean I’d see her socially at a party or something. So I guess, I got separated from my first wife in 1974 and officially met Sally at a party given by mutual friends who kind of had that in mind, our getting together. So that’s when I first really – well, I didn’t have a date, I just saw her at a party. So I did ask her – we kid about this, I don’t think I asked her, I think she asked me. I was so backward anyway, if she hadn’t I probably never would have. But, at this party she said, “I know that you’re busy on Saturday night.” And I said, “Well, not really.” I don’t think I had a date since my wife and I separated. And she said, “Well, why don’t you come over for a drink.” And she laughs about it, she said, “Of course, my kitchen is closed on Saturday night.” And I said, “Well, I’ll take you out to dinner.” And so, that’s how it got started. And then, you know, we had a couple of dates before New Years and then after that, we started seeing each other more. And I guess it was a year and a half before we got married in 1976.
KS: Now, do you have any children?
AC: I have four children and she has two.
KS: So you have a large family at this point.
AC: Interesting. We got married and I bought a little house over on Cornwallis and we moved in and about that time, my former wife was living in my house which was the mansion I was talking to you about, that my dad and mother built back in 1935. Well, we had – when my mother died, we moved into that house and so that’s where my former wife and four children were living. And we had an agreement that she could stay there as long as she wanted but no longer than after 8
my youngest child graduated from high school which was three or four years. That is what she wanted. And so then she announced that she had decided to move out early. And I had my four children living there so I said, “Okay, we’ll just move in.” So Sally and I moved over there and it was I have to say, the “summer from Hell.” We had the six kids and they were all, fortunately, friends. She had two girls, I had a girl and three boys and they were pretty good friends. So, they got along real well, but that didn’t mean all of us did and so during the summer, we had quite an interesting summer. We all survived, which is amazing.
KS: You had a nice house to house everybody.
AC: Well, it was a big house, but we had every guest room – someone in it.
KS: That is amazing.
AC: Yes.
KS: Now were you ever involved with local and national politics?
AC: No.
KS: Not particularly interested in that.
AC: No.
KS: Now have you been involved in philanthropic causes and volunteerism in the Greensboro community?
AC: Yes, I have been. I have always been involved in the United Way and I’ve had different functions in that. I’ll give you my little resume if you want, which is not very impressive.
KS: That would be great, thank you.
AC: I was probably more involved with the Boy Scouts than any other agency and you see up there that they gave me the Silver Beaver Award which is a pretty good – a nice honor.
KS: Now were you a Boy Scout growing up?
AC: I was, but I never really, for a number of reasons I was just a Boy Scout. I don’t think anybody in my troop ever made it past First Class Scout let alone Eagle and we were just not motivated. We didn’t have leadership that motivated us to progress in Scouting which I wish we had had because I can’t think of any better program or better training for a young person than Scouting. But, I maintain an interest as an adult and had several positions with the counsel over the years.9
KS: That’s a wonderful organization. My son has been a Scout.
AC: Yes, great. I was involved with Moses Cone Hospital for years. I guess I was on that Board for about fourteen years. I was the Chairman of the Board succeeding my uncle for four years and there is a lot I have to say about that too, but I’m not going to say it. [Both laugh]
KS: Okay. I totally understand that. [Both laugh] Also, I understand that in Greensboro, the Jewish community is very small, tight knit, and influential. Can you tell me role that they’ve played in the growth of Greensboro?
AC: Well, yes. Of course, my family came to Greensboro – my father moved here in 1905 and by that time the mills had been established and they were building – the Proximity Mill was built and I think they started the White Oak Mill and they built this huge complex of mills and finishing companies with thousands of employees and they were very, obviously influential in the city and they took part in political – my uncle was the mayor at one point. And then, of course, the Benjamin family who started out as the Sternbergers were part of the Revolution Mill which they owned part, my family did. And then the Cones bought out the Sternbergers and the Sternbergers took property from which they developed all of Greensboro. You know, Friendly Center, and all of that was done by the Benjamins; the Sternbergers and the Benjamins. So they were a very big part of Greensboro along with other very fine Jewish people.
And Greensboro, thanks to this early group, became known as a pretty good place to live. There was a lot of anti-Semitism all over the country, naturally, and the world, I guess, but there was very little here. I guess primarily because of the influence of the Jewish people that were here and when people found out that they were just good, ordinary citizens and not a threat to anybody. And so, you know, my family, I’m not sure if they were instrumental in starting the Greensboro Country Club, but anyway, this was always open to everybody as opposed to other county clubs which were not. And you know Greensboro is just a great place to live. The only thing was, there were very few – when I grew up, there were very few Jewish families in Greensboro. There was a temple, Temple Emmanuel, which was a reform congregation and I was sent over there to Sunday school and that was my only awareness of being Jewish because I went there and my friends went across the street to Sunday school and everybody was in a different place, you know, church or temple. And other than that, I didn’t know that I was different from anybody else, and that’s the way I grew up. My family was never real religious so I don’t ever remember talking much about religion as I grew up.
I guess the first time I really became aware that I might be different in some respects is when after I left Greensboro and was going to Carolina and I was really a little bit shocked when they were sending out bids for fraternities and I 10
got a bid to join a fraternity called ATO [Alpha Tau Omega] and then I found out that they did not take any Jewish members, and they didn’t know that I was Jewish. Not that I would have joined anyway, because I was in this Navy program and didn’t have time for fraternities and all the fraternity houses had been taken over by the Navy so nobody had a house, they just met I guess. But anyway, I never – I never really had any bad experiences because of my faith. But I never really got too involved and, of course, Greensboro, you know, a lot of the Jews came to Greensboro because it is such as great place for them. It was open, you know, very little discrimination. It just seemed like a wonderful place. It was and is. But it has grown so that now, you know, there – it is quite a large community.
KS: One of my good friends moved up from Texas and she has children at the Jewish school and she’s involved in the Jewish Federation. I’ve been on their Web site. That’s incredible.
AC: I know it is.
KS: That is an incredible organization.
AC: Yes it is and it’s – I can’t really tell you, but it’s different from when I grew up because there was no – I guess there was a very small Jewish community which had a temple and that was the extent of our involvement. There was no Federation. Now there is, and a lot of Jewish people are here and are involved in that community; more so than in the community of Greensboro. And I think that’s unfortunate because, well, that’s just not the way I was raised. And so I guess I’m just not a very good Jew. [Both laugh] And of course I married out of the faith, both times. My children are not Jewish and that’s just the way I chose. I guess I blame it on my parents who – it was just not part of their lives.
KS: Now, since you’ve lived in Greensboro, so much has happened culturally; the 1960s sit-ins, the Nazi/Klan shootouts. What were your impressions of that at the time?
AC: You know what? I’m embarrassed to say that I was so involved with my family and my work which was, at that time, in Gibsonville. I just knew what I read in the paper. I certainly was not involved in any way and I just was a witness.
KS: Now do you have any connections to local colleges or universities?
AC: No, actually, Sally has. She’s our family college person. She’s been on the Board of UNCG and she was president of the Excellence Foundation and we have directed quite a bit of our giving to UNCG.
KS: And you had said your wife had taken graduate courses in LIS [Library and Information Studies].11
AC: Yes, she has, she went there.
[End of Side A. Start of Side B]
KS: Tell me about your hobbies.
AC: Well, when I got out of the Navy and went to work I was single and I had a friend who asked me if I would like to go out and take a – they were promoting flying lessons. And he said, “Well why don’t we go out there and take a flying lesson.” And I said, “Well, I really hate to fly, you know, I don’t like it. But what the heck, I don’t have anything else to do.” So we went out there. And the time came for him to take – and they were flying these little Cubs and he said, “I don’t think I’m going to do that.” [Laughs] And so I went ahead and got in the thing, in the back seat, you know, and we took off in this little Piper Cub and fortunately it was a beautiful day and very calm and I just really enjoyed it. So I took a few more lessons and ended up getting my lessons exactly sixty years ago, 1948. And one thing led to another and I ended up buying a Beechcraft Bonanza which is a really nice plane. And they had just started making these planes and I paid twelve thousand dollars and this person who sold me the plane, we went out to Kansas and picked it up and flew it back to Greensboro. And I became addicted to flying and so I used it extensively in my business when I had Blue Gem and we had customers all over the country and I’d fly these salesmen around the country and of course I bought other planes in the interim. And so, I flew for years and years until finally in 1981 or ’82, I decided I didn’t need an airplane anymore so I sold the last plane I had. And I don’t know what happened to me, but I suddenly got the bug again and I said, “Well, I think I’m going to see if I get qualified again.” So I went out, got my physical and I passed and took some refresher courses, lessons, and ended up buying another airplane. So, if you look around, you’ll see Sally and me and our latest acquisition.
KS: Oh, it’s a beauty.
AC: Yes, it’s a Beechcraft Baron which I used to fly all the time.
KS: That’s a great picture.
AC: Thank you. And she loves to fly as a passenger. I can’t get her interested in – I wish I could, but at this time, I’m flying.
KS: That’s wonderful. So do you go on the weekends?
AC: Well, anywhere. I mean we go to Florida and New York and Maine. Anywhere there is to go, we’ll hop in that plane and go.
KS: That is wonderful.12
AC: And it may be kind of crazy, but – some of my friends don’t want to fly with me anymore. We used to go on these golfing trips and just – we’d fly off to the Bahamas and different places; they’re not interested any more.
KS: Really, I wonder why?
AC: Well, I think they think that I’m too old, to tell you the truth.
KS: Nonsense, I think it’s great. [Both laugh]
AC: Well, apparently, I’m probably crazy, but I feel good about it. I feel like I’m just as – maybe a better pilot now than I was fifty years ago. Of course, they have so many new avionics to help, that it’s really much easier now than it used to be to fly.
KS: That’s wonderful.
AC: That’s what I’m doing. And also woodworking is a hobby and I made a lot of furniture.
KS: Now when did you take up woodworking?
AC: Well, I’ve piddled with it for years but when we bought our house, we sold the house at 806 Country Club Drive and moved to a house at 500 Country Club Drive and I built a shop so for the first time I was able to put some real machinery in then, off and on, I’ve made a lot of furniture for the family, for us. We have a little house up in the mountains and it’s just full of my stuff, for what it’s worth.
KS: That is wonderful.
AC: Yes, so with that, my business, which is really real estate now, it’s still called Blue Gem but it’s – years ago I got into the real estate development and investment business and it’s slowly grown to the point where it, you know, keeps me pretty busy.
KS: That’s wonderful.
AC: So that’s what I do.
KS: I do want to ask you about Rotary. You are a member of the Rotary Club of Greensboro.
AC: Yes.
KS: How long have you been involved with the Rotary Club of Greensboro?13
AC: Well, when I came back from Gibsonville, I joined this club and I think it was in 1959; ’58 or ’59. It says so in this book. [Both laugh] Anyway, that’s when I transferred from Gibsonville to Greensboro. I’ve been in it ever since, but I’m not a good member any more, because you know, people like me, you don’t have to make attendance like newer members so they don’t count it against the Club if I don’t show up; 1957, that’s when I joined. And I was a Director from 1962 to ‘65.
KS: Great.
AC: Yes.
KS: Now, is there anything that we haven’t covered in the interview that you would like to mention?
AC: No, but I’m going to give you a little something I wrote over the years, and I’ve had a lot of fun with this. My parents and my aunt in particular, used to love to write rhymes. And we used to go up and visit her in Lake Placid and she required of all of her guests, that you’d have to write some sort of a rhyme in the guestbook which dates all the way back to her parents. And she collected all these books, guestbooks. So, I guess, that’s one thing that got me started. So I’d go up to Lake Placid and write these rhymes and then I’d write poems for my children’s weddings and graduations and whatnot. And I really didn’t write prolifically, I’d just maybe write one this year and then I’d write two next year, depending on the event. But I did drop them in a file every time, so I kept them. So I said, “What the heck, I’m just going to collect this stuff and put it in a book form or a booklet, so I did. And Sally just loved it because we had a book signing. A lot of this is about Sally, you know, I’d write her a poem for her birthday, or something.
KS: How wonderful. I bet she loved that.
AC: So we had a book signing and we asked our friends over and I gave them one of these books and I’m going to give you one.
KS: Oh, thank you so much. I’d really appreciate that. That is wonderful. How meaningful. I bet that means so much to your wife and your family. I can barely get a card from my group!
AC: Well, I thought I’d put it in this form while I’m still around otherwise all these years of writing poems would go down the tube.
KS: That’s wonderful.
AC: So you never know when you do something, you know. You know you like it, but someone else may think it’s ridiculous. And I’m sure some of these would be considered ridiculous. 14
KS: I doubt that. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate that.
AC: You’re welcome.
KS: Well, if that’s all, we’ll conclude our interview. Thank you so much for letting me come to your office today.
AC: It certainly was my pleasure and I wish you the very best.
KS: Thank you very much.
[End of interview]
[End of Tape 1]