No Salesmen
9th of June 1994 it was graduation day from high school. I had attended Jakobsbergs gymnasium (as had Andreas, Mattias and Fredrik G) but Javed went to Upplands Bro gymnasium (with Peter G, "Spettan", mentioned in the Youtube video Back to childood areas). These schools have about 20 km distance from each other.
Me and Javed were kind of industrious (at least in theory) and had plans to earn money. At the very same day as this graduation we had a scheduled meetup at a sales company. It was a one-day education in the art of forceful, ugly peddling.
At first, at the graduation, we followed suit and played regular young men (with fully functional parents). Javed's mom might have attended at his school though, I cannot recall from our talks. Mattias' parents kindly bestowed me with a boquet of flower from Mattias' hefty lot. I happened to leech on his reception outside the high school, and they snapped a photo.
I joined Mattias on his decorated trailer but soon left to converge with Javed somewhere on the way to another suburb by the name of Sundbyberg where the sales meetup was to take place. We weren't alone there. At least 10 odd people or so had gathered, and we got introduced to the product we were to, apparently, wander around in the city and convince people to buy: a plastic, shitty flashlight (no offence to Andreas' mom, who actually had such a flashlight for unknown, mysterious reasons). It had "exclusive" features such as orange-blinking extra lights.
After a while we got divided into small groups, each group led by a seasoned salesperson. Me and Javed were assigned to different groups. All groups then headed in to central Stockholm. The leader in my group chose to attack this building by Norrmalmstorg:
He tricked his way in and started to knock on doors and ring bells. Those who opened immediately regretted it. I felt ashamed, almost dirty. Maybe he had worked through a floor or so with us tailing him - no unit sold, of course - when I tapped out and left. I went back to Mattias in Kallhäll and his graduation party. Javed wasn't there. Cell phones weren't really a wide spread thing back then, so we couldn't contact each other. I certainly didn't have one for years to come. Javed's first cell phone was indeed released in 1994, but I don't think he had gotten it by this time. It was a Motorola flip phone, this model:
I am pretty sure I made my very first cell phone call with this phone of his. I remember calling Robert when walking with Javed on Kopparvägen. It felt surreal. Anyways...
Javed eventually showed up, both cursing and laughing. The role modeling peddler of his group, a short woman, had been even worse than the leader of my pack. Example: When a spiteful man tried to shoo her away and close the door on her, she actually put her foot in the door and prevented it, continuing to pitch the lousy flashlight as if everything went smooth. There were other similar scenes happening, but the details have faded away by now, unfortunately, making this story a bit thin I'm afraid.
Javed conscience hindered him from leaving like I did. Normally I am the overly conscientious one, but this time it was the other way around, much to my amusement.
Me and Javed were kind of industrious (at least in theory) and had plans to earn money. At the very same day as this graduation we had a scheduled meetup at a sales company. It was a one-day education in the art of forceful, ugly peddling.
At first, at the graduation, we followed suit and played regular young men (with fully functional parents). Javed's mom might have attended at his school though, I cannot recall from our talks. Mattias' parents kindly bestowed me with a boquet of flower from Mattias' hefty lot. I happened to leech on his reception outside the high school, and they snapped a photo.
I joined Mattias on his decorated trailer but soon left to converge with Javed somewhere on the way to another suburb by the name of Sundbyberg where the sales meetup was to take place. We weren't alone there. At least 10 odd people or so had gathered, and we got introduced to the product we were to, apparently, wander around in the city and convince people to buy: a plastic, shitty flashlight (no offence to Andreas' mom, who actually had such a flashlight for unknown, mysterious reasons). It had "exclusive" features such as orange-blinking extra lights.
After a while we got divided into small groups, each group led by a seasoned salesperson. Me and Javed were assigned to different groups. All groups then headed in to central Stockholm. The leader in my group chose to attack this building by Norrmalmstorg:
He tricked his way in and started to knock on doors and ring bells. Those who opened immediately regretted it. I felt ashamed, almost dirty. Maybe he had worked through a floor or so with us tailing him - no unit sold, of course - when I tapped out and left. I went back to Mattias in Kallhäll and his graduation party. Javed wasn't there. Cell phones weren't really a wide spread thing back then, so we couldn't contact each other. I certainly didn't have one for years to come. Javed's first cell phone was indeed released in 1994, but I don't think he had gotten it by this time. It was a Motorola flip phone, this model:
I am pretty sure I made my very first cell phone call with this phone of his. I remember calling Robert when walking with Javed on Kopparvägen. It felt surreal. Anyways...
Javed eventually showed up, both cursing and laughing. The role modeling peddler of his group, a short woman, had been even worse than the leader of my pack. Example: When a spiteful man tried to shoo her away and close the door on her, she actually put her foot in the door and prevented it, continuing to pitch the lousy flashlight as if everything went smooth. There were other similar scenes happening, but the details have faded away by now, unfortunately, making this story a bit thin I'm afraid.
Javed conscience hindered him from leaving like I did. Normally I am the overly conscientious one, but this time it was the other way around, much to my amusement.
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