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Show City Motel 118 The Jackson's son, Angus, owned a Chevron station in Ionia where they used to l i v e . He devised a plan to pay for his parents' gasoline (until the credit card he gave them expired) i f only they would leave town. The largest factor in Angus' decision was not so much the Jackson's recent past, which some called both criminal and negligent, but the fact that his parents were embarrassing. Actually, Mrs. Jackson was loved in Ionia and in her sewing circle until her husband had gotten crazy ideas about making money. Her friends had tolerated her bad breath (due to an intestinal malfunction) and her high nervous laugh until Mr. Jackson put away his overalls and sold his tractor with the idea that " i f others can do i t , so can I . " The date of the Jackson's loss of respectability coincided with the date of a book purchase by Mr. Jackson-Your Dreams-Cash In On Them. This t a l l , dignified gentleman who had been admired and respected as a humble farmer became a stranger to those who thought they knew him. In his f i r s t venture, he collected driftwood from lonely river beds to sell to nurseries-"monuments of nature in every landscape" was the motto he used in his sales spiel. Next he sold woodburning stoves and synthetic greenhouses, trying to cash in on the shortage hysteria in southeastern Idaho, but his stoves gathered dust in his barn and his collapsible greenhouses lay folded in their plastic wrap. He tried selling a new product-jet-dry caulking-along with a new herbal cosmetics line. Sales covered his costs until he saturated his territory. Then he developed a self-improvement course of his own-"20 Days to Right Thinking, Right Living, and Right Results" with cassette tapes and a mimeographed pamphlet. |