GLIMPSES of how Canada worked: a writer's memoir.

54. Freelancing again, in The Knowledge Age

IN TORONTO, TWO SOURCES OF ASSIGNMENTS (aka income) awaited me: 1) David Eisenstadt, BJ, Carleton, founder and president of The Communications Group (TCG), a small PR agency with his wife Rhoda as vice-president, and 2) Wanda 1 was manager of communications for United Cooperatives of Ontario (UCO).

David assigned several newsletters, both monthlies and quarterlies. Most were long on photos, short on texts, printed on both sides of a standard-size page for internal distribution only. Each paid $300 per issue plus mileage. In their offices senior managers or CEOs provided information, then I wrote and laid out pages in TCG's Don Mills office.

A couple of other writers also worked in-house while others wrote at home. David approved our work and printers' drivers picked it up at TCG.

After a while David moved Royal Worcester Spode (porcelain and fine china), and American Standard plumbing fixtures (mainly ceramic toilets) from other writers to me because I'd taken one pottery course at the Guildwood School of Arts and Crafts. He figured my grasp of the manufacturing processes and vocabulary of ceramics would prove useful. He was right.

Writing about many different products meant continuous learning.

Members of Aggregate Producers Association of Ontario (APAO) were required by provincial law to rehabilitate sites whose sand, gravel, or clay they exhausted. In its newsletter, On Site, I reported how these became wildlife refuges, golf courses, exclusive country clubs. Over time those lands have been bought and sold.

In the 21st Century, people who are used to enjoying them discover that all good things come to an end. Even protests by the very rich don't make any difference when one of them decides to monetize his property. In a few cases, members were far-sighted enough to buy the sites jointly.

Secrett Jewellers in Toronto's upscale Yorkville district taught me how to judge their wares, especially my favourites, pearls and opals.

Writing for Sharp Electronics about pocket calculators and desk-top computers, and for Canadian General Electric Mobile Radio made me comfortable with the jargon of computers. I don't grasp how they work because only their writing and printing functions interest me.

Real Time Datapro served small Ontario municipalities with batch processing for various departments at first, and then clients and their server grew together. I wrote, for example,

"When Milton's batch processing contract with Real Time expired early this year, [the town] decided...to upgrade to on-line computer systems. In-house computerization was considered very carefully, but when all factors were taken into account Real Time's services turned out to be the most cost-efficient method. Milton's Director of Finance, Donald E. Lougheed, says 'A potential problem is finding good personnel and keeping them, but any change in personnel costs a lot of time and effort. A service bureau appears to charge more, but in the long run it offers savings and fewer headaches'."

In one of my almost four years with him David, thinking far ahead, promoted two events for token fees.

For a "first annual" computer show, four long aisles were cross-crossed by electrical cables fed by too few wall outlets. Every exhibitor had at least one unique new product, some so far ahead of their time that even other exhibitors didn't grasp their potential. It was a lively event, with ambitious young men and a few women demonstrating hard drives, software, peripherals, explaining blinking lights and strange sounds, handing out lapel buttons, pencils, contest forms....

When only one or two ambitious creative persons comprised a company, either its head office was closed during the show or they spent hours on land lines. Some had telephones installed in their booths; those who couldn't afford them lined up to use the Automotive Building's few pay phones.