Dunnell

…Yesterday, as I was going through my collection of business cards, I found one of dad’s old ones. It was for the Dunnell Construction Co. - Refractory Contractors. I don’t remember the name so I will have to assume that it was short lived. And I don’t remember who his partner could have been, represented by the “ell” portion of the firm’s name. The office was located at 202 North Rose Street, Compton, CA. And the phone number was NEvada 6-9632. And the card had our home phone number on it as well, FRontier 2-4949. Now that number brought back some memories!

I know that dad went into business for himself at least twice. And neither venture was successful. It was the last one that had the worst possible luck, as he had a contract for the boiler work on the brand new Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. That was back in the days when the Mafia owned Las Vegas and their plan was to have the casino built while avoiding as many payments as possible, and then declare bankruptcy in the final days of construction. The assets, the casino…would be sold and the buyers would be the same people (under a different name) that had built the casino. Surprise! Almost every subcontractor on the project went bankrupt, dad included.