July 30th, 2010

Robert Bruce Jarvie 's Story

Birth Year: 1940




Table of Contents







    Chapter 1 ROBERT BRUCE JARVIE- THE BASICS:

    I go by the name of Bruce that’s what my friends call me. Robert is the name I go by when I get into trouble.

     

    I was born in the City of South Bend in the state of Indiana. It is about 4 miles from the Michigan state line. It is right in between Detroit and Chicago.

     

    I was the first born on March 10th 1940 to Daniel and Lois Jarvie. Although my brothers have been trying to catch up with me they haven’t yet. I have 2 brothers and a stepbrother. My youngest brother’s named Daniel. The middle brother is Wallace Mac. My stepbrothers was named Frank Walters.

    Chapter 2 MY EARLY YEARS:

    My parents got divorced when I was about 10 we stayed in the house with my mother. It was a shack. It wasn’t much, but my dad was so proud of that place. So up until I was about 12, we, I was in the same house. When this divorce happened I was crushed.

     

    My dad was an immigrant born in Scotland. He died in 1963 when I was still in high school. Before he came here he would mine coal for 10 cents and hour or something like that. Over there, there was no future, no jobs and no education. Everybody here called him Scotty. He came over here when he was 18 years old. His first jobs were in an ice factory and mattress factory.

     

    He did not have an accent because he liked to do crossword puzzles and he was always reading and improving his English. He was very proud of this and he did become an American Citizen.

     

    I had a great relationship with my dad when I was a boy. I can recall when he came home he would blow the horn and I would run out and jump in his lap. When I got older about 15-16 he would let me drive the car in the driveway. I guess it was at an early age I got my fascination with cars.

     

    I did drive the tractors in the field so I did know how to drive. We would help milk the cows and cut hay and all the crops we had.

     

    My mom was born in Warsaw, Indiana. She was a farmwoman who was really crazy, rambunctious, nosey, and a troublemaking woman. She is not alive today. She died when she was 88.

     

    We lived out in a rural area. We didn’t have a farm but all the neighbors were farmers. It was sort of like an Armish Country atmosphere back there. Back in that time when your neighbor needed help you just helped them. No money exchanged hands. You just helped for the shear joy of helping. No one got anything out of it. No lawsuits or complains to deal with. It was A-1 and everyday was blessed. But admittedly you have the usual things.

     

    Your friends would get killed. People you know and don’t know. I think trains killed both of them I can remember. You know back then trains would go 70-80 miles and hour and there was only a bell. That was it. The people would get hit crossing the tracks in cars and such.

     

    I will talk for a moment about things that I remember as a child. When I was a little boy I burned my feet in a fire. I don’t know where I was or truly how it happened. But I did run across a fire through the hot coals in my bare feet. Now I don’t’ remember the fire but I do remember the burning of my feet. From that time on I can remember when I got new shoes I had to stand with them on in a bucket of water to soften them up as my feet were still tender or sore. I was only about 3-4 at the time. That is the earliest thing I can remember.

     

    One of the other things I can remember that may not be funny to others but is funny to me. It might explain now why I have such evil thoughts.

     

    When the ladies from the church would come over I remember my mom encouraging me to look or stare up the church ladies dresses. I was told that when I was young I was a real skinny but a good-looking kid. I couldn’t imagine that but I always had a girl friend around. I was I guess you can say a real horny kid. I guess it might not be funny to some people but it was funny to me. I must have been only about 5 years old at this time. By the time I was eight I was messing around with my cousin. She was always coming around doing this and that. I recall the girls would normally initiate it if you stop and think about it.

     

    We did not move around as a child we had the same house. I ran away when I was about 12. We stayed there until about then. I went to live with a family whose son was a friend of mine He died in a terrible hunting accident. I was the only witness to that and it was truly horrible. This happened when I was about 17-19. I was still in high school.

     

    Some other child hood memories are for a time I had to take music lessons. I learned to play the accordion and for a brief time I took lessons on how to play the trombone. I hated it. I hated them both. I was about 8-9 pretty young at the time. That accordion was so big I could hardly hold it. I was forced to play and became very accomplished on it. I remember being forced to practice everyday after school.

     

    I had this Hungarian teacher that we went to see 1-2 times a week.  He had garlic breath. He reeked all the time. His wife did too. The other instructor who that I had was very good and we would give recitals. Now I like garlic.

     

    I learned to play Lady of Spain, Hungarian Rhapsody, Spanish songs and religious songs. I played at church and concerts.

     

    I did get in trouble a lot as a kid. I was made to do the dishes and I had to take the trash out. In those days you burned the trash. One time I took the trash out and my mom, well she told me to and she had a bunch of rugs in there and I knew she was saving them for the laundry.

     

    So I said. “Mom do you want me to burn everything?”

     

    She Said. “Yah, go ahead and throw in everything.  I said, burn it all, dam you.” That’s what she said.

     

    And so I went out and burned all the carpets. They were really nice ones. They were not rags.

     

    So I learned at an early age to be cunning, clever and to lie. When other kids were busy worrying about what ever they were worried about. I was watching people. I was learning from them. I would get information out of you and use it. I just told whoppers! People didn’t want to hear the truth. You tell the truth and people would say good luck kid who cares. Back then I didn’t have anybody that I was close to. I was pretty miserable really.

     

    When I was young I did ride the bus to school. I went to a real small school. There were three classes on one side and three classes on the other. So we did take 3 grades at once.  Or at least I did. I got straight A’s and one B. I won’t say I was smart but I just paid attention. I can say, I had no common sense. Not an ounce!

     

    We would jump off the hay mountain or screw your cousin. She was a red head and stunning. It was sort of my first sexual encounter or lets say I got aroused. I thought to my self, what the heck is going on here? I thought it was kind of funny. I was about 8-9.

     

    I didn’t take trips when I was a kid except for the school field trips. I do remember though my mom took all of us boys on a trip I took to Canora, Ontario, Canada to stay with our grandparents. This cabin we visited was out in the middle of nowhere. Canora was I guess the closest town.

     

    They had a couple of acres on the lake with a smoke house. Those are the finest memories I have. We fished, hunted, ate and slept. My grandfather took me fishing and taught me how to fish. Well he didn’t really teach me. I learned everything from observation, watching people.

     

    My grandfather hunted, fished and traded with the Indians. He would go and catch minnows. For some reason the Indians didn’t like to catch minnows. So they would pay my Grandfather a whole deer for a couple of buckets of minnows. He was like a horse trader nothing like me though. I am a horse-trading fool.

     

    The cabin that he lived in was a log cabin on this large lake about 100 acres. It was called Lake of the Woods We had a powerboat but he never let me drive it. He didn’t let me do anything. I just watched him. It was just fascinating. It was nothing major in size and made with logs. It was pretty but rustic. It had wood floors and heated with a wood stove. There was no electricity, no running water and an outhouse. It was pretty basic. But I was so happy there I still think about it.


    Chapter 3 IN JUNIOR HIGH:

    This was not a big school either. This is where my grades went straight down hill. I discovered the opposite sex and was on a one-man mission although I didn’t know then what I know now. For example how easy it is to pretend to become a friend. I would do what they enjoy doing and participate in sharing in that activity. It is an easy way to watch and learn and get acquainted. Other than that I don’t have much to say.

     

    I was in the boy scouts briefly. I learned to make rabbit stew. We caught a rabbit up in the sand dunes in upper Michigan. We were camping there overnight. I enjoyed that very much.

    Chapter 4 AS I GOT OLDER:

    I went to New Carlisle High School in South Bend is where I received my diploma. I was living with the family on the farm. They bought me a car, took me to church. I discovered here that it is not what religion you are but how you feel about God. It is not what happens to you it’s what you do about it. An attitude! I became strong. It was more of a spiritual thing but I didn’t know that and I thought it was a gift. But I used it inappropriately and made a lot of money.

     

    I don’t have any special memories of high school. I didn’t do much except get into trouble.

     

    I worked on different farms. We grew corn mostly, soybeans and hay. I worked all the equipment. I also worked on a dairy farm. That is a lot a work you have to get up about 4-5 o’clock and shovel crap and milk the cows. Some used machines others did the pumping of milk by hand. We spread that collection of crap on the fields summer and winter. I remember one day I was reading the help wanted ads and there was an ad –Need help on a pig farm. Please send a resume. What do I need a resume to shovel crap for. That’s what I thought when I saw that.

     

    I went to the Church of Christ, which was a Protestant church. I no longer hold that religion today. I am a Catholic. I converted when I got married. We were Protestants a very normal religion when I was growing up in our family. We taught or thought everyone else was the enemy.  My parents were very prejudiced. I did not understand that, I still don’t. I remember my father was not fond of Catholics or Blacks.

     

    I am now a Catholic and I treat people; as they treat me or want me to treat them. If they are nice and friendly I am nice and friendly back. If they need a cigarette I would give them a cigarette. If they need a couple of dollars I would give them a couple of dollars. I have always been a generous kind man. But I get my feeling hurt real easy. You know if people want to dump on me I just don’t let it in. I try to keep a positive attitude. People will just pee on your brain if you let them.

     

    When I was a kid I didn’t do drugs and I didn’t drink not even when I worked at a brewery.

     

    I got work in a brewery called Drewris Brewery cleaning tanks where my dad worked. He was to become a salesman for them. It was back when he was delivering ice he met up with a Deliveryman from Drewris. He started to deliver for them.

     

    It was an old fashion German beer. It was called Royal Canadian Beer that sold real well in the Michigan area. There was a picture of a Mounted Policeman on the bottle.

     

    I also went to College. I went to a business school called South Bend College of Commerce. It was a trade school that was a challenge but a good part of my life. I took accounting mostly but they taught business law. It was here that I realized that I was just as smart as most people, especially with the woman. I had more than I could handle. They were coming at me from all sides.

     

    I was living at the time on the farm with this woman named Ruth Eric. She fell in love with me and we were living like a married couple. Her son had died and her husband died shortly there after though she didn’t care for him much.

     

    I think the thing that most affected me was that I discovered I had the knack to persuade people and knew how to sell. I was so good! I could manipulate people. I think I was in my early 20’s and selling pots and pans.

     

    Chapter 5 MY FAMILY:

    I met my wife Janice Solmos, that’s a Hungarian name, at a race though another friend. I was racing my car. We started dating and I just fell in love with her. She was very beautiful. I can say I just knew she was the one. She was a very popular girl and didn’t have the best reputation, but I didn’t care about that. She was beautiful and every man would have had the same interest.  MY GOD! I still think about it. That was when I fell in love with her. We went out to parties and she invited me home to have dinner with her parents.

     

    She also went to High School there in South Bend. Her brother worked at the school. Her dad was a tough suspicious and stingy man. My wife inherited that trait. She probably had lots of secrets she never told me. I didn’t care. I loved her.

     

    It wasn’t until she missed two periods that she asked me, “what are we going to do?”

     

    I said. “What do you mean what are we going to do honey? We are going to get married.”

     

    She replied. “I thought you were going to just take me home and drop me off.”

     

    I told her, “No, I love you.”

     

    We got married on Sept 19th, 1964. I had a brand new corvette at the time.

     

    I was married to Janice who I truly care for still and Bruce was born. We did divorce because of me. I had had my share of success and misfortune. I also have two sons Bruce and Bret. I have 3 granddaughters. I have only seen one of them. Bruce lives up in Washington with his wife and kids. He works for the airline industry and travels a lot. Bret is single and lives with a girl though he has no kids. He works for attorneys collecting bills.

     

    I am now divorced. That happened 10 years ago around 1997. It was caused my infidelity. I was no good. But you know what? I don’t think I am better than anyone else but I am really not sorry for the things I did. I am not sorry. I got enjoyment out of it. It is my life I did it, and I am glad I did it. Now I know it wasn’t all that. It wasn’t worth loosing your family over it. Nothing is worth loosing anything that which you have it good. If you have the chance to loose your family, don’t do it! Do without!

     

    You are already blessed with the things you have!

     

    If you want it all you have to do is reach out and take it. Grab it it’s yours. This is probably the most important lesson I have learned. God doesn’t put you on hold, and no matter what you have done he will forgive you.

     

    What I want to do now is tell people about God. That he loves them and that he cares. Get them to confess, and ask for forgiveness. Just because you are a good person doesn’t mean you are going to heaven. I want to convert people to God.

     

    I am a bad person. I worked at it, did it and enjoyed it.

    Chapter 6 CAREER YEARS:

    It all started like this.

     

    At first I was selling Pots and Pans. It was scam job and the boss was a big jerk with a big mouth. But I learned that I could sell.

     

    Early on I took a test to sell cars with this big car dealership. They told me I was not qualified, that I did not have the personality to sell cars. I was the number one sales person everywhere I worked. I just smeared everybody. My first month in the business I set a record selling cars.

     

    I for the most part for the past 40 years have sold cars. In the later years my career was working in the financing department and also I worked as a car dealership manager.

     

    When I was young things were getting crazy. I had a car lot. I would go up to Detroit when I had my lot and bought used cars Corvettes mostly Z28’s vintage and muscle cars. I started out selling junk cars. You would put so much down and pay this much each week. I got that built up to the point where I had money all the time. I carried $10- 15,000 cash on me or had access to it all the time.

     

    I met another guy at the races at the same time I met my wife. His dad was in the mafia. His name was Jay Savarese. He live in a big mansion and he invited me to come live and stay with them. So I did. I worked for them as a chauffer or bagman. I would collect money at the bars. If they didn’t pay, their bar would be burned down that night. There was this one bar that was burned down 3 times called The Torch Lounge.

     

    The Mafia are very good business people. Their rules are very simple, but very strict. They want to help you make money but they are going to get some of it. Well most of it. What ends up is they get your business going get you alive and kicking with crowds coming in. They do it with hookers, booze, credit card theft. They don’t miss a trick. I got caught up in all that too. I observed it. I didn’t ask a lot of questions because I knew they wouldn’t tell me. But I just had a job to go out and hit 4-5 spots every week. I would drive around in a Cadillac or a new Buick.

     

    I was followed by the FBI for a long time. I eventually got caught. How it all came about. I abandoned the car business and got an apartment in Detroit. I got a job up there selling cars mostly corvettes. They did restoration I talked the man into opening up a sales lot. It began to do real well and the guy got stingy. Real stingy. He didn’t want to pay me. I have always had trouble with getting people to pay me what I deserved. It was my idea, my work, my research and experience. The fact that I get up at 5 in the morning and start work didn’t matter to him.

     

    The FBI followed me all those years when I went somewhere in a car. When I got up to Detroit I met some other Mafia members from New Jersey, Tony Jackeloni and that bunch. I had lunch in the Marcus Red Fox Restaurant the day Jimmy Hoffa was kidnapped. I was there that day with my wife. She had come up to see me and we had lunch. She did not live with me at the time it was about this time I started to realize what a sweetheart she really was. She loved those kids she stayed home and cooked and cleaned. I didn’t send her much money. I still feel guilty about that. I squandered it on myself. But I had a lot of fun.

     

    I met this wealthy girl that bought a corvette from me. She talked me into following her home to make sure she got home. But she wound up staying at my place instead of going home. We stayed together about a year and God was it fun. I was missing a part of my life of being with a young girl.

     

    I will say. “The price of education has always been high.”

     

    My wife was young but she was a married housewife. She acted like one and she was for making babies. She never turned me down she was always there for me. She never cheated on me that I know of. But if she did I would forgive her.

     

    So I had this car lot going making big money. I had my mob connections. One time they lent me $5,000 to tie me over. I paid them back before it was due the next day or so.

     

    I had a great knack for buying cars and changing their appearance so that they were resalable. I would find a car with miss-matched tires never been buffed out or cleaned up. I would virtually go through them one end to the other. I would put on new wheels and tires. I would buy Balloon tires and write on them with shoe polish. We got everything at a discount. I just learned all the short cuts by observing other people in the business. I would scope out their establishment and see how they would detail the cars. It was just so much fun! I just loved it and I did real well at it.

     

    It was while I was working here that I had met a man named Doug Spedding who had just moved out here to Colorado. He had a big Chevy Dealership on I25 and Broncos Stadium. I don’t know what it is called now but then it was Spedding Chevrolets. 

     

    The whole family moved out here in 1972.  I went to work for him. They were the toughest car sales people. They did anything to sell you a car. They rolled back speedometers. They would sell used cars as new and we falsified documents. The people just loved us! They were happy we were happy. I was making $60,000 and my aspirations coming out of high school were to make $10,000/year. I thought that was big money. It was so casual and so easy!

     

    Selling is nothing but a mathematical situation. The more times you ask someone to buy something the more you’re going to sell. If you only ask them once a day you get turned down then your closing ratio is 50%. You might sell about 8-9 cars/month. But if you serious about it and attack them like the enemy and squeeze everything out of them that you can, you will sell 20.  At 8-9 you can make 4-5 grand. If you sell 20 you can make 10-20 G’s. But you have to close the deal yourself or you wind up splitting the deal. I always go in there listened to what they said and what they did to learn how to be a closer.

     

    Then I got interested in the finance part of it. That is the most intricate part of a dealership. I went to finance school on my own and got a job over at Budget Rent A Car at $80,000/year. I was with them for 7 years. Then I got a general manager of Denver for the whole dealership and I was just God. I was on top of the world with a Lincoln to drive and they paid for my gas.

     

    In 1979 I became a heavy user of cocaine. I decided I would just sell some to my friends to cover my expenses. That way they would pay for mine. This didn’t work out. The DEA got wind of me and set me up in a sting or undercover operation and I sold them some drugs.

     

    It worked with the idea they were the mafia from Dallas wanting to move into the area and get established. I knew the small people and I had the connections here in Denver to make the deal with the DEA. I ripped off the DEA for about 30-40 thousand dollars out of it. But I got 5 years in prison.

     

    I went to Fort Worth, TX. I was in a level one-security lock up. I only did 6 months when the judge commuted my sentence and sent me home. It was because I wouldn’t snitch! I didn’t tell them how I did it, where I did it or nothing. I figured I will do my time a year or two whatever. I read books in the library, took walks on the track and lost about 50 some odd pounds and got tan.

     

    It was August 8, 1980 the federal judge that sentenced me to 5 years. Well I actually had 10 years with two 5-year sentences. But he sent a letter to the warden and they let me out at 4:30PM. They had given me what I had accumulated because I was working in the computer room as a data entry clerk. I was making about .25-35 cents an hour and I worked a lot of hours. I did this all on my own just by watching and seeing what others were doing.

     

    I would ask. “Hey what are you doing and where are you working, and do you like it?”

     

    Everything is out there for the taking. God has already given it to you. Shame on you if you don’t go take it! A lot of people don’t know how successful they can be and they don’t even try because they think they are going to fail, or they think they can’t do it.

     

    I like to take the most difficult task and figure out a way to do it. I just tell the truth. I say here’s an idea, what do you think?

     

    So after all of this, I did quit the cocaine, for a while, and then I had bills coming in. I had rent, cloths, and two boys getting ready for college. But then I quit. I figured I should quit while I was ahead. I didn’t stop using but I didn’t sell any longer.

     

    I got on the fast track or I should say I put myself on the fast track. But I did it for my family, for us, so we could have nice things, a nice place. I did get one child through college and the other did not go. He is like me sort of a rebel. But it made me feel good. It was for me an accomplishment. I am proud of it.

     

    When I got out I got my job back not with the same company but just about the same. But I struggled after that. I struggled when I got out of prison. You know the good life wasn’t there no more. But I made it back and went to another school of management. I got into sales management. Then I went to John Elway’s dealership. I stayed there 5 years and got fired though I don’t know what for. I just got fired one day.

     

    I was doing some things wrong but they don’t know about it. I did stuff like insider trading. I would bid on a car that was coming in on a trade $500 and would sell it to another dealer for $700 if he would give me a hundred dollar kickback.

     

    So ya, I had money and position and lost it all then went out and got it all back again. I bought a house on Standley Lake a HUD home for $500 dollars down, $800/month, a beautiful place. It had 2 fireplaces, ceramic counter tops and parquet floor. It was a hacienda loft town home. If I had the money today I would buy that place back.

     

    I never did any investing to prepare me for retirement. I did start heavy drinking, though I no longer do that. I think about it. I might be nice to have a six-pack. I did have help to stop. I had God’s help. If you want to do something bad enough just ask his help. It may not happen that day or that time and if it doesn’t then it teaches you a lesson.



    Chapter 7 RETIREMENT NOW:

    Now I am writing a cookbook about counterfeit cooking. That’s the title also. I love to cook and I am an excellent cook. It stems from my mom. She would not teach me how to cook.

     

    But when I watched I would say. “So that’s how you do that? That was easy.”

     

    And she taught me. She didn’t want anybody knowing what she was doing. I call it Counterfeit Cooking. I have thought about being a chief.

     

    I had a job here at the Hilton just a while ago. I got fired after the second day. I don’t know what I did and I don’t care. I didn’t really have to cook I just did the dishes to keep up with 60 people and make more coffee. I made some eggs and sausage. It wasn’t a large restaurant like House of Pancakes.

     

    Sometimes I would go down there and act like I was a guest and get a breakfast. I don’t have money now. I just in fact got evicted. So the next road is presented to me I must travel.

     

    I don’t have entertainment now. I just watch television and pray.

     

    I like to cook because time flies and I like to eat. As I sit here patting my stomach. I play my lotto tickets and if I win something I am going to give it to the church. I also support a child that I send money to the adopt a child program.

     

    I am for the most part living on Social Security. I don’t have money and most of my belongings I have scrounged up. They are not important to me any longer. I am on a mission to help people realize that God is there for them. He has never left. I want to help people find him and be forgiven.