Byte Shop / Paul Terrel

I was reading the chapters on retailing, etc. in Fire in the Valley over lunch and I ran across something that I wonder if Mike redid in the new edition. He said that I was trying to "out Terrell, Paul Terrell" but that is not true. I was more like Dick Heiser, trying to make sure other computer stores’ attitude and demeanor were like my store, more interested in the success of the customer than in pure greed. I became pretty good buddies with the "Terrible Terrells" later that year. There were three of them, Paul and his two kid brothers, one from Oregon and one from North Carolina. The North Carolina brother was a quiet, serious guy who ran a good business I guess. But Paul and his other brother were more fun than people at computer shows and conferences. If I had drunk half as much as they could I would have killed myself for sure. We crashed more vendor hospitality suites and banquets than I could count, and always were welcomed with open arms when they found out who we were.

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It is beginning to get urgent as I contact people like Dave Hartman who, in turn, is contacting friends of his, and you find that there are people like the one you ran into on Google. I'm trying to contact a high school classmate of mine that founded Keane & Associates, a billion dollar software house with divisions all over the world. I'd like to see what he has to say. I'm going looking for Paul Terrell of the Byte Shops to see if he will write a little about our adventures at the early Comdex conventions, especially about a crazy Swede that showed up every year drunk as a lord and always ready to have fun. Paul's brothers had Byte Shops too, and one of them was a hell raiser too. He was from Oregon, and the quiet brother was from North (or South) Carolina. There are a few others I would like to talk to, so I have to get on the Internet with a vengeance.