“The Gyro”
An Unintentional Cliff-Hanger
Here’s the “Rest of the Story”From Doug’s story last week (They’ve been married for over a year!)
I’m sure you all heard of Multi-Level Marketing before. Well, back in the early 70s, I got involved in one of these pyramid schemes as they called them. It was called Gyromatic Safety Control. It was a contraption that bolted into the trunk of your car that was supposed to stabilize your car in corners and on ice covered roads. Being a new engineer I was anxious to do some calculations and the theory behind it was sound, so I invested $250 into this fantastic idea and started selling them. I have always had a pretty good gift of gab so the sales were coming in at a pretty good clip. I had an appointment with the city to demonstrate how the Gyromatric Safety Control could enhance the controllability of their police cruisers the following Monday, and was anxious to get one of my buddies involved on the ground floor of this business.
Gayle was a member of our car club and also had a way with words but wasn’t quite sold on the idea of investing his hard-earned cash into the business without a little more than my say so. I told him I would give him a demonstration that afternoon, and he could see for himself that it really worked.
Later that day, Gayle and I headed out north east of town with my brand-new Orange 1973 Dodge Charger with the device attached into the trunk. I knew the road ahead was somewhat curvy with some patches of ice but that’s what I needed to demonstrate the fabulous product I had in my trunk. I had forgotten it also changed from pavement to gravel just a little ways down the road. I accelerated to about 60 MPH, and we headed into the first turn. That is where I noticed the gravel ahead. I lifted my foot off the accelerator, but it was too late. We began to slide toward the ditch with a long row of fence post along one side. I tried to counter steer, but the Gyromatic Safety control held the Charger in position. Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop the side of my Charger was knocking down fence posts like a dozer. Gayle was trying to buckle his seatbelt as we headed for a tree at the end of the fence row. We hit three more posts and then the tree. Even though it was a mess the Dodge still was drivable, and we headed home. Gayle left his seatbelt buckled for the remainder of the trip. Once I got home, I revisited my calculations and although the theory behind the Gyromatic Safety Control was sound, it turned out that the device would need to be the same weight as the vehicle you were driving in order to do what they had claimed.
That was the end of my MLM business. I quickly canceled the “show and tell” with the city early Monday morning.