The Avoriaz ski school saga

Part 5 

The letter written the day before was mailed to me, just forty years ago, on November 9, 1973. It was letting me know that I was kicked out of the Avoriaz ski school, for no apparent reason. I have never been fired from a job, except in this instance. Further, as a ski-school member, I was an independent contractor and the organization was set up as a limited partnership, with the elected director acting as a general partner. 

Nothing in the by-laws allowed Mr. Pernet to fire me unilaterally, arbitrarily, without warning and hearing as he did. I was also not the only one let go. My soon to be brother-in-law, Xavier Guiot and Henri Marullaz also received the same letter. To this day, I still wonder what went into Claude Pernet's brain when he mailed these letters? Probably not much good, because it took a great deal of cowardness and mean spirit to compose these notices and mail them out.

My memory remains pretty vague on this entire episode. Today, I still can't remember how I felt exactly. I might have thought that the move was so egregious that we would easily wiggle our way out of that situation and regain our standing in the ski-school. I certainly don't remember being worried. I might have already left for Tübingen, Germany, when the letter reached my home, and for a while, ignorance must have been pure bliss!

If I wasn't overly concerned, I was simply as mad as hell!

To be continued...