It's mid June 1980, we have moved back to California and living on a 60 acres vineyard in south Madera county abutting the San Joaquin River. Leroy and Betty Hatfield are living on our 40 acre vineyard S.E. of Caruthers, and Katrina, Lynn and family are on the 20 acre vineyard on Cedar Avenue approx. 1/2 mile south of Manning Ave.
I am a farmer but I am getting some smiles and outright laughter at my attire while performing the jobs. All I had was office dress - you know, white dress shirts, dress trousers and of course dress shoes. I couldn't understand what they thought was funny - after all I had taken my tie off!
Enough of that, back to what was going on.
We had a fair crop that year on all three properties. We also got a good price ($1300/ton) and the packers bought all of it (no reserve this year). With a minimum of expenses, because two thirds of the work for the crops had been performed before we took over, all we had left was the picking costs, so financially it was a good year.
Once the harvest is over, you have dead time until the next January when the new crop year begins, so we spent the next few months looking for a vineyard with a home for Margaret's brother Gordon who was retiring from his position in Canada. Gordon and Irene had visited a couple of times and wanted to live here and we agreed to go in with them and own a vineyard jointly. While looking for them, we found one for us - a 9 acre vineyard located a mile east of Selma on Rose Ave. The property got both of our attention - a newish four bedroom home (2400 sq.ft), the entire property very nice and contiguous to the Selma Golf Course. So we bought it and moved in about mid October. Gordon and Irene showed up and we had not found a suitable vineyard for them yet, so they moved into the Madera property as we continued our search.
With both of us looking we found a 20 acre vineyard with a nice small home located 1/2 mile south of Ventura Ave about 8 miles east of Fresno.
About that time our neighbor just east of our Madera property offered to purchase the property with an offer $50,000 more than we paid for it, so we quickly accepted. We had automatic drip systems with timers installed on all our vineyards. This took a lot less work (about 1/2) for the irrigation, but at a cost of approx. $60,000 but it was well worth it.
1981 was a very busy year. We upgraded the Selma house and installed a Jacuzzi. At Caruthers, we remodeled the house and made the garage into a large living room and the living room into a dining room. Built a two car carport and a storage room and equipment shed (Jerry helped with the storage shed).
We worked our properties and played as much golf as we could get in. Gordon only lived for his golfing.
Business wise, we had a reasonably good crop year - good production, fair price, but about a 25% reserve, which meant we only received half price on the free tonnage. It was OK, but weak.
Bill and Frances had started a tradition of a big bash at their Oakhurst home on Labor Day (everyone was invited). This was the second year of this tradition. We left early and decided to look over Yosemite Lakes Park, a foothill housing development. We looked, were impressed and two days later we went back up, looked at some houses and bought one (here we go again!!).
We were able to sell our Selma property for $50,000 more than we paid for it (not all profit as we had put in about $30,000 on the drip system and the other upgrades we had done on the place.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Saturday, October 1, 2011
1981 - A year of recovery
By the end of 1981, I was in trouble with my personal life and the country was in trouble with Jimmy Carter's 4 years. 1981 so the start of the recovery for both.
I'm happy to report that mine lasted longer than the country's did - it has seriously fallen off the wagon now! (Just a little politics along the way).
Dick and I bought our first motorhome this year and made one trip back to Florida early in the year, but in May, through the efforts of Dick, our doctor and the Fresno County Alcoholism Council, I ended up at Beacon House in Pacific Grove for three weeks. The three weeks that changed my life - where after about ten days I ended up on my knees giving my life and my will to God. Let Go Let God (AA slogan). Back home in Fresno, it was three to five meetings a week, but slowly but surely the pieces started to fall together, and onion peeled one layer at a time.
Dick and I started going out to breakfast together everyday and we would talk. I would share the program and it started our day off right. Thirty years and we have kept that tradition up consistently until this year, when finances have forced it back some.
I don't know what prompted he and I to move again - maybe just our restless spirits which is very much a part of us - or maybe we both were tempted with the idea of everything in that year being new and different.
But on the way up to the Labor Day weekend get together at Bill and Frances' in Oakhurst, we stopped by Yosemite Lakes Park, just to see what it was all about. This was on a Saturday, Monday we went back up, met with a realtor, looked at houses and bought our house on the hill.
I'm happy to report that mine lasted longer than the country's did - it has seriously fallen off the wagon now! (Just a little politics along the way).
Dick and I bought our first motorhome this year and made one trip back to Florida early in the year, but in May, through the efforts of Dick, our doctor and the Fresno County Alcoholism Council, I ended up at Beacon House in Pacific Grove for three weeks. The three weeks that changed my life - where after about ten days I ended up on my knees giving my life and my will to God. Let Go Let God (AA slogan). Back home in Fresno, it was three to five meetings a week, but slowly but surely the pieces started to fall together, and onion peeled one layer at a time.
Dick and I started going out to breakfast together everyday and we would talk. I would share the program and it started our day off right. Thirty years and we have kept that tradition up consistently until this year, when finances have forced it back some.
I don't know what prompted he and I to move again - maybe just our restless spirits which is very much a part of us - or maybe we both were tempted with the idea of everything in that year being new and different.
But on the way up to the Labor Day weekend get together at Bill and Frances' in Oakhurst, we stopped by Yosemite Lakes Park, just to see what it was all about. This was on a Saturday, Monday we went back up, met with a realtor, looked at houses and bought our house on the hill.
Friday, September 2, 2011
1980 - Feeding the negative wolf
One of my favorite stories is of the old Cherokee who tells his grandson of the battle that goes on inside people. He said there were two wolves inside all of us - one wolf is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other wolf is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The grandson thought for a while then asked which wolf wins? The old Cherokee simply replied. THE ONE YOU FEED.
From mid 1979 to the spring of 1981, I fed my evil wolf a gourmet diet.
The demons that possessed me at that time prevented me from seeing the beauty of the old house in Madera which its magnificent views of the vineyard and river below.
It prevented me from sharing the dream that Dick was living as he developed his vineyards, realizing the farmer within.
It prevented me from fully realizing how good my life was becoming with family close - Louise had moved to California by this time, Bill and Frances and tons of great nieces and nephews were all part of our close life. Gordon and Irene had moved to California after Gordon's retirement and moved into the Madera home and we bought another small vinyard in Selma. And Katrina and the six kids were in Fresno, giving me a chance to finally get to know our grandkids. What more could I want? Whatever it was it alluded me.
The Selma ranch was another that I never appreciated. The house was nice and Dick made it even nicer with remodeling inside and a great patio complete with Jacuzzi outside. I had my horse moved from Florida, the orchard produced great fruit, the grounds were lovely - and yet my heart and mind would not rest.
What a waste - BUT it was something I had to go through to reach the point in spring 1981 to seek recovery. Had I not gone through that pain, that time, I would never have known what it was like to spend the next thirty years feeding the Good wolf......
Monday, August 29, 2011
Bye-Bye Marco Island or "Paradise Lost" by Grandpa
It's the summer of 1979, things are going reasonably well. The motels are doing very good; the only problem is personnel, mainly managers. They seem to think that a manager was worth twice as much as the going rate, and if they were that important, they shouldn't have to work! Leroy was having a fit finding and keeping people in place. We had received a good offer from Regal 8 Inns, our ex partners, to buy us out. This sounded good but what would we do? We couldn't sit around and twiddle our fingers, and we definitely didn't want any business that depended on people.
This was the summer of my 30th class reunion, which was held at the Ramada Inn at Blackstone and Shaw in Fresno. Margaret and I decided to attend. Most of my classmates were there and we had a good time. About half of them were farming and farming was doing very well. I had enough experience as a young man growing up to properly handle a vineyard, and they were turning good profit at a selling price of $1000 a ton with costs of about $500 a ton. This made sense and my entire life I had heard the advise of "Buy land, young man, buy land". "You can never lose money on land".
I decided to check it out, so once a month I flew to Fresno looking into vineyards and the farming market in general. It looked very good but the vineyard cost was high (approx. $14-15,000 an acre).
We decided to go full steam ahead and made the deal with our ex-partners. I looked at property from Delano to the south, Merced to the north and everything inbetween. I considered everything - grapes, almonds, walnuts, oranges and pistaccios, and settled on grapes.
Our first purchase was a twenty acre vineyard on Cedar Ave, 1/2 mile south of Manning (Fresno area). It had an old small beat-up house which we removed and bought a new double-wide modular. Katrina, Lynn and family lived there.
Our second purchase was a 40 acre vineyard on Klepper Ave, 1/4 mile west of Elm Avenue (Caruthers area). This had a good home on it.
Third came a 60 acre vineyard south of Madera, a nice older home, two big barns, employee home and came with all the equipment I needed. The property backed up to the San Joaquin River (we had 1320 feet of River frontage),
We sold our home in Marco Island for a profit (but wish we could say the same for the sale of the boats!). We loaded up with a rental U-Haul, pulling my pickup which Leroy drove for us. Leroy had opted to stay with us and live on our 40 acres near Caruthers and help me with my farming. In the meantime Bill and Frances chose to move their operation of Regal 8 Inns of California back to California, buying property in Oakhurst. Ralph and June decided to stay in Florida.
This all took place the first of June 1980 and Margaret and I drove to California via southern Illinois picking up Debbie who was spending the summer with us.
Margaret had not seen any of the three properties, including the one we were moving into in Madera, so there was some apprehension on her part.
So that's the story on how we wound up in Fresno and became farmers!
This was the summer of my 30th class reunion, which was held at the Ramada Inn at Blackstone and Shaw in Fresno. Margaret and I decided to attend. Most of my classmates were there and we had a good time. About half of them were farming and farming was doing very well. I had enough experience as a young man growing up to properly handle a vineyard, and they were turning good profit at a selling price of $1000 a ton with costs of about $500 a ton. This made sense and my entire life I had heard the advise of "Buy land, young man, buy land". "You can never lose money on land".
I decided to check it out, so once a month I flew to Fresno looking into vineyards and the farming market in general. It looked very good but the vineyard cost was high (approx. $14-15,000 an acre).
We decided to go full steam ahead and made the deal with our ex-partners. I looked at property from Delano to the south, Merced to the north and everything inbetween. I considered everything - grapes, almonds, walnuts, oranges and pistaccios, and settled on grapes.
Our first purchase was a twenty acre vineyard on Cedar Ave, 1/2 mile south of Manning (Fresno area). It had an old small beat-up house which we removed and bought a new double-wide modular. Katrina, Lynn and family lived there.
Our second purchase was a 40 acre vineyard on Klepper Ave, 1/4 mile west of Elm Avenue (Caruthers area). This had a good home on it.
Third came a 60 acre vineyard south of Madera, a nice older home, two big barns, employee home and came with all the equipment I needed. The property backed up to the San Joaquin River (we had 1320 feet of River frontage),
We sold our home in Marco Island for a profit (but wish we could say the same for the sale of the boats!). We loaded up with a rental U-Haul, pulling my pickup which Leroy drove for us. Leroy had opted to stay with us and live on our 40 acres near Caruthers and help me with my farming. In the meantime Bill and Frances chose to move their operation of Regal 8 Inns of California back to California, buying property in Oakhurst. Ralph and June decided to stay in Florida.
This all took place the first of June 1980 and Margaret and I drove to California via southern Illinois picking up Debbie who was spending the summer with us.
Margaret had not seen any of the three properties, including the one we were moving into in Madera, so there was some apprehension on her part.
So that's the story on how we wound up in Fresno and became farmers!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Last of the Marco Highlights
We invited Debbie (16 in the May) and my niece from England, Sarah (16 in the April) to spend the summer with us. We used to say that Debbie was 16 going on 18, and Sarah was 16 going on 14. But it was wonderful to see a friendship grow over the weeks - although it had its 'moments' at first - competition and both a little threatened by the differences. 
We did all the touristy things - including one of my five trips to Disneyworld during that time - and I thoroughly enjoyed taking them shopping. Sarah may have come to us a kid, but when she returned to England (I made the trip with her) we all went out to dinner that first night and Sarah dressed in her sundress, heels, and hair and makeup learned from Debbie. We were all in the hallway when she came down the stairs and my poor brother exclaimed, "what happened to my little girl". Her two brothers living at home simply stood there with their mouths open! It was great.
Another great visit was my cousin Audrey and husband Derek. Added to enjoying all that Marco and Florida had to offer, we also added a surprise trip for them by flying them out to California. Dick was already there and had a vehicle he had purchased that he wanted to have driven back. But first Gordon and Irene joined us out there and the six of us had a fantastic time seeing Yosemite, the Coast and Las Vegas. Dick, Gordon and Irene left us at that point, and I drove Derek and Audrey across country back to Marco sightseeing along the way.
The above and the next photo are of my sister Mair and her husband Norman's visit. All the usual things were done of course (Disneyworld, etc.), but we also took a fun driving trip to the Florida Keys. Norman was especially thrilled with this trip as we ended up visiting Key West with all of its Hemingway memorabillia. The above photo which shows singer (from the 50's) Johnny Ray kneeling and signing to Mair at the Marco Country Club has a story behind it. Mair is 12 years older than I and when I was a teenager, Johnny Ray was the 'big thing'. My sister used to tease me about how he sounded like a cat wailing, so when I saw he was going to perform at the country club when she and Norman were visiting, I organized a dinner/party get together with three other couples and reserved the main table immediately to the left of the performing platform. It was luck to a great extent, but I had been to enough concerts to pick up on the fact that performers almost always played to the table on their right. I seated Mair on the end, facing the performer and all our friends were in on the joke, so as we arrived at the club, they stood in front of all the signs announcing it was Johnny Ray so she had no idea who was performing. It couldn't have worked out better - not only did he 'play to the right', but ended up kneeling in front of Mair for one of his songs.
One other thing we did that was a real departure from the norm for Dick and I was to join a bowling league with Leroy and Betty Hatfield. Leroy was an excellent bowler, but the rest of us left a lot to be desired, although we did end up winning the most improved team at the end of the year. Let's face it when you start out as bad as Betty, Dick and I were you had no place to go but up!! Dick and I used to joke that we wished we could swap our golf scores and our bowling scores. 160 in bowling and 80 in golf would have been splendid.
We did all the touristy things - including one of my five trips to Disneyworld during that time - and I thoroughly enjoyed taking them shopping. Sarah may have come to us a kid, but when she returned to England (I made the trip with her) we all went out to dinner that first night and Sarah dressed in her sundress, heels, and hair and makeup learned from Debbie. We were all in the hallway when she came down the stairs and my poor brother exclaimed, "what happened to my little girl". Her two brothers living at home simply stood there with their mouths open! It was great.
Another great visit was my cousin Audrey and husband Derek. Added to enjoying all that Marco and Florida had to offer, we also added a surprise trip for them by flying them out to California. Dick was already there and had a vehicle he had purchased that he wanted to have driven back. But first Gordon and Irene joined us out there and the six of us had a fantastic time seeing Yosemite, the Coast and Las Vegas. Dick, Gordon and Irene left us at that point, and I drove Derek and Audrey across country back to Marco sightseeing along the way.
The above and the next photo are of my sister Mair and her husband Norman's visit. All the usual things were done of course (Disneyworld, etc.), but we also took a fun driving trip to the Florida Keys. Norman was especially thrilled with this trip as we ended up visiting Key West with all of its Hemingway memorabillia. The above photo which shows singer (from the 50's) Johnny Ray kneeling and signing to Mair at the Marco Country Club has a story behind it. Mair is 12 years older than I and when I was a teenager, Johnny Ray was the 'big thing'. My sister used to tease me about how he sounded like a cat wailing, so when I saw he was going to perform at the country club when she and Norman were visiting, I organized a dinner/party get together with three other couples and reserved the main table immediately to the left of the performing platform. It was luck to a great extent, but I had been to enough concerts to pick up on the fact that performers almost always played to the table on their right. I seated Mair on the end, facing the performer and all our friends were in on the joke, so as we arrived at the club, they stood in front of all the signs announcing it was Johnny Ray so she had no idea who was performing. It couldn't have worked out better - not only did he 'play to the right', but ended up kneeling in front of Mair for one of his songs.
One other thing we did that was a real departure from the norm for Dick and I was to join a bowling league with Leroy and Betty Hatfield. Leroy was an excellent bowler, but the rest of us left a lot to be desired, although we did end up winning the most improved team at the end of the year. Let's face it when you start out as bad as Betty, Dick and I were you had no place to go but up!! Dick and I used to joke that we wished we could swap our golf scores and our bowling scores. 160 in bowling and 80 in golf would have been splendid.One of our favorite lines that we love to quote is Betty's opinion of golf, which she only did once, and bowling which she loved. She said she didn't like any sport where the ball didn't come back to her.
Friday, August 12, 2011
Before we head west to California.....
some random memories of those two years in Marco...
My Mother, and older sister Aunt Peggy and younger sister Aunt Lu spent three months with us in Marco. During that time we took many trips to see the sights that Florida has to offer and they seem to love every minute of it - except perhaps getting there in the first place! That was an experience. They flew into Miami - about 100 miles straight across Florida to the East Coast of Florida from our Western shored Marco Island. Dick was in California at the time, so I drove to Miami to meet them. They were supposed to come in about mid afternoon. The plane arrived and the people started coming through the gates. No ladies. Knowing that my mother would be in a wheel chair, I thought - they're probably going to be among the last, so I waited. More people, no ladies! Finally, no more people! Quick enquiries showed that they had never gotten on the plane! Now what. This is well before the days of cell phones and noone is home to answer any calls there. I call my brother in Canada - had he heard? No, but he'd call England. He called my sister and she called our cousin Mary who had taken them to the airport in London. As far as anyone knew they had gone on the plane! I finally decided there was no point in hanging around the airport, no one could reach me there - so I drove home. There was a message waiting for me from the airline in Miami. Where was I - they had three ladies (79, 81 and 83 years old). Apparently they had missed their intended flight (something about having to go a roundabout way because of my mother's wheelchair and they were too late!!) and they had put them on the very next flight which left 30 minutes later. Miami airport is strangely laid out and each gate is separated from the other gates in what appears to be separate rooms. They were announcing my family's arrival in their gate, but it wasn't sounding in my gate. So most of the time I was frantically making the phone calls to Gordon and he was transmitting the news from Mair and Mary, they were sitting in the gate right NEXT door waiting for me. By this time it was late evening, the ladies were exhausted and the airline put them up in a hotel and I picked them up the next morning.
During that time, we arranged a vacation with Bill and Frances, and Jerry and Bev to go to Hawaii. We had a fantastic time there staying on four islands - Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauaii. They were filming a movies at one of he hotels with Paul Newman, William Holden, Jaqueline Bissett, Red Buttons and Ernest Borgnine. Dick, Bill, Jerry and I golfed that day but Bev and Frances watched some of the filming.
My Mother, and older sister Aunt Peggy and younger sister Aunt Lu spent three months with us in Marco. During that time we took many trips to see the sights that Florida has to offer and they seem to love every minute of it - except perhaps getting there in the first place! That was an experience. They flew into Miami - about 100 miles straight across Florida to the East Coast of Florida from our Western shored Marco Island. Dick was in California at the time, so I drove to Miami to meet them. They were supposed to come in about mid afternoon. The plane arrived and the people started coming through the gates. No ladies. Knowing that my mother would be in a wheel chair, I thought - they're probably going to be among the last, so I waited. More people, no ladies! Finally, no more people! Quick enquiries showed that they had never gotten on the plane! Now what. This is well before the days of cell phones and noone is home to answer any calls there. I call my brother in Canada - had he heard? No, but he'd call England. He called my sister and she called our cousin Mary who had taken them to the airport in London. As far as anyone knew they had gone on the plane! I finally decided there was no point in hanging around the airport, no one could reach me there - so I drove home. There was a message waiting for me from the airline in Miami. Where was I - they had three ladies (79, 81 and 83 years old). Apparently they had missed their intended flight (something about having to go a roundabout way because of my mother's wheelchair and they were too late!!) and they had put them on the very next flight which left 30 minutes later. Miami airport is strangely laid out and each gate is separated from the other gates in what appears to be separate rooms. They were announcing my family's arrival in their gate, but it wasn't sounding in my gate. So most of the time I was frantically making the phone calls to Gordon and he was transmitting the news from Mair and Mary, they were sitting in the gate right NEXT door waiting for me. By this time it was late evening, the ladies were exhausted and the airline put them up in a hotel and I picked them up the next morning.
During that time, we arranged a vacation with Bill and Frances, and Jerry and Bev to go to Hawaii. We had a fantastic time there staying on four islands - Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauaii. They were filming a movies at one of he hotels with Paul Newman, William Holden, Jaqueline Bissett, Red Buttons and Ernest Borgnine. Dick, Bill, Jerry and I golfed that day but Bev and Frances watched some of the filming.
We had great fun with Bev after Paul Newman had touched her arm asking to go by. We were not allowed to 'touch the arm'. We rented mini motorcycles on one island and I was the chicken slowpoke of the crowd. They would all take off and then would have to stop for me to catch up! Two of Dick's and my long time friends from Motel 6, Ralph and Alma Playle lived on Kauaii (near Bali Hai where South Pacific was filmed) and we spent one great day with them as they showed us around their magnificent island.
I went home to Wales during this time - for my mother's 80th birthday party. We had a very nice evening and dinner in Llandudno, with friends and relatives and my mother was in 7th heaven with the attention - although she never liked to admit her age!
Suzanne and Becky spent one summer with us and needless to say most of the visit was spent in bathing suits. They enjoyed our pool and fishing off the dock (do you remember catching this fish Becky?). I took them for swimming lessons, and we did some sight-seeing on the beaches, boating, and Sea World in Miami.
Some shots of a couple of our boats. You can see how Buddy is having a great time.
I went home to Wales during this time - for my mother's 80th birthday party. We had a very nice evening and dinner in Llandudno, with friends and relatives and my mother was in 7th heaven with the attention - although she never liked to admit her age!
Suzanne and Becky spent one summer with us and needless to say most of the visit was spent in bathing suits. They enjoyed our pool and fishing off the dock (do you remember catching this fish Becky?). I took them for swimming lessons, and we did some sight-seeing on the beaches, boating, and Sea World in Miami.
Some shots of a couple of our boats. You can see how Buddy is having a great time.There's lots of golfing memories of course, but one really fun event at the course was the Tony Lima Pro Am Tournament. Many celebrities turned out (although James Garner canceled at the last minute - and him I wanted to see!!). Arnold Parmer was among the golfers and for two days Dick and I became part of his "Army". What a nice guy - and he has the most gorgeous blue eyes. So did Paul Newman come to think of it!
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Marco Island - by Grandpa
In January 1978 Gordon (Margaret's brother) who lived in Canada was off work with a sciatic nerve problem. He and wife Irene were suggesting a visit, and at that the same time Don and Penny Geary, one of our ex-partners, owned a condo on the 6th floor of a high rise building sitting right on the beach in Marco Island. It was a beautiful 2 bedroom/2 bath with balconies overlooking the beach and beautiful Gulf of Mexico.
They were offering it to us free of charge for a couple of weeks, so we jumped at it, inviting Gordon and Irene to go with us.
We met there and spent two great weeks. We were all impressed!
We got home and decided to follow up on the possibility of moving us and the company to Florida. So we rented a house on an adjacent island called Isles of Capri - a three bedroom house on the water.
Margaret's mom (Annie) and her Aunt Peg were visiting us during this time so we took them with us and we occupied one bedroom and Mam and Aunt Peg had one. The third one was used by Bill and Frances, then Leroy and Betty and then by Ralph and June for 10 days each.
During this period of time, we were able to buy a home for ourselves and rent a second story office in downtown Naples (which was 20 miles north of Marco Island). Bill and Frances lined up a house in Naples, as did Leroy and Betty. Ralph and June decided yes to the move, but arranged their home later. So the deed was done - nothing to do but go home, sell and prepare to move. We rented a huge moving truck to accomodate the bulk belongings of all four families and office.
We got possession of our home in June, and Ralph drove my truck down there with some of the lighter possessions. Margaret met him to take actual possession and arrange electric, etc. and Ralph 'camped' there taking care of the house and pool until we arrived in July. It was during this time that he lined up his and June's place to live. By mid July we were all there, settling into our respective homes and setting up the office - quite an undertaking really when we look back on it.
One of the first items on my list was the purchase of a boat. I went to a boat broker in north Naples and found a 30 foot long x 10 foot wide Bayliner with dual 395 engines and air-conditioned cabin. It also had a seven seat fly bridge, did 28 knots/hour and 2 miles to the gallon fuel usage! Cost $30,000. Ralph and I went up the next day to pick it up. Margaret drove us up and then went back home to wait our arrival. Debbie was staying with us at the time. We had about a 25 mile run in the ocean, just off shore, then we came to the northern waterway between Marco Island and the mainland. It was wide, 1/2 - 3/4 mile, and they had posts marking the deep water way. Unfortunately I did not know the rules and did not know which side, left or right, I was supposed to go. So we guessed..... About 2/3 of the way we discovered we had guessed wrong and came to a sudden halt from 24 knots to 0 knots in about 40 feet. Lo and behold, we were sitting on top of a sand bar. This boat required 3-1/2 feet of water and we had 2-1/2 foot max. I checked and the tide was coming in, we were just a little off low tide. Ralph asked what to do. "Get our fishing poles and a couple of beers, pull up a chair and pretend to fish" I said. I didn't want any of the other passing boaters to think we were this dumb!
About 1-1/2 hours later, the tide did rise enough that I was able to wiggle it back into deep water. When we came around the corner into the bay where we lived, Margaret was on the phone with the coast guard. When she saw us approaching, she called off the alert.
We made one 'deep sea' fishing trip - a few guys and I went out about 15 miles and were still only in about 20' of water. I did not realize the Gulf was so shallow. We caught about 3/4 of a gunny sack full of fish, had lunch and spent about 6 hours out. When we got back, nobody wanted the fish - so that was the first and last fishing trip.
This boat turned out to be too large and required so much water that I was too restricted on where I could go so I bought a nice 14 foot outboard, shallow water boat. My dog Buddy was a boat dog and loved both our boats. Finally though we traded both boats in on a Penn-yann (not sure of the spelling). It was 24 foot long and 8 foot wide, one inboard motor with speeds of about 26 knots. But it drew only 14" of water and had what was known as a tunnel prop. The prop was inset into the center bottom of the boat so that it was protected from any damage if it went on a sandbar. We had to hire a diver to go down and repair the prop and driveline on the Bayliner.
Anyway enough about boats, except to add that after the sandbar incident, I did take the Coast Guard course on boating. This helped.
Was there anything besides boats? Oh yes, one evening Margaret advised me that we were signed up for golf lessons starting the next day.
Marco Golf consisted of two courses, the main one on the island which was very nice, fancy and high class and very social minded. The other one was called the Shores. It was just off the island and a very good course (complete with alligator!), but not fancy or social. It had one small bar but no dining room, ballroom, pool, tennis court, etc. We became members of both, bought our equipment and outfits, met with the pro and had our 30 lessons. The Shores was the easier course and our early games were all there. My first round after lessons was about 180 strokes, Margaret did a little better, and after a few more rounds I got my score down to approx. 140 strokes. We were ready to take on the main course! We got our tee time, and started out. The course on Marco Island was water everywhere - and no slopes leading down to the water. It was all man made and each water hole was surrounded by pilings so that the water was four foot below the golfing surface. They had put in steel interlocking pilings and driven them into the ground to form a wall. The #6 hole was a very small green approx. 60' wide, surrounded completely by water except for a narrow cart path leading to it. It was located 160 yards from the men's tee. The final report on this first game on Marco was that we didn't get to finish it. We ran out of golfballs, having started with about 30 between us! The next day we tried it again with some improvement. This time we set out with about the same amount of balls and finished the full 18 holes with one ball to spare! And I found that one en route.
Our golf did improve over the two years, primarily because of the number of games we played. We both played both courses in the men's and ladies' groups. I played Tuesday and Thursday at the Shores and Wednesday and Fridays at Marco Island. Margaret played a similar schedule with the ladies, except just one game each club. We played together in a mixer each Sunday. Add to that games with friends, and company, Margaret played an average of four or five days a week, and mine was more likely six or seven. More sometimes, as Marco's rules were very strict on their mens/ladies groups. If you signed up to play and didn't show, you were penalized by not being allowed to play in the next two tournaments. They always made up the foursomes, intermixing them always, so that you always played with different people - a wonderful way to meet everyone. So whenever we had company who wanted to play (and most did, especially the men), I would play with my group in the mornings and then go out again later with the company.
Both of us played in the lowest divisions, but did progress to the point that both won our championships in those divisions.
We had a couple of well known honorary pros at these clubs. Marco Island had Ken Ventura and the Shores had Gene Sarazen. During our Marco years, we sponsored a lady pro from the Shores. Her name was Maureen something, and we supplied her with $25,000 expense money for one year's tour. Her first contest, the Women's PGA Open, started out well, with her leading after three rounds. She told us later that she had spent the whole evening and half the night before that last day telling herself this can't be true. I'm not that good. And it worked (1) - she totally fell apart on the last day. She then went on a California tour playing several towns including Fresno, Bakersfield, Sacramento, etc. but never made it big and we lost touch with her. She was an excellent golfer and could hit the ball a country mile.
The male pro at the Shores became a good friend, and we financed him in opening a golf shop in Naples. This was not a success either and we had to close it down after a couple of years.
They were offering it to us free of charge for a couple of weeks, so we jumped at it, inviting Gordon and Irene to go with us.
We met there and spent two great weeks. We were all impressed!
We got home and decided to follow up on the possibility of moving us and the company to Florida. So we rented a house on an adjacent island called Isles of Capri - a three bedroom house on the water.
Margaret's mom (Annie) and her Aunt Peg were visiting us during this time so we took them with us and we occupied one bedroom and Mam and Aunt Peg had one. The third one was used by Bill and Frances, then Leroy and Betty and then by Ralph and June for 10 days each.
During this period of time, we were able to buy a home for ourselves and rent a second story office in downtown Naples (which was 20 miles north of Marco Island). Bill and Frances lined up a house in Naples, as did Leroy and Betty. Ralph and June decided yes to the move, but arranged their home later. So the deed was done - nothing to do but go home, sell and prepare to move. We rented a huge moving truck to accomodate the bulk belongings of all four families and office.
We got possession of our home in June, and Ralph drove my truck down there with some of the lighter possessions. Margaret met him to take actual possession and arrange electric, etc. and Ralph 'camped' there taking care of the house and pool until we arrived in July. It was during this time that he lined up his and June's place to live. By mid July we were all there, settling into our respective homes and setting up the office - quite an undertaking really when we look back on it.
One of the first items on my list was the purchase of a boat. I went to a boat broker in north Naples and found a 30 foot long x 10 foot wide Bayliner with dual 395 engines and air-conditioned cabin. It also had a seven seat fly bridge, did 28 knots/hour and 2 miles to the gallon fuel usage! Cost $30,000. Ralph and I went up the next day to pick it up. Margaret drove us up and then went back home to wait our arrival. Debbie was staying with us at the time. We had about a 25 mile run in the ocean, just off shore, then we came to the northern waterway between Marco Island and the mainland. It was wide, 1/2 - 3/4 mile, and they had posts marking the deep water way. Unfortunately I did not know the rules and did not know which side, left or right, I was supposed to go. So we guessed..... About 2/3 of the way we discovered we had guessed wrong and came to a sudden halt from 24 knots to 0 knots in about 40 feet. Lo and behold, we were sitting on top of a sand bar. This boat required 3-1/2 feet of water and we had 2-1/2 foot max. I checked and the tide was coming in, we were just a little off low tide. Ralph asked what to do. "Get our fishing poles and a couple of beers, pull up a chair and pretend to fish" I said. I didn't want any of the other passing boaters to think we were this dumb!
About 1-1/2 hours later, the tide did rise enough that I was able to wiggle it back into deep water. When we came around the corner into the bay where we lived, Margaret was on the phone with the coast guard. When she saw us approaching, she called off the alert.
We made one 'deep sea' fishing trip - a few guys and I went out about 15 miles and were still only in about 20' of water. I did not realize the Gulf was so shallow. We caught about 3/4 of a gunny sack full of fish, had lunch and spent about 6 hours out. When we got back, nobody wanted the fish - so that was the first and last fishing trip.
This boat turned out to be too large and required so much water that I was too restricted on where I could go so I bought a nice 14 foot outboard, shallow water boat. My dog Buddy was a boat dog and loved both our boats. Finally though we traded both boats in on a Penn-yann (not sure of the spelling). It was 24 foot long and 8 foot wide, one inboard motor with speeds of about 26 knots. But it drew only 14" of water and had what was known as a tunnel prop. The prop was inset into the center bottom of the boat so that it was protected from any damage if it went on a sandbar. We had to hire a diver to go down and repair the prop and driveline on the Bayliner.
Anyway enough about boats, except to add that after the sandbar incident, I did take the Coast Guard course on boating. This helped.
Was there anything besides boats? Oh yes, one evening Margaret advised me that we were signed up for golf lessons starting the next day.
Marco Golf consisted of two courses, the main one on the island which was very nice, fancy and high class and very social minded. The other one was called the Shores. It was just off the island and a very good course (complete with alligator!), but not fancy or social. It had one small bar but no dining room, ballroom, pool, tennis court, etc. We became members of both, bought our equipment and outfits, met with the pro and had our 30 lessons. The Shores was the easier course and our early games were all there. My first round after lessons was about 180 strokes, Margaret did a little better, and after a few more rounds I got my score down to approx. 140 strokes. We were ready to take on the main course! We got our tee time, and started out. The course on Marco Island was water everywhere - and no slopes leading down to the water. It was all man made and each water hole was surrounded by pilings so that the water was four foot below the golfing surface. They had put in steel interlocking pilings and driven them into the ground to form a wall. The #6 hole was a very small green approx. 60' wide, surrounded completely by water except for a narrow cart path leading to it. It was located 160 yards from the men's tee. The final report on this first game on Marco was that we didn't get to finish it. We ran out of golfballs, having started with about 30 between us! The next day we tried it again with some improvement. This time we set out with about the same amount of balls and finished the full 18 holes with one ball to spare! And I found that one en route.
Our golf did improve over the two years, primarily because of the number of games we played. We both played both courses in the men's and ladies' groups. I played Tuesday and Thursday at the Shores and Wednesday and Fridays at Marco Island. Margaret played a similar schedule with the ladies, except just one game each club. We played together in a mixer each Sunday. Add to that games with friends, and company, Margaret played an average of four or five days a week, and mine was more likely six or seven. More sometimes, as Marco's rules were very strict on their mens/ladies groups. If you signed up to play and didn't show, you were penalized by not being allowed to play in the next two tournaments. They always made up the foursomes, intermixing them always, so that you always played with different people - a wonderful way to meet everyone. So whenever we had company who wanted to play (and most did, especially the men), I would play with my group in the mornings and then go out again later with the company.
Both of us played in the lowest divisions, but did progress to the point that both won our championships in those divisions.
We had a couple of well known honorary pros at these clubs. Marco Island had Ken Ventura and the Shores had Gene Sarazen. During our Marco years, we sponsored a lady pro from the Shores. Her name was Maureen something, and we supplied her with $25,000 expense money for one year's tour. Her first contest, the Women's PGA Open, started out well, with her leading after three rounds. She told us later that she had spent the whole evening and half the night before that last day telling herself this can't be true. I'm not that good. And it worked (1) - she totally fell apart on the last day. She then went on a California tour playing several towns including Fresno, Bakersfield, Sacramento, etc. but never made it big and we lost touch with her. She was an excellent golfer and could hit the ball a country mile.
The male pro at the Shores became a good friend, and we financed him in opening a golf shop in Naples. This was not a success either and we had to close it down after a couple of years.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
The Marco Island years
Charles Dickens in 'A Tale of Two Cities' wrote that it was the best of times and the worst of times - and I often think that the phrase was most apt for my years in Marco.
Certainly living in a spectacular house on the water, with a pool, a state of the art kitchen, dolphins, pelicans, cool breezes, no money problems, and a constant flow of family and friends, would be hard to beat in anyone's language.
We belonged to two golf clubs, one very exclusive one which showed us a lifestyle we had never experienced before. You would park your car near the pro shop and by the time you walked up to the building, they would have your golf clubs on the golf cart, all clubs cleaned and a fresh towel hanging on it. You'd go in the locker room, get your shoes out of the locker which had your name engraved on a brass plate. They too had been cleaned for you after your last game. We belonged to the Yacht Club which meant that during the season when the other restaurants were so crowded you would have to wait for ages for a seat, you could call the Yacht Club and book a time - no wait, no hassle, and amazing food and service.
Dick played golf almost every day, I played an average of four to five days a week, I became the head of the 'lambs' - the new golfers with the high handicaps; then later was chairman of the annual fund raising for charity and broke the record for the amount of money raised.
Nearby Naples was a gorgeous town with fantastic restaurants and shopping, and being on the Gulf Coast, as opposed to the Atlantic coast, had access to pristine white beaches.
Our boat was docked in the back of the house, with open access to the Ocean. South of us was miles and miles of isolated beaches which we could access with the boat and the shells were so thick on the beach, one could literally sit in one spot and fill a bucketful.
It became the 'worst' of times, only because my social drinking slipped into the problem drinking. This 'disease' held me captive for about two to three years and with it came of course, family problems, social problems and bad memories that definitely put a blight on a period when only the best memories should have prevailed. Thank God for recovery - but more about that later.
Certainly living in a spectacular house on the water, with a pool, a state of the art kitchen, dolphins, pelicans, cool breezes, no money problems, and a constant flow of family and friends, would be hard to beat in anyone's language.
We belonged to two golf clubs, one very exclusive one which showed us a lifestyle we had never experienced before. You would park your car near the pro shop and by the time you walked up to the building, they would have your golf clubs on the golf cart, all clubs cleaned and a fresh towel hanging on it. You'd go in the locker room, get your shoes out of the locker which had your name engraved on a brass plate. They too had been cleaned for you after your last game. We belonged to the Yacht Club which meant that during the season when the other restaurants were so crowded you would have to wait for ages for a seat, you could call the Yacht Club and book a time - no wait, no hassle, and amazing food and service.
Dick played golf almost every day, I played an average of four to five days a week, I became the head of the 'lambs' - the new golfers with the high handicaps; then later was chairman of the annual fund raising for charity and broke the record for the amount of money raised.
Nearby Naples was a gorgeous town with fantastic restaurants and shopping, and being on the Gulf Coast, as opposed to the Atlantic coast, had access to pristine white beaches.
Our boat was docked in the back of the house, with open access to the Ocean. South of us was miles and miles of isolated beaches which we could access with the boat and the shells were so thick on the beach, one could literally sit in one spot and fill a bucketful.
It became the 'worst' of times, only because my social drinking slipped into the problem drinking. This 'disease' held me captive for about two to three years and with it came of course, family problems, social problems and bad memories that definitely put a blight on a period when only the best memories should have prevailed. Thank God for recovery - but more about that later.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
More grom Grandpa on the Business side of life
I was going to say that I have been too busy to write - but, alas, that would have been a lie, so I will just say "sorry to have been so long".
We are now Topper, Inc, and we rent an office in Mt. Vernon and start off with our two motels for Topper, Inc. and three for Regal 8 Inns of Calif. Over time we also opened and operated two Quick Penny mini markets, one in Salem and one in Mt. Vernon.
I was able to purchase from Prudential Insurance a fairly new 140 unit motel in Memphis, Tenn, which they had repossessed @ $1,400,000. We got it with nothing down, but we had to spend a minimum of $100,000 in upgrading (carpet, paint, etc.). This property was turned over to Regal 8 Inns of California giving them their fourth location. Topper Inc opened the Billings motel giving us 3 motels.
At this time Leroy Hatfield, who had been with us the longest of any employee other than Dee Smith with Regal 8 Inns and had been our first area supervisor with them, joined us in Topper Inc and managed the Billings motel. Our three motels were all in the cold country (Fargo, North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Billings, Montana so all had indoor corridors and indoor pools. Leroy got Billings off to a very good start, and we then brought him into the main office with the title of supervisor.
In the meantime, Bill Topper had left Regal 8 the same time I did, and his first undertaking was to turn a Selma gas station I had bought into the first of our Quick Penny stores. When that was done, he took on the challenge of building two houses on two of the four lots that I had purchased around a small lake in Mount Vernon. Bill and son Joe built them, doing a very good job, and we were able to sell one to Leroy and the other one to Rick Ripley, the truck driving son of Ralph and June Ripley who also came from Regal 8 Inns to join our company. June did the books for Topper Inc. and and she and Ralph moved to Florida with us. Ralph actually didn't work for us; in Illinois he worked as Treasurer for small town, and in Florida quickly found a job.
Bill, along with Frances, then took over the operation and bookkeeping of Regal 8 Inns of California and they too moved to Florida with us.
The two Quick Penny markets were eventually closed and the buildings sold. I had hoped this would develop into a successful chain, but it was our first failure - proving we were not infallible!!!
We are now Topper, Inc, and we rent an office in Mt. Vernon and start off with our two motels for Topper, Inc. and three for Regal 8 Inns of Calif. Over time we also opened and operated two Quick Penny mini markets, one in Salem and one in Mt. Vernon.
I was able to purchase from Prudential Insurance a fairly new 140 unit motel in Memphis, Tenn, which they had repossessed @ $1,400,000. We got it with nothing down, but we had to spend a minimum of $100,000 in upgrading (carpet, paint, etc.). This property was turned over to Regal 8 Inns of California giving them their fourth location. Topper Inc opened the Billings motel giving us 3 motels.
At this time Leroy Hatfield, who had been with us the longest of any employee other than Dee Smith with Regal 8 Inns and had been our first area supervisor with them, joined us in Topper Inc and managed the Billings motel. Our three motels were all in the cold country (Fargo, North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota, and Billings, Montana so all had indoor corridors and indoor pools. Leroy got Billings off to a very good start, and we then brought him into the main office with the title of supervisor.
In the meantime, Bill Topper had left Regal 8 the same time I did, and his first undertaking was to turn a Selma gas station I had bought into the first of our Quick Penny stores. When that was done, he took on the challenge of building two houses on two of the four lots that I had purchased around a small lake in Mount Vernon. Bill and son Joe built them, doing a very good job, and we were able to sell one to Leroy and the other one to Rick Ripley, the truck driving son of Ralph and June Ripley who also came from Regal 8 Inns to join our company. June did the books for Topper Inc. and and she and Ralph moved to Florida with us. Ralph actually didn't work for us; in Illinois he worked as Treasurer for small town, and in Florida quickly found a job.
Bill, along with Frances, then took over the operation and bookkeeping of Regal 8 Inns of California and they too moved to Florida with us.
The two Quick Penny markets were eventually closed and the buildings sold. I had hoped this would develop into a successful chain, but it was our first failure - proving we were not infallible!!!
Friday, July 1, 2011
Marco Island home
As always, the photos don't turn out the best when going from my photo albums to the blog, but this is the front of our Marco Island home before we had the landscaping completely redone. It's a shame we never took a photo of the finished product with its lawn, and flowers.
The rear of the house was on the water on one of the few inlets that had complete access to the ocean. All the walls at the back of the house had what were known as pocket doors - they were complete sliding glass doors that slide completely into a wall, so that the rooms opened up completely to the pool area. The area itself was completely screened in to be bug-proof. The steps you see here went down to the dock area where we had our boat(s).
This photo was taken from the living room looking over the pool and out to the waterway that went to the ocean. We would see the pelicans go by every morning and night and best of all, the dolphins would come up every evening close to the dock.
The pool area showing the narrower waterway going up our street. This part of the island was fingers of streets going out with every house backing onto a waterway. When we moved there, our cluster of streets didn't have too many houses, there were only three on our street, but we understand that there are no vacant lots now.
Our boat moored on the dock. It's hard to see, but Buddy is sitting on the dock waiting to go on board. He just loved it there and couldn't wait to go on a boat ride with Dick. He used to swim in the pool two or three times a day too - diving in from the side into the deep end and swimming to the steps to get out. Taffy wasn't as happy on the boat and hated going in the pool.
This style of living is something amazing to have experienced and I will always cherish the two years that we had there, and was especially happy to have been able to share it with friends from our old company, ex partners and associates, plus a steady stream of relatives from England, Wales and Canada. Debbie was there a few times, with her parents once, and we had Suzanne and Becky one summer and Debbie and my niece Sarah another month. Debbie and Sarah were both 16 at the time. We also had my mother and both of her sisters for three months - It was the second trip for Aunt Peggy and the first for Aunt Lu.
The rear of the house was on the water on one of the few inlets that had complete access to the ocean. All the walls at the back of the house had what were known as pocket doors - they were complete sliding glass doors that slide completely into a wall, so that the rooms opened up completely to the pool area. The area itself was completely screened in to be bug-proof. The steps you see here went down to the dock area where we had our boat(s). 
This photo was taken from the living room looking over the pool and out to the waterway that went to the ocean. We would see the pelicans go by every morning and night and best of all, the dolphins would come up every evening close to the dock.
The pool area showing the narrower waterway going up our street. This part of the island was fingers of streets going out with every house backing onto a waterway. When we moved there, our cluster of streets didn't have too many houses, there were only three on our street, but we understand that there are no vacant lots now.
Our boat moored on the dock. It's hard to see, but Buddy is sitting on the dock waiting to go on board. He just loved it there and couldn't wait to go on a boat ride with Dick. He used to swim in the pool two or three times a day too - diving in from the side into the deep end and swimming to the steps to get out. Taffy wasn't as happy on the boat and hated going in the pool.
This style of living is something amazing to have experienced and I will always cherish the two years that we had there, and was especially happy to have been able to share it with friends from our old company, ex partners and associates, plus a steady stream of relatives from England, Wales and Canada. Debbie was there a few times, with her parents once, and we had Suzanne and Becky one summer and Debbie and my niece Sarah another month. Debbie and Sarah were both 16 at the time. We also had my mother and both of her sisters for three months - It was the second trip for Aunt Peggy and the first for Aunt Lu.
More about Marco Island lifestyle ahead.
Monday, June 20, 2011
1978 and another move
Our ex partner, Don Geary and wife Penny, owned a condo on Marco Island, Florida and they rented it to us for a week in the early part of 1978. We invited Irene and Gordon to get away from the snow and sub-zero weather of Montreal and join us and the four of us fell in love with the area and all that it had to offer. Back in Southern Illinois, we enjoyed our house and we were looking forward to my mother returning for a visit and this time brining her older sister - my aunt Peggy with her.
They stayed with almost three months alltogether and thoroughly enjoyed our country home, and going to the State Convention of BPW with me. I think they were both proud of my position as District Chairman.
But Dick and I kept thinking about Marco Island, and approached Bill and Frances, Leroy and Betty and June Ripley who all worked for in Topper Inc. and asked if they would be interested in uprooting from So. Illinois and moving to Florida with us. We offered to pay all moving expenses for them. Each one said yes, and in June's case her husband Ralph was ready to go too!!
During Mam and Aunt Peg's visit, we rented a house on the Isles of Capri (very close to Marco Island) for a month and we had a great time there. Bill and Frances, Leroy and Betty and Ralph & June all spent ten days each with us and during our thirty day there, and their individual ten-day stints, we all bought our new homes. Dick and I on Marco Island and the rest of them in Naples.
Our new home was right on the water, in an inlet leading directly out to sea. It was only two bedroom but absolutely gorgeous with a pool and dock. The house was owned by two very eccentric people and I asked if I could bring my mother and aunt by to see what we had bought as they would have returned to Wales by the time we took possession. They said yes, and we went over the next evening, to find them both very upset as they had just learned that their cat has leukemia. It also happened to be the cat's birthday. We had a nice visit there and left. When I flew down there a month later for the closing and to take possession, they presented me with a water bowl that had 'belonged' to their cat (now deceased) and they wanted my dogs to have it, because we had made the cat so happy on its last birthday and had given it such a good time! The bowl incidentally (which I still have and every dog we have ever had has used it) is an Abercrombie and Fitch original and they had paid $100 for it in the sixties!!!
It was hard giving up our house in Illinois as it really had turned into a show-case, and for me it was hard saying goodbye to all my BPW friends. They gave me a great send off and expressed some disappointment as I was on the way up the ladder in that organization and would have been appointed to a State chairmanship for 1978/79 and it would have been just three more steps to State President.
I have some great photos of our Marco home and will put them in the next blog with more stories of that island paradise......
They stayed with almost three months alltogether and thoroughly enjoyed our country home, and going to the State Convention of BPW with me. I think they were both proud of my position as District Chairman.
But Dick and I kept thinking about Marco Island, and approached Bill and Frances, Leroy and Betty and June Ripley who all worked for in Topper Inc. and asked if they would be interested in uprooting from So. Illinois and moving to Florida with us. We offered to pay all moving expenses for them. Each one said yes, and in June's case her husband Ralph was ready to go too!!
During Mam and Aunt Peg's visit, we rented a house on the Isles of Capri (very close to Marco Island) for a month and we had a great time there. Bill and Frances, Leroy and Betty and Ralph & June all spent ten days each with us and during our thirty day there, and their individual ten-day stints, we all bought our new homes. Dick and I on Marco Island and the rest of them in Naples.
Our new home was right on the water, in an inlet leading directly out to sea. It was only two bedroom but absolutely gorgeous with a pool and dock. The house was owned by two very eccentric people and I asked if I could bring my mother and aunt by to see what we had bought as they would have returned to Wales by the time we took possession. They said yes, and we went over the next evening, to find them both very upset as they had just learned that their cat has leukemia. It also happened to be the cat's birthday. We had a nice visit there and left. When I flew down there a month later for the closing and to take possession, they presented me with a water bowl that had 'belonged' to their cat (now deceased) and they wanted my dogs to have it, because we had made the cat so happy on its last birthday and had given it such a good time! The bowl incidentally (which I still have and every dog we have ever had has used it) is an Abercrombie and Fitch original and they had paid $100 for it in the sixties!!!
It was hard giving up our house in Illinois as it really had turned into a show-case, and for me it was hard saying goodbye to all my BPW friends. They gave me a great send off and expressed some disappointment as I was on the way up the ladder in that organization and would have been appointed to a State chairmanship for 1978/79 and it would have been just three more steps to State President.
I have some great photos of our Marco home and will put them in the next blog with more stories of that island paradise......
Friday, June 10, 2011
1977
After the past few years, 1977 felt strange - pressures were off, we were able to take time off work and the work day was short and less hectic.
We started the year with a fun trip to DisneyWorld with Bill and Frances. Debbie became a 'fixture' each Sunday and other events to. She graduated from grade school this year. We had lost Andy the year before, he had been hit by a motorcycle by the office, and we wanted to get another companion for Taffy, and I remembered a dog we had when I was growing up that I really loved - an English Cocker Spaniel (blue roan). I did a lot of research (pre-internet days which makes it easy now), and finally located a breeder in Minnesota. They had puppies for sale, but since their blood line was so pure and with so many grand-champions, they were somewhat reluctant to just le me have one as a 'pet'. You would laugh to have heard me on the phone trying to sell the package of our great home and grounds (woods, lake), and another dog for companion. They finally relented and we had Taffy's Good Buddy (known simply as Buddy) shipped down. Debbie came with me to St. Louis to pick him up).
We had a lot of great family get togethers with Bill, Frances, their three boys, Mom Topper, Hazel, Keith, Cody, Karen and Jeremy all living close.
We worked a lot on our house and grounds - putting in a huge lawn in the front, Dick's lake and picnic area finalized with a deck and raft with electric motor. A rose garden near the master bedroom in the basement - a complete job done by Dick with a great bathroom with walk in shower with seats, a HUGE closet and a brick planter box along one wall (sun lamps above). It was quite a showplace.
I fulfilled another dream that year. When I was a teenager, I belonged to a youth club and participated in many of their activities. One of the leaders of the group that would take us hiking and mountain climbing had a Jaguar and my friend Sylvia and I often were lucky to be driven to the meeting spot with him. From then on I always dreamed of having a Jag and 1977 I got my Jaguar XKE. It was a bright yellow and looked like a sleek banana going down the road. I just loved it.
Bill, Frances, Dick and I also took a trip to the UK - going to my home town of Llandudno first, then on to Southport and up to Scotland. Stayed at York later on our way to rounding out the trip with a few days in London. Bill and Dick shared the driving and we have many a 'memory' from that!!!! Driving on the wrong side of the road has its scary moments.
I was busy with BPW still. I had been elected District Chairman so among other things went to a meeting at each of the clubs in our District 17. We had a great convention in Chicago that year. Looking at the photos of the convention events, I miss the glamor of those days. Women always dressed in evening gowns for any evening event, and I was fortunate in having a large selection of gowns. Fun to see. We even used to wear evening gowns when we went out to a fancy restaurant in those days too - what a comparison to seeing people in the best restaurants in teetops, short and the men with their caps on!!!!
Our own family was growing, we now had Suzanne, Becky and Marie and it was great to be able to visit them a couple of times during the year.
Alltogether, a fun year - and I'll leave the business side of it to Dick...........
We started the year with a fun trip to DisneyWorld with Bill and Frances. Debbie became a 'fixture' each Sunday and other events to. She graduated from grade school this year. We had lost Andy the year before, he had been hit by a motorcycle by the office, and we wanted to get another companion for Taffy, and I remembered a dog we had when I was growing up that I really loved - an English Cocker Spaniel (blue roan). I did a lot of research (pre-internet days which makes it easy now), and finally located a breeder in Minnesota. They had puppies for sale, but since their blood line was so pure and with so many grand-champions, they were somewhat reluctant to just le me have one as a 'pet'. You would laugh to have heard me on the phone trying to sell the package of our great home and grounds (woods, lake), and another dog for companion. They finally relented and we had Taffy's Good Buddy (known simply as Buddy) shipped down. Debbie came with me to St. Louis to pick him up).
We had a lot of great family get togethers with Bill, Frances, their three boys, Mom Topper, Hazel, Keith, Cody, Karen and Jeremy all living close.
We worked a lot on our house and grounds - putting in a huge lawn in the front, Dick's lake and picnic area finalized with a deck and raft with electric motor. A rose garden near the master bedroom in the basement - a complete job done by Dick with a great bathroom with walk in shower with seats, a HUGE closet and a brick planter box along one wall (sun lamps above). It was quite a showplace.
I fulfilled another dream that year. When I was a teenager, I belonged to a youth club and participated in many of their activities. One of the leaders of the group that would take us hiking and mountain climbing had a Jaguar and my friend Sylvia and I often were lucky to be driven to the meeting spot with him. From then on I always dreamed of having a Jag and 1977 I got my Jaguar XKE. It was a bright yellow and looked like a sleek banana going down the road. I just loved it.
Bill, Frances, Dick and I also took a trip to the UK - going to my home town of Llandudno first, then on to Southport and up to Scotland. Stayed at York later on our way to rounding out the trip with a few days in London. Bill and Dick shared the driving and we have many a 'memory' from that!!!! Driving on the wrong side of the road has its scary moments.
I was busy with BPW still. I had been elected District Chairman so among other things went to a meeting at each of the clubs in our District 17. We had a great convention in Chicago that year. Looking at the photos of the convention events, I miss the glamor of those days. Women always dressed in evening gowns for any evening event, and I was fortunate in having a large selection of gowns. Fun to see. We even used to wear evening gowns when we went out to a fancy restaurant in those days too - what a comparison to seeing people in the best restaurants in teetops, short and the men with their caps on!!!!
Our own family was growing, we now had Suzanne, Becky and Marie and it was great to be able to visit them a couple of times during the year.
Alltogether, a fun year - and I'll leave the business side of it to Dick...........
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
More steps towards the separation....
It's 1976 and Regal 8 Inns is beginning to face the problem of what to do? Do we continue in the manner in which we got where we are - growing, making good money but putting most of it back to continue the growth? With six years growth, the principals have received no cash return on ownership. Margaret and I are doing very well with salary and bonus (approx. $85,000), but all the company profit was being expended on expansion.
We finally hit the big time early 1975 when "Motel/Hotel Journal", a monthly magazine devoted to the motel business, contacted us and sent out a reporter. We ended up with a photograph on the cover and approximately a five page article, extolling our virtues and success, with pictures. This got us a lot of national attention, and we suddenly had large national companies coming to us. Most of these companies wanted to take us public with stock issues and we would be off and running. We even had interest from the Howard Johnson chain that was considering having a budget division in their company, but that didn't go anywhere.
The owners, Don Geary, Bob Reeves, Margaret and I flew to Philadelphia and met with Butcher and Shearer (now known as Butcher and Singer), one of the country's largest financial/accounting companies. They specialized in taking companies public. They had spent a week some time prior doing an audit of the company and getting a 'feel' of our procedures/management. The result was that they recommended that we go public and be a stock company. But we left undecided. None of us really felt we understood exactly what the outcome would be for us and what control any of us would have over the future of the company.
In the meantime, Don himself was beginning to push us to sell one-half of the company to a Springfield, Illinois insurance company that he (Don) held stock in. He was very good friends with the owner and was on their board of directors. Don was also involved with the CW group that owned and operated under franchise to us, about ten motels at that time. Margaret and I realized that this shift would put Don as THE major stockholder, and we did not feel that this would be good for the other partners - namely, Bob, Harold and of course ourselves.
So the company's future was up in the air - and none of us knew where it was headed. Margaret and I spent a lot of time discussing our position and we finally knew that we wanted out of the picture so we made a proposal to sell our ownership in the company. We came to terms and for our shares we received the Regal 8 Inns in Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota; plus the one being built in Billings, Montana, plus the franchise rights to the seven north western States and $50,000 in cash. The two existing motels were already great money makers. We formed Topper, Inc. as our new company and we felt we had a true personal success story.
We finally hit the big time early 1975 when "Motel/Hotel Journal", a monthly magazine devoted to the motel business, contacted us and sent out a reporter. We ended up with a photograph on the cover and approximately a five page article, extolling our virtues and success, with pictures. This got us a lot of national attention, and we suddenly had large national companies coming to us. Most of these companies wanted to take us public with stock issues and we would be off and running. We even had interest from the Howard Johnson chain that was considering having a budget division in their company, but that didn't go anywhere.
The owners, Don Geary, Bob Reeves, Margaret and I flew to Philadelphia and met with Butcher and Shearer (now known as Butcher and Singer), one of the country's largest financial/accounting companies. They specialized in taking companies public. They had spent a week some time prior doing an audit of the company and getting a 'feel' of our procedures/management. The result was that they recommended that we go public and be a stock company. But we left undecided. None of us really felt we understood exactly what the outcome would be for us and what control any of us would have over the future of the company.
In the meantime, Don himself was beginning to push us to sell one-half of the company to a Springfield, Illinois insurance company that he (Don) held stock in. He was very good friends with the owner and was on their board of directors. Don was also involved with the CW group that owned and operated under franchise to us, about ten motels at that time. Margaret and I realized that this shift would put Don as THE major stockholder, and we did not feel that this would be good for the other partners - namely, Bob, Harold and of course ourselves.
So the company's future was up in the air - and none of us knew where it was headed. Margaret and I spent a lot of time discussing our position and we finally knew that we wanted out of the picture so we made a proposal to sell our ownership in the company. We came to terms and for our shares we received the Regal 8 Inns in Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota; plus the one being built in Billings, Montana, plus the franchise rights to the seven north western States and $50,000 in cash. The two existing motels were already great money makers. We formed Topper, Inc. as our new company and we felt we had a true personal success story.
Monday, May 23, 2011
A story unto itself - Regal 8 Inns of California
Our first motel in California was being built by a monied banker in Santa Rosa. He had built and leased a 67 unit Motel 6 in Santa Rosa, and now built an 80 unit Regal 8 Inn in Rohnert Park. We opened for business late summer 1996, opening off season and an unknown entity locally. We had a new manager in place with unknown abilities, which we ultimately had to let go and replace in late December. We had poor occupancy and there was little or no public relations.
In the meantime partner Don Geary flew to Los Angeles with me and we met a banker regarding the sale of their failed motel in Stockton. Don was impressed and we flew to Stockton and looked at the motel. It was in a poor location, had poor parking and was somewhat small. I was NOT impressed, but Don thought it would help our Rohnert Park location, so a deal was made. We opened Stockton and it turned out to be our slowest starter to date, with very low occupancy.
When Don saw the occupancy figures on Stockton he got a hold of the bank and talked them into taking the property back. By the next board meeting Don had convinced the other owners that California was a failure and they instructed me to close it down, get rid of it, any way, if necessary give it away!
Margaret and I gave it some thought and decided to form a corporation and take over Rohnert Park as a franchise motel. We called a meeting of our friends, supervisors and anyone we thought might be interested and made an offering of 100 shares @ $500 a share. Participants had to come up with $100 for each share and commit to an additional $400 if needed. We sold 55 shares and Bill and Frances bought 16 shares with Margaret and I buying the balance of 29. The Regal 8 Inn board accepted our proposal to take over and franchise the operation and we would pay them 2% of gross revenue franchise fee.
One of our investors was a couple Frank and Pat Walton, two very good managers that were operating our Fargo, North Dakota motel (at 96% occupancy). They took over Rohnert Park and completely turned it around and made it profitable in about 30 days. No more additional funds were ever needed from the investors (stockholders).
The corporation went on and had motels built in Vallejo (80 units) and Fresno (80 units). We subsequently leased on in Tampa (120) units) and purchased one in Memphis (140 units).
About a year later the shareholders agreed to sell their stock back to the company at $5,000 a share. Not a bad investment was it? $5,000 for $100. Bill and Frances were the only investors who did not sell and thereby ended up as sole owners of Regal 8 Inns of California. They ran it very successfully for several years.
See you again soon with the rest of the story.............
In the meantime partner Don Geary flew to Los Angeles with me and we met a banker regarding the sale of their failed motel in Stockton. Don was impressed and we flew to Stockton and looked at the motel. It was in a poor location, had poor parking and was somewhat small. I was NOT impressed, but Don thought it would help our Rohnert Park location, so a deal was made. We opened Stockton and it turned out to be our slowest starter to date, with very low occupancy.
When Don saw the occupancy figures on Stockton he got a hold of the bank and talked them into taking the property back. By the next board meeting Don had convinced the other owners that California was a failure and they instructed me to close it down, get rid of it, any way, if necessary give it away!
Margaret and I gave it some thought and decided to form a corporation and take over Rohnert Park as a franchise motel. We called a meeting of our friends, supervisors and anyone we thought might be interested and made an offering of 100 shares @ $500 a share. Participants had to come up with $100 for each share and commit to an additional $400 if needed. We sold 55 shares and Bill and Frances bought 16 shares with Margaret and I buying the balance of 29. The Regal 8 Inn board accepted our proposal to take over and franchise the operation and we would pay them 2% of gross revenue franchise fee.
One of our investors was a couple Frank and Pat Walton, two very good managers that were operating our Fargo, North Dakota motel (at 96% occupancy). They took over Rohnert Park and completely turned it around and made it profitable in about 30 days. No more additional funds were ever needed from the investors (stockholders).
The corporation went on and had motels built in Vallejo (80 units) and Fresno (80 units). We subsequently leased on in Tampa (120) units) and purchased one in Memphis (140 units).
About a year later the shareholders agreed to sell their stock back to the company at $5,000 a share. Not a bad investment was it? $5,000 for $100. Bill and Frances were the only investors who did not sell and thereby ended up as sole owners of Regal 8 Inns of California. They ran it very successfully for several years.
See you again soon with the rest of the story.............
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Another big memory
You might remember that I got to shake the hand of a President of the United States (Johnson) on my first full day in the U.S. I got my second handshake with the highest office in our land in 1976 with Gerald Ford.
I was in Washington DC with BPW on a Legislative Conference and we were invited to the White House to meet the First Lady Betty Ford. After a tour of the White House, we were ushered into a hall to await Mrs. Ford's arrival, when the door opened and "Hail to the Chief" was played. In walked Gerald Ford. It was quite a moment. He was very gracious and excused Betty as being sick and unable to attend.
We all know now that in all probability Betty Ford was probably indisposed in another way and a number of years later I was privileged to be part of the hosting group (Fresno County Alcohol and Drug Council) when she came to Fresno to talk to us about her addiction and recovery.
I was in Washington DC with BPW on a Legislative Conference and we were invited to the White House to meet the First Lady Betty Ford. After a tour of the White House, we were ushered into a hall to await Mrs. Ford's arrival, when the door opened and "Hail to the Chief" was played. In walked Gerald Ford. It was quite a moment. He was very gracious and excused Betty as being sick and unable to attend.We all know now that in all probability Betty Ford was probably indisposed in another way and a number of years later I was privileged to be part of the hosting group (Fresno County Alcohol and Drug Council) when she came to Fresno to talk to us about her addiction and recovery.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
I'm Back! But I'm lost for words...
It's been three plus weeks and I am still in shock over the party. Thank every one of you who came, sent cards, or called with regrets - and a VERY BIG thank you to those who helped put it together.
Now back to 1975/76: Regal 8 Inns are mushromming up everywhere, we needed help. Margaret and I could not promote it, built it and control operations without help. So we set up our better managing couples as area supervisors with 10 to 14 motels under them. They were to control the operation and do monthly inspections. This was proving out well. In addition, I needed help in the promotion and development end of the business. I was doing some limited flying on my own, but most of it was commercial airline which didn't always go where we wanted to go and not when we wanted to go. So the solution boiled down to another 'Dick Topper' or move him faster. The decision was to move me faster with a company plane and a professional pilot.
On a few occasions in the past I had used a young man named Roy Holtshauser on trips to Ohio, Connecticult and he was with us on our infamous flight across the Northwest where we were flying 'blind' through the mountains with instructions being relayed to us from commercial airlines flying above. This was when we made the decision to get a bigger plane that could go above the weather. Ray himself was based in Centralia, Illinois and gave flying lessions there and flew charter flights. This is where we parked our twin Commanche .His father flew professionaly for the State of Illinois and Ray needed experience to join him. (This is what he did after leaving us). So we hired Ray as our company pilot and he was also made supervisor or three motels to fill in his time when not flying me around.
We first purchased the Cessna 421 twin engine 375 HP, pressurized,with a ceiling limit of 24,000 feet and this put us above most of the bad weather. Later we bought a new 336 push/pull pressurized 1976 Cessna. A little slower (about 210 knots to 240 knots).
We usually held a supervisor meeting once a month which would start about midday on a Friday. Would you believe they usually ended up about 4am the next morning, and were known to keep going through the Saturday late into the night with just a few hours of quick sleep for everyone. We would go through every motel, discussing managers and specific problems. They were long sessions but they were also my training sessions for the supervisors.
Margaret mentioned that we had contructed a new office and warehouse and that is a story on its own. It was summertime in Illinois - and it always rained about every 6th or 7th day. I called out all the building contractors and gave them the plans and told them that I wanted it finished in four weeks. (We had to vacate the building we were in at that time). They took the plans, got together and came back admitting that it MIGHT be possible if it wasn't for the weather. I had not put in any rain days. I asked "can you do it if it doesn't rain?" and they answered yes. So I told them it would NOT rain during that period of time and if it did, it would only be during the night so there would be no lost labor. I got lucky! It rained three times during that four weeks (each time during the night) and we were in our new offices in four weeks. They couldn't believe it. Neither could I!!! (I quietly said thank you to above).
There came a time during our expansion when everything seemed to go sour. The inspections were not up to par, costs were rising, profits were starting to fall and the percentage of occupancy was slipping. I always did my best thinking while driving (Margaret hated for me to drive long distances, I always came back full of ideas and changes that she implimented!). So about this time I took off one day and visited about five or six motels, spoke little but observed a lot. I decided that the problem was attitude of everyone from the manager down. I wrote a memo and sent a copy to every employee and made them sign that they had read it. The subject was "have pride" and what it meant was for them to have pride in themselves, their family, their friends, their job and their future and self esteem. Where would they be without pride. All employees were required to write on any paperwork they submitted the words "I Have Pride". The effect was almost spontaneous and within a few weeks, things were humming and back on course.
My next offering will cover (1) Regal 8 Inns of California, how we got it and where it went and (2) internal problems and our decision on where we were going and how to get there.
See you soon, and have a good one...........
Now back to 1975/76: Regal 8 Inns are mushromming up everywhere, we needed help. Margaret and I could not promote it, built it and control operations without help. So we set up our better managing couples as area supervisors with 10 to 14 motels under them. They were to control the operation and do monthly inspections. This was proving out well. In addition, I needed help in the promotion and development end of the business. I was doing some limited flying on my own, but most of it was commercial airline which didn't always go where we wanted to go and not when we wanted to go. So the solution boiled down to another 'Dick Topper' or move him faster. The decision was to move me faster with a company plane and a professional pilot.
On a few occasions in the past I had used a young man named Roy Holtshauser on trips to Ohio, Connecticult and he was with us on our infamous flight across the Northwest where we were flying 'blind' through the mountains with instructions being relayed to us from commercial airlines flying above. This was when we made the decision to get a bigger plane that could go above the weather. Ray himself was based in Centralia, Illinois and gave flying lessions there and flew charter flights. This is where we parked our twin Commanche .His father flew professionaly for the State of Illinois and Ray needed experience to join him. (This is what he did after leaving us). So we hired Ray as our company pilot and he was also made supervisor or three motels to fill in his time when not flying me around.
We first purchased the Cessna 421 twin engine 375 HP, pressurized,with a ceiling limit of 24,000 feet and this put us above most of the bad weather. Later we bought a new 336 push/pull pressurized 1976 Cessna. A little slower (about 210 knots to 240 knots).
We usually held a supervisor meeting once a month which would start about midday on a Friday. Would you believe they usually ended up about 4am the next morning, and were known to keep going through the Saturday late into the night with just a few hours of quick sleep for everyone. We would go through every motel, discussing managers and specific problems. They were long sessions but they were also my training sessions for the supervisors.
Margaret mentioned that we had contructed a new office and warehouse and that is a story on its own. It was summertime in Illinois - and it always rained about every 6th or 7th day. I called out all the building contractors and gave them the plans and told them that I wanted it finished in four weeks. (We had to vacate the building we were in at that time). They took the plans, got together and came back admitting that it MIGHT be possible if it wasn't for the weather. I had not put in any rain days. I asked "can you do it if it doesn't rain?" and they answered yes. So I told them it would NOT rain during that period of time and if it did, it would only be during the night so there would be no lost labor. I got lucky! It rained three times during that four weeks (each time during the night) and we were in our new offices in four weeks. They couldn't believe it. Neither could I!!! (I quietly said thank you to above).
There came a time during our expansion when everything seemed to go sour. The inspections were not up to par, costs were rising, profits were starting to fall and the percentage of occupancy was slipping. I always did my best thinking while driving (Margaret hated for me to drive long distances, I always came back full of ideas and changes that she implimented!). So about this time I took off one day and visited about five or six motels, spoke little but observed a lot. I decided that the problem was attitude of everyone from the manager down. I wrote a memo and sent a copy to every employee and made them sign that they had read it. The subject was "have pride" and what it meant was for them to have pride in themselves, their family, their friends, their job and their future and self esteem. Where would they be without pride. All employees were required to write on any paperwork they submitted the words "I Have Pride". The effect was almost spontaneous and within a few weeks, things were humming and back on course.
My next offering will cover (1) Regal 8 Inns of California, how we got it and where it went and (2) internal problems and our decision on where we were going and how to get there.
See you soon, and have a good one...........
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
A personal transformation.....
Dick was reminiscing the other day and we were laughing about the way I was when I first went to work for him. I was a good worker, accomplished in the 'physical' things I did - i.e. typing, accounting, writing - BUT don't ask me to TALK!!! Shortly after going to work for Dick he asked me to make a series of phone calls to set up appointments for prospective managers. I literally froze. ME! On the phone with strangers! I waited until everyone had gone home for the evening, shut myself in an empty private office and stammered my way through the calls, sick to my stomach, and with clammy hands. I hated it. To say I got slightly better over time is about as good as I could say about my progress and I never got over the panic and nervousness of making calls even when we started to build the first motel in Carbondale, Illinois and I had to call the suppliers and contractors on a daily basis.
Standing up and talking in front of people was even worse and I'll never forget being taken to a NewComers meeting in Carbondale and after the meal, they announced that they were going to go around the table and wanted each newcomer to stand up, give their name and where they worked, and their husband's name and where he worked. I was about half way around the table and by the time it got to me, I honestly thought I would throw up in front of everyone. I stood up, said my name was Margaret Topper, I worked at the Best 7 Inn and my husband's name was John!!! Somehow my fuddled brain recognized I had goofed, so I simply announced that 'he worked' and sat down. I absolutely could not remember where (and you all know we worked together).
Obviously this girl needed help, so when I joined BPW, I found that they had a class to help with public speaking. The first 'speech' I was asked to give at that class wasn't too bad, as we were allowed to read it and had it on the podium in front of us. I got terrible marks though on my deportment. Just because I was hunched over the podium and hugging it. I was doing this to stop myself from shaking so bad I couldn't read my paper. I did improve and ended up winning the local prize at the end of the year, going on to win the district award and competed for the State Award.
If any of you are interested, this was the speech: The subject I was given was RESOURCEFULNESS.
We have all heard so much lately about Natural Resources and how we waste and misuse them, and of course they are referring to such things as the land, air, water and raw materials. But have you ever stopped to think about how we human beings also have Natural resources and how we waste and misuse them?
We were given eyes, and if all we use them for are to see the faults in other people, or see the things we desire, or would grab or steal from others, - and fail to see the beauty of a winter tree against a sunset sky, or the majesty of a mountain, or the trust in a little dog's eyes, or friendship when it comes to us in a shy smile, then we are not using our resources.
We were given ears, and if all we use them for are to hear the plain, spoken word, or the harsh sounds of rock music, and we don't use them to hear the orchestration of birds singing, babbling brooks, and the wind in the trees, or we don't hear the magic of a child's laugh, or love when it comes to us in a quiet spoken word, then we are not using our resources.
And we were given Intelligence, and if this is simply a matter or learning our ABC's or the 1-2-3's, and Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and we don't use it to learn about ourselves, and what makes us tick, and thereby become better human beings, or we don't use it to learn about our fellow man, and thereby become more compassionate, then we are not using our resources.
And we were given Imagination - and if this is turned into daydreaming, of being a movie star, or a millionaire, or President of the United States, and not used to devise ideas to save your boss money, or to get along better with your fellow worker, or to improve your marriage, raise your children, write speeches, then we are not being resourceful.
We were given Humor, and if the only thing that makes us laugh is slapstick, pie in the face, other people's accidents, and we fail to see the humor of a kitten's antics, or in a quiet witty remark, or we fail to see the humor in ourselves, then are not being resourceful.
And we were given Love, and if love is simply a matter or receiving and getting away with things because we receive it, and is not a matter of giving, caring, sharing, generosity, compassion and just plain loving, then we are not being resourceful.
And most of all we were given God, and if all we use Him for is to turn to when we want something, to berage when we don't get it, and to curse in anger; and we don't use Him as the source of strength in our every day lives, or the source of peace when things do go wrong, and as our Friend who we share all our joys and all our sorrows with, then we are most certainly not being resourceful.
I can remember a couple of years ago, my husband and I were flying to a small town in Nevada, and anyone who has driven through or flown low over Nevada, knows of its barreness, emptiness and lack of productivity. And yet as we approached this small town, it was an amazing sight of lush green fields of crops and vegetation. I can remember my husband looking down and saying, now that what I call resourcefulness.
I hope that when the good Lord looks down on my - and you - that he doesn't see an empty, barren, non-productive piece of humanity, but sees an oasis of productivity, energy, awareness, compassion, understanding, imagination, sensitivity and love. I hope He can say "Now that's what I call Resourcefulness.
Standing up and talking in front of people was even worse and I'll never forget being taken to a NewComers meeting in Carbondale and after the meal, they announced that they were going to go around the table and wanted each newcomer to stand up, give their name and where they worked, and their husband's name and where he worked. I was about half way around the table and by the time it got to me, I honestly thought I would throw up in front of everyone. I stood up, said my name was Margaret Topper, I worked at the Best 7 Inn and my husband's name was John!!! Somehow my fuddled brain recognized I had goofed, so I simply announced that 'he worked' and sat down. I absolutely could not remember where (and you all know we worked together).
Obviously this girl needed help, so when I joined BPW, I found that they had a class to help with public speaking. The first 'speech' I was asked to give at that class wasn't too bad, as we were allowed to read it and had it on the podium in front of us. I got terrible marks though on my deportment. Just because I was hunched over the podium and hugging it. I was doing this to stop myself from shaking so bad I couldn't read my paper. I did improve and ended up winning the local prize at the end of the year, going on to win the district award and competed for the State Award.
If any of you are interested, this was the speech: The subject I was given was RESOURCEFULNESS.
We have all heard so much lately about Natural Resources and how we waste and misuse them, and of course they are referring to such things as the land, air, water and raw materials. But have you ever stopped to think about how we human beings also have Natural resources and how we waste and misuse them?
We were given eyes, and if all we use them for are to see the faults in other people, or see the things we desire, or would grab or steal from others, - and fail to see the beauty of a winter tree against a sunset sky, or the majesty of a mountain, or the trust in a little dog's eyes, or friendship when it comes to us in a shy smile, then we are not using our resources.
We were given ears, and if all we use them for are to hear the plain, spoken word, or the harsh sounds of rock music, and we don't use them to hear the orchestration of birds singing, babbling brooks, and the wind in the trees, or we don't hear the magic of a child's laugh, or love when it comes to us in a quiet spoken word, then we are not using our resources.
And we were given Intelligence, and if this is simply a matter or learning our ABC's or the 1-2-3's, and Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world, and we don't use it to learn about ourselves, and what makes us tick, and thereby become better human beings, or we don't use it to learn about our fellow man, and thereby become more compassionate, then we are not using our resources.
And we were given Imagination - and if this is turned into daydreaming, of being a movie star, or a millionaire, or President of the United States, and not used to devise ideas to save your boss money, or to get along better with your fellow worker, or to improve your marriage, raise your children, write speeches, then we are not being resourceful.
We were given Humor, and if the only thing that makes us laugh is slapstick, pie in the face, other people's accidents, and we fail to see the humor of a kitten's antics, or in a quiet witty remark, or we fail to see the humor in ourselves, then are not being resourceful.
And we were given Love, and if love is simply a matter or receiving and getting away with things because we receive it, and is not a matter of giving, caring, sharing, generosity, compassion and just plain loving, then we are not being resourceful.
And most of all we were given God, and if all we use Him for is to turn to when we want something, to berage when we don't get it, and to curse in anger; and we don't use Him as the source of strength in our every day lives, or the source of peace when things do go wrong, and as our Friend who we share all our joys and all our sorrows with, then we are most certainly not being resourceful.
I can remember a couple of years ago, my husband and I were flying to a small town in Nevada, and anyone who has driven through or flown low over Nevada, knows of its barreness, emptiness and lack of productivity. And yet as we approached this small town, it was an amazing sight of lush green fields of crops and vegetation. I can remember my husband looking down and saying, now that what I call resourcefulness.
I hope that when the good Lord looks down on my - and you - that he doesn't see an empty, barren, non-productive piece of humanity, but sees an oasis of productivity, energy, awareness, compassion, understanding, imagination, sensitivity and love. I hope He can say "Now that's what I call Resourcefulness.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
1976 - the Bicentennial Year
I was inducted as President of the local BPW chapter in June of that year and in the August we submitted our bicentennial float for the Mt. Vernon "Sweet Corn and Watermelon Festival". We won first place!!
We also left Regal 8 that year - Grandpa will go into the whys and wherefores of that. They did give us a big send off party and the advertising man for the company, and good friend, Bob Miller designed our logo for our newly formed company - Topper, Inc. At our farewell dinner, they had a cake made with the new logo.
Another big event of the year was Taffy having puppies. That was an experience. First, I read all the books on 'how to prepare your dog for its first birthing, and how to prepare a suitable place for her to have her puppies'. The book said the latter was extremely important as dogs wanted privacy when the time came. Well Taffy's idea of privacy was between Dick and I on the bed in the middle of the night. I scurried her to her 'private place' and she followed me back, so I spent the night lying on the floor next to here while she delivered seven little puppies. I actually kept dozing off and she would lick my nose and wake me just before each birth. Things went well for about 2-1/2 weeks but then Taffy collapsed on me and almost died. We rushed her to the vet (late at night again of course!) and it turned out she was deplete of calcium. They saved Taffy, but ordered - no more Mommy feeding her babies. We had to wean the puppies. Fortunately Gordon and Irene had just arrived for a week's visit, so they were a huge help in getting the puppies fed. Our first attempt was funny, we had a cloth laid out over the table and each got a puppy and tried to teach it to eat the pablum out of a saucer. We ended up with pablum everywhere and all over the puppy, so we carefully cleaned the puppy before returning it to its bed and got another one. The only problem was after the first one, we couldn't tell which one we had bed and which we hadn't - so after that we got wise enough to leave them dirty until all were fed.
Katrina married Lynn Allred this year and they came to visit us with Suzanne and Becky. What a delight, we had a great time with them.
We ended the year with our first real vacation since moving back to the midwest. With Taffy we headed north and crossed into Canada visiting Calgary, Lake Louise and Banff. Saw our first bear in the wilds which was really funny. It was sitting on a table at a roadside rest area and didn't look that big squatted down. Dick drove closer, stopped the car and rolled down the window. Taffy was sitting on my lap looking out. She never moved and never made a sound.
This has always been one of my favorite photos taken of Dick and Taffy - it really looks like they are sharing a joke doesn't it?
We also left Regal 8 that year - Grandpa will go into the whys and wherefores of that. They did give us a big send off party and the advertising man for the company, and good friend, Bob Miller designed our logo for our newly formed company - Topper, Inc. At our farewell dinner, they had a cake made with the new logo. 
Another big event of the year was Taffy having puppies. That was an experience. First, I read all the books on 'how to prepare your dog for its first birthing, and how to prepare a suitable place for her to have her puppies'. The book said the latter was extremely important as dogs wanted privacy when the time came. Well Taffy's idea of privacy was between Dick and I on the bed in the middle of the night. I scurried her to her 'private place' and she followed me back, so I spent the night lying on the floor next to here while she delivered seven little puppies. I actually kept dozing off and she would lick my nose and wake me just before each birth. Things went well for about 2-1/2 weeks but then Taffy collapsed on me and almost died. We rushed her to the vet (late at night again of course!) and it turned out she was deplete of calcium. They saved Taffy, but ordered - no more Mommy feeding her babies. We had to wean the puppies. Fortunately Gordon and Irene had just arrived for a week's visit, so they were a huge help in getting the puppies fed. Our first attempt was funny, we had a cloth laid out over the table and each got a puppy and tried to teach it to eat the pablum out of a saucer. We ended up with pablum everywhere and all over the puppy, so we carefully cleaned the puppy before returning it to its bed and got another one. The only problem was after the first one, we couldn't tell which one we had bed and which we hadn't - so after that we got wise enough to leave them dirty until all were fed.
Katrina married Lynn Allred this year and they came to visit us with Suzanne and Becky. What a delight, we had a great time with them.
We ended the year with our first real vacation since moving back to the midwest. With Taffy we headed north and crossed into Canada visiting Calgary, Lake Louise and Banff. Saw our first bear in the wilds which was really funny. It was sitting on a table at a roadside rest area and didn't look that big squatted down. Dick drove closer, stopped the car and rolled down the window. Taffy was sitting on my lap looking out. She never moved and never made a sound.
We watched it for a while when it moved and started up (it looked a lot bigger then), so we slowly drove away closing the window as we went. When the window was fully closed and we had put a little distance between us, Taffy became the ferocious protector dog we always knew she was!!!
Our trip took us into British Columbia and then we headed down the Pacific Coast, ending up visiting family in California before returning home.
This has always been one of my favorite photos taken of Dick and Taffy - it really looks like they are sharing a joke doesn't it?As if 1976 hadn't been an eventful enough year, I ended it by having a hysterectomy when we returned from the trip. Even that gave me some wonderful memories. Dick actually had to be out of town the week I had the operation (they kept you in hospital for ten days back then), but he had a bouquet of flowers delivered to me every day I was in there. That plus the flowers I received from family, office personnel and BPW friends, made my room look a florist and they brought two extra carts in when I left just to wheel out all the plants. I have a very fond memory of my doctor/surgeon. I was operated on in the morning and some time that evening, I woke to see him watering my plants and flowers. How many doctors do you think would do that?
There was on more highlight for me that year too, but I'll share that in my next blog.
Friday, April 22, 2011
1975 was an eventful year....
Not only moving into our first house, but followed almost immediately by our first dog. Taffy Bach y Ty Mawr (which translates from the Welsh as Little Taffy from the big house) joined our family and it wasn't long before she and I were roaming the woods behind us. Taffy was about ten weeks old when we got her and lived to 17. She was a delight, thoroughly spoiled and extremely snooty.
I had another change of pace in my life too, in that I joined the local chapter of BPW (Business & Professional Women). I actually had joined in 1774 but got very active and involved from 1975 on. I loved the meetings and especiall enjoyed the conventions:
Dick has always teased me that Gerald Ford and I tore up the ladder at the same time. For you young folks out there, Gerald Ford was speaker of the house, when the vice president was forced to resign (Spiro Agnew) and followed quickly to become President with the resignation of Richard Nixon. I joined BPW late 1974, was asked to be program chairman very quickly with the sickness of the one that held the title. Fall 1975 was made Vice President and became president the following year. The above photo was taken at the Las Vegas Convention.
We also added another dog to our family. I wanted a companion for Taffy, so followed up on ad for another papered cocker spaniel. What I found was a poor dog that had never been off the leash tied in the yard and with heat sores all over his back. Even though he was not exactly what I wanted, there was no way that I could leave him there, so Andy Capp joined us and even though we only had him a short time (he was killed by a motocycle), he did father Taffy's only litter of puppies.
I took time off in November and she and I set out on a 5,000 mile trip across the northern route to California, where Dick flew out and met us while we visited family. Then she and I came back the southern route, with stops at Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. It was a major trip and one that my mother never forgot. She was in awe of everything - especially the vastness of our country.
My sister, who has visited many times, in Florida, California, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arizona, always comments on the size of the country. Her favorite phrase is to say that no matter where you here, even if you are on a street in a town, you are somehow aware of the vastness and size. This may sound odd, but I know I have the exact same feeling in reverse every time I go back to Britain. Even when I am in the country I have a 'claustrophobic' feeling of the smallness. Strange what the mind can do isn't it?
I had another change of pace in my life too, in that I joined the local chapter of BPW (Business & Professional Women). I actually had joined in 1774 but got very active and involved from 1975 on. I loved the meetings and especiall enjoyed the conventions:
Dick has always teased me that Gerald Ford and I tore up the ladder at the same time. For you young folks out there, Gerald Ford was speaker of the house, when the vice president was forced to resign (Spiro Agnew) and followed quickly to become President with the resignation of Richard Nixon. I joined BPW late 1974, was asked to be program chairman very quickly with the sickness of the one that held the title. Fall 1975 was made Vice President and became president the following year. The above photo was taken at the Las Vegas Convention.The third major event of that year was bringing my mother out to spend three months with us - she came in October and stayed through into the New Year.
We also added another dog to our family. I wanted a companion for Taffy, so followed up on ad for another papered cocker spaniel. What I found was a poor dog that had never been off the leash tied in the yard and with heat sores all over his back. Even though he was not exactly what I wanted, there was no way that I could leave him there, so Andy Capp joined us and even though we only had him a short time (he was killed by a motocycle), he did father Taffy's only litter of puppies.I took time off in November and she and I set out on a 5,000 mile trip across the northern route to California, where Dick flew out and met us while we visited family. Then she and I came back the southern route, with stops at Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. It was a major trip and one that my mother never forgot. She was in awe of everything - especially the vastness of our country.
My sister, who has visited many times, in Florida, California, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arizona, always comments on the size of the country. Her favorite phrase is to say that no matter where you here, even if you are on a street in a town, you are somehow aware of the vastness and size. This may sound odd, but I know I have the exact same feeling in reverse every time I go back to Britain. Even when I am in the country I have a 'claustrophobic' feeling of the smallness. Strange what the mind can do isn't it?
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Before I join Grandpa in the memories of 1975 & On
I want to back up to the event of my father's death in January 1974. My sister, being distraught, called the office early morning instead of our home, so Dee and Faye from the office showed up at the trailer we were living and told me the news. I immediately started making plans to fly home for the funeral, and also talked with my brother in Canada who wanted to go. We got our travel agency working on it and I worked like a fiend in the office wrapping up all the things that had to be done and organizing my being gone for a few days. Dick was in town, but already had a trip scheduled the following morning out of St. Louis to Hawaii (a short business meeting). Late that evening, we drove over to St. Louis and stayed in a motel and headed for the airport very early the next morning. It turned out that both of us were scheduled on the same flight from St. Louis to Chicago and from there would be going in totally opposite directions. So Dick (the executive on company business) sat in first class, and I (paying for it ourselves) was sitting back in 'tourist'. We both took aisle seats and waved to each other during the flight!. The rest of my journey proved to be one of the worst travel experiences I ever went through. We had the flight scheduled so that I would fly to Montreal with a change of planes in Toronto, and there Gordon and I would meet up and go on to London from there. I actually had a four hour lay-over in Montreal, so Irene and the boys were coming to the airport with Gordon so we could have a visit. Robbie Burns warned that all good plans often go awry! And this was one of them. Toronto had a huge snow storm, so having landed there, they were suddenly canceling flights going out. There were more people schedule to fly than planes they were letting out. I started to plead my case - my father's funeral, my brother's connection, etc. and finally got on the very last flight out. When I arrived in Montreal, I had 15 minutes to connect to the London flight, so the 'visiting' with Irene and the boys consisted of literally running side by side from one terminal to the other! By now it is quite late in the evening, and I had very little sleep the night before, so wouldn't you think that I would really sleep on the plane. But Gordon and I hadn't seen each other for quite some time and we talked constantly all the way to London - arriving the next morning (with the time change). Rented a car and drove the 250 miles to north Wales, arriving late that evening. By the time I did go to bed that night, I had gone something like 54 hours with 3 hours sleep! A couple of weeks after my return home, I found this photo that I had taken of my father the last time I had seen him alive. He and I had taken a walk along what is known as Invalid Walk and Haulfre Gardens, which overlooks the whole town of Llandudno. My father was not well at the time and had severe problems walking, but insisted on doing this favorite walk with me. This photo is taken of him looking over the town, and it inspired me to write a poem, which I hope you will enjoy my sharing with you. 
I wonder what memories this man might have, Sitting on a bench in the Gardens he loves. The town of his life lays out before him, Changed, and changing and yet ever unchanged. To his left a pier stretches to the sea, More modern now with a 'now' appeal. But the Pavilion remains ever standing and sure, As a memory of meeting the girl of his life. His eyes wander on and view the distant hills. The Little Orme and Penrhynside and memories of family. He remembers walking with his father, Poaching with his sister, and loving his mother. A wandering eye at the town below Shows buildings he climbed, and jumped from and built; Shows bricks he carried, and chimneys repaired, And a gas power plant, long gone now. Westward his eyes rove and see the house Where thirty-odd years of life and joy were spent. Where sat a lady whom he adores, And memories echo in its now empty rooms. A view of the West Shore, the golf club and Links; Chasing a wayward horse which seats his daughter; Memories of dogs, their devotion and work, Of golf games, card games and snooker too. The memories go on just viewing this town. The price of soccer games and golf awards won. The pride in a wall, a house, a job well done. The pride of four children whose love he has earned; Of their growth, their own lives well performed; Of a fifty year marriage - still whole and full of care. He's getting old now, time marches on. The climb to this hill was not as easty this time. But he made it, like everything he's done in his life, Part struggle, part determination - all strength. A man's life reflects many things, And not all of it can be looked at with pride. But when the good outweighs the bad as it did with him, That view before him must look pretty good.
I wonder what memories this man might have, Sitting on a bench in the Gardens he loves. The town of his life lays out before him, Changed, and changing and yet ever unchanged. To his left a pier stretches to the sea, More modern now with a 'now' appeal. But the Pavilion remains ever standing and sure, As a memory of meeting the girl of his life. His eyes wander on and view the distant hills. The Little Orme and Penrhynside and memories of family. He remembers walking with his father, Poaching with his sister, and loving his mother. A wandering eye at the town below Shows buildings he climbed, and jumped from and built; Shows bricks he carried, and chimneys repaired, And a gas power plant, long gone now. Westward his eyes rove and see the house Where thirty-odd years of life and joy were spent. Where sat a lady whom he adores, And memories echo in its now empty rooms. A view of the West Shore, the golf club and Links; Chasing a wayward horse which seats his daughter; Memories of dogs, their devotion and work, Of golf games, card games and snooker too. The memories go on just viewing this town. The price of soccer games and golf awards won. The pride in a wall, a house, a job well done. The pride of four children whose love he has earned; Of their growth, their own lives well performed; Of a fifty year marriage - still whole and full of care. He's getting old now, time marches on. The climb to this hill was not as easty this time. But he made it, like everything he's done in his life, Part struggle, part determination - all strength. A man's life reflects many things, And not all of it can be looked at with pride. But when the good outweighs the bad as it did with him, That view before him must look pretty good.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Photos:
These photos and those in the next blog go with Grandpa's blog that follows. The first one here shows the side of house. The fireplace went from the main level up two stories and there was a large loft area with an extra bath upstairs that overlooked the living room. The lower level you see here was where the master suite was.
The lake, before it filled with water. Once we had this completed, we anxiously waited for the rains to fill it up. We had what we thought were pretty good rains, but the lake area was so big that it just seemed like a drop in the bucket. Then one night - here comes one of the famous mid-western storms and we are watching the lake get fuller, and fuller, and fuller. We were beginning to panic. Would the dam hold? But it did and from then on we had a fun lake where we boated (small raft with electric motor), and swam.
It sure was pretty when it snowed. See the little dot on the right? That was our first dog Taffy.
This was the back of the house facing the woods and creek. I loved the decks that Dick put in. He put bird feeders along the top of rails and it was wonderful to watch the birds that came to feed, especially the red cardinals.
Love this photo of Mom - taken on Kentucky Lake.
The lake, before it filled with water. Once we had this completed, we anxiously waited for the rains to fill it up. We had what we thought were pretty good rains, but the lake area was so big that it just seemed like a drop in the bucket. Then one night - here comes one of the famous mid-western storms and we are watching the lake get fuller, and fuller, and fuller. We were beginning to panic. Would the dam hold? But it did and from then on we had a fun lake where we boated (small raft with electric motor), and swam. 
It sure was pretty when it snowed. See the little dot on the right? That was our first dog Taffy. 
This was the back of the house facing the woods and creek. I loved the decks that Dick put in. He put bird feeders along the top of rails and it was wonderful to watch the birds that came to feed, especially the red cardinals. 
Love this photo of Mom - taken on Kentucky Lake. 
More photos
This photo was taken just before we left to move to Florida. It was a real tug to leave this spot even though we were excited about Florida.
This shows the split driveway well. To the left it went slight downhill into the garage (and behind the garage was the master suite). The right went up to the main level of the house where the living/kitchen and other bedrooms were.
The only photo I seem to have taken showing the lake is this one and you only get a glimpse of it with the dam and picnic area.
We ended up with a huge lawn area in front of the house and in the back and around part of the lake. Dick asked me to help one day. I got a bit too close, panicked, jumped off and the following was the result!!! I wonder why he never asked me to help again?
Frances enjoying one of our trips to Kentucky Lake.
This shows the split driveway well. To the left it went slight downhill into the garage (and behind the garage was the master suite). The right went up to the main level of the house where the living/kitchen and other bedrooms were. 
The only photo I seem to have taken showing the lake is this one and you only get a glimpse of it with the dam and picnic area. 
We ended up with a huge lawn area in front of the house and in the back and around part of the lake. Dick asked me to help one day. I got a bit too close, panicked, jumped off and the following was the result!!! I wonder why he never asked me to help again? 
Frances enjoying one of our trips to Kentucky Lake. 
1975:
The business is growing and doing well. We buy our first home. 
A twenty acre piece of property with 2,800 sq.ft. home with a two car garage. The home is about 70% complete. The outside is basically done, but only rough finished inside. It will require a lot of work. The house set back off the road about 250 ft. and had a creek running approx. 200 feet behind. This creek was the start of the Big Muddy River. The entire 20 acres is forest, with rolling terrain, except for about 3 acres semi flat in the right front corner where the house is located. We were too busy at work to get much done at home, but we asked Keith to come stay with us that summer and help out in finishing the house. You can see him and Casey here working on a picnic area we put in the back. 
But the first major project was to put in the concrete driveway (ranging from 12' to 30' wide and approx. 250' long). We tackled this in the heat of the summer with a 44 year old, out-of-shape man, and five kids ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old. We got it done. It took five days and a whole bunch of "when the going gets tough guys, the tough get going". The kids consisted of Pat, Casey, Keith, neighbor Rick Jones (Debbie's brother) and a friend of Rick's.
We ended up (over a year and a half) completing the picnic area, putting in a lake, finishing the inside of the house, including a full master suite in the lower section, and two layers of decking in the back. I might say we were a bit proud of the place.
A twenty acre piece of property with 2,800 sq.ft. home with a two car garage. The home is about 70% complete. The outside is basically done, but only rough finished inside. It will require a lot of work. The house set back off the road about 250 ft. and had a creek running approx. 200 feet behind. This creek was the start of the Big Muddy River. The entire 20 acres is forest, with rolling terrain, except for about 3 acres semi flat in the right front corner where the house is located. We were too busy at work to get much done at home, but we asked Keith to come stay with us that summer and help out in finishing the house. You can see him and Casey here working on a picnic area we put in the back. 
But the first major project was to put in the concrete driveway (ranging from 12' to 30' wide and approx. 250' long). We tackled this in the heat of the summer with a 44 year old, out-of-shape man, and five kids ranging in age from 14 to 17 years old. We got it done. It took five days and a whole bunch of "when the going gets tough guys, the tough get going". The kids consisted of Pat, Casey, Keith, neighbor Rick Jones (Debbie's brother) and a friend of Rick's. 
We ended up (over a year and a half) completing the picnic area, putting in a lake, finishing the inside of the house, including a full master suite in the lower section, and two layers of decking in the back. I might say we were a bit proud of the place. 
Late that summer Mom, Hazel and Karen came out to visit and take Keith back. This gave us an opportunity to show them around southern Illinois and the Kentucky Lake area. The photo above with Frances, Bill, Hazel, Margaret in the forefront and Joe, Casey, Patrick, Karen, Keith in the background was taken at Crab Orchard Lake. It was almost a family reunion, just Jerry and Louise and their families missing.
Living here was where we became aware of Debbie. Her father Bill Jones lived approx. 1-1/2 to 2 miles SE of us and owned a large acreage including a lake. He owned considerable equipment and did a lot of dirt work for us, leveling off areas and putting in our dam and digging out the lake. Bill Jones always wanted someone to work with him and run errands - get him a tool, etc. and at that time Debbie at the age of 12 was his helper. At 6am when he showed up to work, Debbie was with him and we became friends. Whenever she had free time she would ride her horse over to our place, with her faithful dog trotting behind, and it soon became a regular Sunday event. Her parents seemed to have no problem, and she slipped into being our Sunday 'daughter' to our summer 'daughter'. Perhaps she was the daughter Margaret never had.
Jerry and Bev and family visited us briefly as did one of Margaret's nephews from Canada, and also Gordon and Irene. It was a fun place to entertain people.
We also bought another house - this time a fire damaged home in a nearby village Bellerive. Some of the roof and walls had burned out and of course there was a lot of electrical and smoke damage throughout. We offered Bill and Frances a full share of any profit if they would help with the cleanup, remodeling, etc. We did pretty well on that and made a fair profit. A four bedroom/3 bath house (approx. 2800 sq.ft) we bought as is for $22,000 and sold for $45,000. Not bad for an 8 week evening and weekend job. During that time good wages were $800 to $900 a month.
In 1976 we got more company - but this time a bit more permanent. Mom, Hazel, Keith, Karen and Cody and baby Jeremy moved back to Illinois. They stayed with us until they got settled. Karen and Cody bought one small house, Hazel and Keith another, and Mom another. (Mom later moved into a senior living apartment). Hazel, Keith Karen and Cody all found jobs. Cody at Precision Engineering, Hazel at the hospital, Karen at a funeral home and I don't recall what Keith did.
It was nice for Margaret and I to have some of our family closer.
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