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......
Monday, June 20, 2011
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
