Choices We Make:

Rosemary and I returned from Florida in Jan., and I didn’t have a job. I decided to join my brothers Hank and Rich in a floor sanding partnership. We bought American Floor Company, but after only a few months, I quit because of differences of opinions concerning the business. A few months later my brother Hank also decided to quit. He also started his own business.

I bought a set of floor sanding tools from American Lincoln Company with a loan from Local Loan Company, and Rosemary and I, with great excitement, began our own company, Courtesy Floor Company. We were living in Chicago at 2140 n. Monitor St.

About two months later Grandma (Evelyn Keene) and I were talking, and she told me she had an important friend, Bill Gill, who could arrange for me to get a job at Otis elevator Co. as a union elevator repairman. She explained that if I didn’t want the job she would offer it to Renard. It was a very great job with good pay, good benefits, two or three weeks vacation a year, great retirement benefits and steady work. I told Grandma Rosemary and I would talk it over with Rose, and let her know within the week.

Rose and I did discuss the job offer, but we had just begun our exciting venture of working for ourselves so we declined the offer. If this offer had been given to us two months prior, we would have been thrilled to have such a job. I explained how we wanted to try to make a success with our new venture, and Grandma Keene offered the job to Renard, which he quickly accepted.

If we had chosen Otis elevator our finances would have been very secure. I would be receiving a very nice retirement now. We would never have been together as much as we were. We loved working together even if we didn’t earn much money. If I had to make that decision again, it would be the same, and I’m sure Rosemary would agree. I wouldn’t want to give up one minute of the great, and sometimes tough years that Rosemary and I had when we worked Courtesy Floor Company together. I believe we made the correct choice..