Rick, I think you missed the point... or I was a little obtuse.
Gary & Gerry were in Cin with Nurre. Frank and Tony were in Pompano Beach, FL as Caxton. They "merged" about 1986 to become Nurre Caxton. Neilson Bainbridge was quit a while down the road.
In 1988 I was hired to open up NoCA, OR, WA, ID, MT, WY, NoNV. That first 11 months I drove 89,000 miles, and was home 21 weeks. The territory went from $132K to $1.6mill.
On March 5th 1989, while helping three ladies on Mt Rose Pass between Incline Village (Lake Tahoe) and Reno, I was struck by a truck.
The VP of the WestCoast was Gary's baby sister who never liked me and what made it worse was I only reported to Frank in FL... and kept winning Salesman of the Month & quarter...
So as I was bouncing in and out of the hospital, she terminated me because "I couldn't drive to see accounts"... well duh?
But she insisted that the official line given on the phone was: "he is no longer with the company". Which we all know is a euphemism for "terminated with prejudice".
Many of my <s>accounts</s> friends had my phone number and would check up on my progress. One framer drove down to San Jose from Sacramento to bring me some Chicken Soup. She also asked that I call her when I thought I would attempt my 1 year goal: walk around the block in under 24 hours. [block was the size of about 5 smooshed together and the circumference was about 7/10th of a mile.]
I called the night before then started out about 4am... [one of my major wake-ups in my wake/sleep cycles of the days] My room mate got up about 8am and brought me some breakfast and coffee, and June showed up a little later with some other good things to munch on and drink. She stayed the entire time and was as proud as if she was my mother when I got home at 10:45 that night.
I didn't know it at the time, buy June was battling a loosing fight with leukemia. It made that day all the more special. And sad.
Anyway, I didn't mean to get maudlin. Sorry...
In "My Day" NC was a distributor of Neilson, and our "Main" line was the Translucents...[who's time I think has returned.] and the Richwoods. Near the end I blew records away with the Sandstones... [another one that would be nice today].
Over the next 10 years, their line seemed less than creative, bold, and innovative.... Kind of like Neilson was for 20 years. Same ol' Same ol'.
Recently, Neilson has made some very innovative and creative bold changes.... and they are following suit in the Nurre line. And if I had a rep left in this area... I might take a look at the whole line and talk it over with the boss...
But that is the "Principal" of the matter... Shar owns her shop. I just putz around and hack at a few pieces of wood once in a while.... but it is her choice. I might have a say...
Rick
