Wagon Ho - Moving West

Wagon Ho: Moving West

We were shocked one day when we learned that Georgia’s parents were moving to Fresno, California. At the end of the summer of 1972, her mother, father, sister Robin, and brothers Marc and Gordy packed up and moved into an apartment in Fresno. Her father eventually ended up buying a bar and dance hall out there called the "Play Pen."

We bought a big station wagon like the one in the photo, so that it would tow our camper trailer and have a cozy safe spot for Scott to sleep. We sent Michele with Uncle Marc on a flight to Sacramento, CA.

Back in the Midwest, I was a successful salesman, making good money, and truly enjoying the people I worked with and the customers I was serving. But one day, Georgia looked at me with those gorgeous blue eyes of hers and said she missed her family. She asked me to consider moving to California. How in the world could I resist?

Wagon Ho: Moving West & The Blizzard of ’72

We were shocked one day when we learned that Georgia’s parents were moving to Fresno, California. At the end of the summer of 1972, her mother, father, sister Robin, and brothers Marc and Gordy packed up and moved into an apartment in Fresno, where her father eventually ended up buying a bar and dance hall called the "Play Pen."

Here I was, a successful salesman, making good money, and truly enjoying the people I worked with and the customers I was serving. But one day, Georgia looked at me with those gorgeous blue eyes of hers and said she missed her family. She wanted me to consider moving to California.

How in the world could I resist?

At the time, our sales staff had been growing. Larry was promoted to Regional Distribution Manager for the Midwest Territory, and John had just been brought in from Magnavox as the new Sales Manager that year. Because I had developed great relationships with the headquarters sales and marketing staff, I thought I would take a shot and ask for a transfer to the West Coast.

Fortunately, when I met with John, he was incredibly helpful. He picked up the phone and called Rahl, the Sales Manager handling everything from San Jose up to Alaska. Rahl was happy to hear about my desire to transfer; he was actually in the process of expanding his sales staff for 1973 and was promoting Chris, his San Francisco salesperson, to a key account role. He offered me Chris’s old territory, and I accepted.

With the transfer locked in, we sold our home in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, in December 1972. Somehow, we managed to have Marc, who was 19 at the time, come back to Chicago so we could send three-year-old Michele with him ahead to Fresno.

Scott was just 11 months old, so we built a makeshift playpen right in the back of the Oldsmobile station wagon—affectionately dubbed "Wagon Ho." With our camping trailer hitched up and in tow, we were finally ready for California.

Unfortunately, our luck wasn’t so good. It began to snow just as we headed out of town.

I can remember it like it was yesterday. We weren’t too bad off at first, making our way west on I-90. But when we headed south to connect to I-88, the weather escalated to complete blizzard levels. The visibility was terrible, and the roads were so bad that we were actually too nervous to even pull off onto the shoulder.

So, we kept going. And then, it happened.

The rear end of the Oldsmobile completely lost traction and slid out to the right. I looked in the mirror, and I could see the trailer swinging around, coming right up the left side of the car.

God must have been with us, because somehow, I was able to get the caravan going straight again. Once we hit I-80 and headed south a bit, we were back under control and finally let the blood return to our white-knuckled hands. Amazingly, Scott slept through the entire snowstorm!

We would have been in massive trouble if we had slid off the road. We didn’t have cell phones in those days, and I really didn’t want to freeze to death trying to hail down an eighteen-wheeler in a blizzard.

We eventually stopped for dinner and got a room at a motel. Georgia called her mom in Fresno to check in, only to learn that Michele and Marc’s flight couldn’t even land in Fresno due to heavy fog. They had been diverted to Stockton and bussed back to Fresno! It seemed like the weather was fighting the whole family that day.

At the time, our sales staff had been growing. Larry was promoted to Regional Distribution Manager for the Midwest Territory, and John had just been brought in from Magnavox as the new Sales Manager that year. Because I had developed great relationships with the headquarters sales and marketing staff, I thought I would take a shot and ask for a transfer to the West Coast.

Fortunately, when I met with John, he was incredibly helpful. He picked up the phone and called Rahl, the Sales Manager handling everything from San Jose up to Alaska. Rahl was happy to hear about my desire to transfer; he was actually in the process of expanding his sales staff for 1973 and was promoting Chris, his San Francisco salesperson, to a key account role.

Rahl offered me Chris’s old territory, and I accepted. Sony Bravia Bouncing Balls (v)