Some Pictorial Moments In My Life:







... continued from


  Welcome To My Life  

With all the social and business networks online, it's become clear to me that they are about today, the here and now.

Which lead me to the idea of putting together a collage of pictures of my life. In doing so, it reminds me of how fast time passes.

In 1960, I was living in Paducah, KY and life was filled with days of cow-pasture baseball, building dams in the local creek and tree houses in the woods behind the houses across the street.

At one point we even gathered sacks full of acorns from all the mighty oaks that filled the neighborhood.

I guess that's why the street we lived on was called "River Oaks Blvd". See how sharp I was, to figure that one out!

I remember days of sneaking in the woods, cutting some grape vines down out of the trees and smoking them. Yes, we really did that. We wanted to be "grown up" and "hip", and grown-ups smoked.

On a better note, we also were quite the Entrepreneurs, too. I remember the classic Kool-Aide stand on the road in front of our house.

My Mom worked at a local knitting mill, and nylon panty hose were the latest thing, and so there were lots of scrap pieces left over.

Mom would have some scraps she'd bring home and use to tie things together, etc. Remember, we didn't have twisties, baggies, etc.

In playing with them, we weaved a loop-knot around and around a typical wire coat hanger to make padded coat hangers. We had about 10 different colors to work with.

People started asking us to make them some, and so the idea was born to start selling them. That evolved into selling them door to door.

The motivation here was to make enough money to go to the movies. As the old saying goes, necessity is the Motherhood of invention, and we wanted to go to the movies to see movies like Old Yellar and The Green Men.

Wow, did that one scare the socks off us! I remember one scene of a hand, just the hand, crawling around this couple's shoulders while they were at the movies. That had us looking around the dark theater!

After all the failed attempts at killing these monsters, it turned out that light killed them. So, they ended up killing them all with a bunch of cars encirling them and turning on their headlights. Wow, what special effects they had back them, huh?

It was very common to make enough to earn a movie ticket and a box of Milk Duds for my brother and each of our friends. We'd knock on doors on the way to the theater.

When we had enough for the tickets and candy, we'd hide the rest and scoot off to the movie. On the way home, we'd retrieve the extra hangers.

By 1969 I had completed two years of "party college" and found myself in the USAF because of my choices to play rather than study. The photo to the left is while I was home on leave after my basic and training just before I was to go to my permanent base, McChord AFB, WA.

I resisted that uniform wearing, and that's putting it mildly. My Mom insisted on a picture and now, over 40 years later, I'm glad I listened. Had it been up to me, there would have been no pictures of such "nonsense".

It's another example of how dangerous we are when young because we think we know it all. At least, that describes me. Not only did I know it all, I wasn't shy about telling you about it either.

Thank God for wisdom and living long enough to attain some of it. I look forward to more and more wisdom as time passes.

By 1973, I was back in college and re-connecting with my friends, most of whom had scattered around the world after they left college. And, for some, as they too returned home from serving during the Viet Nam era, which took a lot of our friends away from their lives.

By 1989, I had completed college, worked as an accountant for an oil company in Denver, the IRS in Chicago, a Business Broker in Knoxville and had started a chain of carpet cleaning businesses. We had 3 open by 1989 and would have 6 opened before selling them all and moving on to the next chapter in my wanderings.

In 1995, I discovered network marketing and have enjoyed every moment of that journey. It's filled with excitement and opportunity. And like any new industry, it's also filled with sadness and turmoil. Because it's so new and unregulated, there is a lot of "wiggle room" for people to express themselves.

And, with people being people, behaviors range from the most beautiful acts you've ever seen or heard of to some of the most knuckle-headed things you'll ever hear about.

Again, it's this unregulated atmosphere that brings the excitement, opportunities and adventures.

2010 has found me much wiser and mellow. We travel whenever we get the chance and had the wonderful experience of travelling around Europe with our son and his wife.

I relive those many moments nearly everyday as I ponder how fast that trip went and how wonderful it was. The memories will live on for the rest of my life.

Now they, I should say "we", have a new baby in our lives since Oct 2009 and thus a whole new chapter begins for us.

The best is yet to come!

Enjoy your visit, leave a message and say hello if you want,

Kurt & Martha Gross
"Leading The Way To Health and Wealth"

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