On July 13, 1968 Gloria and I were married. We went to the Poccino Mountains on our honeymoon to the Honeymoon Hide-a-way and had a great time. Prior to getting married we had made arrangements to rent a two-family house on Welshbush Rd. in Utica that had two greenhouses.

At the end of my junior year in college my brother John and a previous neighbor Wayne Monteau came to the conclusion that we could all get rich growing vegetables hydroponically. We spent that summer building greenhouses on another neighbor’s property in Middleville. There were seven partners, all previous neighbors and friends. During one of my weekend journeys home, John and I decided that the operation was going nowhere so he and I backed out without penalty or profit. In the spring, John found the place on Welshbush and we rented it with an option to buy. He and his wife Verna lived upstairs, Gloria and I down. We did extensive repairs and remodeling to the greenhouses and had a nice operation growing tomatoes for about two years. A severe ice storm did us in. We also figured we were making 50 cents an hour and to be successful, it needed to be done on a much larger scale.

Upon graduation from college, I applied at Utica Mutual Insurance for a job as an actuarial assistant. They offered me a job at $6500 per year. During the summers, while in college, I had worked at Remington. The counselor at college had told me I should expect about $9000 per year. I figured if Remington would pay me $7500 per year, I'd work there. That's what I asked for and that's what they gave me. I spent the next year and a half there as a process engineer in the quality control department. They treated me well. I learned to program the new computer; they made me chairman of the packaging committee and gave me substantial raises while I was there. The guy I worked with and eventually for, later became the plant manager. I probably would have done very well if I had stayed.

Opportunity knocked on my door. One of the guys in the planning department that had responsibility for the computer left to work for a consultant. We got along well and he was impressed with my ability to learn computers quickly. I thought they might offer me his job, when he left, but they didn't. He contacted me a few months later and suggested I apply for a job as Data Processing Manager at the Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Utica. He was their consultant and knew they were looking for a new manager. I told him I would move for $10,000 and he suggested I ask for $12,500. I interviewed, ran into Tom Capelli - Barb's father (their VP of marketing) and got the job. Tom was always impressed with my punctuality when dating Barb and I'm sure he put in a good word. To this day I don't know if taking the job was a good decision. I went from having no supervisory experience to managing 25 people and a million-dollar budget. I learned A lot - very fast.

I was eager, learned quickly and worked very hard. My mentor who introduced me to the job remained on as a consultant with a staff. After six years, the managing director who hired me retired and was replaced by a man that had no business in business - John Porn. He ultimately replaced five of the seven managers in the place. I think I was number four. The consultants and I were at odds about almost everything. They were fighting for survival; I was on the side of common sense. They won the battle, but I eventually won the war.

The job lasted seven years. We had many good times and I learned the business of data processing inside and out. I was probably more productive during those years than since. Gloria stuck it out with me through it all.

Our first six months of marriage were difficult. We had very different upbringing and expectations of what each should bring and contribute to the marriage. In 1968 we had little money and I gave Gloria a choice between a diamond ring and a dog that was listed in the paper. She chose the dog. We bought our first Old English Sheepdog (Tontine) in Cooperstown for $400. The price seemed outrageous, but the breed was rare, she had excellent breeding and turned out to be an excellent pet.

In 1970 we negotiated with the previous owner of Welshbush and got her asking price down from what was $28,000 in 1968 to $20,000. We had also paid $3,000 toward the purchase price from the lease/purchase option, which had since expired. We gave her $5,000 and mortgaged $12,000 with her at 7% for 7 years. This property proved to be a gold mine.

We tried to have children after the first few years and were finally successful in 1971. I can recall Gloria asking if I wanted a boy or a girl. I think I responded by saying that she could have anything she wanted so long as it was a blonde haired, blue eyed, baby boy. She delivered our first (blond hair, blue eyed) son Eric on April 29th 1972. We both agreed that we should space the children two to three years so that they developed relationships other that their brothers and sisters. Our next son, Darren was born on January 10th 1975. As babies they looked identical. I would have had more children, but two is probably enough for any mother, so we stopped trying after two. I still regret not having a girl.

We were pretty typical as a family. We were both very conscious of the importance of education and the attitude towards education, so we tried very hard to give the boys a head start and a fun attitude towards learning. The games we would play with them as children were things like synonyms, and antonyms. It seems all the activities had an educational intent. They were both honor students and advanced in a number of subjects, so I think we did this right.

My unexpected departure from the Blues upset our life considerably. We had enough money to last for a while, but after the first month began to become concerned about finding a job. I had applied at Utica Mutual before I left the Blues and pursued that further. They were very slow at responding to potential employees. We considered leaving upstate New York a few times but decided that family was more important than advancement. I had finally accepted a job in Syracuse working for a computer consulting firm when I was interviewed and offered a Job at Utica Mutual.