In May of 1977, I started as a systems analyst at Utica Mutual. The pay was $2000 less that I had at the Blues, but it was a laid back job in comparison. In the first two months I gained 15 pounds. I learned the business quickly and knew more about data processing than just about everyone there, about one year later they promoted me to supervisor of a new group, responsible for a major project I had been working on.

That first year I bought Gloria the diamond I promised her when we got married. A nice one-carat marquise with the disbursement from the retirement plan at Blue Cross.

By 1978 things had settled down and one day we went looking for a nice family place to go skiing with the children. I remembered the place I had gone to while in high school. It was in Cooperstown - Mount Otsego. We drove down only to find a for-sale sign on the property. One thing led to another and we ended up re-mortgaging the house on Welshbush and using the money for a down payment with $12,000 left for repairs and renovation. We knew nothing about the ski area business but were able to negotiate the ski shop trade in exchange for help from a guy who had previously managed it. The second year we ran the whole operation by ourselves. We worked very, very hard for the three years that we owned it. Interest rates rose from 8% to 18% and we weren't making that much on the investment so we decided to sell. We finally found a buyer - a previous Richfield Springs resident who wanted to get back to the area. We got back everything we had invested and then some. We carried the mortgage on one-year terms, first at 16 and then 18 percent interest. During the time we owned it, we paid no taxes because of the capital investment tax credits that were available. It was very hard work, but financially a windfall.

About this same time I missed out on a promotion at work and blamed it on the fact that the individual that got the promotion had a masters degree, and I didn't. Being bored without the work of the ski area, I enrolled in the masters program with the SUNY Binghamton extension course at Griffiths Air base. It too was a lot of work - Friday night, all day Saturday and Sunday mornings every other weekend, with homework like - read these three books. Each weekend was equivalent to five normal college classes, in a single subject. It took a year and a half (including summers) but I graduated with a 3.67 GPA. That just about ended my desire for further formal education. I took a real estate course later, but that was just for practical purposes.

By this time (1983), Eric was in the fifth grade and we did not want him to attend the middle school that he would have gone to for the 7th grade. We started house hunting and set the priority of having a good school district and living in a neighborhood. We found a place in an ideal location in Clinton at 64 Stebbins Drive. Clinton schools had an excellent reputation; the house was very nice except for a small kitchen. It also had an in-ground heated pool and central air conditioning. Our timing again proved to be good. We used $30,000 of the profit from the ski area as a down payment and mortgaged $40,000. We kept Welshbush as an investment because of Gloria’s uncertainty about moving to Clinton. Real estate went wild after this and the property appreciated very quickly.

The only significant mistake we made in real estate was not purchasing a number of waterfront properties when we could afford them. We looked at everything on White Lake that became available, but each was priced at more than what we had paid for our current house. That seemed foolish for three months of weekend use, at the time.

1984 was also a good year. My boss (the guy with the masters) was promoted and I was promoted to his job. Finally a manager again, with a staff of 40 now and significantly more responsibility than I had with the Blues. It was time to win the war with my old boss at Blue Cross. I hired their best systems analysts and about a year later the Blues gave the operation to a management outfit and lost all control. Revenge was sweet.

In 1985 they made me an officer of the company, which gave me front row reserved parking and made me eligible for the executive bonus each year. Other than that, 1985 through 1988 weren't too eventful. Again, if I had to do it over I would have bought a place on the lake.