It's A Great Life: 66 - Back To Colorado
Jack Merewood's business thrives and he realises his roots are firmly planted in England.
After two years Jack and I had a fall-out with Neil, which resulted in our buying him out, and we split the business fifty-fifty between us. I was now running things by myself. We needed more salesmen, then more men in the works, and the business began to grow.
In 1963 we had a letter from Jessie with news that shocked us. Art had died from a heart attack. We really loved Art and we were devastated. One morning he hadn't felt well, and with difficulty made it to a neighbour's house. They sent for a doctor who gave him an injection. Art said that made him feel better, but then he had a relapse and before they could get him to the hospital he had died. He left instructions in his will that he should be cremated and his ashes scattered on Lookout Mountain as his father's had been before him. A few of his lady friends went up the mountain and carried out his last request. Art had been a wonderful landlord, and more than that, a great friend, and we were extremely saddened at his death. Golden wouldn't be the same without him.
Things were now progressing well at work, so in 1964, when Anne was two and a half years old we decided to take a trip out to Colorado. How would this affect us? Would we wish we lived back in Golden? Would the trip upset us? Well, we'd find out anyhow.
We had lived in Golden in a house which was divided into two apart¬ments, and we occupied the one upstairs. Art had left the whole house to Rose. She had moved in downstairs, but our old upstairs apartment was empty, and she said that if we wanted to, we could live in it while we were there. We were delighted to accept her offer. Dean still had the Dodge, and said we could use it. So when we arrived back in Golden it was like living there all over again. It was hard to believe that Art wasn't there. We missed his cheery 'Hi kids', and his whistle, and would have loved to have seen him again, but how lucky we were to have the apartment and the Dodge. We went out to Hutchinson's and round the building sites, calling on, and surprising, some of my old workmates.
We spent a weekend in Estes Park and took Anne and Joy on the breakfast ride. Actually this was a little too much for them. They were very excited at riding the horses, and with the breakfast, but they were extremely tired; so after we had eaten it was decided that Anne should ride back in the pickup truck that had driven up on a nearby track with the breakfast. Joy survived the ride home, but near the end one of the cowboys had to hold her on her horse. All the same, we had a great time, staying in a very nice motel with a swimming pool. Anne and Joy, who were close in age, got on well together, and we spent the time going on picnics in the mountains and just generally enjoying ourselves.
But how did we feel about this now? Well, we had half expected that we'd feel upset, perhaps wishing we hadn't come home. But rather surprisingly we didn't get that feeling. We were more settled now in England, I was irrevocably tied to the business, and the important thing now was to get on with our life in England.
When we came home I hired more salesmen and men in the works, and at one time in the early 1970s employed twenty-three people. Like every business we had our ups and downs, arguments, people leaving, and all the other worries, but now at least we were doing well. No more crawling to the bank manager. Soon we were out of the red, and have been ever since.
Meanwhile on 30 May T965 our second baby, Stuart, had been born. With two lovely children we now had a family, adventures together were only just beginning, and our trips to the USA and other exciting places were by no means over.
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To read Jack's vivid account of his wartime experiences To War With The Bays please click on http://www.openwriting.com/archives/to_war_with_the_bays/
