Moving South 20 . . . Years Later

20 years ago, this coming March, I was confronted with both a dilemma and an opportunity. The dilemma was a shortage of good paying jobs where I lived in New York, a lingering recession, and a family to care for. Complicated by a spouse who believed that bar-hopping and all it implied was preferable to staying home nights. With that the dilemma deepened into a crisis of both values and faith. Two small children, who were, and as adults now still are, dear to my heart--I’d waited until turning 35 to become a father--stretched the dilemma into a nearly insurmountable challenge.

Since I did home repairs to earn a living, I was offered the opportunity to repair a roof leak in a building that housed a business--Delano Studios--where I once worked.

While attending to the repair, I learned the business was for sale, and decided that since I’d truly enjoyed the work previously, I would attempt to buy the company. As luck would have it, an offer that bested mine won out and the company was sold to a South Carolina corporation named Low Country Guild in Bluffton, SC.

To my surprise, the new owner requested that I travel to South Carolina and help get Delano Studios re-established. It was an offer not only too good to refuse at a time of diminishing employment, but exactly the challenge and change I needed. I was to work with Low Country Guild for 2-3 months and then return to New York.

We loaded two moving vans with Delano Studios and headed south. I left a cold wet New York in early March, hoping that two different goals might be accomplished. One, that I would earn some badly needed cash, and two, that the family dilemma mentioned at the beginning of this tale could be dealt with through change and opportunity.

End Part One