Reminiscing

We will officially open our 58th hunting season this Sunday, and I have been blessed to be here for 44 of those 58 openings. When I finished my military obligations, the month was December, and I was accepted to Law School for the following September. Martha and I were already married, and the only person who would hire me knowing that I would be a temporary employee was my Dad. I never had any intentions of making a career here because I just did not believe that my father would ever relinquish control of the business that he and Mom had the vision to found. But, he surprised me by doing so fairly quickly, and eventually sold the company to me. In the process, I learned yet another of life's valuable lessons from my father.

I realized a couple of years ago that it was time to make another transition from me to Cader IV. I could still remember how it felt to be ready for the reins and wonder if you would ever get control; so I got ahead of the curve and we made that transition a couple of years ago. It was the right thing to do, and I'm very comfortable with it.

Just as my father did, I will always feel like Riverview is mine, and plan to be active in the company as long as God grants me good health. I will say that it's nice not to have to be sweating all of the fine details of the last week's check-off list. Martha always said that the week before we would open a season was the most difficult week to live with me. However, I have been very relaxed this week. I just sit back and take pot shots at the management from the cheap seats. I learned this technique also from Pop.

 We are excited about this hunting season, and look forward to showing everyone all of the improvements that we have made over the spring and summer!