In 1969, after selling out to my partners. we decided to make our new life
in Florida. I needed a job, and we had agreed I would seek a career as a
broker. This was in a soft bear market, and I was 46 years old.
I interviewed, and was turned down, 45 times. I had been looking first in
Ft. Lauderdale, then Miami, and lastly in Boca Raton. I then interviewed
for a job with a top sail boat broker in Lauderdale. He offerd me a job, and
I called Marge to tell her. I had been making trips back and forth to
Florida while she held down the fort in Grosse Pointe Shores where we
lived. Marge objected strongly, not wanting my job to overlap our fun
stuff, boating. She suggested I try in Palm Beach, which I did. Voila, on my
second interview, I was hired by Merrill Lynch to start a training
program in Sept., this was in June. I rushed home, and we started to
move. This involved selling a house, buying or building a new one in
Florida, moving a 41 foot sailboat south, and my Cesna 172, 2 cars, and
Marge and Bob, jr. When we left the DYC dock on july 14, 1969, most
of our friends predicted an early return to Detroit. I began to worry how
secure my new job was after one interview and an entry test I took in
Detroit. But all went well, and after an uneventful, but wonderful trip
on ourBounty sailboat through the Welland canal, down the Hudson river,
and outside from New York to Atlantic City, then the rest of the way on
the intracoastal waterway, we arrived at the North Palm Beach marina on
Sept. 2, 1969. While we were heading South, my daughter was finishing
her undergrad at the University of Michigan. I started at Merrill, on
Sept 15, 1969, and our wonderful life in Florida began then.