Kansas City, MO – Montrose, CO – Marion, SC – 1976 – 1979

I left St. Joseph, Missouri and moved 55 miles south to the Russell Stover corporate office in downtown Kansas City. They had an apartment near downtown for new associates to stay while looking for housing. Though I had been ready to move on, I was a bit overwhelmed with loneliness when I moved into that apartment. I had been used to a large circle of friends and Kansas City was the first major city that I had ever lived in.

Russell Stover was in the midst of significant expansion. They were building a completely new automated facility in Clarksville, Tennessee, I was hired to oversee the installation of European machinery at their existing plants to make Easter chocolate covered novelties. The multi-million dollar machines had been purchased, but they needed an engineer, willing to travel and stay for extended periods of time, to oversee, coordinate and install at the two plants, one in Marion, South Carolina, the other in Montrose Colorado.

Kansas City, Missouri

Russell Stover was a far less structured company than Quaker Oats. They were much more hands on with less meetings and budgeting procedures. I spent the first few months getting acclimated before I was sent on the road. Once the machinery arrived at each factory, I was sent to work at each place for about three months at a time. I could travel back to Kansas City every two weeks for a long weekend.

I spent my early week nights there going to Kansas City Royal games not far from where I lived. I spent my weekends going to an great bar area called Westwood Village near downtown. I did not date much back because I did not have much in the way of local friends. I enjoyed going to major league baseball games because those were the years the Kansas City Royals contended for the World Series with George Brett and Willy Wilson.

Being single and unattached was ok for a change. I bought a small townhouse in a suburb on the far east side of Kansas City called Blue Springs. It was about a twenty-five minute commute into downtown. I ended up ride sharing to work with a tall girl that lived near me in Blue Springs. She was very sweet and very shy like me. We were never romantic, just friends. She would check in on my townhouse occasionally during my many extended travel assignments. I also got to be good friends with another office mate who was a hot air balloonist, though we never were able to arrange a time for me to go up with him.

Montrose, Colorado

Montrose is a small town about sixty miles south of Grand Junction in western Colorado. It sits on the western slope of the Rockies. It had a cowboy flair. There was a great restaurant bar called the Red Barn that served amazing steaks and a great country rock bar to hang out in at night. I stayed in a basement suite in a motel called the Red Arrow Inn. Salesman, corporate visitors and installers from Germany were usually there, so I was busy night and day.

There were plenty of management and office staff to hang out with. Somebody usually hosted get-togethers every weekend. I dated a beautiful girl that worked in the office for a month or two; I was infatuated with her looks, but she into heavy marijuana smoking. The one night I actually tried it with her, I ended up feeling like the world was going in and out of focus. That feeling lasted three days. Needless to say, that was pretty much the end of my marijuana smoking. I do remember most of the people that worked there were pretty great. They made sure us visitors were included in whatever they were doing. I am left with many nice memories.

In all, I probably spent six months over a few stays there setting up the new production line. I even flew Janet out there for a long weekend near the end of my days there.

Marion, South Carolina

Marion was a small town of about sixty miles inland from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That was the destination every weekend for many that worked there. The beach and the nightlife were amazing. Almost every week, I would start my Fridays eating at a prime rib restaurant called Slugs. The salad bar was wonderful.

I surprised myself because I never expected to have as fun as I did in the deep south. The people were wonderful and for some unknown reason they loved us northerners. The pace of life was so much slower and relaxed than I was used to. There was always a dinner invitation or a Saturday afternoon badminton game in someone’s back yard to attend.

I really got close to the plant manager and the maintenance manager as well as many who worked in that office. The work environment was great. I remember waking up one morning in my motel room looking in the mirror and thinking I was for the first time, in a long time, truly happy.

After my machine installation was finished, they arranged for me to move there to take the maintenance position when my friend left for a better opportunity in Atlanta. He and I are still friends to this day though we now live almost 3000 miles apart.

During my stay there, I somehow was recruited to manage a girls softball team representing Russell Stover. Though I was badly unqualified, the girls were worse. Most had never picked up a bat or glove in their lives. They had no idea about the rules of baseball. That team became known as the Bad News Bears. Even so, everybody in the office attended those games. We never got close to winning, but somehow it proved to be fun for all involved. When I left a few months later to take a job in Las Vegas, one of my gifts was a trophy from the team inscribed Good Luck, Bad News Bears.

A few moths before I left Russell Stover, I met my future wife on a Friday night in Myrtle Beach. That is a whole other story to be covered in another segment of this site. Sadly, a few years after I left, I heard they closed this factory. I felt bad for the locals who had depended on it for their livelihood, I have often wondered what happened to them. I hope life has treated them well.