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One of my good
Hinsdale friends at the time was Dave Pilster. Dave is a year or
two older than I am. He was a good friend of the 1010. His big
brother Jimmy was a rock star singing with the Cryan’ Shames. They
were both great friends with upbeat outgoing loving personalities.
While visiting
Dave in his Downers Grove apartment where he lived with his wife
Judy and their new baby daughter, Maya, Dave asked me what I was
going to call this natural foods store I was so determined to
build. I didn’t have a name for it yet.
I told him that
I wanted a name that would appeal to everyone. For as much as
it
seemed that God inspired this venture, I didn’t want the name to
have a religious overtone knowing that would alienate some people.
My friend Bill Garvey was there and we tossed out a few ideas. Dave
just sat there listening. I could tell wheels were turning in his
head. With a very self-satisfied smile on his face Dave slowly
pronounced “Moss Hill”. Those two syllables floated out of his
mouth and seemingly hung in the air. It was the perfect name!
With unanimous
approval, there was no question in anyone’s mind that Dave nailed it
right. I loved the sound of "Moss Hill". It conjured
beautiful
images. Moss Hill was lovely, cozy, and spoke of good things in
nature. I loved it immediately and without hesitation adopted Moss
Hill as the name for my next great adventure.
Though well
attended by enthusiastic friends, the dinner meetings intended to
induce investors and benefactors to write big checks of support
always fizzled out toward the end when someone would light up a
joint. Many months earlier smoking pot had lost whatever
short-lived appeal it had to me. With everyone else stoned and
lost in silly-land, I remained straight and diligent, focused on my
task.
Within a few
weeks and after several of these ill fated dinner meetings,
persuaded that God had called me to build Moss Hill, I decided to go
forward with or without the support of my friends.
I was 20 years
old and too young to be an officer of a corporation. You had to be
21 years old to form a corporation. With the help of my best
friends Russ, Al, and Oz who were 21 years old we formed Moss Hill,
Inc. As one of the beneficiaries of my late father’s insurance
policy, when I turned 21 I would use my share of the modest proceeds
to fund Moss Hill on my own. I soon would have $12,000 and began to
make plans. Scot returned from California to help me get this new
store going. We embellished the name officially to “Moss Hill
Organic Food & Provisions Company”.
Scot’s dad,
Robin Robinson was a designer of all sorts of things from buildings
to furniture to graphics.
One day while at
his studio without being asked, he came up with colorful sketch of a
design for a sign for our store. I cherish that little sketch and
fondly display it framed on the wall of my den.
I
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