Beginnings

Falling in love gets you to the starting line 

Roslyn is a beauty, but she spent her teens and twenties getting a great education and working hard to have a career. Men? It isn’t that they weren’t around; she just never had time for them. Then she met Liam – great, but now what? Liam recently had his heart broken. Then the sky cleared, and the sun shone when he met Roslyn. Now, if he can only step up to the grown-up table and take this to the next level. 

Connie and Mike are taking their first steps into newly married life. Liam and Roslyn are finding their way in a new relationship. Falling in love was the simple part; now the realities of day to day life begin.

 For Connie, it’s getting used to a man in the house. It isn’t that Mike is lazy or inconsiderate.  He’s just being who he really is which sometimes can make a woman a little crazy.  For Mike, it isn’t that he doesn’t love Connie; he does. She is the love of his life, but she can be a bit annoying.

New York Carpet World

 New York Carpet World isn’t a product of my imagination. New York Carpet World was a major flooring retailer for 39 years beginning in 1957 when the founder’s son, Irving Nusbaum, took over.  New York Carpet World was in several states when the business was sold in 1996.  However, despite its name, it was home grown in metro Detroit.  

Any Detroiter alive in the 1980s will remember Irving Nusbaum’s iconic TV and radio commercials telling the audience that “there will never be a better time to buy.” Those ads were the siren’s call to home owners who made the Wednesday and Saturday nights sales floor an epic rush hour for those of us selling for the company.  

The other driving force in the company was Marvin Berlin. I believe that it was Marvin Berlin who embraced technology and began using a computerized system for ordering materials and scheduling installation.  I’m recalliing that store computers were part of our system in 1984 or even further back when hi tech was a copier and maybe a fax machine. 

I was fortunate to work as a sales person from 1983 to 1986.  Like the Beginnings character, Mr. DiBella, Diane DiBella’s father, I learned great lessons about work place diversity, generosity and comraderie.  Those of us who work for New York Carpet World, no matter the job title will never forget the Holiday party we enjoyed each December.  The ones my husband Tom and I got to attend were held at the Ren Cen on an entire floor of banquet rooms opened to over 1,000 employees and their plus ones.  An orchestra and singer provided the evening’s entertainment.  I grew up with events at Lochmor, the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club, meals at the Caucus Club and  the London Chop House so my experience  was a bit more up market than most of my my coworkers. Still, I, like my fellow employees, couldn’t help but be impressed by the towering ice sculptures, desert table measured in meters and top shelf liquor lavished on us. 

The company also opened its arms to immigrants, and every store had its few or many depending. I think that it gave those of us born here a sense of protectiveness of the newly minted citizens and gave them the chance to get comfortable with their new life.

That generous spirit started from the top.  It didn’t surprise me that the old New York Carpet World store and warehouse located on Eight Mile in Southfield was donated to Gleaners Community Food Bank, an important food assistance program in Michigan, Indiana and Ontario, Canada.

I have so many stories from my days at New York Carpet World,  and I plan on including some of those memories in future books. 

One more thing…

In the story, Beginnings, one of the beginnings is the relationship between Roslyn and Liam.  Roslyn, unfamiliar with most things relationship, is surprised, pleasantly surprised, when Liam customizes her cell phone. The customization has to do with making his ring tone Big Bad Handsome Man (linked to Amazon Digital Music)  by Imeda May. If you are unfamiliar with Imeda May’s music, check it out on You Tube.