So by 1970, we had seventy-eight partners invested in our company, which really wasn’t one company, but thirty-two different stores owned by a combination of different folks. My family owned the lion’s share of every store, but Helen and I were also in debt up to our eyeballs—several million dollars’ worth. I never dwell on the negative, but that debt weighed heavy on me. If something happened and everybody decided to call their notes, I kept thinking, we would be sunk. Maybe that’s what being raised in the Depression does to you, but I wanted out of that debt in the worst way.
