50-year Anniversary

[mewickham]

I just realized that a milestone passed for me sometime this year-- my 50th year as a hobbyist. I started keeping fish in 1963, with a 5-gallon, stainless steel framed tank. My parents didn't want me to get it because they figured I'd lose interest and they'd be stuck dealing with it. Instead, they developed a little interest, too. When Woolworth's later ran a sale on a 10-gallon Delta starter kits for $7.99, my mom surprised me by offering to buy me one. When we got there, she said, "What the heck. Let's get two." A few years later, we set up a little fish breeding/selling business in our basement in Wooster, Ohio: Wickham's Aquarium. We had about 20 tanks out front and 20 in the back for breeding. It only lasted a couple of years because it didn't make much money and we got tired of running it. I was stuck home all summer to run the store. Mom ran the store when I was in school-- I was only 12 or 13 at the time-- and lamented that customers only seemed to show up in the middle of her favorite soap opera. This was in the days before VCRs, so it was a big inconvenience for her.

Years later, I started my own pet store, Pets Unlimited, in Ashland, Ohio. We carried everything from fish to monkeys, descented skunks, and baby raccoons. Feeling the limits of a small town, I later closed that store and moved to Findlay, Ohio, opening Happy Pets. We went from 60 display tanks to 180. There was more square footage and business was better. A couple of years later, I opened Happy Pets Superstore in Sylvania (Toledo), Ohio. It was one of the first pet superstores in the country. I believe it even beat the big chains at doing it, and we had way more livestock. As always, fish were my favorite, so we had over 300 tanks. If I may say so, it was an awesome store. All in all, I owned pet stores for about 20 years. Then a divorce caused us to decide to close them. After that, I worked as a manager at Aquarium Center in Baltimore. The place was even bigger and had over 700 aquariums. Except for a small reptile department, it was all fish. I did that for five years before meeting Sharon and moving here. Right about that time is when I got asked to write my first aquarium book.

Anyway, I've been getting my hands wet for a long time-- though not as long as Denny!

[snakeskinner]

congrats, I've got a ways to go to catch up! Kyle