The best job I ever had was at Echter’s Flower Shop. I had taken a flower arranging class and applied at Echter’s in Charles City on an impulse one day while I was shopping there. I was having the useless empty nest problem after the grandkids were too old to need a babysitter. I was told they didn’t need a flower arranger at the time but could use a bookkeeper. Since I actually always enjoyed bookkeeping I took the job. Pay was not good but I loved every minute of being around the beautiful flowers. I could come and go according to how much work I had. I always went to work at 8 but just left when I finished. Usually 3 days a week was enough to get everything done. The billing at the end of the month was my major job along with using Quicken for banking. Amazing how many people with maxed out credit cards just had to have flowers. I heard every excuse you could think of when I had to call people and ask for payment month after month. It wasn’t long before I was being asked to help wait on customers and do the easy vase arrangements, make bows for plants, inflate the helium balloons, etc. Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Valentines Day, and prom were always extremely busy. I learned to make corsages and decorate plants. I would be given a bad time because if I had extra money from the customer my plants would get a birds nest and a bird. I was recruited to pinch blooms in the greenhouse and plant the little starter plants in the spring. I enjoyed planting a lot. Didn’t take long to get really good at it. I quit after moving to Clarksville. I went in to shop one day and Greg Echter asked me to come back to the office. He offered me more money to come back. Let’s face it, I was bored at home so I did go back. I eventually quit because the holiday business and helping with extra things was killing my legs and back. When I left they gave me a card with a generous, for them, gift. Also a note asking me to come back for holidays. Told them no thanks to that because that was the main reason to quit. I got stopped by a cop at one o’clock in the morning one year when headed home on Valentine’s Day. Guess I hadn’t dimmed my lights. He asked me what I was doing out alone at that time of night. When I told him he very nicely told me to drive carefully and watch out for deer. Bob would deliver flowers when they needed extra help. It was fun having him go to work with me.