BeTempered
BeTempered
BeTempered Episode 30 - From Coal Camps to Glass Empire: The Inspiring Journey of Jim Catron
On this episode, special guest Jim Catron joins hosts Ben Spahr and Dan Schmidt. Discover the extraordinary journey of Jim Catron, a man who rose from humble beginnings in coal mining camps to become a leading figure in the glass industry. Jim's story is one of adaptability, resilience, and a relentless work ethic learned early in life. As he recounts his experiences of frequently moving and attending different schools, listeners gain a deeper understanding of the determination and perseverance that laid the foundation for his later successes.
From a young boy peeling potatoes in a restaurant to a Staff Sergeant in the Army at just 17, Jim’s life has been a series of bold transitions and rapid achievements. His adventurous spirit took him from the military, where he served with the 532nd Amphibious Seabees in Japan and Korea, back to his roots, where he laid the groundwork for a thriving glass business. Jim’s narrative is a testament to the power of seizing opportunities and the transformative impact of strong leadership and faith.
Throughout the episode, we explore Jim's entrepreneurial journey, including the founding of his own company in 1981, the vital role of loyal employees like Kelly and Tony, and the mentorship that helped shape his path. Through stories of faith, kindness, and the pursuit of excellence, Jim underscores the true measures of success: character, community impact, and enduring legacy. Join us for an inspiring conversation that highlights the importance of resilience and the profound influence of a supportive network.
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Catron's Glass.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Allie. Things like doors and windows go into making a house, but when it's your home you expect more like the great service and selection you'll get from Catron's Glass Final replacement. Windows from Catron's come with a lifetime warranty, including accidental glass breakage replacement. Also ask for custom shower doors and many other products and services. Call 962-1636. Locally owned, with local employees for nearly 30 years.
Speaker 1:Kitchen's best. The clear choice.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 4:Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.
Speaker 3:We're your hosts, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives. This is Be.
Speaker 4:Tempered.
Speaker 3:What's up everybody? Welcome to the Be Tempered podcast, episode number 30.
Speaker 4:30.
Speaker 3:30. Rolling right along. Oh yeah, boy, we have someone who is a man that started the business that I currently own and have owned for the past 20 plus years, and he's someone I admire, someone the glass industry not just from owning a business, but starting a business from nothing and working in the glass industry before that. He is a man full of faith, he's just an all-around good man, and so today we're going to hear his story, and I'm excited for the world to hear his story. So, jim Catron, welcome to the Be Tempered podcast.
Speaker 5:Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we are glad to have you and glad for you to come here and share your story. I know there's a little anxiousness and that's okay. Everybody that comes up here is always like well, this is a little different than what I expected.
Speaker 4:Episode 30,. I'm still anxious.
Speaker 3:Ben gets nervous every time he has to go to the bathroom and throw up. It's kind of weird. So, jim, what we want to do is like we talked about earlier is we want to hear your story. You have a unique story growing up and then talk about getting into the glass business and then starting your own business. But to start at the beginning, can you talk about your childhood growing up?
Speaker 5:Yes, I can remember back when I was about five years old and my brother was almost three. My dad worked in the coal mines and he was always off and gone someplace. We'd stay here and we'd stay there, you know. So we would stand with my grandma and my dad was gone. I don't know where he was at, he's off working someplace, but my mother was a wonderful person, dear mother, and she and my grandma got into an argument one day about us boys making too much noise and grandma told my mother.
Speaker 5:she said well, you can just take James and leave, and leave David with me.
Speaker 5:And my mother said well, I got news for you, I'm not leaving either one of them, I'll just take them both and go. So she took us and we went down to St Charles, virginia, where I was born, and her brother lived down there. He was a sheriff and he put us up. We stayed there for about three months, she said, and my dad came back and he come in and he had some stuff with him and he was ready for us to move. And we moved to a little town, just 20 miles maybe not that far, maybe 10 miles from St Charles, to a place that was called Pentley. Pentley and it was a little coal mining camp. And we moved in this little house. It had two bedrooms, a little living room and a kitchen. Bathroom was outside and we stayed there two months.
Speaker 5:Okay, my dad moved again. To make a long story short, he moved every time you turn around. Really, yeah, he just couldn't stay still. So we moved and moved and moved and finally he said I'm going to leave here and go to Kentucky. So we went to Kentucky and when we got to Kentucky we moved in a little one-room house. All it had sitting in the center of it was a pop-bellied stove okay and we was all lost.
Speaker 5:We didn't know what to think. Yeah, and my dad was a coal miner, like I said.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And that's all he knew. So we lived there for two or three months and we moved again. So we moved from Harlingen, kentucky, up to Everts and Everts. We moved from Everts to Shields all in a period of three months, wow.
Speaker 3:And how old were you?
Speaker 5:roughly, I was five.
Speaker 3:Five years old. Five years old and you're just moving every couple months Every time you turn around.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so we moved in a little place called and started in school. Well, I like school, yeah, he was there about two months and dad moved.
Speaker 5:I got some friends and moved off, left them. So from shields, kentucky, all the way up through clover, splint, clover, darby, lou, ellen, uh, I can't remember all those names up to there was about eight or nine little towns 10-15 miles apart and we may have never one of them. I went to this school in Shields. I went there for about a month. It had moved again. He was involved in these truck mines they called them back then. They used little truck mines where two or three or four men get together and open up a seam of coal, dig the coal out, haul it off, run out and then they'd go someplace else.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay.
Speaker 5:So I just got tired of moving yeah, I bet now, by this time I was, I think, a seven or eight. I was getting older, going to school and trying to learn and trying to keep friends. Couldn't keep friends didn't have no friends. Well, one one day I told Mom and Dad. I said I ain't want to go to school no more.
Speaker 5:So Dad said you have to go to school. I said okay, so I'd play hooky. I wouldn't go to school because I just didn't want to go and get involved with people and not have friends.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 5:You know, because I'd have to run off and leave them. Yeah Well, we went there for, like I say, about two months and he moved up to Clover Darby and I thought well, this may be better. It's a little bit bigger school, a little bit bigger town, and I thought, well, I'll go back to school.
Speaker 5:So I went back to school and I swear we wasn't there a month. He moved again. Jeez, in one year's time we moved 11 times, wow. So when I was about, I guess, 12 years old, dad said hell, we're going to leave here, we're going to Ohio. So we moved to Ohio, up in Akron. It was right behind the Wonder Bread Bakery Company. Well, it smelled good, I bet. So we lived there. I think it was about three months. I was about 12 then and Dad was working for some kind of construction outfit.
Speaker 1:I don't know what it was.
Speaker 5:But anyway, he come in one day and told Mom to get packed. We're moving, we're going to. Indiana Okay, we're going to Indiana. Okay, we come to Richmond. He got a job at one of the construction places in town. I forget which one it was, but anyway, he worked there for a little while and we lived down on Abington Pike.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 5:Down close to Abington.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Dad come in one day and he said I got another job, we're going to have to move. Oh my so, okay, they moved. They moved back on 7th street in richmond, okay, right down there, where there was a school over. I forget the name of that school, but anyway, I said to myself I'm not doing this no more. I'm not going to school, so I I quit. I played hooky. I'd done everything. Nobody at school didn't bother asking where I was at or nothing, because I hadn't signed up.
Speaker 5:Okay, so I just would go out and do whatever I could do. Okay, and I did that for almost two years. And I went down on South 8th Street. Somebody said there's a bowling alley down there.
Speaker 1:I said I don't know where a bowling alley's at, but you know where that pizza place is at now. Is it Mercurio's?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I think it was two lanes downstairs, down the basement. Okay, I got a job setting pins. Okay, setting bowling pins.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 5:I set pins. I did that for about eight or nine months.
Speaker 1:And they didn't know I wasn't going to school. Mom and Dad didn't.
Speaker 5:Yeah, my brother and sister didn't tell on me, so I done that, and then I got to want to do something else. So Fred Powers had a powerhouse restaurant. Yeah, he started that on Main Street. He would. He had a little deal set up out on the sidewalk. He would go and buy him a pound of hamburger package buns, come back and cook those and sell them for a nickel a piece, I think it was Okay.
Speaker 5:Something like that, anyway, I went. You know, one day I went down through there and he was talking to this other guy. He was going to open a restaurant down on the corner of, I think, 4th and Main 4th and 5th.
Speaker 1:And he did, and I went down there and applied for a job and he hired me.
Speaker 5:Okay, peeling potatoes, making French fries, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:No, what he did? He sliced those things up. They were so thin, and he'd fry them on his grill and he'd fry them on his grill and he'd have them things packed up like this, you know, and he'd sell his breakfast. He'd have eggs and gravy and fried potatoes and he sold those things like you wouldn't believe. Yeah, and that's how he went and rose up to powerhouse. Yeah, but I did that and I got tired of that. After a while I was 15, about maybe 15 and a half and I said I've got to do something else.
Speaker 5:I don't like this all the time peeling potatoes and so. I talked to my dad, my dad had got a job at FD and lawnmower company and I talked to him, I said I want to do something else.
Speaker 1:I want to go. I want to see the world.
Speaker 5:That's what I said, and he said well, oh, I'm sorry oh, you're good so he talked to Earl Brown.
Speaker 5:It was a guy in shipping department there and I went and seen Earl I was almost 16 and I was over 15. And he said well, he said I don't have anything right now, but he said come back tomorrow and he said I might have something for you. So I went back the next morning and he hired me, put me in the shipping department and I was boxing up these gears little gears, round gears for his lawnmowers, put them in a box and they were shipping them off. And I did that for about nine months.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 5:Nine or ten somewhere around there, and I still had the urge to want to go see the world. So by that time I had turned 16. My aunt had moved to town and I talked to her. Well, let me turn this thing.
Speaker 4:Oh, you're good.
Speaker 5:I talked to her about me going in the Army, okay, and I said I can't get in because I'm just 16. I said you'd have get in because I'm just 16. I said you'd have to sign it, I'm 17. Oh, she didn't want to do that. So finally, I kept at her and kept at her, and kept at her. She finally did.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 5:She signed for me to go in the Army At 16?.
Speaker 3:At 16. Said you were 17.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and so they had truck motorball basic training in Fort Leonard Wood, missouri. Okay, I was there like 12 weeks, something like that, and they shipped me off to Seattle, washington, fort Lewis. Yeah, I was on TDY there for two weeks, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then they sent me, put me on a boat and sent me to Japan.
Speaker 5:I was on that ship for 28 days. Whew man.
Speaker 3:I thought what have I got myself into?
Speaker 5:28 days on, a boat, oh man, and we got into some bad storms too. Well, I got there, I said well, they attached me to the 532nd amphibious seabees. Okay, and I didn't know nothing about the seabees, I couldn't swim, or nothing. I didn't know nothing about the cbs I couldn't swim, or nothing. I didn't know about swimming anyway.
Speaker 3:So you're on. You're on the boat for 28 days. 28 days, and now they want you to be what was it called?
Speaker 5:I attached me to the 532nd amphibious cbs when I got there, so what's that mean? I don't know what that is Well we built floating bridges and helicopter pads, different things like that and it was part of heavy equipment stuff too. Right, I learned how to operate some heavy equipment.
Speaker 3:What year would this have been? Do you know? Roughly, that's 53. 53. Yeah, Okay equipment and what year would this have been? Do you know? Roughly that's 53, 53.
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay, uh I was born in 37. Okay, so I was 16.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but the army thought I was 17 right, right right it's a bad thing, but anyway, I uh stayed there for almost 13 months and it deactivated and they sent me to Korea, south Korea. In Seoul, I got a real good outfit there. While I was in Japan, I made PFC. I got to Korea and I was there a few months and I made Corporal. Okay Well, my company commander wanted me to go to NCO Club or to NCO Academy. I went to the NCO Academy and I was I think it was 90-some guys in that class and I graduated sixth Wow Really and they promoted me to staff sergeant.
Speaker 3:And at this time you're probably 17 years old, right?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I was 17 then. Wow, and really at that time I would have been probably the youngest staff sergeant in the Army, but they didn't know it.
Speaker 1:Right army, but they didn't know it right so but anyway, I stayed there.
Speaker 5:It was almost 14 months in korea and then I got, come home, got married and that was the end of my military okay and we got married and we got married and this was in 1956. When I come home, I come home in 1956. We got married in October 1956. Okay, and September of 1957, we had our first baby, okay.
Speaker 3:So then life really changes. Yeah, oh boy.
Speaker 5:Let me tell you, uh, after that, uh, he was born and then we had him. We had him home about two months or two weeks and he was sick. He wouldn't eat and all he wanted to do was sleep. So they said he had, uh, encephalitis okay, that was a sleeping sickness, you know. So we had to put him in the hospital. He stayed out there three and a half months and they told us that we could take him home on this friday. They said you can take him home tomorrow. So we went out there saturday. They changed their minds, said we couldn't take him home. He had pneumonia. Well, he lived till Monday and passed away. Oh no, so that was devastating to me and my wife. I don't think she ever got over it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but we had to get him to Stegall Burrhead and they fixed him all up and then we took him to Kentucky.
Speaker 5:Okay, we didn't have the money to buy up here and so her parents had some land down there and they donated a plot to bury him. We put him in the back seat of our 53 Ford, took him down there and buried him. Oh, man, and my wife, she never did get over it. I mean, she lived with that the rest of her life. It just bothered her. It bothered me, but not like her. So this could take a long time.
Speaker 5:But after that I went to work for Dee bolt construction yeah and I'll help move the first dirt that was moved after where the old that coal building was that you know it was. Originally it was beer Cyrus Erie. Okay, and I helped move the first dirt there.
Speaker 5:and then one day a friend of mine come by and he said, jim, he says I hear you're looking for a full-time job. I said I got to have a full-time job. We just worked when the weather was right. If it was raining we didn't work. So he worked for Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company and he said, well, I'm leaving, going to Florida. He was going to get into Watkins Products a salesperson.
Speaker 5:So he said, if you go down there you might get a job. So I went down and talked to him. He's an old German guy, namely old Hess, and I told him what I wanted. And he said well, I'm too busy right now, but if you come back in the morning we'll see what we can do. Well, I went back. I wasn't expecting to go to work, but he put me to work. I sat back there on a table.
Speaker 5:A little bit bigger than this cutting a scrap glass all day and break it up and put it on Some pieces. He'd say I want you to cut it in squirrels, and he'd say I want you to cut it in a pattern or whatever. And I'd do different things. I'd stack them in different stacks.
Speaker 1:I did that all day.
Speaker 5:Well, at the end of the day, he said you got a job 65 cents an hour. And that was the start of the day.
Speaker 3:He said you got a job 65 cents an hour, and that was the start of your glass profession.
Speaker 5:That started my glass business, 65 cents an hour. That started my life in glass and I stayed with it until 03.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I never did nothing else. I worked for Gordon Gray Glass After Pittsburgh. I worked there for eight years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And I worked for Gordon Gray for eight years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I worked for Gordon Gray for 12 years. Yeah.
Speaker 5:And then I went to work for Richmond Glass and.
Speaker 5:I worked there three and a half years and me and the owner of that glass new guy bought it. Mike Parker bought it and me and I, I like Mike and he liked me. But we just didn't see eye to eye. So I said I got to do something. So I called the hall, we was union and they sent me up to Lafayette Central Indian and Glass. Bob Miller was the manager up there and he put me to work fabricating. Well, it was a good job. I was inside, I didn't work outside none. And I worked up there for two years. They built a caterpillar plant up there on Route 26. And I fabricated just about all the aluminum windows and things For that that could be fabricated there. I did it. The bigger stuff that they ordered in it was already fabricated.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 5:Sort of like Kelly does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Speaker 5:And so I stayed up there. It was two years. I'd go on Monday. Okay, he allowed me to come in on Monday at 9 o'clock.
Speaker 3:So you could drive up there yeah.
Speaker 5:And he allowed me to leave on Friday at 2 o'clock, Okay, so I could get home. Yeah, he's a good man, and I did that for two years and I was missing home. I was gone every week, you know, and I didn't like it. So one day I was driving home and I said you know, I've got to do something about this. I can't keep this up. So I told my wife when I got home I says I'm going to quit. I said I'm going to start my own business.
Speaker 1:Oh boy.
Speaker 5:She said you can't do that you can't run no business. Well, she was right. I mean, I knew the construction part of it. I knew how to build and how to make and how to install and all that stuff, but I didn't know nothing about the administrative part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So I said well, I got to do something. I can't do this, I just can't stay away. So there's a little restaurant down on uh north eighth and e called paul e's. I'd go down there and I was sitting there talking one day to chalk mosey on mosey manufacturing. Yeah, and I told chalk, I said I'm looking for a building to start me a business. Do you have anything? He said no, not nothing like that. But he said I'll tell you somebody might. He said there's Frank and John Yearling, those Yearling contractors. Yeah Well, I run into Frank. The next day he was at Paul East. I tell Frank about it because I knew both of them and uh he said well, jim.
Speaker 5:He said I don't know. I mean he said John, might he's go down and see John down on South 8th. Well, it happened to be that John had a Quonset hut building back there. It's back behind that fire department yep yeah. Well, I went there and talked to him and he said the only thing I got is this building behind me here on 9th Street. He said it's parked, it's just like a drive-through lumber shed. We walked over, but he had one section there.
Speaker 5:It was probably about as big as this, as wide and maybe half again, as long as out there that well, yeah, and it was pretty rugged, didn't have no glass front or that, and I said back. But anyway, we looked over and I said well, I said how much would it cost me? He said, well, I'll tell you what he said. I'll make you a deal If you come in here and fix it up like you want it. He said I'll give you six months free. Well, that kind of sounded okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Because I knew I could do it Right and I had a friend of mine. He was 18 years old and he just went to work for Perfect Circle, but I'd known him for years. He'd come down there every evening. After he got on Perfect Circle to help me, I took him up on it and we got the building where it was presentable. I didn't have no glass front in it yet, but I had a little office made up front in the showroom and a place to cut glass and put. We built us a table and things and John came over to see how it was going and he said, boy.
Speaker 5:He said you're doing okay, jim. He said it looks good. I said, well, I'm trying. He said I know you are. And I said, well, my six months is about up. He said, well, I'm just going to give you six more. So I got a whole year for nothing. Yeah, just what I put For nothing. Yeah, just what I put into it myself, yeah. And after that, when I opened up in 81, I put a little sign out in front and it had the lights flicking on and off with an arrow on it. Buddy, I went about six weeks, didn't have nobody. I was so disappointed. I thought, whoa boy, I was really.
Speaker 5:My wife was right yeah I messed up well one day I think it was on a wednesday or thursday one.
Speaker 5:This lady come up from brookville, indiana yeah and, uh, she stopped in and she had a Indiana yeah. And she stopped in and she had a frame about this wide and maybe about that tall and it was kind of jagged on the top. The mirror was broken. She wanted to know if we could fix that. I said, well, I think I could do that without a problem. She said there's only one catch to it I need it back by 4 o'clock Because I'm going back to Brookville. And she said I'm not coming back for a while.
Speaker 3:Well, you had a lot of work to get done before then, right?
Speaker 5:So we we said, well, we'll do it. So we got it for her. She come back, paid me and she was tickled to death and it was about $27.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was your first sale, yeah.
Speaker 5:I still got the first dollar, do you? That's pretty neat and uh. But uh, that's pretty much how I got started, yeah. But then we stayed in that building for well, I got a little ahead of myself there too. After my year was up and I started my business, he come back and asked me if I'd be interested in buying the building. I said, well, I'd probably be interested, but I can't afford it. He said we'll make it, so you can. I said okay, how much? He said, well, if you want the bill.
Speaker 1:You have it for $25,000.
Speaker 5:I said well. I'll see what my bank will say. So I went up to the bank's old national. I went up there and told them what the deal was and everything, and they took all my information and everything I gave them. They called me the next day and said I'd been approved. What'd? You think, I thought man.
Speaker 3:How'd I do that? How yeah.
Speaker 5:So, boy, I was on cloud nine. Oh, I bet you know I was going to own my building. Yeah, well, I did that and we stayed in that building eight years and I got it fixed up pretty nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Put a nice front on it and everything, but it was still a shed.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:So then I put the word out. It was for sale. That building where you're at now. It came up for sale and I wanted that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And that had a little tiny diner restaurant sitting on the parking lot there at that time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And I said well, I'll see what I can do about that. Oh, come on, I should have left that.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's the bank calling.
Speaker 5:Anyway, let me gather my thoughts back here.
Speaker 3:Anyway, we so the tiny diner was on there and it came up for sale.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I checked into it and seen what they wanted for it and everything. So I put a price on my place and I forget the name. It was Vaughn's's cleaning service or somebody down on 9th street. Yeah, they come down, that old, they're really interested in it. Yeah, because they could drive their trucks through, you know, and yeah, it was really nice what they wanted.
Speaker 5:So I told them what I wanted. They didn't even question price, they bought it. Well, I turned around, I went over and bought the other one and I got enough out of that to pay for the building where you're at now. Okay and uh, I still had some money left and then I built that building in the back yeah, fab shop yeah and uh. So I got all of that out of what I got out of that building good for you and it worked out good yeah you know well, we was growing.
Speaker 5:Yeah, business was growing. I was, we're doing a lot of work and I told now this I got a little ahead of myself again. So you remember Geneva Allen? No, her son owns now, he owns Manpower.
Speaker 3:Oh, Mike.
Speaker 5:Allen yeah, well, she set my books up for me and then she recommended that I get a bookkeeper and she recommended a lady named Dixie Lieberman.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I knew Dixie.
Speaker 5:And I. You knew Dixie and she worked for me for 15 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:Did a good job and her husband came to work. He was he had retired from Farm Bureau Insurance. I hired from Farm Bureau Insurance and he was looking for something just to, so I hired him as a salesman. He'd go out and call on people you know, and he worked for me for about almost two years. Yeah, and he got sick and had some difficulties, so he quit, yeah, and it wasn't long after that Dixie started having problems too. Yeah, you know. And then my wife had problems, she got Parkinson's and at that time I said I can't do this no more.
Speaker 5:You know, I'm still getting ahead of myself but you guys can straighten it out. Yeah, so I decided to get rid of it after Van Fleet had come in and talked to me. Yeah, I said well, you know, if you get somebody that's interested in it, I can get what I want out of it. I sold it too cheap by the way.
Speaker 1:I was going to say you sold it a little high. That's pretty good, jim.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. Tell us how you really feel.
Speaker 3:So that would have been in. That was 2003. That was 2003. 2003. Yeah, yeah, so that would have been in two, that was 2003. That was 2003. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I remember, uh, brad Van Vliet, who he and I were were college roommates, and he told me, yeah, and he he called and he said, hey, here's this, this little glass shop for sale. And uh, he knew that that you know, I was engaged to be married to my wife and that we were down in Cincinnati and we wanted to move, you know, back home and start a family. And he calls me and tells me about this little glass shop. So I sent my parents to come over and to meet you and they came and met with you, and then that that night dad called me and he said, hey, I think you need to come check this out, yeah, and then, so then I came up. So I'm just curious, what was your thoughts? I mean, obviously you were to the point where you know you had grown this business from 1981 and this was 2003. So we're talking 20 plus years of doing your own thing, had a lot of success, had a great name, and then you meet a 23-year-old kid.
Speaker 2:What was your first thoughts?
Speaker 5:Well, my first thoughts was, well, if I could do it, he can do it. You know, yeah, and I said, well, maybe I'm making a mistake getting rid of it. You know, yeah, and I said, well, maybe I'm making a mistake getting rid of it. You know, yeah, my wife at first she told me I was crazy for starting it. Then I was crazy for getting rid of it. But it got to the point where I really couldn't take care of her and run the business. But the fortunate thing about my being in business was that I was able to surround myself with good people that knew and would learn and do me a good job. I had a few people that wasn't worth having, but the ones that I kept, and one of us there was dandy's.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you take like kelly yeah, now kelly was fresh out of high school, uh, he took building trades and, uh, I never one time went to kelly and say, can you do this or will you do that? And he didn't do it. Yeah, he performed. And then tony was in germany when I uh started the business and when he come back he started working for me. Yeah, and he worked there for 40 years, I guess. Guess it is.
Speaker 3:Well, he just and I want to stop you there for a second, because you know what's really unique, and there's the bank calling again Okay, what's really unique? I think about you you know a couple of things that you've said. There's no more important thing in any business than it's people. You've got to have good people, and it doesn't necessarily mean you got to have people that know the business inside and out, but you gotta have. You gotta have people who are going to show up, who are going to do what's right, Right, and who, at the end of the day, are good people. Yeah, and so you talk about Kelly and Tony. Kelly, kelly still works for me, yeah, right. So he, he, him and Tony, both the business sells, and here comes this 23 year old kid who doesn't know much about glass. Those are some challenging times, not only for me, just to try to figure things out, but, I know, for those guys as well, yeah.
Speaker 3:But you know I'm fortunate enough that they were able. They, they stuck around. You know they had faith in me, for whatever reason. And Tony just recently retired here in the past month and you know 40 plus years of working for the same small business in Richmond, indiana, and Kelly is still going, still cranking, still. You know, I mean he's a master of his craft, yeah, and he'll be retiring in the next couple of years. I know is his plans. But you know there's two guys right there that started with you, you know, in 1981, 82, 83, somewhere along those those lines and had the faith in you as a man that you could do it, grow with you.
Speaker 3:23 year old kid comes in same thing, you know it. It speaks volumes, I think, to those guys you know, for for them they could easily jump ship. I mean, there's no doubt there's times in their careers where somebody would have come calling to try to steal them, whether it's another glass company, construction company, I'm, you know, I'm not naive enough to think that. Um, you know, they just, they just stayed with me because I'm some super guy. Um, you know, they just had faith in the business. They had built it. You know they had helped build it and, uh, it just. I think it's such a unique thing, you know, for this small little company to have these guys stick around for that long and it's a testament to you because of the foundation that you built.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's very unique.
Speaker 5:Well, I was going to cover that stuff, but now we don't have to.
Speaker 3:No, it's just, it's a. It's an awesome thing, especially in this day and age with these young kids who you know. When I look at resumes for people and I you know, I see someone who's been out of high school for five years but had 15 different jobs.
Speaker 1:Where's the loyalty? Yeah?
Speaker 3:You know, and, and that they, they actually put those on their resume Like that's not a good thing. You know businesses are looking for people who want to come in and want to learn and understand that you got to start at the bottom and then work your way up. And, and you know it just takes time, it takes consistency, and so it's just a really. I think it's one thing that helps to separate Catron's Glass. You know, over the past 40-some years, since 1981, as a pretty cool place.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you know, a pretty cool place to work. Well, I'm thankful that it worked out the way it did, but at one time I offered the company to Tony and Kelly but they didn't believe me.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:They didn't believe I'd do it, but I would have done it. Yeah, you know, when my wife got sick and I couldn't take care of her and be there and do my job, so I decided. When Eric told me what he did, I said well, I'll talk to him. And I felt like when I talked to you guys, especially your dad, I said these are some good people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And I said I think, they can go places that I can't. Yeah, you know, and you have. Yeah, I mean, I mean I never looked at it as a business that it's turned out to be. I wanted something to make a living for my family, right. I was never interested in being rich or all that, you know. I just wanted a comfortable life for my family and that's what I tried to do, right, but I'm thrilled that you guys have got it. There's a lot of things that I could still talk about, but I just like competition.
Speaker 5:It got done, yeah, and that's great. It is I had five shops at one time.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I mean all competing against me, right, and some of them I can say good things about and some I can't. Right and some of them.
Speaker 3:Some of them I can say good things about and some I can't Right, you know, and we'll leave it at that.
Speaker 5:Huh, we'll leave it at that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll leave it right there, that's as far as it's going. Yeah, so, but in 2003, when I bought the business in Little Richmond, indiana, there was five glass shops at that time. Yeah, and then slowly, slowly, they started to. You know, there was a national company that went away, there was another small, smaller shop that the owner had passed away, and yeah, and then things just kind of happened and that's right. Um, and I'm not gonna say that for me it was never easy.
Speaker 3:The first 10 years for me were very, very challenging I'm sure it was um, and I think a lot of that's youth just not knowing, just trying to figure things out when I was in the construction field, building houses, so I had some construction knowledge but I didn't really know much about glass, right, and I certainly didn't know much about managing people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you go from this big corporate environment where I was at in Cincinnati and you come to a little small town USA and you go from you know all these people, uh, working at this big company, to this, the small company, and it turns into a family and so it gets, it gets personal, it gets um. There's just a lot different challenges from the corporate environment to the small business world. So it was. It was. There was some very, very challenging times just learning how to manage, manage all that stuff I had a bunch of those.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so maybe talk about that. So, as you're, as you're growing up and you're and you're growing the business and you're starting what are some of the most difficult things that you had to deal with in managing or running the business, Managing was never one of my good traits.
Speaker 5:I never was much of a manager as far as managing people. I never was much of a manager as far as managing people.
Speaker 1:I always had to build up in myself.
Speaker 5:I could do most anything I wanted to, but I never was interested in being in charge of people or telling people what to do. You know, that just wasn't in me. But I learned how to do what I did, but I still wasn't the best. I was hard to work, for at one time I had people would tell me afterwards well, jim you're hard Well. I said it's my way, or the highway.
Speaker 5:I said I'm paying you guys to do a job and I want you to do it. And I said if you're going to come in here. It got to me one time. They go next door to the village pantry. They had a half an hour for lunch. They go to the village pantry, stand in line for 15 minutes, get their food, come back over and sit down for 30 minutes and eat. Well, I said you guys are taking an hour on me. I said you're supposed to get a half an hour, five minutes or something like that. I didn't worry about it.
Speaker 5:But when it got into and I said, well, if you don't want to do it, there's a door and it all swings out, you know, and I said, well, if you don't want to do it, there's a door and it all swings out, you know yeah. And I said if that's what you want to do, go. So some of them quit because they didn't want to do that.
Speaker 5:Right. Well, I got a bad name for it. People say I was too hard to work for, and I know I was. I've learned a lot. I was At the beginning I was hard to work for and I didn't mean to be, but I was, so that was. One of my biggest challenges is learning how to work with people and get people to do what I wanted. I didn't go about it the right way because I didn't, you didn't know.
Speaker 3:I never knew, and I think you talk to anybody that owns a business, a small business, no matter what size, however many people you're managing that's the hardest thing in anything is learning how to manage those people and manage those personalities. And I can tell you from experience, from when we bought the business, there were four people there and now, between the glass shop and the farm, we're up to 20 people total, and it doesn't get any easier, right? Because everybody is um a little different in their mentality and what they think, and everybody's had different experiences in life. And so it's it's um as an owner, it's.
Speaker 3:It's challenging that I think any I know you talk to any business owner, they're going to tell you managing people is the hardest thing, and I think if I could have a wish for anyone, it would be that you have the opportunity someday to manage people, because it'll give you a whole nother respect for a business owner or someone in HR or anybody who has to. You know. Try to get someone to go to do this job at this time. Um, it's just. It's very, very challenging. That's the most challenging part of business, that's right.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I have to mention one more guy that worked for me Me and him worked together before I ever went in business was Ed Neely. Yeah, it was a good man. He was a good man. Yeah, a good worker yeah.
Speaker 3:You got 110% of him all the time. Yeah, yeah, and I was there, ed Ed was, uh, he had retired when I bought the business, but I was able to get Ed to come back on some part-time to help us on some big commercial stuff and and I you know, kelly and Tony would tell me stories about Ed back in the day. You know, or he.
Speaker 3:He probably was a little like you or he wasn't going to put up with anything, right, and and if there was a job to do, he expected you to do it. But I got the different Ed I got. I got the kind kinder gentler Ed who was, uh, he really, I think not that he took me under his wing, but he was all. He would always come in the office at the end of the day and just very mild mannered and have a good conversation and you know, hey, you're doing a good job and um, just a Superman and I I was at the hospital when he passed away and, um, you know, it was tough to see Ed in that position and and, uh, he was a good man. He was a very, very, very good man and very impactful on my life as far as in the glass industry and as a man in general.
Speaker 5:He was yeah, yeah I couldn't say enough good about him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. Well, jim, this is great. I want to ask you. I want to ask you a question. I want you to think about it. Are there any closing thoughts? Want to ask you a question. I want you to think about it. Are there any closing thoughts? Bible verse quote something that you live by, you've lived throughout your life, where you know when times are tough or when you're down in the dumps. You think this, you think of this Bible verse, or you think of this quote, or you think of something someone has told you throughout your life. Is there something that you can think of that you can share with our listeners that help you to get through difficult times?
Speaker 5:That's good. Well, I've had some difficulties in my lifetime. Things go wrong for me, you know, and I can always call on the Lord and say right, and say God, I need help. I need help now, I don't need it tomorrow, I need it now. Yeah, you know, and it always seems like it's happened that he'll come back and he won't talk.
Speaker 1:I don't hear an audible voice nothing like that.
Speaker 5:But the thought will come to my mind there's a better day tomorrow. Yeah, and things are looking up for you. You know when.
Speaker 1:I went in business?
Speaker 5:I didn't. I wasn't a spiritual guy, you know I went to church.
Speaker 1:But that's all I did was go. Yeah, you know, but that's all I did was go, yeah, you know.
Speaker 5:But when I look back and I think about the times that, when I read in the Bible where Jesus hung on that cross, suffered his life and gave it up for us all of us, you know and it says we're supposed to be more like him, well, that's tough, it is. I mean, he was God's only son and he was sent to this earth to do a job and he did it to his fullest. And I feel like if I do my part in life, he's going to do his part with me.
Speaker 5:I've come up short in a lot of ways. I go to church. I try to do what's right. I treat people as good as I know how, and I think the main thing is for us to treat our brothers and our sisters like we want to be treated.
Speaker 4:Nobody wants to be treated bad.
Speaker 5:So if I can treat you like I want to be treated, I'm happy with myself, because God, that's what he says for us to do, that's right. Treat your brothers and sisters like yourself, and that's all I know to do. I never was taught much.
Speaker 1:I never had no education.
Speaker 5:You know you can put this in here if you want to, but when I quit school I was in the fourth grade, and that's as far as I ever went.
Speaker 3:From fourth grade to managing a, a very successful glass company.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Right, that's amazing.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's amazing. That should be an inspiration Anybody now. We don't want kids to drop out of school, right, but but the point is, is that you can do anything, no matter what cards you're dealt in your life, right, if you put your mind to it, if you're focused, if you put your mind to it, if you're focused, if you work hard, you can do it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, but uh, I love all people. I don't just you know, you got all kinds of people out there, but the the heart is what it's all about. That's right, it's not about that person's face or his body or their uh stature or whatever.
Speaker 3:It's what's in their heart. It's what's in their heart, that's right yeah, so that's about it.
Speaker 5:I just want to treat everybody good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have.
Speaker 5:Now 10 or 15 years ago, I wouldn't have said that yeah, you know, because ago I wouldn't said that yeah, you know, because I well, I just wouldn't, but I've learned a lot in my older age.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know no, that's great, great advice. Um, you know, and it's very true, ben do, do you you have as a as a rookie in the glass industry? So I hired Ben. Ben was selling guns but I hired Ben. You know we talk about good people, right, and you you meet somebody and you know they're a good person and Ben's a good man and fortunate enough to get him on the Catron's glass team, but no experience he is is starting back where you did when you were what?
Speaker 5:20 some years old, when you were at pittsburgh play patent plate and glass well, when I went to work for pittsburgh plate glass, I was 19, okay, 18 or 19 or so runner I just got married yeah, so and I was 23 yeah, when I got into the glass industry ben's not 36.
Speaker 3:I was gonna say 40, but not quite 40 ben, any questions you could think of for jim? That may he.
Speaker 4:Maybe he didn't hit on that you have no, I just I'm pretty sure every single day when I go out and talk to kelly, he will always say something about jim catron. Like it's never jim. Like if he would say jim, we would know exactly who it is. But every time he's will say something. He'll say jim catron.
Speaker 4:And I feel like every day kelly goes back and yeah, you know goes back to what you taught him and just working with tony I gotta do installs and stuff with t earlier in the year and you, just like Dan said you could tell like they are patrons all the way, like the loyalty and everything is all a testament to you and what you've built. So it's just a pleasure to finally get to meet you and hear your story.
Speaker 5:Well, I just knew early on that I didn't want what I had when I was growing up. Right, I wanted things to be different.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 5:And growing up, things don't go right. You have bad feelings about things and if you aren't careful, you'll let them grow on you and they'll stay with you. Yeah, but I wanted to shed those things, right. I still remember them, right, but I didn't want nothing to do with it what I had back then, and I didn't want my children to be right, you know so well, jim catron, you're a good man well don't build me up too much.
Speaker 3:I I am I'm very appreciative for your mentorship to me as a, as a young kid with not knowing anything in the glass industry and, um, you know, I'm grateful for the foundation that you built with that business and and, um, you know, to give me the opportunity to uh, you know, to, to take it and run with it, and, um, you know. So I'm super appreciative of your leadership and I have a lot of people ask me. They're like you know, why didn't you change the name? You know, why didn't you? Why didn't you do that? Well, I didn't need to right. Catron's Glass had a great name, still has a good name, and you know. So I'm super, super grateful for for what you built.
Speaker 5:Well, I appreciate that it's. It's good for me to know that my name is on that sign hanging out there. Yeah, and it's still going by good people, yeah.
Speaker 3:I appreciate that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, Well good.
Speaker 3:Well, everybody, I hope you gained some business knowledge and some recognition that you know. You take a man like Jim, who fourth grade education, but he was determined to make something work in his life and he certainly did, and so we're grateful. We appreciate your ears, we appreciate you listening to Jim's story and go out and be tempered.
Speaker 1:Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, dan. He owns K-Chin's Glass.
Speaker 2:Thanks, allie. Things like doors and windows go into making a house, but when it's your home you expect more Like the great service and selection you'll get from Catron's Glass Final replacement. Windows from Catron's come with a lifetime warranty, including accidental glass breakage replacement. Also ask for custom shower doors and many other products and services. Call 962-1636. Locally owned, with local employees for nearly 30 years.
Speaker 1:Catron's Glass, the Cle.