Beachcombing – Office Closing

Shutting down our commercial office space of the past 47 years has been a challenge. Initially – in the late 1970s – I shared an office with Stephanie James in Seal Beach, until baby girls came along for each of us. Then it evolved into having home offices for a dozen years to help with raising the kids.

Next, my friend Jerry Bloeser suggested that my two employees and I should occupy some empty space above the Fish Tale Restaurant on Britton Drive. It was a trade situation wherein we would prepare advertisements, menus and table tents for the restaurant as well as preparing promotional materials for the next-door Bloeser Carpet Company.

Jerry and his brother, John, owned both businesses as well as the professional office building facing the Los Altos Shopping Center on Bellflower Boulevard.

Thus began some very busy years of marketing communications activities involving numerous local, regional and international clients. The part that I liked the best was getting a container of red seafood chowder for lunch from the Fish Tale on rainy winter days.

Concurrently we kept acquiring stuff, like furniture, computers and the tools necessary for public relations and advertising tasks.

Then, in July 2000, the Beachcomber was acquired and more staff was needed. We moved to our present offices at PCH and Anaheim Street in 2005, adding more stuff.

Twenty years later, we find the 15 or so contributors to the Beachcomber are all working from home, myself included, thanks to the pandemic years. In fact, I’ve enjoyed working from home again, being able to keep our Labrador, Bodie, company and to dress casually, like a beachcomber.

The challenging part has been getting rid of the office furniture and 40-plus years of paperwork that filled two, large trash bins this past week. Getting rid of that stuff should have begun many years ago, since rarely have we had a need to use it.

I’ve learned that Facebook’s Marketplace and Craigslist are two, very effective ways to both sell and give away stuff, like six desks, three storage cabinets, four file cabinets, bookcases, wall units, conference furniture and even a refrigerator.

One sold item, a Gradco light table that was used primarily to lay out brochures and newsletters on art boards, generated more than 100 interested persons. This was surprising since we now use computers for layout purposes and the light table has evolved into being a fancy cutting board.

Last weekend, the only stuff being kept were some mementoes, stationery and work tools that occupy a single storage cabinet in my garage. The ton of paperwork has been replaced by a few digital storage devices and “the cloud.” A week from now all that stuff will be gone, but not missed.

Words of wisdom shared by Jon Schultz:

A father said to his daughter “You have graduated with honors, here is a car [1950s Mustang] I bought many years ago. It is pretty old now. But before I give it to you, take it to the used car lot downtown and tell them I want to sell it and see how much they offer you for it.”

The daughter went to the used car lot, returned to her father and said, “They offered me $1,000 because the said it looks pretty worn out.” The father said, “Now take it to the pawn shop.” The daughter went to the pawn shop, returned to her father and said, ”The pawn shop offered only $100 because it is an old car.”

The father asked his daughter to go to a car club now and show them the car. The daughter then took the car to the club, returned and told her father, ”Some people in the club offered $100,000 for it because it’s an iconic car and sought by many collectors.”

Now the father said this to his daughter, “The right place values you the right way,” If you are not valued, do not be angry, it means you are in the wrong place. Those who know your value are those who appreciate you. Never stay in a place where no one sees your value.”

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