Being back on Georgia soil was a great feeling, although we would miss our friends in New Jersey. We rented a nice house in Conyers on Old Salem Road, which at that time, was largely countryside. Sollie set about trying to establish his consulting business, the boys were in Rockdale High School, and Teresa was enrolled in Flat Shoals Elementary. We were living on savings until we could get established with jobs. After a few months in the rental house, we were able to purchase a home in Conyers, on a street where we would meet more of the best friends of our lives, Frankie and Ray.
We joined the Salem Methodist Church, just up the road, and quickly found a new network of friends there. Sollie was involved with the Men's Club and I, as I had always done, sang in the choir. . The church had a great youth program and I helped drive them around to sing Christmas Carols, cooked spaghetti, and got to know the other parents during the many outings. The kids got involved with the youth group and my boys agreed, reluctantly, to be soldiers in their Easter program and they did a great job! Our next door neighbors, who were fairly new to town, joined the church as well.
It wasn't long before it became apparent that money was drying up and I had to get a regular job that would guarantee an extra income. I went to work at the Clayton County Board of Education, in the Personnel Office, where our old school friend, Cliff Walton, was the Director of Personnel. I had worked there briefly during the 60's and had the experience they needed for the job. I commuted every day from Conyers to Jonesboro until a vacancy opened in Conyers with the Rockdale BOE and I was hired.
Sollie and our next door neighbor, who had no experience in manufacturing, but had contacts with local banks, began to talk about going into the plastic recycling business. At that time, this was a totally new, and untouched area of the market with only two other companies in the United States doing recycling. I'm very "security conscious" person about my "nest", and worried about putting our whole livelihood on the line in such a gamble. I was petrified. So, we talked to our Minister, prayed together about it, and Sollie and his partner set out to beg, borrow, and steal enough money to commence their business with another leap of faith.
There were people coming out of the woodwork who wanted to get in to the operation after our initial investment. We found our fair share of shady characters who also promised the moon, but were found to be not so reputable. The local bank was skeptical, but agreed to wage their confidence in this new and upcoming business because of the increased volume of plastic goods in the world and the idea of recycling was brand new.
The operation began with waste plastic yarn from carpet manufacturers and car batteries. Hercules and Mobil Chemical were a couple of their suppliers. The yarn waste sometimes came in huge, hard clumps of plastic and Sollie designed a large tub-like piece of equipment that would essentially work like a household blender and chop up the large chunks, breaking it down so it could be fed into the extruder, improving the operation down time. He worked day and night. Seven days a week, most of the time. The next two years were definitely the most heart wrenching of our lives.
Sol and his partner purchased used equipment because of the astronomical costs of new equipment and lack of big bucks needed for collateral. It was either broken down, or didn't work at all, most of the time they were trying to produce a product. They had business prospects running out the yazoo, but couldn't stay in operation long enough to keep up with the orders. One night, an employee accidentally fell into the densifier , losing one of his legs. Another time, Sollie was called at 3:00 am (a common occurrence) and while working in the electrical panel, his hand accidentally slipped, causing the panel to explode in his face. He lost all the hair on his face and some from his head. He face was badly burned and he drove home.
He came in, woke me up telling me he was burned, and I jumped up, promptly fainting at the sight. He picked me up, but while trying to find something to put on his burns, I fainted again and fell into the shower stall. He picked me up again, and threw me on the bed, telling me to STAY! Our son Jim, woke up and got him in the car and drove him to the hospital in Conyers. The Emergency Room door was locked. They couldn't get anyone to the door and had to then drive to Covington, to the hospital where he was treated and admitted. He had nearly lost his eyesight. After a couple of years trying to make it work, it was time to give it up. We had to file bankruptcy. Sollie and his partner went down to the plant and physically worked for days to produce enough product to sell to pay our lawyers to file our bankruptcy. Personal tragedy seemed to multiply.
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It's amazing how many dishonest people can tag you when they think you're valuable to them. We had our share during this time. The final blow came when our attorney took the money we had paid him for filing the papers, somewhere around $1200, and we never heard from him again. Just prior to the business closing, my Grandmother Elkins suffered a stroke in the nursing home. At some point, she had been given a bath and scalded in a whirlpool tub and suffered 2nd degree burns on her buttocks and legs. She could not speak, and ultimately was sent to the hospital, where she finally lost a foot and lower leg, due to gangrene, which set in because of infection from the burns. Two days after Granny was burned, my father, at age 62, fell from the kitchen table, and died of an aortic aneurysm. She died about three weeks later. I believe she was about 82 years old at the time of her death.
We managed to hire a personal friend, who was an attorney in Jonesboro, to file our bankruptcy but it meant another $800 we didn't have. Our family life was in shambles and we had one son in college, one in high school and a middle school child. We lost our home, a car, our main source of income, and a whole lot of dignity, but mainly we felt we had failed those who trusted us. We had done everything we thought we were supposed to do, prayed about it, and had failed. We had personally signed every bank note, and borrowed money from family. We were as low as we could get. Bad things do happen to good people.
Sollie was immediately offered a job with Keller Industries, where he had begun the whole process of his career several years before, and we made our next move. The hills and hollers of Williamsburg, Kentucky, became our next home. We were there only a year before they decided to close the plant down, but the good news is, that our son Jim met his future wife, Cathy, where she was an upcoming graduate of Eastern Kentucky College and they married just before we left Kentucky to head back to Conyers. The 70's were coming to a close. But, without all the bad stuff, we would not have our wonderful daughter in love and the beautiful grandchildren and great grandchild we have today. I think it was a good trade.
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