WHH IS TRULY A FAMILY COMPANY THESE DAYS

[Tony Castronovo]

Pam and I started WHH in 1981 at the rip age of 20 years old with only two employees, "US". By 1990 we had a full staff and Pam was home raising our two sons. After the move to Lake Placid in 1993 and the boys were now in kindergarden and first grade, she came back to work full time. We had the school arrange that the bus would pick-up and drop the boys off right in front of our factory each day, so after any homework they worked at the shop. They did this from the age of 4 and 5 until they both graduated high school and Tony went to Orlando, and Mike to NASCAR.

 

What came next Pam would say was the best 4 years of our lives! We came and went as we pleased, rode every possible motorcycle event in Florida, bought new toys, and answered only to our customers.

Then..........they came back! First one then the other. It seems that this is the norm in Lake Placid as we have seen it with almost all of our friends and their kids. This is such a great place to raise kids with a small town atmosphere, and if they get into trouble almost anyone in town is allowed to beat them straight. There's something about this kind of place that brings the kids back, even after they both had a chance to explore and live in the large cities.

 

I'm writting this today because as I sit in my office the school bus has just stopped in front of my factory and when the door opened I saw my grandson Gavin step out, he's in the first grade. The first thing I thought was wow! How freaken old I'm getting. Then I thought how cool that my son Tony called the school and had him dropped off just like he was when he was a kid, and we will get him used to the word "work". I have two hard working sons that both own homes and toys, and we owe it all to starting them when they were young. So what's this crap about "child labor laws"?

 

 

[Skip]

As always, the best stories have a great ending.  Yours was not only "the best" but I had to laugh out loud (Sue even came into the office and asked me "are you OK.").  It isn't that often that I laugh SO HARD  ....  thanks for sharing those thoughts and memories.  As always, I continue to hope that you and your family can maintain the standards that your wonderful company has set for itself establishing the innovative reputation and tradition that it has become; namely, a quality benchmark for the last four decades that others try to replicate.  I will continue to support you in every way I can.  Thank you for "pushing me" to join this venue.  I have enjoyed many hours reading what others have to say and looking at all the GREAT BOATS shown in their awesome photos and videos   ...  kudos again to you Tony and to those members here that share!