November 23, 1979: My Birthday in Chicago
	September 10-15, 1979: At the Cullinane Offices in Boston
	Return to Index for 1979

This month, almost all the Cullinane employees are heading down to Boca Raton, Florida, to help with the Cullinane User Group week there. I flew down a day or so early so I could spend some times hitting a few Baskin-Robbins stores, and then I arrived at the hotel in Boca Raton on Sunday night.

I had been to Florida once or twice for CULPRIT training, but had never before been to Boca Raton. I decided to fly down to Florida on Saturday and spend an evening on my own dime before going to the User Group.

It was a couple of years after I stopped at my 200th Baskin Robbins store in Tampa, and by now my total was closing in on a thousand. Even so, I wanted to find some more stores in South Florida, so I had Steve Goldberg fly me into Miami where I could rent a car.

I spent the day driving around Miami searching out stores (and adding six or seven to my list) before I headed up Interstate 95 towards Fort Lauderdale, where I stayed in a Holiday Inn near the beach.

I probably should have gone to the Fort Lauderdale beach (famous for Spring Break), but instead I continued the Baskin-Robbins hunt, stopping at another six or seven stores before I ended up in Boca Raton mid-afternoon on Sunday.

In the years I've been working for Cullinane Corp. I have flown back and forth to Boston more times than I can count- at least 50 round trips (according to the United Frequent Flyer Program plaque that I have on the wall in the guest bedroom). It is always a nice flight, and the seafood meal that I usually order is pretty good.

Writing much of this narrative in 2019, I am once again struck by the oddities of my wandering around Miami and Fort Lauderdale now, in 1979, totally unaware that almost exactly ten years later, I would return here numerous times with a partner and even, eventually, buy a condo (in Fort Lauderdale). Had I known this ahead of time, I might have taken more pictures of Miami and particularly of Fort Lauderdale, and would have been able to compare them to the many photos I took in the years after my partner and I returned here to create a vacation place. Of course, when we eventually returned here, it wasn't from Chicago but from Dallas, but that move was also still five or six years in the future.

But I do recall thinking that this area, and particularly the very upscale area of Boca Raton, was an extremely nice place, and that it would be nice to get away from the harsh Chicago winters and live here instead. But I also recall thinking that if I did live here, that my travel times would likely increase, as so many of our clients were out west or in the northeast, both more distant from here than Chicago.

The hotel where the User Group was being held is actually still in existence, although it is no longer an independent hotel, but part of the chain that includes the Waldorf in New York City and many other hotels as well. And the hotel is still a very upscale property (as is most of Boca Raton). To get to Boca Raton from Fort Lauderdale, I drove up US 1, (finding another Baskin-Robbins on the way). The hotel was east of US 1, just north of Camino Real on the west side of Lake Boca Raton. I wasn't familiar with the geography of the Florida coast then, but I certainly am now.

Lake Boca Raton is not really a lake in the traditional sense; it is actually a wide portion of what is called the Intracoastal Waterway. That waterway, part natural and part constructed, runs up the East Coast from Miami all the way past New York City. Almost all of the way it runs through bays and inlets just away from the open ocean; there are usually barrier islands or other landmasses between it and the ocean. Because of this, boats, particularly small ones, can go up and down the coast shielded from the wind and waves of the Atlantic Ocean. The Intracoastal, as it is known, can accommodate boats up to a hundred feet or so in length; commercial traffic (and all oceangoing vessels) only use the waterway at major inlets from the ocean- like those in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Cape Canaveral, Jacksonville, and other coastal cities further north. There are numerous bridges that cross the Intracoastal from the mainland to the barrier islands, but these are always drawbridges or rotating bridges that allow even sailboats to pass through. As you can see on the map, the hotel was located on the west shore of the Intracoastal and you can see the barrier island and the ocean east of the Intracoastal.

I can't resist mentioning here that by the early 1990s I would be routinely riding my bicycle up A1A, the scenic highway that runs across the barrier islands from Key West to St. Augustine and beyond, and that I would often ride the stretch that you can see on the map. Incidentally, this map covers an area that is about 25 miles north of where I would eventually have a vacation condo in Fort Lauderdale.

I turned off US 1 and came east on El Camino, went around the traffic circle (which at least as recently as 2015 was also still there), and came up into the beautiful entry drive for the Boca Raton Hotel and Club.

I parked the car and headed into Reception, where I found that my room had already been reserved. I also had a note from Tony, who had arrived a bit earlier, that he and some of the other guys from Boston would be in one of the lounges, and that I should come meet them after I checked in.

A change has been brewing vis-a-vis my employment at Cullinane, and I am going to use this photo album as a bit of a diary at this point. This diary entry has nothing to do with this trip to Florida, but if you would like to know what was going on, just click the link below. You will be able to return to this spot after reading the entry.

Welcome back, if you chose to read my diary entry. If you did, you'll understand why this week was a bit tough for me- knowing that I might be making a change soon, and that this might be the last time I would see many of these folks- as an employee anyway.

While it's true that it sometimes seems as if half the life of a Cullinane person is spent on the telephone, it's not true that this picture (at left) of Tony and Ray Nawara, the manager for the Chicago area, has caught them both in that half of their lives. I asked the two of them to pose for my photo. (And I can't again help but comment that I would bet dollars to doughnuts that those pay phones aren't in the hotel any longer.)

Down in the reception area for the users, I ran across Laureen Martel and Tom Nelson, sitting down just outside our main meeting hall (see picture at right).

The rest of the pictures I took during the User Week were candid shots- most of them taken on the afternoon after the conference officially ended. Most of these were out by the hotel pool, where John and his employees (left to right in the picture are Dave Ireland, John, Jim Blake, and Ray Goodwin) were able to enjoy some downtime after all the classes and seminars and other activities of the User Week. I'll name people when I can, but keep in mind that as a guy living in Chicago, not Boston, and a guy who travels to client sites much, much more often than he travels to the office, I usually only remember those people I contact a great deal on the telephone or who I might see at a client site.

Sharon Carson, carrying away flowers from the final luncheon.

This view looks east. Beyond the pool is Lake Boca Raton and then the barrier island between the lake and the ocean.

John Cullinane

Skip Nelson

Miss Boca Raton 1979 Rosalie Cope

Here are Rosalie Cope and Sharon Carson; both of them did yeoman service throughout the User Week to keep things running smoothly.

I have to interrupt these pictures for a moment to relate one of my favorite stories of all time. As a bit of background, whenever I was in Boston, which was fairly frequently, Tony and I would have dinner frequently- usually at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Sol Azteca down in Brookline- and one place we went to more than once was an excellent Chinese restaurant called Weylu's. It was located a bit north of the city, but right off US 1. That highway, at 2300+ miles, is the longest north-south highway in the country, and it runs from Fort Kent, Maine (on the Canada border) south to Key West, Florida. It happens to run right through Boca Raton, and the User Week hotel is only a couple of blocks east of it.

Well, Tony and I were approached one day after the sessions by a client couple that asked if we knew a good Chinese restaurant that was easy to get to. They emphasized the "easy to get to" part, and Tony and I had the same idea at the same time. We suggested that all they had to do was take Camino Real over to US 1 and then turn right (north). We said that the restaurant is called Weylu's and it will be on the right. They thanked us and were about to walk off when we thought we'd better also mention that the trip would be about two thousand miles (although all they had to do was stay on the same road)! As I recall, when we explained the "joke" they saw the humor (but wouldn't have had we not given them the critical bit of added information!

Here are Mike Mikkelsen and Randy Harrison

Here is where I will need some help from any Cullinane person who happens to see this page. I believe this is a group of salesmen and marketers, but I don't know their names.

I think we all had a productive time at the User Week, and it was good for me as well to be able to see so many of the other people at Cullinane that I knew, because if the IST job worked out, this might well have been the last opportunity I would have to see many of them.

Although I flew into Miami International, I left for Chicago from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, as it was much closer to Boca Raton.

This wasn't my first time at this airport; it is a very convenient airport to get into and out of, and I was able to return my rental car at the local office of the firm I'd gotten it from in Miami. So late Friday afternoon my plane took off for Chicago.

The scene at left is one that will in the future become one of the most frequent as I will ever see, because by 1990 I will, as it turns out, be flying in and out of Fort Lauderdale many times each year. Planes usually take off to the east from Fort Lauderdale, head out over the ocean, make a turn, and then set course for their destination.

This view looks north, and at the left is Lake Mabel, where cruise shipsd dock. The Intracoastal waterway heads north under the 17th Street Bridge. Boca Raton is twenty miles in the distance, and downtown Fort Lauderdale is out of the image to the left. But you can easily see why Fort Lauderdale's nickname is "Boating Capital of the World", what with all the canals and waterways you can see in the picture. It's a beautiful view, as is most of the Fort Lauderdale area- an area I will come to know well in the years hence.

You can use the links below to go to another photo album page.

	November 23, 1979: My Birthday in Chicago
	September 10-15, 1979: At the Cullinane Offices in Boston
	Return to Index for 1979