Page 4 - CMA PROfiles Winter 2018

THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

For me, each new year in business

is a little like this holiday memory.

Are we there yet?

One of my most vivid holiday memories the subsequent brush with starvation, to do it all again for a whole year.
from childhood is of long car rides to things always got better.
see relatives I had no (initial) interest For me, each new year in business is a
in visiting. After dinner, we were finally allowed little like this holiday memory.
to dress down and go play in the many
Oddly, even though I’d have much pre- buildings on the farm; see which of us At the beginning, there’s the discomfort
ferred to stay home and play with my city cousins was bravest around the bull; and uncertainty that comes with the
neighborhood friends, I always asked shoot BB guns; ride on a four-wheeler or feeling of a clean slate. Soon enough,
my parents the classic question: Are we go sledding. you get into the swing of things a bit.
there yet? Then, you really get going, and it’s
I could usually be found enjoying my
It always seemed as if it took forever to new-found freedom by riding around on a fun – you’re making lasting memories,
get there, and once we got there, we had sputtering old four-wheeler with cousins executing challenging projects, building
another long wait for the holiday meal. stacked like cordwood on the front and relationships, making some money and
then BAM!: It’s over until the new year.
Slowly, my sister and I would get reac- back bumpers, or shooting rusty cans
quainted with our more distant cousins on the scrap pile with a BB gun. This was And what are those holiday road trips
while sticking close to the ones we saw Valhalla! I had arrived in paradise, and I like now that I’m one of the grownups?
regularly. For many of these trips, our never wanted to leave this place. These days, I’m the driver and usually
destination was the home of one of my have someone yelling at me to “wake up
dad’s relatives – a big old house on a dairy However, soon enough, the sun managed and watch the road so you don’t get us
farm. The classic white clapboard house to sink low enough in the sky that it all killed!”
had about a million additions to it, and to sent a message to the moms and dads. Makes me long for the days when I could
us, it seemed big enough to house a small They would emerge from the warmly lit fall asleep in the car and dream of four-
country’s worth of people. farmhouse into our outdoor realm of
straw- and manure-flecked bliss. Under wheeling, BB guns and sledding, all the
It wasn’t a fancy house –just a few protest, we were corralled, brushed clean way home.
square feet to sit and eat and a few oddly as best as possible (short of hosing us
furnished drafty rooms where we could down) and herded into the back seats for
sneak away to share secrets and stories the ride home.
with our cousins.
That was the toughest part – getting back Matt Krig
After the grueling morning car ride (that in the car to leave, knowing this great President
was in truth not much over an hour) and place existed and I likely wouldn’t be back Cabinet Makers Association