Throw Back Thursday

My partner Paul and I founded our law firm 11/15/94. We turn 20 in a few months. When we started, we shook hands and pledged 10 years of extreme effort to each other. Somehow we're still sort of at it double time. My brother in law Dennis was there from the beginning -- as our CPA, comptroller, and over all how the hell do we run a business? go to guy. Before we started the firm, my last experience running a business was a lawn cutting service I had when I was 12. I cut 10 lawns each week with my friend Michael Monahan -- until he got bored and I had to do them myself. Fortunately, the lots in Wantagh and Levittown were tiny -- 1/5 acres -- but I learned early that I didn't want to do manual labor as a career... Back to our firm...we workded hard, and were blessed with success. We were regulars at the Capital Grille, which opened across the street the same year as our firm. The place was formerly Cye's Rivergate, and was a haunt of Richard Nixon's and his buddy Rebozo. I used to see them there surrounded by Secret Service guys in the mid 80s. But then the upscale steak place took over, and we'd bring clients and friends there for lunches and dinners. The assistant manager was a friend, until Angela moved to the Lauderdale restaurant to be with her partner. A long time bartender, Jennifer, told me Angela and her partner moved to Atlanta... Anyway, we rarely go there anymore. Paul had stopped eating meat, and drinkning less, so the Grille wasn't the best fit. But yesterday Dennis came down to assist us with an annoying issue with the State regulators, and we decided to reprise our old ways. We had a cocktail or two, and caught up. We reminisced. Between them, Dennis and Paul have 7 grandkids now, compared to zero when we started the firm. I had 2 grils aged 2 and 5 in 1994; now they're grown women themselves. We ran into a friend -- Eddie -- a criminal defense lawyer there with his old bud Art. Eddie sits behind me at Canes games, and we're looking forward to the games, even though the team looks at best mediocre. So the three of us ate great, and laughed, and talked about life. It's been a hell of a run -- 2 decades, and lots of great tales. May the days of plenty return...and the laughter multiply.