....And Terry Jacks sang "Seasons in the Sun"

Thirty-two years ago today I joined Black Photo Corp, well sorrta.
At the time I was hired by a company known as Astral Bellvue Pathe. I worked for a division of that company known as Angreen Photo
(named after the mother of the Greenberg brothers, owners of A.B. P. mother Ann) That division operated the camera departments in a chain of stores known as Miracle Mart (later to become the now defunct chain known as M Stores) The man who hired me and I still see him today was Luciano Bastasi. I worked in, I believe as manager in at lest five of the concessions
In 1985 at the closing of one of the Miracle stores, I was asked by one of the Harvey Greenberg’s wife Beverly if I would like to move on and work for the other retail arm of the Company known as Astral Photo, and so I did. I became a manager of the store in Dorval which I opened in September of 1985 (#772) and stayed there till 1999, when I moved on as Senior Sales Associate in the Quebec flag ship store in Fairview Pointe Claire,(#708) under the retail supervision of a true gentleman Alex Franzidis. In 1998( I think it was 1998) Black Photo Corpotation acquired the division and that is where I am today. In the thirty two years that have passed two of the Greenberg brothers and one of their lovely sisters Rita have passed as well as one of my other regional manager Eddy Desantis. Much water has passed under the bridge. I am not at all certain how many people I have worked with but I am sure it numbers in the hundreds. I see some of them today and they have moved on to great things, but remind me that I was the first “boss” they had and what a good “boss” I was…..”blush”
I hasten to say here that Black Photo has treated me well, I didn’t lose a moment of seniority and enjoy six weeks of vacation yearly as well as an annual dinner with the Quarter Century Club, where the cost side of the menu and the wine list is a non issue.
Regrets I have a few, but then again.... too few to mention