The company, which they call Sycamore Creek, now sells to individuals and nurseries all over the country. Walter and Carol go to the trade shows, and they have a growing retail business offering trellises of their own design or custom-made to a customer's design. As a luxury item, designer garden trellises are certainly not economy-proof, but the business is compact enough to survive the lows. During the highs, one or two part-time workers help build and ship the trellises and other copperwork.
Carol now knows things about herself she would never have found out if her old job hadn't become so oppressive. She has an excellent eye for design and great telephone-marketing skills. Walter has experimented with the copper tubing, improving the appearance and sturdiness of the pieces.
Sycamore Creek is my favorite small business partly because the owners are friends and neighbors. But it's more than that. These people started from a very low point, not knowing how to survive or what to do next. And they discovered inside themselves skills that let them find a niche in the world by creating something new. That's the most wonderful kind of business story I can think of.
Barbara Kopple
Two-time Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker. Her films include Harlan County, U.S.A; American Dream; and Wild Man Blues.
There are two wonderful sea-food shops in Southampton, N.Y., both called Clamman Seafood Market. Opened by Paul Koster in 1982, the stores quickly became known as great places to get the freshest seafood. Paul would personally go out and select the fish from Long Island's best fishermen each morning.
Two years ago, Paul was helping a neighbor when he was tragically killed in a tractor accident. It seemed that the community would lose Paul and Clamman Seafood Market forever. But then the entire community came out to support Paul's wife, Jean, and their children. People brought over meals for months. Paul's friends taught Jean how to buy fish and what to look for to get the best -- just as Paul did.
Jean now runs the shops, and her children lend a hand during the summers, when crowds of savvy New Yorkers seeking "the best" know right where to find it. Jean's teen-age son, Cutter, gets a kick out of meeting celebrities like Jon Bon Jovi and Jon Stewart at parties that Clamman caters throughout the Hamptons. Jean reminds herself and Cutter that Paul is still with them, watching them, helping them get it right. The mom-and-pop stores are now mom-and-kids stores, and there's no doubt that pop would be proud -- and that he lives on in their hearts.
Bill Rodgers
Olympian and four-time winner of both the Boston and the New York City marathons.
I like Celtic Weavers, in Boston. I'm Scottish on my father's side; my mother's Irish. I buy Irish ceramics called Belleek, Waterford crystal, and woven goods. I bought my mother a shawl that she can wear while she watches TV. I bought shamrock key rings as stocking stuffers for my kids. The store connects me to my family's past.
Wynton Marsalis
Jazz musician and composer; artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center.
In the early 1980s I heard a rumor about some great trumpets. Musicians were telling me, "This is an amazing trumpet; you've got to try it." Then, in 1985, David Monette [owner of David G. Monette Corp., in Portland, Oreg.] came to Madison, Wis., where I was playing, and gave me a trumpet. And I just loved it. Other trumpets didn't sound like his. It was the proportion of the metal, the balance of the instrument, the quality of the alloy. He had invented another technology, another way to create brass instruments. Now he's legendary. All over the world there's a Monette-trumpet movement.
One time I was recording in Providence. I had a brand-new trumpet, and a slide dropped out of it. Monette is the only one who can fix his own horns. He was in Chicago, and he flew from Chicago to Providence and fixed it.
Monette is always giving trumpets away. He made me an unbelievable trumpet with carvings and designs and a big double bell, like a space-age trumpet. It has all kinds of jewels in the valves. It has carvings of people I know and things from my life. It's an unbelievably designed trumpet. I can't play it, though. The sound is too different from the other players in the section. But it's a special horn.
Monette is a small-business man through and through -- always trying to create the highest-quality product and balance that with his financial obligations. And I like the fact that the people in his shop go out together, come to concerts together -- there's a familial feeling.
Monette's love for the music -- for his instruments -- goes way past love and passion. He's like Santa. Santa of the trumpet.
Lawrence Block
Mystery writer. His most recent novels include Hit List and Hope to Die.
Two guys were talking about the city, and one said that you could buy or rent absolutely anything in New York, anything you could think of. Ha, said the other guy, Suppose I want to rent an elephant? The first guy looked up a number, dialed it, hit speakerphone, and asked the person who answered what it would cost to rent an elephant. Here's what the guy on the phone said: You want Indian or African?
That's Murray's Cheese Shop, in Greenwich Village. I had some cheese at a party once and loved it. I asked the hostess what kind it was. She thought it was an aged gouda. I went to Murray's and asked if they had any aged gouda. Here's what the guy at Murray's said: You want one-year, two-year, or five-year?
Murray's has every kind of cheese you could think of and hundreds more you never heard of. Express interest or curiosity, and they give you a taste. I don't go there all that frequently, alas, but I really like knowing it's there.
