Where Are They Now: John Terry

Hello to all of my friends from the Jewel, Turn*style, Savon and Osco families

As I approach my 26th year of retirement from our wonderful company, I want to reach out and express my appreciation to all of you that I’ve encountered, worked with or worked for over the years

We moved numerous times Early in my career from Chicago to Boston, Grand Rapids, Marion, Kokomo, Arlington Heights and Wheaton IL.  In 1983 we moved to Southern California to work with the Savon people.  In 1997 we moved to Salt Lake City and later to Scottsdale, Arizona.

I retired in the year 2000 and currently live in San Juan Capistrano, California.  We currently live high on a hill overlooking Dana point Harbor and the Pacific Ocean.

God has blessed Carol and I with our four children, eight grandchildren and now two great grandchildren

We have traveled extensively since retirement in 2000 having visited over 130 countries around the world. Our most exciting adventure was spending 30 days in Africa starting from Cape Town spending time in Kenya and Tanzania and winding up in Egypt.

Our Most memorable cruise was a trip from Sydney to Osaka that traced the World War II Theater of operations for the US Navy and Marines. As my father was in this Theater with the Navy, it was very emotional to visit places like the Solomon Islands, Guam, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa. And Japan.

When I retired in 2000 I said I would spend my time golfing , building a model train railroad and enjoying my grandchildren  as it turned out I quickly realized that golf was not my thing but I did  build a large HO model railroad and currently build plastic model airplane kits mostly of commercial airliners.

I was able to spend lots of time with my grandchildren and now as they have aged and turned into young adults. I’m spending quality time with my great grandchildren.

For exercise I enjoy bike riding about 10 miles per day, walking along the beach and going to the gym (not as enjoyable)

When reflecting on my years working for the company I realize I was blessed in that I had the privilege to work coast to coast , in the Chicago area and in many central Midwest markets.

In this short recap it’s hard to cover all of the great people and events that I experienced, but here are a couple of memories that stand out. I started with the company at the TURN*STYLE store in Skokie Illinois in October 63 as a part-time stock boy while attending DePaul University.  The JEWEL TURN*STYLE unit was a very busy store and in late November 1963 one day stands in memory. The night that President Kennedy was shot the huge store was virtually empty with all the employees and few customers walking and standing in shock

The 6.4 Northridge earthquake that shook the Los Angeles area in 1994 was also a memorable experience. In those days there were no cell phones so people couldn’t send pictures of what was going on but managers were calling into our Anaheim general office to report.  I remember a manager in particular from a store in Simi Valley said that he could only get four or five people together to help clean up his store after the quake. We said we could send him whatever help we could, but had no idea what the situation looked like. The next day, a small group of us made our way up to the Simi Valley area, where we had three or four stores. I was appalled to see all the merchandise piled waist high on the floor and this poor manager with four or five people trying to clean it up.    In the days that followed we had help come from stores in Arizona, Nevada, San Diego and Northern California to help the many stores that experienced the quake.

The 1992 riots that ripped through LA will always stand out as a vivid memory. The first night of the civil disturbance was not too bad as most of the unrest was in small pockets of the city only affecting four or five stores. We had a command center set up in the Anaheim office and were monitoring manager calls as well as alarms that were going off in the stores. By the second night when the unrest quadrupled in size affecting 20 or 30 stores across the large metro area, we were shocked to see alarms going off in numerous stores as dusk approached.  I remember a manager from our store in Hollywood calling in to say there was a large group standing in front of his store with crow bars, baseball bats, chains, etc. looking like if they’re going to storm the store and asking what he should do.  We told him to take his employees out the back door and get away from the store ASAP. It turned out that the group did bash their way into the store and looted it that evening, but none of our people were hurt.

This is probably longer than I intended it to be and I do plan on writing a reflections article focusing more on the people that worked with me for me and alongside of me during my 37 year career.

My best wishes and thank you again to all of you that I’ve known over the years.

God bless and best of health,

John Terry