In 1970 at 16 years old, he had collected 450 dollars in a mason jar and told me he wanted to sell ski-becs in his dads garage because he wanted to be his own boss.

Well he bought and sold his first machine pretty fast so things grew and grew the first year and I was doing a lot of his mechanic work but never asked for any pay because it was a learning experience.

In1971 I started work at northway because I wanted a full time job, I was only 15. Even so every friday night I would go to Dave's and work the weekend for him in exchange for room and board.  

In 1972 when there was no more ski-bec he purchases enough parts to build some machines that he would sell during the week and ORDER at the factory. The factory was us building up to 3 machines a saturday to deliver to customers on sat. afternoon. 

And like I said the other day, most of the time we would run into these new owners at the clubs on saturday night.

1973 Northway closed in the summer and Dave wanted us to go into business together.  After much thought I decided not to as I valued him more as a friend and did not want to jeopardize that.

Fall 1973 he signs with Evinrude and Auto-ski and things really started to move. I was still his weekend mechanic and working at Parkway motors.  Renting a house with my sister in kirkland and living with them on the weekends in exchange for my work.

1974 ditto.

1975 no more Auto ski but sells a few Pro-ams.

The business had out grown dad's garage and Dave and I with his brother Peter,  build a new 40 by 40 foot new garage on the other side of the road from where he was.

At that time, Dave was now 21, I was 19 and peter was 17, and we had never really built anything more than a tree house but the garage is still there today.

1976 Evinrude is going well but they stop producing after the 76 model.

Dave is approached by other brands but decided to pull out of the business for a while and concentrate on his lawn and garden equipment sales.

1977 -  sold a few used sleds but the industry in general was in trouble and Dave decides against selling snowmobiles anymore. 

He remained in the lawn and garden business until 2001 when the decision was made to close down after 31 yrs and work a regular job and let someone else have the headaches.

Hope you liked the story. Have a good one Andrew!