What This person has been doing for the last 50 years
6-05
ALLEN, RAYMOND (Charlotte “Chy” Smith)
888 Brickell Key Drive #512, Miami. FL 33131
305/371-3554
e-mail FLVT123@aol.com
Children – 2 Grandchildren – 2
Best Gables Memory
Driving our group to school in my '50 Mercury which my Dad had bought for
me
from Rusty Woods for $300. It was beat up, so I bought new seat covers and
a very cheap paint job at, where else? Johnny & Mack (by the Railroad
Track). Color: Blinding Turquoise. Everybody said it looked like a giant
Easter egg, but I pronounced it cool. Each morning I picked up Ginger Rambo,
Worth Crow, Lucky Kyle, and anyone else who would get into it, and roared
on
up Old Cutler and LeJeune Rd to school. It roared a lot since Rusty had
installed dual "carbs" and loud pipes (to which I added chrome extensions,)
so every Coral Gables cop was attracted every time I'd accelerate. It had
a
really menacing sound, but I think the paint job was so geeky...they never
stopped us. The freedom that old car gave us was great, and every day was
fun.
What I'm Doing Now.
We live at a place called Tequesta Point on Brickell Key in downtown Miami,
and run our business in Vermont over the internet. (We go up to Vermont 3
or
4 times a year.) In the booming downtown area, everything around me has changed...every
building, the people, everything. But my wife, Chy, and I love Miami more
than ever. We
raised our kids in South Miami and the Gables, but are now enjoying living
in a 30-story building downtown. No, we don't speak Spanish, but our city
is now a very exciting
place compared to the nice but sleepy hometown we all remember. Our condo
overlooks the bay and the mouth of the river. I recently watched the DuPont
Plaza come tumbling down, and right now, I can see 12 new hi-rise projects
going up just from our balconies. We watch the cruise ships and all the tour
boats out of bayside, and it's a beautiful exciting scene. Only one thing
is the same. If you lean out from our bedroom balcony, you can look up the
river
under the Brickell Bridge. And it's exactly the same as when my
grandfather, a retired sea captain, used to live on the river up by the 12th
Avenue bridge. The curves of the river, Merrill-Stevens, the fish
markets...they're all still there, while the flashy riverfront condos go up
around them. Our business is AmericanMeadows.com which is the outgrowth of
The Vermont Wildflower Farm, the tourist attraction we started after moving
our family (two sons) to Vermont in the 1980's. I worked in NY first, then
started my own ad agency in Miami (Caravetta Allen Kimbrought, Inc.), and
then sold that to BBDO Worldwide in 1981 which allowed us to move to Vermont,
which we had always loved since honeymooning there. Our business there grew,
but in recent years, we have sold off the retail attraction and the national
catalog we started, and now our our wildflower seed & bulb business is
100% internet based, which allows us to live in Miami most of the year. We
both still work more than full time, and my time is spent monitoring our ads
on Google, holding phone meetings with our employees in Vermont, and writing
new
website stuff for our seed and bulb business. Chy takes the photos and
handles the finances. I've always been a plant person, so I love it. If I
had more time, I'd be writing about Miami history.
Major Events In My Life
1. Found the right girl to marry: My family:I have the best wife in the world:
Chy (for
Charlotte), married in 1962 in her hometown of Ashland, MA. And two great
sons: Eric (Grad in English, No. Texas U), who spent time in Hollywood in
the movie business, helped as our webmaster in Vermont, and is now a teacher
with his great teacher wife, Donna, in San Diego, and Terry (Grad in History,
ASU), who also has an internet business and lives in South Miami with his
wonderful French wife, Sabine and 2 year old
Lucas...our first grandchild. In January, 2007, we had our second. Eric and
Donna had a
beautiful baby girl named Laura Grace.
2. Our trip to Europe in 1965. When we were first married, Chy and I decided
we wanted to go to Europe before we had jobs we wanted to keep, kids, or a
house. So we lived in Miami (I wrote ads for Burdine's and Chy taught school.)
for two years and saved up $6000 for our trip. Then in '65, we flew to Europe,
picked up our new Karmann Ghia convertible and drove through 18 countries
for 5 1/2 months. We visited the usual places plus Morocco and Yugoslavia
and Czechoslovakia during the Soviet days. Those were the "Europe on
$10 a day" days, and we did it all on a tight budget. We spent every
cent of our $6,000 but that even included the new car. When it was over, we
sailed home on the SS France in the cheapest stateroom...a ticket we had bought
months before. We landed in NYC which is where we then wanted to live. That
was always the plan, and that's when I began working in ad agencies in New
York. It was a great adventure, and we were right...it's the kind of thing
you have to do when you're young and don't have heavy responsibiities.
Our move from Miami to Vermont and back again. After going there on our honeymoon,
we always wanted to live in Vermont. We were there for 18 years year round,
and loved it. We turned our hobby (wildflowers) into a business, and restored
a big old house that was built in 1790. We and our
boys now have friends both places, and know all about both urban (Miami) and
rural (Vermont) living. Of course, the two places are really opposites,
Business.I love business, especially the creative end of it. Working in ad
agencies in New York (and Miami) was a great experience. It's one of the
last bastions of pure competition, and is great fun. And now I love our
current business with wildflower seeds and flower bulbs. And I love the
magic of the internet! I've always been able to work at things I really
enjoy.