30th Year Photos/#70

Wood ‘N Strings 10th Anniversary.

1991 was quite a year.  I had been down with a blown disc in my back since late 1989 – hadn’t built an instrument in over a year.  But the Lord had other plans for Merla and I.  Beth hired on in January (19 years old) to help in the office.  For seven years we had been located out in the country south of Fort Worth but Mark and Steve Tindle were just starting up Master Works for us in Estes Park, Colorado.  I finally found a doctor that would do spinal fusion surgery and the next several weeks – actually months as it had to be repeated – was a foggy dream of pain and pain medication.  I wondered how long we would survive financially knowing I could never return to the workshop.  I had a few recordings and had some activity with them but how were we going to actually make a living?  Well, there just happened to be a new idea coming to fruition of how crafters and artists were able to market their wares by way of craft malls.  And the very first of hundreds of these shops was located just down the road.  I think someone at church told us about it and Merla and I gave it a visit.  I remember it well as I was wrapped up in a solid back brace and had to lie down in the back of a minivan to travel.  We rented our first booth, rigged up a small display of cassettes with a cassette player playing one of the albums and a huge snowball of activity and sales soon followed.  We earned far more income than I ever dreamed of over the next few years and most of that time I was physically unable to barely get out of bed!  Yes, 1991 was quite a year of great activity and it was wonderful to celebrate the past ten but what I remember most of 1991 was how God blew my mind of how he lovingly cared for me and my family when I was so helpless physically and emotionally.