SANTA ROSA, CA~ I woke up in the middle of the night and I was chuckling and my wife asks me, 'What's so funny?' I tell her it is nothing but that I was remembering all the great interactions I had with Larry Bertolini over the years. I'll be 50 years old (wow) next year and I realized that I have known him since I was around 5 or 6 years old. It was either my grandpa Nickenig or mom who brought us to Western Farm Center back in the late 60's or early 70's. Years passed by and then I became a young adult living on my own at 16-1/2 and I always had a cat. I'd come into his and brother Lou's store, Western Farm Center, and buy cat food and toys for them to play with. He seemed to always be doing something and had nice words to say, asking me if I had found everything I needed. I remembered that a lot. I thought how nice it was to be treated so well as a customer, having come from a tree farm business called Candy Cane Christmas Tree Farm in Sebastopol. My family's philosophy on business nearly mirrored Larry's & Lou's philosophy. As time passed, I worked my way into the newspaper business selling advertising and eventually started this paper. I would stop in and talk with him, but not about advertising or business. I loved the fact he was one of the few who actually took the time to talk with me about the things in life that really mattered, like family, friends, get together's and local celebrations. I don't know what it was about Larry except one thing, he was like family to me.
He also constantly was looking for advertising copy he set aside for me and would often hand me a pile of papers and say, "Look for a ad slick from Nutro Dog food", or what ever the ad was for the month. Eventually we would find it. But while looking we would both get side tracked, again talking about some of the times when he was young, living in Sonoma County, the pets he had and starting his business and various other topics too numerous to mention.
I realize also that I want to tell all of our readers about what a nice guy he was too. Most of my first interactions as a young adult with Larry were in the early 90's while working with the Sonoma County Independent(now the Bohemian) selling ads.
We discussed different thoughts on what customer service meant and how to be the best at what we do or how to make a business successful. He'd throw a magazine opened to a specific page with information meant to teach me things he thought I could use to be better at what I did, right on top of his ever growing piles of mail and pet promotional material & catalogs. The cool part is, I learned a lot. I almost felt like he was like a grandfather teaching me lessons of life, but in a most respectful way, or like a caring father would be to his son whom he wanted to be successful.
The reason I was chuckling as I eluded to earlier was because Larry had handed me a piece of cartoon art of a frog being eaten by a stork or egret of some sort and had its hands around the storks neck. I believe the caption was, but don't quote me, "Never give UP!". ''With all those big papers out there, it must be tough. How is the paper doing these days?", he'd ask me. So when I woke up that night, shortly after midnight, a few days after Larry started his new journey, I immediately said to myself, 'That's it! Never give up!'
From the time I started the Upbeat Times, Larry was in every issue, promoting Western Farm Center. He really enjoyed the jokes for sure. Many occasions he would hand me jokes, but he would say, "This one's not for the paper" all while chuckling to himself. There were a few days where he would call me up and ask if I would run stories on various people he knew that needed some extra PR or attention for the good things they were doing in the community. I never hesitated. I thought, for a gentlemen as busy as he was to go out of his way to call me and ask for a favor, I was honored to do it.
The truth is, he believed in me and what I was doing and would tell me so. About four to five years ago I noticed he was slowing down a little. These things you notice about your friends. So I decided to even take a bit more time with him, like going to lunch when we could, and just coming in and sitting down and talking. You see, time is our greatest gift we can give.
A couple of years back he told me of this artist he commissioned to do a painting for the new building in his name. He told me it took a while to finally get the piece and asked me to come and take some pictures with him and the artist, as he often did for various events.
I took the cover picture at this juncture and again had a good laugh and he made a few jokes and smiled. He often invited me as one of his personal guests at events he attended helping to raise money for people for charitable causes. I felt fortunate to attend these events because I knew he was making a difference in people's lives. In fact, he would tell me how frustrated he was that he could not help everyone. While visiting with him in his office one day he said to me, "Look at this. All these people want donations. Look at these letters. What do I do, how do I choose...it's so hard." I would not make any suggestions accept to say that I knew how difficult it must have been for him. He seemed to want to help everyone. I admire that and always will. I can't give money to people in need but I can publish information that will help people to connect. I can give people the time of the day like Larry did for me. That's what friends do I guess. It's not about the money we make, it's about the time we give.
Even though I did not mention all his achievements(it would take 100's of issues of Upbeat to tell you about them) at least I had the privilege and opportunity to have a part of Larry's life and to tell you about it in an upbeat fashion. I thank Larry also for being my friend. He is a example of what it means to be a great human being. And I'll try not to miss him, but it might be hard for a while.
