Bill's First Buck...November 20, 2013

November is Founder's Month at City Farmers, and today is our 41st anniversary. I opened City Farmers for business on November 20, 1972. I was sixteen years old, a Senior at Madison High School in Clairemont. I have some great memories from the past 41 years, such as my first dollar and a nickel. Here's the story:

When I first opened the nursery, we used to get manure from a local dairy. And we used to go up the street to a place called Balboa Bakery, and get their empty paper flour bags, covered by loose flour from baking. My dad, Nathan, and I set up a screen to screen this manure.

The fine stuff would go through the screen, and that would get bagged for lawns. The chunky stuff still left in the screen would be bagged for gardens.

We had stacked all that stuff up, and we sealed it shut, by hand, with a stapler. We measured it with a shovel that held a certain amount of material, and so I would count the shovels to fill a bag. We sold them three for a dollar and a nickel.

And when you visit the nursery, you'll notice there’s a dollar and a dime framed at the counter, that’s because there was five percent sales tax in 1972.

That’s why there’s a dollar and a dime. If you see the dates on this money, it’s before 1972. That was my first day. And my first dollar.

Thank you for making City Farmers what it is today. See you at the farm, Farmer Bill