FOLLOW ME An even sillier thing happened on one of our road trips to visit the Canadian relatives. We were passing near an amusement park called The North Pole. We had stopped for gas and as I was getting back into the car someone in another car called out, “Can you tell us how to get to the North Pole?” I had no idea there was a park called the North Pole so I said to them, “Sure you can follow us but we are only going as far as Montreal.” For the next fifty miles Herman had tears running down his face he was laughing so hard. DRIVING ON FROM SHOOSTER’S DRIVE-IN The three Shooster brothers, Izzy, Harry and Herman sat down and tried to find a new plan they could all agree on. Their mother, Dora, was adamant that all three brothers be involved in what- ever business they decided to pursue. But it was not to be. The older brothers decided to try their luck in the home construction business. Herman didn’t see it their way and opted out – he would find his own way. Finding his own way was not easy. While his brothers were building and succeeding in the home construction business, Herman was taking a radi- cally different approach. At the time frozen foods were just becoming technically possible and it was clear that they were becoming popular with consumers. Herman’s first attempt to break into the frozen food business involved a beautifully made crab cake with a large shrimp whose tail stuck out and made the whole dish very beautiful. It was the most delicious thing you can imagine. The product was all hand- made, so the consistency of the roux was creamy and delicious. We worked very hard making and selling the product. And for a while it seemed that the breakthrough product would catch on. Herman was still in the restaurant when he sold our stuffed shrimp product to a large grocery chain
of the day, Food Fair. Using that as an anchor he began to market the product to institutional frozen food distributors who would offer it to restaurants. The product became so popular that he eventual- ly had eight or ten women in the restaurant just making it. At the same time, knowing he was going out of the restaurant business, Herman sought out a
Finding his own way was not easy. While his brothers were building and succeeding in the home construction business, Herman was taking a radically different approach. - D.S.
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