In 1974, I got married and went to Aspen, Colorado on my honeymoon. I fell in love with snow skiing. By 1982, I had four children and found it extremely hard to find snow ski equipment and proper snow ski clothing for them. I had a thought: why not open a snow ski shop and specialize in children's clothing and equipment. I knew many families from the Chattanooga area, like my wife and I, that took their children on ski trips. I already had a building picked out! It was an old train caboose that I had purchased a couple of years earlier. I ran power to it, a phone. The caboose was ready. I purchased ski clothing, ski equipment and had it shipped to me. The day that 40 cases of ski boots came in - I learned something very important: My very old caboose (7 foot wide and 35 feet long) may not be quite large enough for my business venture!!! I made it work for the next two years. I then bought an old mobile home - tore out all the partitions, and made it work for the next 10 years. Now it was time to decide if I wanted to get heavily in debt and build a real building. May 1996, I signed a contract to purchase a steel building. After I signed the contract - the sales guy told me it would be about 6 months before the building would be delivered. ( They had a huge back log on their buildings.) I said '6 months - I can't wait 6 weeks!' I told the salesman I was going to make a trip to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to see the president of the company. I arrived in Muscle Shoals with "gifts." I met up with the president of the steel company and my youngest son, Donny presented the gifts. Actually - Donny got the ice, cocktail glasses, Jack Daniels and Crown Royal and bartended for us! Mr. Bigbee (the president of the steel company) said:'Beth, my secretary, will call you tomorrow morning.' Beth did call - my steel building arrived 5 days later! Now, getting the building constructed was another story. I opened for business the 13th of December, 1996. I thought I had lost the October, November, and half of December business. We "Rocked and Rolled" thru the last half of December and January and thru March. We had a great ski season! Our very dedicated customers waited, waited, and waited on us to open rather than make a purchase elsewhere. Why have we been so successful?? 1st: Our very dedicated customers. 2nd: Our very dedicated customers. 3rd: Our very dedicated customers. 4th: We carry a very large inventory, a great selection and variety of ski clothing. Our employees are (at least they are suppose to be) very knowledgeable about our products. I try to hire snow skiers and snowboarders. A skier or boarder can identify with the problems that our skiers/boarders might have. In the 25+ years that I have been in business, I may have had 2 or 3 non-skiers. My tune up/waxing shop: I have some of the same equipment that such ski areas like Vail, Aspen, and Jackson Hole has. It is some of the best equipment made - We tune a pair of skies or one's board to its precise specifications. I have over $100,000.00 of tune equipment. No - I didn't pay any where near that much for it. One of my customers knew how we strive to do the very best - told me of an auction where ski tuning equipment was being auctioned. I brought every piece of equipment that they had! Last - but not least: My 4 children: Many of my customers can remember when one or two Gilberts were young and in diapers around here. My children came to work with me whenever they had free time. They all learned to tune, wax skis and boards. Learned about the technical aspects of clothing. They grew up skiing and working in their Dad's shop. They never complained about working, They all know if I saved on labor costs - we'd ski somewhere out west come March! ( The 'child labor agents' never caught up with me either - hum ... I hope the statue of limitations are up on that! Again when I needed help the most - free help - my children were always there for me. 90% of the inside work that was done on my building - my two son's did it - and McCallie prep school didn't even have a woodworking class!! My clothing selection and styles: I'm color blind! My two daughters Kelley and Jonesy always chose the styles and colors. They started this when they were 8 or 9 years old. The last 4 years - Jonesy has probably done 95% of this. The success of this ski shop has been many many long hours, and lots of hard work - without my 4 children - I couldn't have made it! This was suppose to be a short 3 or 4 paragraphs on how we got started - instead - you all have a, not so short history of the 25 years of Dodge City Ski Shop. | 
