2 looking back forty years ago Wiscasset ME

Forty years ago when Grapevine Auto and Tire went up for sale, an out of towner, Keesha Orne Jewett bought the business. Keesa told the relator that she liked the location over on RTE 1 near the Ford dealer. She cleared everything out, paved the property and opened a showroom for that electric carbon fiber SUV, the Carbonado X/C.

They signed the purchase contract over lunch at Sarah's. They ordered the Mashed Potato Pizza and coffee, service was slow, but they weren't in a hurry. As Keesha looked over the paperwork, she noticed the Canadian dog breeder, what is this?

Well, it is part of the business. Apparently there is some Intuit blood in the family some ways back. They specialize in pulling dogs, sled, I don't know the details, but they use German Shepherds instead of Malamutes, but of course the Huskies bring the speed.

Where is it?

Not sure, somewhere in Eastern Maritime Canada, I could try to look it up on my phone, Rankin Inlet, looks like a lot of water. Anyway, you have a silent partnership. Some lady named Tootega runs the operation and owns all the dogs, you have the land they run on as well as any buildings, which, I expect, aren't worth much.

A gentleman named Mark came up and introduced himself, "I trust you enjoyed your pizza - I know you had to wait a bit, we have a lunch time rush, we call it red light, green light, especially in high season."

Keesha replied, "The pizza was great, I make one that is gluten free when I have friends of that persuasion over.  Anyway, we weren't in a hurry, thank you for spotting the two of us a four person table so we could spread our things out."

And so it was that Grapevine became OJ's Carbonado, sled dogs and all.

Most locals, which included anyone from hundreds of kilometers around were skeptical of a "one model" dealership that didn't take trade ins. However OJ's had an articulation agreement with the Carmax in Damariscotta so it all worked out. And at the time this was the only Carbonado dealer in New England so if you wanted to test drive one and didn't want to get in an airplane, Wiscasset was your best bet; you could always stop and eat at Red's.

The business started slow, but it continued to grow and as they expanded into all things carbon fiber, body repair, they even started building small boats. It wasn't long till a carbon fiber fencing dealer opened up shop and everyone dreamed of a boat yard, a real live boat yard producing 15M yachts or even larger. It would happen, but that was on down the road.

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