If you have gone to the http://www.ifish.net/ thread, "G.I. Joe's Sighting," that was posted on 1-21, I'll bet you have seen the photo of a former Postal Annex in Hillsboro, with the large banner, "G.I. Joe's Coming Soon!" (The photos are in Comment #70 of that thread.)
What a match-up of history and present day! Dad started the original G.I. Joe's in a G.I. hospital tent in North Portland. Prior to that, he had sold army surplus sleeping bags from a rented fruit stand in North Multnomah County, or even beside the road, from a car or back of a pickup truck. The deal is, Dad did not have a store at first, or a perfect store later, he just wanted to get the merchandise out to customers by whatever means he could.
Well, look at the Postal Annex, and the startup of G.I. Joe's again. It isn't the perfect store for a startup, but you work with what you've got, just like Dad did back in the late '40s and early '50s. It is sort of like history repeating itself, and I am so happy.
So, I say to my brother and his three partners (I call them the "good guys" in my mind), "You go, good guys!" As the G.I. Joe's slogan said in the '70s, "Go for it!"
Posted by Janna Orkney, January 24, 2010
