We had a couple of typewriters. We had a black and white copy machine. We nicknamed it useless. You know, whatever you're doing at Barron Heating today, imagine doing it without a cell phone, without an iPad, without being able to email or text. We didn't even have a fax machine when I first started. Barron Heating & Air Conditioning was established in nineteen seventy two by my grandpa Dan and my grandma Vivian Barron. John's parents, Dan and Vivian, I think they set the tone. If I could describe my dad in a term, it would be that indomitable spirit. And his work ethic was unparalleled. He was estimating the jobs, he was selling the jobs, he was laying out the jobs, he was even out there installing a lot of the jobs. Dan had a very booming, deep voice. He'd point at a fireplace and say, Yeah, that's a good one in his deep voice. And the people, he said, It's a good one. It's like the voice of God talking to him. Let's buy it quick. Vivian was very loved by all employees and their families. She was a receptionist, a damn good one, I might add. She was also like the second mom to every employee there. She was really the glue that held the company together. Vivian was very special and dear to my heart. I get emotional even speaking about her. She took interest in everyone, no matter what position you were, and would want to get to know you more than just work. It was such a great contrast between them. Vivian was, you know, so sweet and nice, and then the buck stopped with Dan. And that's where they worked so well together. It was like the peas and carrots kind of thing. With my dad having the drive, the determination to never quit, to never stop, that resilience that he had. And then to have my mom's people ness about everything being about people, always being about people. And that care about people carried through to how they did business. I believe it's one of the main reasons why we exist today, fifty years later, is because of the fact that they lived a people verse core value. I was hired by Dan Barron in late nineteen seventy nine. The country was in the midst of a pretty deep recession at that time. During the recession, truthfully, Dan Barron would have been a whole lot better off if he had just bankrupted out of the company like so many others had done. The employees would have been out of a job and his creditors would have been left holding an empty bag. Dan did not do that. He would not do that. In fact, I don't think he could do that. It just wasn't in his DNA. Those years had a profound impact on John and I. I would call those years Professor Dan's six year course in Leadership one hundred and one. The recession, it did finally subside. We finally got back to some profitability. And instead of going out and buying a new car or trying to rebuild his personal bank account, Dan Barron took all the profits and just reinvested them back into the company. Better trucks, better equipment, better tools, better training, better employee benefits. To me, the litmus test for success when we're looking back and looking at growth is did we help our team members achieve their dreams and goals? I've been with Barron for twenty plus years. One of the biggest reasons why I've stuck around so long is, you know, the Barron culture, the family vibe that you get there. This really is like a family. Like they really want to take care of their people and they really want to take care of their customers. And it really is a whole package of we're a community as well and we take care of each other. I remember even before I started working at Barron Heating, obviously dad was there. I remember getting Christmas presents from Dan and Vivian every year. Even though, you know, there's so many different divisions, you're still pretty close with all the divisions that you're in. Barron is very special, not only just as an employer, but a place where you can grow professionally, grow intellectually, and outside work too. Being able to be an apprentice and then move into your own truck and then start leading your own jobs, they always wanted me to grow, to be more, and always helped me become a better person because of it. There's people that have worked in warehouse that are now licensed electricians. So I think there's a great team effort there to make sure we all succeed and we all get what we need to do and take care of our customers. I mean, it's helped me do everything that I've ever wanted to do in my life. It really has. There came a time when my dad actually confided in me. He said, you know, things are going well with the business, but I'm not enjoying it like I did. And that was really the turning point right then. Bill and I put together a plan with my dad and mom, and we bought the business in nineteen ninety eight. And as we came into the late 90s into the early 2000s, we started realizing that the kind of work and how we could really separate ourselves was in that retrofit replacement work. When John and Bill took over the business, it seemed to me things got a lot busier. After forty years of serving HVAC customers, we made a decision that we wanted to lean in to what our customers were asking of us. And that was the ability to provide them with services that were beyond heating, ventilation and air conditioning. So we started to look at things like electrical and plumbing, really what we call the whole home approach at Barron Heating. And today, twenty twenty one, we now have seven licensed electricians. One of the other areas that we knew we needed to grow in was plumbing. Customers asked for plumbing. We decided to deliver those services. We have now grown to six licensed plumbers and are excited to continue to grow. Back in twenty seventeen, we had eighty employees. And today in twenty twenty one, we have one hundred and seventy five employees. You know, Dan Barron was a firm believer in reinvesting back into his business. And John and I follow that same path, reinvest, grow, reinvest, grow. Brad and John and Brooke, they're continuing in that reinvest, grow mode only they're doing it on steroids. Looking back on our growth over the last five years and the addition of electrical and plumbing, I could not be more excited for the future as we look forward to being able to provide our customers with services around our home performance umbrella. As we look to the future, we are going to take that fifty years of knowledge that my grandfather and my father and now myself have learned, and we are going to grow. And I have no doubt that we will be successful because of our history as we look to the future. I know they'd be proud of John and Bill and now Brad as they continue to make sure that both their employees and their customers are always well cared for. It's been a lot of fun. It's been us going from really small to where we're at now. Feels good. Feels good to be a part of something like this. Something big. Happy fiftieth anniversary, Barron Heating. Love you guys. That was perfect.