Our First 62 Years!

We are very excited that our business is 62 years old.  We have many fond memories  and we want to share a few with you.

The stories of the early days at 3rd and Wells are oral tradition at this point.  Carl and Audrey Roeming started the business in the fall of 1955 with a box of packing and a promise from Ladish Company to buy their hydraulic packings from us.  Sandy, their daughter, was a preschooler and David, their son, was a brand new baby.  Their house was even fuller.  It also included their dog and her new puppies.  What were they thinking?

We have heard the stories of the secretary that worked in the office with Carl.  Audrey did the book keeping at home where she was taking care of her little ones and the puppies.  Milwaukee was a different city then and Carl would go down to a corner pool hall at lunch for a game with vendors or a close friend.

Moving to Brown Deer was such a big deal.  We had an office space and what we thought was a huge warehouse.  When Carl passed on in 1975, Dave came home from college to help Audrey and Sandy.  He was home for a semester and then went back to finish his degree.  Sandy and Audrey were able to do everything, including cutting V-packing for customers.  It took both of them holding the spirals to make sure they had a clean cut, but they did it!!!  Dave started working full time when he graduated in 1977 and Mary and Brian came on board in 1979.
 
At our Brown Deer location, we made lunch in the back room and had a lot of potlucks with the five of us.  Sandy's daughter, Sarah, was born while we were in Brown Deer, and Gregg and Daniel followed 4 years later, 5 days apart!  To say our little office was full is an understatement.  We had pack-n- plays next to our desks and diapers were changed ON our desks.
 
Moving to our current location meant spreading out!!  We had a playroom just for the kids, and we added Elizabeth Roeming to the mix.  The kids played inside and outside and we tried to work around the edges.  We were growing fast and added a huge warehouse to our building in just nine years. 
 
We learned a lot throughout the years.  When Audrey passed on, Mary took over the accounting.  When Dave passed on, his son, Daniel, joined us and took on Dave's accounts.  When Gregg graduated from college, he joined us and has been invaluable as support for our sales staff.  Having our sons here has been wonderful.  And having Daniel's children, Lucy and Brady, with us before they started school added another generation.  Daniel has now gone on to work fulltime in his own Real Estate business but the rest of us are still here.  We are truly a family business!!
 
We feel so grateful for the past 62 years and look forward to many more.  The faces have changed, people have come and gone, but the family has remained and is growing stronger all the time.  We have wonderful employees that make our growth possible.  But none of this could have been possible without our amazing customers, so we thank you all for making this possible.