Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 53

tMitq North VOL. 5 NO. 25 North Hills Edition of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette MARCH 25, 1982 Page 17 Running store just natural for her jj wijwwwi.w.iwij iiwiwwmmjinf'iwju)iiij Wfc ot till ir -4 lis 'r I it "4 lit ilMI ill I -'-X A A I si LAV A I 1 i v-" I iA If 'Ah a By Lynda Guydon Post-Gazette Staff Writer If a small business is going to fail, it's often within the first, critical three to five years. Catherine Meyers, owner and operator of Nature's Garden, 307 Beaver Sewickley, knows the statistic. But she has no intention of becoming one.

Meyers, who will celebrate her third year in business in July, counts her blessings on being able to break even so far. "I'm proud of my store and what I've done. Most people don't last that long," says the 30-year-old. But there's no boastfulness in her voice, just an air of confidence. Confidence, friendliness and determination helped get her to where she is today.

The venture into natural foods and the business world developed by accident, she says. Meyers, who has glaucoma and is legally blind, had been taking a powerful diuretic, diamox. The drug left her moody, tired with weak muscles and cramps, and she couldn't figure out why. Later on, she discovered her body was being depleted of potassium. "I started doing a lot of reading, and that's how I got interested in natural foods," she says.

But at that time, she was a psychologist at Woodville State Hospital in Carnegie, working under a federal grant and realizing the job would not last forever. It also did not pay well, Meyers says. She considered corporate employment, but felt she wasn't suited for the structured atmosphere that it would entail. "My father is the one that said to me, 'Why don't you go to a Small Business Administration she says. "It was very worthwhile.

That's how I got interested." It was not long before she applied for and received a $5,000 grant from the state Office for the Visually Handicapped. Before receiving the money, she had to be evaluated by the Vocational Rehabilitation Center, a private, non-profit agency. The purpose of the evaluation was to determine if she could operate a business, Meyers says. Her limited sight, which prevents her from driving, has been the least of her problems and, in fact, Meyers takes offense at the suggestion that she is disabled. Meyers learned to be independent at an early age, thanks td her parents, who never let her limited sight in one eye and total blindness in the other become a handicap.

There are others whose sight is better, she says, but who she considers worse off because their parents tried to protect them. When she's not taking care of the business, Meyers says, she skis, of Nature's Garden, her natural-foods Bill Levis Post-Gazette store in Sewickley. Hometown songwriter Norman Saleet was in Butler this past weekend to promote his new album, "Here I Am." Home town still a high note in songwriter's life North brides, engagements uses molasses, which contains all the nutrients that have been removed from sugar. But she adds, there is the fad element to consider in natural foods. "Yon get fads and things that are way out, and I don't go for them.

I go for vitamins and supplements," Meyers says. No matter what is ingested into the body, it takes time to notice its effect. "Very seldom do you get a noticeable difference immediately," she says. Another matter to consider about natural foods is their expense. Many factors enter into the cost, Meyers says.

Most natural foods have a shorter shelf life. And it's cheaper to make foods with chemicals. Then, too, many natural foods are shipped in refrigerated trucks, adding to the cost. Although she has to take some loss and has been discouraged along the way, Meyers is optimistic about her career switch. "One of the biggest enjoyments in this business is the customers," Meyers says.

.1 Constance Vought Breeden School District, and her fiance is a salesman for the American Phar-maseal Division of American Hospital Supply Corp. A July wedding is planned. N. Hills Abernethy, Jesse John, 8 lbs. 3 son of Shannon and Barry of Bellevue.

March 13 Bucher, Kathryn Jane, 6 lbs. 4 daughter of Jane A. and James P. of Hampton. Beran, Christina Marie, 9 lbs.

11 daughter of Lorraine and James R. of Millvale. Chesebrough, Amber Lynn, 9 lbs. 1 daughter of Dottie and Dave of Sewickley. r'.

-2 i (' Mam percent of the customers personally because of the village personality associated with Sewickley. "I love living in Sewickley. I'm originally from Bethel Park and I've lived several places in between," she says. Her decision to live in Sewickley was a calculated choice. She had checked into mall locations, but found the rent prohibitive.

And neither were mall managers very encouraging, since she had no business experience, she says. But in Sewickley, she found the rent and the clientele quite suitable. Last year, Meyers counted 8,200 customers, which, according to a trade magazine she reads, is appropriate for the size of her store. Many of those who shop there enter with concerns about nutrition and foods in general. Most, who are concerned about salt, are customers who had never set foot in a natural-foods store before, she says.

Fat content of food and refined sugar also are on the minds of many customers. When she bakes, Meyers says, she Easter Seal Society. Her fiance, who attended Kent State University, is a student in the professional pilot program at Beaver Aviation and holds a managerial position with the Har-marville Holiday Inn. A spring, 1983, wedding is planned. Lisa Toni Davis to Alan Kendall Kulp.

Parents of the couple are Dr. and Mrs. Earle R. Davis of Fox Chapel and Mr. and Mrs.

John F. Kulp Jr. of Philadelphia. Lieutenants in the Navy Dental Corps and graduates of the University of Pittsburgh dental medicine school, the bride-to-be also received her undergraduate degree from that university and her fiance is a graduate of Juniata College. A military wedding in May is planned.

Mary Ann Speicher to David M. Kroll. Parents of the couple are Mr. and Mrs. Robert S.

Speicher of McCahdless, Anne C. Kroll of Mc-Candless and the late John A. Kroll. Graduates of the Pennsylvania State University, the bride-to-be is a kindergarten teacher in Edgeworth Elementary School, Quaker Valley Lawrence, Oliver Davis, 8 lbs. 13 son of Nancy and Bill of Cranberry.

Hassinger, Shannon Leigh, 7 lbs. 9 daughter of Diane and Dale of Richland. March 12 Dezort, Daniel William, 7 lbs. 12 son of Janice and William of Indiana. Schodde, Cathy Lynn, 9 daughter of Sandra and Carl Louis of Ross.

Catherine Meyers stacks the shelves swims, sails or runs. Running is a good tension reliever when the hassles of business get to be too much, she says. Some of those hassles have centered on her being a woman. Like many other women starting businesses, she faced the initial prejudice. Manufacturers wanting to sell goods would call and ask for Mr.

Meyers, she recalls with a smile. She soon tired of the phone calls, however, and told them that "Mr. Meyers" was in and out of the store all day. There have been other problems, like running out of stock and having to compete with large supermarkets. "In a small store, I can't compete with mass merchandising in price," Meyers says.

Instead, she offers courteous service and provides information customers can't get elsewhere. A customer walks in and Meyers asks, "How are you doing with your bee pollen?" She says she knows 'about 90 Chapel Episcopal Church. The Rev. James Dix officiated. Parents of the couple are Mr.

and Mrs. George Dancu of Fox Chapel and Mrs. Dennis Syphrett of Manassas, Va. Honor attendants were Michaele Varasso and Thomas Coonce. The bride, a graduate of Miami University of Ohio and Georgetown University, is a legal assistant in the law firm of Covington and Burling.

The bridegroom, a graduate of High Point College, is an investigator for the Montgomery County Office of Consumer Affairs, Rockville, Md. The couple will reside in Arlington, Va. Engagements Claire Carter McCance to Frederick Francis Denne III. Parents of the couple are Mr. and Mrs.

Pressly H. McCance Jr. of Denver, formerly of Fox Chapel, and Mr. and Mrs. Frederick F.

Denne of O'Hara. The bride-to-be, a graduate of Allegheny College and Clarion State College, is employed by the March 9 Fetzer, Alison Marie, 4 lbs. 13 daughter of Donna and Ralph of Ross. Kredel, Douglas Anthony, 6 lbs. 12 son of Mr.

and Mrs. Carl of Richland. Yoder, Samantha Lois, 7 lbs. 13 daughter of Gail and Gordon of Cranberry. Spagnolo, John Anthony 7 lbs.

7 son of Mr. and Mrs. John of Reserve. SALE 1 Mi Cook-Totten The Rev. Raymond Francis Tot-ten, uncle of the bridegroom, and the Rev.

George S. Crooks, uncle of the bride, performed the ceremony uniting Cynthia Ann Cook and Joseph Chester Totten Jr. in marriage Saturday in Sacred Heart Church. A reception was held at the Pittsburgh Athletic Association. Parents of the couple are Mr.

and Mrs. George McNary Cook Jr. of O'Hara and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Chester Totten of Point Breeze.

Honor attendants were Mrs. David Shiring Beachler and Nancy Ann Cook, sisters of the bride, and Gerard A. Totten, brother of the bridegroom. The bride, a graduate of Bucknell University, is employed by Mellon Bank. The bridegroom, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, is associated with C.L.

Totten Co. Dancu-Breeden A reception in Fox Chapel Golf Club followed the March 13 wedding of Constance Vought Dancu and Lawrence Alan Breeden in Fox By Jerry Roberts Post-Gazette Staff Writer Here I am Play in' with those memories again And just when I thought time Had set me free Norman Saleet Here he was, reliving the memories, letting them play with him this time. Last weekend, Norman Saleet was in the setting of his youth, Butler, cruising around the courthouse, bantering playful insults with his father and visiting friends. "This is a nice place to come back to," he said. "Things are a lot slower and more personal around here.

I wouldn't have wanted to grow up anywhere else." Soon, he will be in the fast lane again on a tour to promote "Here I Am," his first album. The single RCA Records is promoting from the album is "Hang On In," which will be released April 8. The title track, which Saleet originally wrote for Barry Mani-low, became a No. 1 hit in America last year on Billboard magazine's Adult Contemporary chart when it was recorded by the Australian group Air Supply. The LP also includes a duet with Yvonne Elliman called "High Cost of and a tribute to Brooke Shields called "Cover Girl." "I wrote Brooke that I did a song that was inspired by her," Saleet says.

"She called back and invited me to dinner around Christmastime with her mother at their home in New Jersey. We had a nice time." Saleet grins hugely and says he has "fallen in love with Brooke," but he is committed to his wife of 10 years, Butler native Judy Leventhal. It has taken Saleet, 33, eight years to reach the top of the heap. During that time, he changed the spelling of his name from Sallitt to Saleet: "People kept mispronouncing it, calling me stuff like He began playing the guitar at 15, created a local band, the Good Family, at 18 and began touring Western Pennsylvania clubs. In 1973, Saleet and the Good Family, a top-40 band, were' tiring after four years of Holiday Inn and bar gigs.

"I decided to order the Los Angeles yellow pages from Bell Telephone Co. to look for theatrical agents to send demonstration tapes to," Saleet says. "I picked the three agencies with the biggest display ads. "I sent off the tapes and about a month later one of them called while I was in the shower. A guy said he'd give us a contract.

We loaded up in a U-Haul the next morning, got there in five days and were playing three days after we arrived at the Ventura Holiday Inn." Three years would elapse before Michael and Wanda Sallitt again would see Norman and his brother, Michael who also was in the band. By the time he returned to Butler for a visit, his band broke up and, for the first time, he tried writing songs. Independent producer Ted Glasser began marketing the songs to established artists and within 18 months Saleet songs were recorded by Andy Williams, Vicki Lawrence, John Davidson and Pia Zadora. In 1978, Saleet won the grand prize in the Professional Top 40 category of the American Song Festival in Los Angeles for his song "Magic in the Air." Ironically, this song wasn't recorded until Saleet cut the album last fall. The award opened the doors for both song sales and recording opportunities.

Saleet signed with Portrait Records and cut three singles. "I felt like the recordings sounded really good and that I should take a shot at a bigger label," he says. "Then RCA signed me on the first try." In the meantime, his songs were recorded by other notables, including Art Garfunkle, Barry White, Andy Gibb, Debbie Boone and Bobby Vinton. "One day I walked in and met Jack Crago, president of RCA," he remembers. "He says to me, 'Norman, I'm one of your biggest It turns out he was one of the judges the year I won the award.

So RCA signed me to do an album." That was 1980. About the same time, he had sent "Here I Am" to Clive Davis at Aristar Records for a possible Manilow recording. "Two days later they put a freeze on the song. Then I didn't hear anything for a month. Then they called and said they want it for Air Supply, not Manilow." He already has firmed a deal with RCA for his second album, to be recorded this summer.

He is working hard to, as he puts it, "keep Saleet heat alive." He's trying to warm up to television. Last season he appeared brief- ly in two segments of "Happy Days" and he has taken acting classes at Charles Conrad Studios of Los Angeles. "I've always wanted to work with Gint Eastwood for some crazy reason," he says. Slated for his future are a guest appearance on the syndicated top-40 show "Solid Gold" and a possible emcee spot on a "Solid pilot show tentatively called "Body Beat" The Saleets have bought a home in the Sherman Oaks section of Los Angeles. "It has a swimming pool that I'm going to drain," he says.

"I want to paint black lines around the side like a staff and paint musical notes on it." That kind of paint has the sweet smell of success. It's even hard for his mother to fathom it all. "I can't get over she said. "It all happened so quick." Recent births announced in the Feb. 25 Gingrich, Sean Christopher, 7 lbs.

kVz son of Carol and Jim of McCandless. March 6 Johnston, Jennifer Lynn, 7 lbs. 4 daughter of Wendy and William J. of Penn. March 8 Maguire, Jessica Lynn, 8 lbs.

4 daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David of Franklin Park. SPRING CLEANING 10 OFF ON EVERYTHING March 24th thru March 27th Only. Help us clear our shelves for new items SAVG the spring suit see our exciting new suits, many styles and fabrics to choose from, sizes 6 to 18 fashion shows every wed noon SHERATON NOflTH.

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