Gene Colonna:  

I was on the Eastern Shore from High School graduation until March 7, 1969 when I entered the US Army. While I was in service my family moved back to Greenville, SC. My dad was from the Eastern Shore, my mom from Greenville, that's where we lived until February 1964 when we moved to Exmore. When I left the Army, I immediately began working in a Pizza Hut as a manager trainee in Greenville, SC. My dad worked for them also and he,was promoted to area manager about 9 months after I started. They told me I had to transfer to Georgia or resign, because my dad could not be my direct supervisor. So I move to manage a Pizza Hut in Gainesville, GA. I decided that I wanted to do something else, so I became a Deputy Sheriff for Hall County in Gainesville GA. After about 18 months as a deputy, my lifelong friend was promoted to Area Manager over all the Pizza Huts north of Nashville, TN. He started calling me every week trying to get me to come to work for him as a training manager working out of Clarksville, TN. I resigned as a deputy effective December 31, 1974. And moved to Clarksville, Tn. In less than a year, I was sent to Northern Alabama to Hire and develop Managers and key employees for five new Pizza Huts they were building in North Alabama. My first assignment was Florence, Al. I, moved there in December 1975. The store opened in February 1976, I was to remain there and continue to hire and develop Managers and key employees, until all the stores were completed and staffed. In March 1976, I met a beautiful girl Carole Joy (CJ), that worked in a pharmacy in the shopping center behind the Florence Pizza Hut. I asked her out and I guess you can say the rest is history. We got married on September the 24, 1976, 5 months after we met. And this September 2015, we will be married 39 years. I left Pizza Hut in November 1978 and bought in to a 2 store Sandwich and Deli operation, named Chicago Connection Delicatessen . Mainly because I was going to college early mornings and evenings. And the demands of my Pizza Hut position were not conducive to someone going to college. I, graduated from Northwest Alabama Junior Collage in 1980 and Graduated from, The University Of North Alabama with a Major in Accounting and Minor i...Expand for more