Our Story...
as told by Al Thompson
Marilyn and I grew up and still live in Story County, Iowa. We've been married for thirty seven years during which time we have raised three sons.
About Marilyn
Over the years Marilyn has been everything from a stay at home mom to an assistant to a local small animal veterinarian. She has now settled into her present position at a local restaurant and works as a day cook on a ¾ time basis. This leaves time in her schedule for her many other interests such as: the three visits a week to an exercise gym and twice a week aquatic workouts along with her eighty three years "young" mother. Marilyn is hopelessly hooked on the daytime soap "Guiding Light". She has a love of animals and it's safe to say she has never met a dog she hasn't liked. In the 1980's she owned, and operated an AKC registered kennel that specialized in Shetland Sheep Dogs (Shelties). At present her favorite dog breed is Bichon Frise.
Marilyn has a fascination with the lifestyle and collects all things Amish. We have visited many Amish communities around the country. Her other hobbies include crocheting, reading, gardening and shopping. She is also a faithful Soccer Grandma and never misses a Saturday morning game.
About Al
In our family Marilyn retains the title of "Master Baker", while I hold on to my self-proclaimed "Best Cook In The Family Award", because after all I was trained to be a 1st Cook at the highly acclaimed "Five Star" US Army Cook School in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri in 1966.
Marilyn and I were married in August of 1968. By then I had gone into a family partnership landscape business with my two older brothers where I remained for the next 16 years until the local economy had a down turn in the early eighties. In 1984 I went to work for the City of Ames Parks and Recreation Dept. Maintenance Division.
Soon after, I was promoted into a Parks Specialist Position and have truly enjoyed my twenty two years of public service. I really consider myself extremely lucky to have a job where I look forward to getting up each morning to see what the new day ahead will bring. My most favorite professional accomplishment: initiating and coordinating one of the most successful city beautification programs in the country. This program includes in excess of two hundred and fifty volunteers, over fifty beautiful park flower gardens (and still growing) throughout the City of Ames. With annual plantings of over 20,000 donated bedding plants and perennials. In 2005 our program was recognized by the national publication of "Birds and Blooms". I have achieved so much satisfaction in life, knowing that I have made a difference in our community and have given back to the best of my ability.
How Spice Rax came to be
Several days before Christmas in 2003 the Master Baker was getting her ingredients together for her annual holiday baking and Christmas cookies were first on her agenda. Flour, butter, eggs, milk, powder sugar, salt, vanilla and cream of tartar were among the items needed. Everything was easy to find with exception of the cream of tartar. If memory serves me correctly, I was instructed to look in the cupboard for the elusive cream of tartar, after several minutes of rummaging through the disarray of spice containers we came to the conclusion we were all out. Marilyn then set off to the big city to retrieve the missing ingredient and I come up with the brilliant idea of building a spice rack to eliminate the mess in our kitchen cupboard. Little did I realize what was about to transpire! At that time I really didn't set out to build a carousel style spice rack. My goal was to build a flat spice rack to hang on a wall much like a picture frame. It would be made up of open lengths of channels that would feature snap-in/snap-out retention and would hold spice manufacturer's containers directly off grocery store shelves (the kind of plastic spice containers everyone uses on a regular basis).
Starting out I noted the smaller spice containers measured 1-½ inches outside diameter. I decided my first prototype would be made of PVC plumbing pipe that had an inside diameter of 1½ inches. In my workshop I cut about a dozen 10-inch lengths of pipe and sawed about half of them length-wise on my table saw. I then scooped them up and headed to the kitchen counter, pulled up a stool, snapped some spice containers into the freshly cut open-sided pipes (channels) and begin shuffling them around like checkers, to my surprise I soon realized that 6 of the channels fit perfectly around an un-cut pipe, a carousel? Bingo! By the time Marilyn arrived back home I had my first prototype assembled ready for her inspection. Her reaction was "where did you ever come up with this crazy idea?" I could see it intrigued her.
Within several hours my all-new concept of spice storage was born! I quickly came to the conclusion that this new carousel could accomplish things no other spice rack currently on the market could. It could be utilized on a counter-top, mounted on a wall vertically & horizontally or installed under a kitchen wall cabinet and even be used on an ordinary kitchen paper towel holder. I knew on that wintry December afternoon in 2003 this idea was so fresh, unique and original it deserved a Patent. Over the past couple years I have been tinkering and refining the different designs of my invention to the point that I am now ready to sell to the world. We've named our new company SpiceRax Inc. and now have a Patent Pending.