The Wisconsin Magazine; 2nd Childhood (pizza Gal); 1318

[Beep.] Tell me when. Stop, stop, stop. It makes you young to know you're doing something. I opened it so that I had something to do rather than play golf and the boating and the traveling and the whole bit. I was a little bit tired of crocheting and knitting, and I did that for each one of my grandchildren. Now it's time for, to have some different diversions. Ten years ago at age 61 Carmen Jones needed a diversion. She chose pizza. At a variation on a pizza business, she and her husband Jus Jones ran in the 1950s. Today at 71 she has 30 diversions, 30 franchise outlets dotted through the Midwest. Amid the fast food explosion of the 1980s, her diversions are now worth several million dollars in sales of the "we make 'em, you take them home and bake them" variety pizza, all an idea born of boredom and a small Wausau storefront that opened without a name. In some order

gentlemen come in and said "Jus Jones, Jus and Carmen, what are you doing here?" We're running a pizza business. Well, I thought you retired. What are you, a couple of kids? I said sure, we're a couple kids. This is kids corner. The pizza, it brings out the kid in you. Pass more cheese around. Ok. Yeah, get it around in the foreground. I'm gonna flash this stuff. This day, the staff of Kids Corner is at Third Eye Photography, a photo studio in Middleton making posters of their pizzas for the franchise owners. As expected, Carmen Jones is there to supervise. These are the professionals here. They know what they're doing. I'll make the pizza for them. Because promotion is mouth to mouth, person to person. Quality is what we're known for, and the gourmet pizza. Like one little boy said it makes his nose sing. Sauce it up!

And I'll work on... Working in the photographer's kitchen, Carmen's hands-on business philosophy becomes apparent. Working for the right portrayal of her personalized recipes. We're going to need more of this now do you? I don't think so, no. You're very careful. You think of yourself when you think about the kinds of pizzas you're making. That's right. This is the one that I'll take home. You're very, very health conscious. Oh, I have to be. Otherwise, you see, I wouldn't be able to get around. I have those very, not very well at one time. Carmen says her return to health is directly related to keeping busy, and in the kitchen with her, keeping just as active is her vice president and chief executive officer. How did you get drawn to pizza? ...was a successful business woman in her own right, when her mother's business grew to need more help. though she mostly handles the management of the company she shares Carmen's personal touch business

attitude. I think if you have a business that you want to be successful that is a good portion of it you have to have that hands-on. You have to be willing to get out there and do what needs doing. You have to know what goes into it. You can't just sit back and let someone else do it and expect it really to be a success. And that's the fun part. If you can't do something you enjoy, why do it? You sound like your mother. Well I got my philosophy from somewhere, huh? If you can do what you like to do, you enjoy it, you're going to be happy with it and you're going to be successful. But if you do something just because you think you should be doing it, uh... That is what life's all about. You want me to put it in my mouth or do you want me to... After the photo session, the props are consumed. One of the perks of Carmen's choice of a second career.

Do you get the feeling you're part of a trend? I think so. You know after you have lived just so long, you've had all these experiences in your life. You're free, you're you've raised your family, you see that they're on their own and they're having their thing they're doing. Well you're free to start a different type of life. Make you feel smug. Carmen's personal touch strikes again as she prepares to make pizza at the Madison store under the equally careful eye of Tony Bruschka, Vice President in charge of franchising and Carmen's son. 30 stores now. What do you expect in about five years, maybe? Oh lord, I think I'm not good at predictions but if things are going the way they are we could have 100 to 200 stories in five years. Optimism seems to run in the family. Tony, like his sister joined up with Kids Corner when the business grew beyond one woman's reach. Yet you get the continuity. You know where the company is going, and you know that it's going to be

a company years from now, and the consistency will be there. That's one of the big advantages of family-owned business. It's hard to get fired by the boss, but on the other hand you can't talk back for a while either. You can't talk back? Hahaha! And then we have our mushrooms. Put a great big heaping cup full on there. You know, it's such a wonderful feeling that you're achieving, you've seen something grow. Carmen Jones and her diversions have beaten the statistical odds. At 71, she has her health and her success. Like the growing number of older entrepreneurs, Carmen Jones is testimony that continued health and success can go hand in hand just like second careers and second childhoods. Are you a kid? Well sure I am! You're a kid? That's right. Anyone's a kid that has, that feels like one. If you feel young, if you feel like you want to do something, probably, it's not quite what everyone else thinks you should do.

I still think it's a kid. I think that's what kids do. Right?