Last month we told you a little bit about Grandma. This month we are going to share a little with you about our Grandpa, Buddy Long. Buddy Long was born in 1927 to Chester and Geneva Long. Buddy grew up in the Hopewell, Oregon area before moving to Salem. After moving to Salem, he joined the Merchant Marines. Upon returning home he started selling hay and transporting it to Tillamook.
When the war was over, Buddy, his father and his brother started their business of selling used building materials. They would disassemble camp barracks and resell the materials. That’s how our world in the lumber business started!
In 1974 Buddy and his wife Janet started building Long Bros. Building Supply, Inc. in Woodburn. Back then it was known as L&L Building Supply. Grandpa and Grandma retired early in their lives and spent a lot of time in their motorhome traveling down south in the warmer weather during the winter. They stopped traveling with Buddy was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. We lost grandpa in 2009 to the disease. People still ask about him and Grandma is here often to visit with some of those customers that started coming in when the business started.
Although he is gone, we know he still watches over us. We are now on our Fourth Generation in this business and are excited about the new generations we see coming in with their parents to work on home projects.