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Linking the Family and the Business
Andy grew up in a family business, as his parents served the community from their café and gas station along a rural highway in Campo, Colorado. Hours were long and profits were just enough to support the small family.
Irma was raised on a ranch in Utleyville, Colorado with three brothers and six sisters. Her father and brothers raised cattle and crops, and her mother and sisters cooked, cleaned, milked and fed the animals. Irma and her sisters became teachers, receiving their early education in a one room school where they returned to teach the next generation.
The drought in the 1930's made earning a living even more difficult so Andy and Irma moved to California, where Andy worked at a gas station, hauled building materials up and down the coast during World War II. When the War ended, Andy found himself making an empty haul from Oregon to California and decided to bring a load of Christmas trees that he could sell back home.
Andy rented part of an open lot in Pacoima, California from a septic system contractor, who befriended Andy, taught him the septic trade and eventually sold the septic business to Andy for $300. Thus the company was born and the values they learned in those early days became the foundation of the company that today bears his name, Andy Gump, Inc.