At the age at which most people are eagerly eyeing retirement, Robert (Bob) Lantzy was jumping out of it. Ten years later and standing behind the counter at Mountain Man Nut & Fruit Co. in Old Colorado City, Bob looks a decade younger than his 72 years.
Bob let me have the only seat in the store; he leaned against the wall, starting conversations with everyone.
“When you come in here, it’s like you’re coming into my home,” he said. “I just want you to feel welcome.”
Bob’s story starts in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he grew up on a dairy farm.
“It was very laid back, we wore flip flops to school,” he reminisced. “But my dad was a taskmaster; I’d be milking cows and clearing up pig pens. I raised a grand champion steer at the State Fair when I was 12!”
When he was 14, the family left for San Jose, California, where Bob graduated high school in 1970. He credits the Air Force, however, for really helping him to grow up.
“The Air Force took an arrogant 19-year-old kid and made him into an adult,” he recollected. “A lot of discipline, a lot of fellowship, a lot of positivity.”
He thrived in being part of a team and traveling from Washington to England, Texas to Nebraska. Now a commissioned officer, he met his wife, Rayetta, and retired in Colorado Springs in 1991. Though he started another business, Rocky Mountain Sports Officials, and worked as a project manager in other companies, he decided to retire at the young age of 59.
I am blessed with great employees, a very patient wife and a growing business
“I was so bored after four years of retirement!” Bob exclaimed. “My wife was working for the Chamber of Commerce at the time and someone had called asking if anyone wanted to take over a small business. She thought of someone: her husband!”
The Mountain Man Nut & Fruit Co. is headquartered in Parker, Colorado.
“I didn’t have any experience of retail, but I decided to take the store on as a franchisee,” Bob said.
The first few months were a rollercoaster of emotions, new business, holiday season, and trying to learn how to make gift baskets all at the same time. There wasn’t enough time in the week to get everything done. “Then January hit and reality started to sink in and I started doubting myself – had I made a good investment after all? My wife talked me through it. She said to wait for the summer, when tourists come and kids are off school. She was right.”
Bob now enjoys the ebb and flow over the seasons.
“I am blessed with great employees, a very patient wife and a growing business, which survived my basket making techniques!” he said.
Bob credits the quality of the products for his success.
“It’s roughly 95% from Colorado. We have coffee from Woodland Park, candy from Pueblo, and Ugly Dog Salsa from just down the street,” he said.
So will Bob ever go back to retirement?
“Someday!” he said with a twinkle in his eye.
Special for our readers: The first 20 customers who ask Bob the name of his bear will receive a 10% discount on a purchase at Mountain Man Nut & Fruit Co.
Get out and go:
2514 W Colorado Ave #103
Colorado Springs, CO, 80904
719-635-9880
10 a.m.-6p.m. daily