I felt it was time for you, our customers, to get to know just who we are at ABC. Many of you recognize familiar voices when you call, but that's all. I want to change that and give you a more personal look at our dedicated employees and our company.
ABC was opened in 1945 by a retired Navy pilot in El Cerrito. He converted his garage into a laundry with a washing machine and a small dryer. After about 17 years of doing local deliveries, he decided to "really retire." He had about 60 customers and it was becoming "work" to run his business.
This is when my family stepped in. My dad, Ray O'Kane, was the general manager of a chain of diaper services, including one in Chicago, Illinois called "Baby's Valet." The Chicago plant was a huge four-story plant where every floor did a certain operation, such as washing on the 4th floor, drying on the 3rd packaging on the 2nd and loading on the 1st floor. I used to go in with my dad on the occasions he worked on Saturday. I would run around from floor to floor, sliding down laundry chutes and having a great time.
My dad heard about the El Cerrito operation from the owner of Didee Wash in San Francisco, and before you know it, our family was on a train to El Cerrito. I was 10 years old at the time, and when I first saw the "garage" my dad had bought with every penny he had, I almost died. I didn't understand how my dad could trade in the "plant" for the garage. The whole family would spend weekends sending literature and doing "whatever" to get the business going.
By 1965, we were large enough to move to our current location in Berkeley. I went on to college after spending every high school vacation washing hampers and filling in for drivers and washpersons' vacations. I graduated in 1975 from San Diego State and decided to work at ABC with my mother and father. The business continued to grow but in 1988, my dad suddenly got ill and died from a brain tumor. For many people it is hard to work in a family business, but my dad was a great father and a great friend. I admired him and loved working with both him and my mother.
Copyright © 2003-2008
ABC Diaper Service
