1990 - Beezer works at The Trail Shop in Chapel Hill, NC as a clerk to make a little dough during school, and as a good way to meet the "cool" girls. Generally considered by store manger to be the most unmotivated hire in company history
1991 - Winter/spring - St John USVI - Beezer writes business plan on Pretlow's computer, in the back office of Big Planet as a device to stay out of Bars. Pretlow mails business plan to friend at Patagonia - Paul Marsh, and miraculously they support the idea of letting Beezer open a store in Downtown Charleston.
September 15, 1992 - Beezer makes one fundraising phone call to rich uncle Jim and asks if he wants to be 1/10 owner of the future Half-Moon for $100,000. Uncle Jim says "thank you, no, but I will take 25% for $40,000. Beezer says, "great, thanks".
Feb 13, 1993 - Half Moon Outfitters opens in downtown Charleston. Pretlow and Beezer go to Banana Republic and lure away their best and prettiest sales person - Kit. Wildlife Expo kicks off a week later and it is off to the races for Store 1.
September 1993 - Beezer receives extended eye contact from the Man in Black at a Highwaymen concert in Central Park.
October 1994- Greenville store opens. Lame location, poorly executed store. Beezer develops odd eye twitch. Meanwhile back at Store 1 - Blake doles out some "magic" chocolate chip cookies to unsuspecting co-coworkers, and one oblivious customer. Kit and Katherine spend the rest of the day on the floor of office excitedly discussing the world saving qualities of ceiling tiles. Beezer covers floor and waits on call from Police. Twitch gets worse. Oddly, Blake gets promoted.
Summer 1995- Clemson store opens - Ditto above for location and execution, the only good news was that this shop was an hour from the Chattooga River. So rather than putting head in sand, Beezer could put his head in the cool clear waters of the Five Falls.
Fall 1996 - Don gets hires as consultant. Clemson gets shut down. Greenville moves - things get better.
Fall 1997 - Store 3 opens in Mt Pleasant, SC. It is tiny and smells like dead shrimp, but successful.
February 2000 - Shop dog - Marley passes to the great hereafter.
November 2002- First warehouse is purchased, and back room workers and all stored goods move there for central distribution. Don plays trick on Warehouse boys by leaving large road-killed Raccoon on loading dock with note and cig hanging from the poor dead creature's mouth. It reads "Rocky says - 'thou shalt count the tee shirts properly.'" Warehouse boys pack up Raccoon and ship him to Mt Pleasant as if inventory. Joke doesn't go over that well. Buzzards circle for days thereafter.
April 15, 2003 - Store 4 opens in Columbia. Dad and Robert persuade Beezer to pull out drop ceiling exposing beautiful barrel vault. - Good Call.
April 2005- Jessica T says, "Here take it, and send the checks to this PO Box in Telluride, I am outtahere." And thus Store 5 was adopted in Savannah.
Dec 15th, 2006 - The Half-Moon warehouses, offices, and Internet store move to N. Charleston one day before employee ultimatum expires in which all warehouse employees were to walk out due to cramped working conditions.
January 27th, 2007 - Outdoor Retailer trade show - Dean Potter, Chris Sharma, and that Bulgarian dude put the hard sell on Beezer, Sara, Don and Brian to buy the demo climbing wall for a yet undersigned new store on the southwest side of Charleston. Beezer caves, and the signatures are there on the wall as proof.
May 17th, 2007 - Twelve home-schooled 6th, 7th and 8th graders while on tour of the new facility, put Beezer and Polly to the test when it comes to Green Construction and what the acronym LEED stands for.
2008 - The strangest, most intense, but oddly pleasant store roll out in history. Store 6 opens in Athens, Georgia in February. Store 7 opens in Virginia Highlands area of Atlanta in April. "El Ocho" the papa of all Half-Moons, opens in South Windermere shopping center in Charleston in October.
November 1, 2008 - The Venerable Mayor Riley cuts the ribbon, Hank Futch croons and the kids run amok at our first Grand Opening since 1995. One family, headed for dinner elsewhere spots the buffet, and throwing bows, fights for the pork trifecta every time a new one emerges from the oak oven. It almost comes to blows as Hugh and Justin attempt to bounce the hippy vagrants. Wachovia, Half-Moon's bank, flirts with insolvency, and everyone is pretty weirded out that Christmas season, but Santa always comes. The climbing wall is a hit.
