Reynolds Optical

It's hard to believe that our modest optical shop has served the Portland community for almost 100 years...! In 2006, in cooperation with the Oregonian we ran a series of ads highlighting just some of the many people who have graced our business and our lives over the years. Here is a recap of the 11 individuals featured in those ads, we hope their stories will inspire you as they inspired us.

It was 25 years ago when our next subject had one whopper of a vision. His name is Rob Nelson and he didn't know it then but he was about to make sports and confectionery history.

Rob was then a minor league ballplayer for the Portland Mavericks. Sitting in the right field bullpen, Rob wished he had something to chew on. Not a tobacco user as was the common practice amongst ballplayers in those days, he longed for a bit of gum to pass the time. Watching his fellow team mates dip into their pouches of tobacco, an idea hit him. What if there was a pouch of shredded chewing gum for players like him who didn't need the nicotine. You guessed it, that's the moment Big League Chew was conceived. Together with fellow team mate, Jim Bouton, Rob outlined his ideas for the product and began pitching it (pun intended). It was quickly recognized as a home run by the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company and thus was born one of life's little no-brainers. 450 million pouches later, Rob is still proudly handing out packets of shredded gum to ballplayers as an alternative to chewing tobacco.

Rob first stopped into Reynolds Optical a few years back after seeing a baseball display in our store in NW Portland. He got to gabbing with Jill about baseball and revealed his claim to fame. While he was there he picked up a pair of specs and has been a loyal customer ever since. Rob has a relaxed attitude, an easy smile and an

infectious laugh. We are always glad when he stops in the store and not just for the pouches of gum he brings us. Today, Rob spends his time in Portland with is wife Sarah and three children. As a way of giving back to the community, Rob sets aside three weeks every summer to run a baseball camp for kids back on Long Island where he and his two big brothers grew up. Next summer, the Li'l Mavericks Baseball School (which Rob created in 1975) will return to the city of roses! Ever the idea man, Rob has his fingers in lots of pies including helping design an automated baseball pitching machine and creating his own board game which he calls BOLLOX. BOLLOX is a two person strategy game similar to Tic Tac Toe which recently won the MENSA award for best new game of the year.

In the upcoming year Big League Chew will be hiding an "Iron Ticket" in one of the many pouches of chewing gum across the country. The lucky child who finds the ticket will win an all expense paid trip for him or her along with four friends to Coopers Town, New York. There they will receive a V.I.P. tour of the Baseball Hall of Fame on the same weekend that baseball's Iron Man Cal Ripkin will be inducted into the Hall. Rob is just another example of how Portlanders have left their foot print across the cultural landscape of America. Thanks for the memories and the bubbles!

Big League Chew website