Rise and fall of a family business.

Finally, the head of the family and the glass hut called a family meeting, and laid out the problem and the solution. It had happened before to the family, once when they moved away from the Black Forest in Bavaria, many generations ago, and once here in the Jizera Hory, four generations ago. Then they just abandoned the house and glass hut and started again in the present location. But now, the forest was too far away, the roads were becoming impassable in the winter, and it wasn’t profitable to invest in repairing the road to the forest edge. And the village was too small to survive. He had spoken to several families and businesses in the village and they were willing to relocate with him and his glass hut to the new location. Now his bombshell announcement made sense. His secretive absence two weeks previously with four leading men of the village, the severe frown on his face. The boys were stunned, but excited. New adventures awaited them. The girls were shocked, and distraught. Two of the sisters had suitors calling on them, and now they were going away? Like all teenagers, throughout the ages, they were being dramatic. Their lives as they knew it were over. Their father sternly told them to get over it, the decision had been made. They were the leading family of the village, and this was for the good of the community. They were leaving just as soon as the new glass hut and furnace was built. Their mother had no opinion to add to the discussion. Everyone realized that around the village this news was being released. Everyone would be in turmoil.

A team of carpenters was dispatched to the new site and the glass hut was built. Along with the house for the family and a barn for the cow. The same thing was being done by all the families who were relocating with them. Soon, it was done, and they moved in. Ox carts laden with glass rods, metal buckets of chemicals and pliers, tools of all sorts, dishes, chicken hutches, livestock, furniture, all the things that collected over the years to be a part of their lives were loaded onto the carts and trundled off to the village. Half the people were excited, half were traumatized. The new village didn’t even have a name yet.