There’s no Place Like Home

In my office sits a house-shaped box with the phrase, “There’s no place like home” from the classic movie Wizard of Oz.  It was given to me by a colleague who wished to remind me of the attributes of our organization.  I appreciate it very much.

When I consider the phrase, it unravels like a well-wrapped present.  For me, the phrase inevitably recalls our company’s interesting name “Home Paramount”.  There’s no place like home and there’s certainly no place like Home Paramount.

Home Exterminating Company was founded in 1939, coincidentally the same year as the release date of the Wizard of Oz.  The pest control industry was in its infancy at that time, which saw the development of both pest control application equipment and synthetic pesticides.  In pre-war post-depression 1939, pest control was an imperative to protect a limited food supply. 

From a farming family, Home Exterminating’s founder, Walter Tilley, Sr., knew about crops and insects and equipment.  And so he joined the industry.  Fumigation and other techniques that we consider highly specialized now were relatively easy for him, in a time when ingenuity and common sense reigned supreme.  And he offered a new service to homeowners – professional pest management or home exterminating (hence the name).  It was a risk but a wise one – the pest management industry is now valued at $7 billion.

The story continues, and somewhere in the middle Home Exterminating joined with Paramount Termite Control and became Home Paramount.  It seems to me that there are fewer and fewer companies like us left – family-owned and operated with deep roots in our industry and in the communities that we serve.  Our history sets us apart and today’s team keeps us moving forward with the industry and with our clients.

I am very glad that “home” remains in our name.  It serves as a helpful reminder of the great privilege and responsibility of providing much-needed services in a home.   The long-held the American dream of owning a house and setting down roots is still enormously important and we continually look for ways to improve the comfort of that home and the convenience of our service. It particularly hits home for us this week.  Thanksgiving is the great migration back to our roots, back to the familiar warmth of hearth and home.  We are part of the effort to sustain and protect the emotional and financial investment that people make in a house.  We are there to help.

There’s no place like home and we try to remember that every day.