State worker, 90, needs a rocking chair
The press release which came across my desk from the Tennessee Department of Workforce Development said the state was preparing to throw a birthday party. The party was for the state’s oldest worker, a woman by the name of Flossie Tate – who is now 90 years old.
The birthday party took place Tuesday and members of the media were encouraged to attend. Personally, I would have loved to attend because I have one question I’d love to ask Tate. It would go something like this: “Lady, haven’t you ever heard of retirement?”
I know the Social Security Administration has recently bumped up the full retirement age from 65 to 67, but this is ridiculous. I say someone needs to give ol’ Flossie a rocking chair and a few good books and let her enjoy her golden years.
As for other odds and ends, I wanted to convey a neat story I heard Wednesday night during vacation Bible school at Unity Church of Christ. I’m not one who usually goes around reciting stories from the pulpit, but this is too good to pass up.
It’s the story of a small boy who wanted to know how much money his daddy made an hour. The daddy didn’t want to tell his son at first, but the child kept asking and asking.
Finally, the father gave in and he told the boy, “I make $20 an hour.” The child was impressed and quickly responded, “If you make $20 an hour daddy, can I borrow $10?”
The father was surprised initially and told the boy he couldn’t have the money. But, as children often do, the boy kept on and on and he bothered his father while he was reading the paper and trying to watch TV. After probably a dozen requests, the father finally gave in and gave the boy the $10 he wanted.
He responded with glee and immediately ran to his room. The boy soon reappeared in the living room with the $10 his daddy had just given him along with a piggy bank full of change.
“What’s all this?” asked the father.
“Well you told me you earned $20 an hour,” said the boy. “So I’ve got $20 right here. I want to buy an hour of your time.”
There’s not much you can say to such a story and that’s why I wanted to include it in Business Pulse. With so much emphasis on making money and getting rich, we can sometimes forget what’s really important and that’s our families.
In this time of war, I pray our soldiers will be able to return home safely and once again be with their families. And during the devastation to Iraq that America has so cutely named “Shock and Awe” like it’s some sort of new release video game, I also hope innocent Iraqi families aren’t destroyed.
But those are matters which are out of my control. What is in my control is this week’s Business Pulse so it’s time to get to work.
Hastings to open very, very soon
The word coming from Hastings Friday afternoon is employees are about 90 percent sure our local store is going to open this Monday. But that is not a certainty.
“We don’t want to commit to that,” said store manager Cory Smith. “We could have a water pipe break or we could have a car smash into the side of our building again. We don’t know what could happen so let’s just say we’re going to open sometime in the very near future.”
Cory made reference to a car smashing into the side of Hastings’ new building which was sort of a freakish accident. From what I understand, the car rolled down from the Ryan’s parking lot and rammed into Hastings. Unlike rumors I heard about gapping holes, the damage wasn’t that significant but the building will have to be repaired.
As for Hastings itself, the store is impressive. It’s packed full of all kinds of fun stuff from magazines to movies to all types of music.
“When people walk in, their first reaction is usually wow,” said Cory “A lot of people know about the books and the coffee shop, but they don’t know about all the movies and the music.”
When I walked in the store Friday afternoon, my first impression was wow. Store employees were busy scurrying around making the final preparations for the first day and they were even nice enough to take a second to let me fill out a video membership card so I can begin renting movies right away.
Probably more than anything else, I was impressed with the magazine selection. If you’re hunting for an obscure magazine, folks I’m here to tell you that you’ll probably find it at Hastings.
“We don’t have Critter World, but that’s one of the few we don’t have,” said Cory.
Hastings has added 35 jobs to the local workforce which is almost as many as the 40 employees Kmart officials said worked at our local store before it went out of business. As for the local competition, Cory says the addition of Hastings doesn’t necessarily spell bad news for existing stores.
“We might scare some of the little stores around here, but a lot of times we can peacefully co-exist,” said Cory.
Bargains await at Mason’s new store
When I saw the crowd of people inside the new store called Mason’s Wholesale and Retail, I knew there must be some good bargains to be had. I was right.
“I cut out the middle man and that’s one reason why I’m able to sell this stuff so cheaply,” said owner Stacy Mason. “I’m mainly wanting to sell in volume but I’m not going to turn down any customers. If someone comes in and only wants to buy one, that’s OK too.”
Mason’s Wholesale and Retail might be difficult to locate at first because it’s not in the traditional downtown shopping district, but anyone who is familiar with downtown shouldn’t have a problem. It’s located almost across from Security Federal’s downtown branch and it’s directly across from Willmore Ford’s old location.
Once inside Mason’s, you’ll find a little of everything. Stacy says some of his best-selling items are related to kitchen decor such as mugs and ceramic containers with apple and rooster designs.
“The women love this stuff,” said Stacy, who also indicated dolphin figurines, dolls, fountains, picture frames and fiber optic angels are also popular among the women.
For the men, there are tools – and lots of them. Stacy has cordless drills, angle grinders, hammers, screwdrivers and extension cords available, just to name a few. There’s also collector’s knives and Coco-Cola merchandise for sale.
“And we have a lot of American flags in,” said Stacy. “I don’t know how much people will want them during this war, but they sure were popular after 9-11.”
Mason’s Wholesale and Retail is family owned and operated. In addition to Stacy, his mom and dad, Marie and Louie, own the store along with his brother, Gary, and sister-in-law, Carla.
“Considering we haven’t done much advertising, we’ve done real well,” said Stacy. Store hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Mangrum has her rebate check bounce
Pigeon Hill Road resident Bonita Mangrum has been clipping coupons and sending in rebate checks for some time. In fact, Bonita says she’s been doing it for over 40 years.
And during all that time, Bonita has never received a rebate check by mail and had the check bounce – that is until this last week.
“I just thought that was an interesting bit of information,” said Bonita. “And people might want to be on the lookout because their refund check might not be good.”
Bonita said after buying some razors, she clipped the proof of purchase and sent a mail-in rebate to Pfizer, the parent company of the razor manufacturer. Bonita was eventually sent a $5.99 check, and she cashed it, but it was returned for insufficient funds.
That’s all folks
You better give me a call with those business tips soon because I’m not getting any younger and I’m sure not going to be working when I’m 90. The phone number is 473-2191 and the e-mail address is [email protected].