Friday, July 02, 2004

Feed & Seed & Fertilizer sales

I worked at a feed store when I was in college and I loved every minute of it... well maybe not every minute. I remember having pucker factor a couple of times when they'd send me up to Beatty's in Cleveland to pick up fertizler. Why would that be scary? because we had a 3/4 ton Chevy van to haul it with and I would usually pick up six tons and drive the thirty odd miles back to the feedstore with the old van groaning and creaking every mile. How we did it without popping the tires I'll never know.

I would tell people (only half jokingly) that I was a fertilizer salesman. I had an english teacher who thought that was the funniest thing she's ever heard in her life. She once told me that I was still a fertilzer salesman, but of a verbal sort.

The feedstore is closed now, but I'm really surprised they stayed open as long as they did. They only shut down when one of the brothers that owned was diagnosed with cancer. He passed within a few months. I think he missed going to the store every day.

I think the only reason they stayed the last few years was because of the customers. The store had been there since the twenties and many of the customers were old folks who had never traded anywhere else.