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May 09

Pleasant Memories

I received a phone call from out of the blue that stirred so many good memories of my start in the door and hardware industry.

I owe my career to Pat Wright and the Pleasants Contract Hardware team.  I started as a temporary receptionist for the Tampa, Florida branch.  One day while very new to the job, I took a message from an upset customer and wanted to help.  The problem was I had no idea what the customer was asking for.  So, I made the fateful trip into Pat’s office and asked “what the heck is an astragal?”  Pat took that question as general interest in the industry and as they say, the rest is history.

I soon began typing up hardware schedules for our sales team, Dan Winter, Joe Harrell and Bob Gans.  Early in my employment with Pleasants, Pat asked if I would be willing to spend a couple of months training at Pleasants’ corporate branch.  Of course, I said yes and my then 3 year old daughter (now 19) and I spent two months living in a corporate apartment in Winston-Salem, NC.  I spent those two months learning to detail shop drawings and hardware schedules.

Training didn’t stop there.  I was encouraged to participate in DHI educational classes and through my years at Pleasants attended AH1, AH2 and AH3.  I am grateful to Pleasants for investing in my future.  It was a wonderful feeling knowing that my manager had trust and confidence in my abilities and a plan for me, even when I didn’t.   I held many positions during my 10 years there.

Pleasants Contract Hardware was an excellent company to work for.  Every year the Executive team, Ed Pleasants, Chuck Hummel, Sam Smoak and Ginny Cole, would travel to each branch for an annual presentation and review.  It made you truly feel like a member of a big team, all working together toward the same goal.  I will never forget the personal hand written note cards Ed Pleasants would send for birthdays and employment anniversaries.  It was especially nice to get one from Chuck Hummel for a job well done!  It was those cards that made you feel like the member of a family.  I still have all of them.

I also credit Pleasants with meeting my best friend, Ginny Powell.  But that is a blog post all on it’s own!

There are two specific events that I remember vividly.  The day Pat Wright notified us of his intention to transfer to another branch and the day we were all told Pleasants had been sold.  I stayed through the first two ownership changes, but am happy to say that I was not involved in the final demise of what was once a generous, successful and thriving family business.

Thank you Pat for calling me out of the blue just to say hey.   I enjoy reminiscing about what those of us who still keep in touch refer to as “the good old days”.

(see Ginny’s post on Pleasants @ http://acrackeddoor.blogspot.com/ )

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