Own Your Life by Carrico Larry;Carrico Sharon;

Author:Carrico, Larry;Carrico, Sharon; [Carrico, Sharon & Larry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General Fiction
Publisher: Advantage Media Group
Published: 2023-11-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

Homeward Bound

Do ordinary things with extraordinary love.

—MOTHER TERESA

Larry: Boomtown

Moving back to Illinois was exciting, but we had to be strategic about where we lived. We wanted to be close enough to our parents that they could spend time with the two grandchildren we already gave them and the third on the way. We also didn’t want to be so close that we couldn’t focus on our business or our own growing family.

We had to choose a new home location, not just for the soon-to-be five of us but also for reasonable access to our seven stores—the original one in Muscle Shoals and six new Illinois locations. Looking at the map and considering the distance I would need to drive between locations, the confluence of interstate highways 57 and 64 and several state highways meant that Mount Vernon would be the best location for our new headquarters and our new home.

We were about ninety miles away from family, closer than when we were in Alabama but far enough to begin a new life in a new town. We were also just a highway trek away from our stores in Carbondale, Centralia, Harrisburg, Marion, and Cairo. This geographic decision would be fortuitous for us as we grew our business and our family in the years to come, but we needed to start somewhere, and that somewhere was Mount Vernon.

Our first corporate offices—because with seven stores we were a corporation now—were headquartered in the back warehouse of a storefront. It got ridiculously cold in there during the winter months, but the business was heating up.

Sharon: Hometown

We moved into a two-bedroom apartment when we arrived because we didn’t have time to house hunt before taking on the new stores, and we had to sell the house in Alabama. I like to believe that I’m not spoiled or needy, but put me in an apartment with small children and it’s obvious I’m both. Most of our things were in storage, and the lack of space, the stark white walls, the closet laundry (that wasn’t grounded and shocked me with every load), and the rowdy, crowded, loud, and looming neighbors are memories that agitate me to this day.

Once we started house hunting, driving the streets of Mount Vernon with a realtor, I got the feeling it was a small town on an expansive plain and it was all at once too open and too closed off. Main Street with its central county courthouse was the biggest draw, but it wasn’t much. It was tired, and I was immediately hopeful we would not be here long.

Until we found a better solution, I relied on a local girl to babysit Steven and Nicki while I helped at the Mount Vernon store. It was 1987, and inventory tracking was being done on a computer system—manually entering new inventory from Larry’s paper purchase orders. Every delivery, pickup, charge-off, payout, and weekly mailing of receipts from each store needed to be recorded. Once in Mount Vernon, we adapted the previous owners’ accounting software, and I began processing payroll and payables electronically too.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.