My Son is probably going to hate this post but I can’t help myself!
I am the proud Mother to two beautiful young men. My older boy is almost 22 (OMG!) and my younger boy is 18. While I am enormously proud of both of my children, this post will be focusing on the contributions my younger son, Connor, has made as an employee at The Barn over last few years. Everyone seems to love him and it is a testament to his character that they also seem to trust him (remember I am the dreaded landlord and business owner!).
I only recently took back the reins at The Barn as I decided that the best management source for my business was me. However, Connor had been working at The Barn for some time prior to this and, as I look back on it, he was a very important link to my re-involvement.
Connor is at his Father’s house today filling out applications for college…where has the time gone? He just called me to go over some the answers he wrote on his application to UNLV (his preferred collegiate choice). One of the questions he answered in his application surrounded describing how he participated in making something better in his community. He chose to write about how he “participated” in making an iconic community shopping and gathering place better through the use of marketing and sales tools. While this is true, the real answer (as far as I am concerned) is that he was instrumental in saving The Barn as an iconic community gathering place.
After working at The Barn for about a year, Connor came home one night, looked me in the eye and said “One of your tenants would like to speak with you…will you permit that?” I remember initially laughing at what seemed like a ludicrous question…but he was deadly serious. Connor explained that something was very wrong at The Barn and one of the tenants wanted to talk to me. I was reminded of a feeling I had years ago when I received calls from my ex-tenants telling me something was very wrong at the Barn and they needed my help (see prior post for this story)….The “Rotten smell in Denmark” seemed to be coming back…..I still don’t know exactly what this means but I assume it has something to do with fish. 🙂
Anyway, after a rather lengthy conversation (where I was left wondering exactly who was the adult business owner between us) I reassured my rather nervous son that I was open to hearing from my merchants and that nothing bad would happen to any of them if I spoke with them.
Well, to make another long story short (I am famous for this if you look back at prior posts), without my son’s willingness to stick his neck out for my merchants, and for the overall good of The Barn, it appears I would have had a rather large mutiny on my hands.
Suffice it to say that The Barn may not have survived.
Fast forward several months…….I am elated to say that currently The Barn is athriving social and economic icon in The Town of Castle Rock. We are that ‘safe haven’ for a day of shopping. We are that ‘barn therapy’ that everyone has gotten used to having again. We are the magic in everyone’s day when they step over our threshold.
My merchants love my Son for many reasons….he works every weekend, he hauls furniture around without complaining, he manipulates me into buying stuff that the Merchants want (not need), he gives me lots of marketing ideas (in this world of social media) and he works at the last minute for anyone who asks. He has a genuine smile, a great laugh and our customers love him as well.
My Merchants also know that he, in fact, was instrumental in providing the starting point in the recovery of our “Barnie Health”.
He will be gone to college in a year….there will be a HUGE empty space, but lots of very fond memories.
P.S. Next time you wander into The Barn to do some “Barn Therapy” and you see Connor…say “Hi…heard about you from your Mom’s blog!”
He will smile, roll his eyes and turn a lovely shade of red.
Great tribute to Connor! And yes…. We do love him!
AWWWW WE LOVE CONNOR! Yes you will be sad when he leaves for college and we will be sad when he leaves The Barn…he is one of my favorite people to work with! 🙂