Surprising to many, election years are not good for the flag business. Sure, we sell bunting to campaign offices and pep rallies, but that doesn’t make up for the overall downturn in annual sales …
I have four children, three of which work with me and my husband in our flag business. This makes me happy. It makes all of us happy and (I think) makes my employees and customers happy.
The story of Matthew and Dreamland began in utero.
I was pregnant with middle-son Matthew Savage McCoy when I bought and restored the Taborian Hall with its Dreamland Ballroom on the 3rd floor. Little did I know at the time that he was going to grow and inherit my love of this old building.
You don’t have to be Mexican to celebrate Cinco De Mayo or Catholic to enjoy Mardi Gras. Same goes for the Lenten season that began this week on Ash Wednesday and goes ‘til Easter.
Watching the Grammy’s is an easy way to keep music relevant. But a few years ago, when Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion performed WAP, complete with a stripper pole and a big bed, and Sam Smith came in a red dress, I thought I may quit watching. Now, I am far from being a prude; I cuss like a sailor, have lived a women-libbers life, have lots of gay people in my family, and I do understand art is provocative and I appreciate that. But maybe, because of my age, this year’s awards show was getting too raunchy and political for my prime-time music tastes …
Don’t ask me why, but writing seems to be good for everyone, even for those of us who feel they don’t read or write well. Just the mere exercise of putting your thoughts down on paper is good for one’s mental health and is the reason why, years ago, I started writing my life’s story. At the time, I titled my little autobiography, “Why to Go to College … NOT.”
How Kerry McCoy Became an Enterprise
After watching a segment on 60 Minutes (my favorite show) about recycling plastic, I have been obsessed about reducing my consumption. Recycling is a myth. We’ve lulled ourselves into believing that by sorting and recycling, we were being good stewards of mother earth.
When traveling, I like to catch up on movies in my hotel room. The Ruth Bader Ginsberg movie, On the Basis of Sex, is a walk down history lane and should possibly be required-watching for all Americans. It is easy, when reciting a gratitude list, to omit and take for granted today’s equality for both men and women. It was a mere 40 years ago that men were not recognized in a court of law as care givers and therefore disqualified from tax relief and other compensations like women. Likewise, women weren’t recognized as head of household, thus unable to apply for credit cards or a mortgage without a husband’s signature.
After traveling, I’m burned out on eating out and, yet, bored with my own home cooking. I’d love a plain-old BLT, but tomatoes aren’t in season. Currently, very little is in season. It is late for apples and oranges and too early for summer produce, but strawberries are close to being harvested in Arkansas.
My mother always said, no matter how old her children got, she wanted to see where they lived. That it made her rest better. And now, that is the way I feel, too.
At the funeral for a friend’s father, I thought about the deceased.…
At first, I thought it was just the flag business that was seeing unprecedented sales. But, after noticing all the bare shelves in other retail stores and after asking around, I realized that this phenomenon is all over the place. People are shopping and spending their eating-at-home savings and newfound stimulus money like crazy.
When I first started Flag and Banner, I waitressed at Sir Loin’s Inn to supplement my income. I was young and my boss at the restaurant, Mr. Aaron Ross, was a business mentor, of sorts. One day, I asked, “What’s it like to be the boss?” I’ll never forget what he said because it’s proved true over and over again. He said, “Being the boss is doing all the things you can’t pay other people to do.”
As the shipping boxes began to pile up by the recycle bin, so, too, did my guilt. How many trees had to die in the fulfillment of my consumerism? Shipping a single item per box with all its packing waste is not exactly earth friendly, but I rationalized that I was saving on fuel and reducing air pollution. It seems that, in all of life, there is a trade-off.