Here it is only four days until Christmas! I am sitting here in my office on 4th Street in Red Oak, Iowa remembering things we have done in the past to make a little money. We were not offering Birko balance, Children’s Birko balance, Birko sport, Birko motion, and Blue heeled arch supports from our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com. at that time. It was 1988 and we had just moved into our new spot on 4th St. when I saw an add in the local newspaper that D&L Mfg, a car seat maker, was wanting a cleaning service for their offices and plant here in Red Oak. Earl stopped by my office and offered me his services as a custodian if I could bid and get the contract. Earl had been a custodian at the Essex School Dist. in Essex, Iowa. We had many years experience selling commercial cleaning supplies and equipment so the idea of having a cleaning service did have a fit for us. I contacted D&L about their cleaning contract and they were very receptive to the idea so I set about writing up a quote for cleaning their offices and plant. We offered our quote to D&L and it was accepted. Steve, D&L’s general manager was friendly and supportive of us getting this contract. Spencer, our warehouse and delivery man became our contract manager at D&L. We were supervised by D&L’s plant accountant Bryan and Willie who was the plant maintenance manager. Willie’s wife had the office cleaning job at the time we got the contract and they were not happy about her losing her job. Bryan was not too helpful either and liked to keep me guessing about what was wrong with our work at the plant. Then the check they owed us for the contract did not arrive when I expected it to and I had to threaten them that if they didn’t pay us we would have to pull our crew off the job. They did pay off and we kept working. Earl’s work was ok but he was no ball of fire. Spencer complained about Earl wasting time reading items on the bulletin board and made the comment to Earl that he would never see his check on the bulletin board. It wasn’t too long before we had so many compaints about Earl’s work or lack of it that I had to let Earl go. I hired Ted from Griswold, Ia to take his place. Ted was a hard worker. Things seemed to improve when he came to work and complaints were fewer. Then our lead man Spencer left us for a factory job in Clarinda and I had to find a replacement. I hired Donny to take his place as lead man. Donny worked nights at Parker-Hannifin and for us during the day. Donny was supposed to check on Ted and his work and make sure everything was clean. I got a call from Steve, D&L’s plant manager, and he wanted me to come by the plant. He took me into the men’s bathroom and showed me where Ted had used a dirty wet mop to wipe down the walls and he was angry! Well you know things run down hill and I gave Ted a talking to about doing a better job keeping the place clean. I had a gal named Laurie that I had hired to clean the plant and back bathroom and breakroom. I ended up letting Ted go and moving Laurie up to clean the front offices and breakroom. I worked at the plant almost every weekend cleaning and waxing the offices and lunch room floors. We had the cleaning contract for two and a half years and they only thanked me once for doing a good job. We ended up losing the contract over a price dispute but I had had enough and was not sorry to lose the contract. D&L was bought out by Magna Corp who moved the plant to Mexico. Looking for low prices for brand name footwear? We offer Dansko shoes, Rockport men’s Encounter, Nautilus 1621, Rockport’s Dressport 2, Super Birki, Bikenstock chef shoes, Sandro Moscoloni, Ultimate Protein, women’s Rockport World Tour Classic at our internet store www.lionfootweardirect.com.

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