In 1983, we left Paxville, South Carolina, to move up to Wake Forest, North Carolina. We were moving for my husband to attend seminary there. It was awful.
First, I was already missing my family who now lived 5 hours away. It was my first time living more than 20 minutes away from them, and I was suffering with extreme homesickness.
Second, it was midsummer that we were moving. That was the year we had a 104-degree heatwave that lasted all summer. We had no air conditioning in our car, and our little Dachshund/Pekinese dog was not doing too well in the heat. We had to stop every few miles and hose him down.
My husband had picked out the rental house for us and it had four small rooms. One room was the bathroom with a metal stand up shower that was two and a half feet wide. You could only wash your hair with one hand. Both arms wouldn’t fit.
Another room was the bedroom where the floor had caved in at the back. The living room was big enough for the furnace, which was the size of a Volkswagen, and an armchair and a recliner. Nothing else fit. The last room was a kitchen which had a sink and nothing else.
We added a table and two chairs, put in an old stove with only two working eyes, a tiny hibachi, and a 1955 refrigerator with an ice box that I had to chisel out and defrost weekly.
While my husband was in school, he had a bicycle to get to classes, and I used our car to get to work. I had found a job at Ivey’s Department Store in Raleigh and was working in the teen clothing section. I did so well there that they decided to promote me. I was so excited about that! An actual promotion! I was moved to the men and women’s fragrance bar where I sold high end perfumes, colognes, and aftershaves. The best part of the promotion was that for every bottle sold, I received a commission which certainly helped our sad finances. I was bringing home $99 a week, my mother-in-law sent us grocery money to help out, and every now and then, my parents would send us “fun” money so we could go out to eat. That $99 didn’t go very far, so the commission money was a much needed
bonus.
As Christmas was approaching, I was doing everything in my power to make fragrance sales. I smiled at everyone, encouraged people to try samples, and got busy redecorating the glass cases that surrounded my 10 x 10-foot square where I spent my days selling perfume. In the very center of the square was a huge chest of drawers that contained most everything I needed to sell and display perfumes and colognes.
While going through the drawers one day, I discovered a large square box that was about a foot long and tall. When I opened it, there it was…the holy grail of perfumes… “Lauren”, by Ralph Lauren. It was in a crystal bottle that weighed five pounds.
I was awed. It was beautiful! It was also worth $700. I almost fainted.
I carefully took it out of the box and moved it into the main display case. I gave it a position of honor among all the other perfumes, hoping this would make a sale.
I certainly had a lot of interest in it, but no one bought it. One night I decided to take it out of the case and move it to another display area. Just as I pulled it out, it slipped in my hands, dropped to the floor and shattered all over my penny loafers. I stared in disbelief. This was terrible! I was going to have to pay for that! Where were we going to get the money for such a disaster?
The whole place began to stink of Lauren perfume. It was everywhere. I called up for a janitor and the two of us began to clean up. Finally, I made my way downstairs to my boss and knocked on his door.
As soon as I went in, I burst into tears and told him the whole story about dropping the perfume. His reaction? He just laughed. “No problem. We will just write this off as an accident.” I couldn’t help it; I hugged him.
Relieved, went on with my life and worked my tail off at that job. But at the end of the year, my husband told me we were moving about 45 minutes away because a church had called him to be their pastor while he continued his education. I would no longer be able to work there.
So when we moved, I returned to the store one more time to pick up my last paycheck. According to my calculations, I was owed $700, not only for my regular pay, but also for my Christmas fragrance commission. When I opened my check, there it was…$99. Furious, I called the store and was told that money would only be given to me if I still worked there. Since I quit, I forfeited it. Uh, huh. We know exactly where the money went….it went to pay for that nasty bottle of Lauren. I even had to throw out my penny loafers because they stunk to high heaven.
I hate the smell of that perfume to this day!
