Read Online Don't Sing at the Table by Adriana Trigiani - Free Book Online

not vary from in the years that they owned and operated the mill. My grandfather was the front man. This was a natural position for Grandpop, as he was intelligent, had good taste and was easygoing. He would dress up, go into New York City by train, and meet with various companies in the garment district, where he’d make deals to manufacture blouses, created and sold by the dozen.
    As a machinist, my grandfather purchased the equipment and maintained it. He also, according to their partnership contract (they had a very detailed legal agreement between them as full partners), leased the machinery to my grandmother, who owned the building. I learned from them to go to a proper attorney and arrange contracts for any business venture. Further, a proper will saved my grandmother a great deal of anxiety when my grandfather died. Every detail was discussed prior to his death, so Viola had few surprises when tragedy struck.
    Yolanda Manufacturing stayed in production fifty weeks a year. The traditional vacation period for the blouse mills was the first two weeks of July. During those weeks, when my grandparents had young children, they went to Atlantic City, to Lake George in upstate New York, or to New England. While they worked hard year-round, when they were off the clock, they relaxed.
    Once the operators and suppliers were paid, my grandparents took their cut above the small salaries they pulled from the mill. There were times when they did well, and times when they had to take a lesser deal to keep the factory in operation. Luckily, my grandfather’s skill with the machines kept any money that might have gone to repairs in their pockets. He worked in the factory on a daily basis also, but his schedule was more flexible than Viola’s. She left before dawn and returned home in time for dinner. He would get the kids off to school and then go to work. The family life thrived around the business.

    The Yolanda Manufacturing Company in Martins Creek, Pennsylvania.
    The mill was an all-consuming, often family-wide venture. Viola would invite her sisters over in a crunch when a deadline was looming. Her children were enlisted to help when the pressure was on. Cousins came through to pitch in. It was natural for Viola to ask for extra hands, as she took the rule of farm life into the factory. If you wanted to eat, you had to work.
    When the tough times came, Viola was ready for them because she didn’t squander her time and money when the coffers were flush. She told me that when you own your own business, you can never coast, because there is no way to predict what will come. You must rise to meet every challenge, because if you fail, you lose your mill, and the jobs that you provide with it. While the mill employed upward of fifty people, the number grows into the hundreds when you consider the businesses that thrived off the mill. Viola’s ledgers are neatly filled with payments to locally owned businesses like the Roseto Paper Box Company, Leader Thread, Fremont Thread, and Silver Line Trucking.
    There was a sense of community among her fellow manufacturers, who were also the competition. They knew that the success of their small enterprises extended beyond their profit margins; many families beyond those employed by the mill benefited from this way of life. When a competitor couldn’t fulfill an order, he’d swing the work your way. Places like Perfect Shirt often shared an order, thus keeping a workforce active in two mills, both benefiting from the deal.
    Yolanda Manufacturing made blouses for Alice Wills Fashions, Dersh Blouse Company, and Lady Helene Blouses, among others. My grandparents’ old boss Mr. Rosenberg at Bangor Clothing Company threw them a deal here and there. They had put in their years under him, and now he considered them equals, and made sure that opportunities came their way. He recommended Yolanda Manufacturing with the full knowledge that Viola would deliver.
    Relationships,