Changing Times

Austin and Sarah Grisham (Paula Walls’ great grandparents) in their horse-drawn buggy. Austin much preferred this mode of transportation over the new fangled horseless carriage! 

Photo courtesy of

  
Paul Grisham  

Written by 
LeRoy Walls 
CEO 

In the 1920’s a few automobiles began making their way into our Ozark hills. My wife’s great grandfather (Austin Grisham) was a horse and buggy man but he wanted to keep up with the times so he bought himself a car. He preferred to let it sit out front where it could be seen but not used. Austin unfortunately had a backwoods neighbor "Old Matt" who drove his wife everywhere and Austin’s wife, Sarah, expected the same from Austin.

Well, Austin’s new fangled car operated just a lot different than his horse, "Deb", and buggy. Austin got it going just fine but his problem was getting it stopped. With all of his attention to foot pedals and other levers he neglected the steering part. After the dust settled in the barnyard he hadn’t hurt any cattle or chickens but his car ended up on top of a big woodpile.

This was the last of Austin’s car driving. He went back to driving Old Deb and got his 10-year-old grandson, Paul (my father-in-law) to do his car driving from then on.

Most all of us have problems in learning new things - so most of us have at least been on the woodpile figuratively. The issue isn’t how we got there but rather how we get off the woodpile and back in the game.

Our century has seen plenty of changes and they no doubt will continue right into the next century. Some of those are: increased participation by employees, more and bigger mass merchandisers, more niche markets and more value placed on service and quality and closer linkage between suppliers and customers.

So, how are you at change? Will you lose your spot in the driver’s seat and end up on the woodpile?

The main thing that you and I can and must do to help our companies and ourselves succeed is to accept change and become lifetime learners.

12/31/1999