Mom and Dad always made a good team.  Mom took care of the customers and the special requests and Dad took care of the cleaning and the equiptment.  I never did get a clear understanding as to how they got together.  Mom was the daughter of a cotton farmer in Eastover, South Carolina.  Dad was the son of a railroad conductor in Spencer, North Carolina.  That is close to 250 miles.

     I have always been proud of them.    Mom came from meager beginnings in a family of 9 children.  Dad came from a family of seven children.  Dad ran away from home at age 13, only to fall in the trainyard in Danville, Virginia and have his left arm severed.  He never returned to school, but took a job in a cleaners scrubbing pants by hand.

     They were married in 1937 and took on the task of operating a cleaning plant in Salisbury, NC, in 1939.  That plant was in a bad location, with a poor reputation.  In the fall of 1940 the plant was moved to the current location in Concord, NC.  Dad moved the plant himself.  Young Cleaners and Dyers opened in February 1941.

     The plant grew and prospered.  Starting in one 20X60 building, they purchased it and it's "sister" in 1943.  They continued to grow, purchasing the service station next door to get off street parking, in 1970.

     By thanksgiving 1980 the two of them were looking for a way to slow down.  I was tired of working for other people.  So a deal was struck, but neither one of them went very far, for long.  They got a chance to travel;  including trips to Mexico and Alaska.