Typical Day
The sun peeking through the bedroom shades wakes up Corinna Webb at 5:30AM, well before the alarm clock could. She rolls over to switch the alarm to "off" and carefully gets out of bed so as not to wake her husband, Earl. "You keep sleeping," she whispers. He works the second shift at the textile plant and gets home pretty late.
Corinna works for Taylorsville Upholstery Showroom, a family-owned shop with twenty-five employees. Her day starts extra early this morning because she's working on reupholstering the booths at Emma's Diner, and she needs to get there and install the seats before too many customers get there. Diner owners prefer to have patrons sitting and ordering, understandably.
After a quick shower, Corinna dresses in comfortable, casual clothes. She skips breakfast at home (knowing she'll soon be helping herself to the best pancakes in town), climbs into her SUV, and head's to Emma's. She's got a load of refurbished seats in the back.
On the way there, Emma passes a number of upholstery shops and furniture manufacturers. "Can't swing a possum without hitting one of them around here," she muses. But there's plenty of business to go around.
Taylorsville Upholstery services local businesses of all kinds: auto shops, marinas, churches, restaurants, and anyplace else that has furniture. They also do a good bit of business supplying furniture stores with uniquely upholstered pieces.
At 6:15AM, Corinna parks her truck as close to the diner's front door as she can on the curb. She hops out and pushes open the door, which gives a friendly jingle from the bells attached to it. Emma looks up from behind the counter.
"Good mornin', Miss Corinna," Emma drawls.
"And good morning to you, Miss Emma," Corinna replies. "Can you have Joe help me with these seats?"
"Sure thing," Emma says. "JOE," she hollers over her shoulder. Out-of-state patrons are often startled by how loud a southern diner can be. Especially Emma's.
Emma's husband, forty-ish and a bit rounded from testing the quality of his cooking, emerges from the kitchen. "Give Corinna a hand with those benches, willya," Emma says.
"You got it," Earl replies, and he follows Corinna to her truck.
Together they bring in the two bench seats, and in a matter of minutes Corinna screws them into place. "Good as new," she says.
"They are a sight better than they were, that's for sure," Emma says. "Are you coming back tonight for that other booth?"
"That's right. Around eight?"
"Yep," Emma answers. We won't be needing it that late. Same deal as the other one. You had breakfast yet? How about a stack of my famous flapjacks?"
Corinna smiles. "You read my mind."
After finishing most of a rather generous stack of pancakes, and a complimentary slice of peach cobbler, Corinna pays her tab and waves goodbye. She arrives at the shop at 8:30AM, where everyone else is already at work on one project or another.
The owner, Jim Turner, was the first to greet her. "How'd it go?" he asks.
"Just fine," Corinna answers. "No problems with the install, and they loved it. I'll go back tonight for the other one."
"Great," says Jim. "Why don't you help Albert with those church pews. If y'all finish them before the end of the day, let me know."
"Alright, boss," says Corinna. "Say, how's Jim Jr. doing? Mr. College Man, out all on his own."
"Oh, I talked to him last night," smiles Jim. "Bit homesick, but he keeps busy and really loves it there. Virginia has a good business school. I'm hoping I can talk him into taking over the business."
"Time sure does fly," Corinna says with a chuckle. "I remember him zoomin' around here on his little scooter. He's grown up to be a fine young man. It'll be good to keep this shop in the family."
"Time will tell," Jim answers.
Corinna heads to the back of the shop, where Albert is ripping tacks out of the church pew benches that had been brought in. They spend the next few hours pulling off the old material, setting aside benches that need springs, webbing, or other additional work, and cutting material.
At noon, Corinna heads home to have lunch with Earl. Jim lets her take three hours for lunch so she can spend a little time with her husband, what with them working opposite shifts and all. Little things like that have made her ten years at Taylorsville Upholstery totally worth it.
She works a little later to make up for the time off, sometimes as late as 9:00PM or 10:00PM. She doesn't mind, since Earl is at work anyway. This arrangement makes her the perfect employee to handle the after-hours house calls to Emma's diner and other businesses that want to minimize disruption.
Earl has grilled ham-and-cheese sandwiches waiting when she arrives. After lunch they decide on a movie, it being too hot in September to do anything outside. When it cools off, they like to go to the lake to fish or just enjoy the view.
At 3:00PM, Corinna drops Earl off at the house and heads back to the shop. She and Albert continue repairing and reupholstering the pew benches for the rest of the normal shift.
When Albert goes home, Corinna takes a break for dinner—Earl's meatloaf and mashed potatoes, heated in the breakroom microwave—and then continues on the pew benches until it's time to head back to Emma's. She locks up the shop at 8:30PM and drives over to the diner.
Emma only has a handful of customers at this hour. "Right on time," she says when Corinna walks in. Corinna quickly detaches the booth's two bench seats and, with Joe's help once again, loads them into her truck.
"Back to the shop. See ya in the morning," Corinna says.
"Bright n' early," says Emma with a happy wave.
Corinna drives back to the shop and spends the next two hours stripping the benches and re-covering them. Emma's Diner closes at 9:00PM or so ("Depends on business," Emma says), so she'll have to come back early tomorrow to install them. Good thing I'm a morning person, Corinna thinks. She loads the seats into the truck and heads home.
She's a bit too tired to read any of her home furnishing magazines, so she pulls up her DVR recording of "Mack My Mansion" and watches it until she falls asleep on the couch. Earl will be home soon, and she wants to see him before they go to bed.