In the mid-1920s, Jim McArdle was only 16 years old. His father had passed away three years earlier, and he spent a lot of time at his mother's restaurant mopping floors and cleaning windows. Born and raised in the small mining town of Mason City, WV, Jim and his family faced hard times.
"My mother would put on more potatoes than we needed in that restaurant and she knew it," Jim recalled. "Rather than insult somebody, she'd go over to Mrs. so-and-so and say, 'I cooked too much today, would you like to have some?' That was the way it was in those days in the mining part of the country. Things were mighty, mighty tough."
In addition to helping out around the restaurant, Jim shined shoes on the weekend and had a paper route. He also sold a variety of things from American Products, such as hand creams and pie fillings. "My credit was good and I could buy it from them in Cincinnati. I would have it shipped in," he said.
"A lot of time I've thought about it," he added, "I made more money as a punk of a kid than the miners did in the mines and that is a fact."
When a man came into town one day trying to obtain drycleaning customers for his business, Jim decided he could make some extra money by starting a route.
Of course, at the time, few people in Mason City even knew of drycleaning, but it didn't matter. Jim found a way to make money at it, and he liked it enough to stay in the industry for the next 75 years. Now Jim is 91 years old and still going strong.
"The cleaners today don't know what tough times are," he said.
After he built up a local customer base, Jim wanted to expand the route to neighboring towns. Jim convinced his employer that he would need a delivery vehicle.
"He gave me a Model T Ford," Jim said. "Every time I turned the wheel, it seem like I had a flat tire on that damn Ford. I wound up going from Raven's Wood, WV, to Point Pleasant, WV, up and down the Ohio river, soliciting drycleaning."
Three years later, Jim purchased his own drycleaning equipment and had his uncle help him convert a Model T Ford into a panel truck by ripping the top of it off. He called the business Model Cleaners, and he had a unique way of alerting customers that he was on his way: he removed the Ford's muffler. "It made so much noise that it caused the cattle in the field to run," he recalled.
In 1929, the same year that the New York Stock Exchange crashed, Jim moved to Charleston, WV, and quickly found a job.
"I learned never to go in and ask a counter girl for a job," he explained. "Wait and find out who owns the damn place and talk to them eyeball to eyeball. That's the way I got jobs. I was never turned down."
Jim learned how to rough spot and discovered that he was pretty adept in the cleaning room. However, he learned a few hard lessons, as well. "I got on fire one time pulling the coal out of the boiler. It hit the floor. I caught on fire," he remembered. He ran out of the plant and rolled down a hill to smother the flames.
"I was lucky," he said. "I was always lucky. Sometimes, it was good. Sometimes, it was bad."
Jim could have used that experience as a reason to leave his job, but he respected his boss. After all, the man ran a soup kitchen out of his plant every day. Still, two years later, Jim decided it was time to move on and learn what he could from somewhere else.
Having hitchhiked his way from Charleston to Cincinnati, Jim landed a job with a large cleaning company. After working there for only a day, he became sick from chemical exposure. When he told his boss he was leaving, he received an intimidating response.
"That man jumped up and he told me what I didn't know. I didn't know that I had a good job. I didn't know that I had a big opportunity there. Oh Hell, he told me a lot of things I didn't know. He finally wound up saying, 'You don't even know there's a depression coming on,'" Jim said.
"I had never heard of a depression, and it couldn't have been any worse than what I was brought up in. I told him, 'I'm leaving here Saturday and one thing I know for sure is that I am too damn young to die.'"
True to his word, Jim left that job and went to Greenfield, OH, where he was working within days. However, it was difficult soliciting drycleaning business during that period of time.
Jim moved from plant to plant and discovered that the Great Depression was affecting everybody. For the first time in his life, he couldn't walk in and get a job. "I went around to every cleaner," he said. "I worked trying to get a job, believe me. You did in those days."
Jim eventually moved back to Cincinnati and got a job as head presser for $18 a week at Garfield Cleaners (which later became Nu-Way Cleaners). After working there two years, he became the plant's general manager. He was there for a total of fifteen years.
Jim was working at Nu-Way during World War II, when he decided that he wanted to be a tailgunner for the war. Unfortunately, his physical examination revealed some bad news. "I had bone osteomyelitis," he said.
After being in the hospital for weeks, doctors informed Jim's mother and uncle that they were going to have to amputate his leg. "My mother raised some Cain," Jim recalled.
As a result, Jim's doctor opted to attempt a series of operations over the next three years that caused Jim to spend about one-third of his time in hospitals. "Eventually, the doctor saved the leg," he said.
Over the years, Jim has had his share of excitement working in the industry. Back when he rough spotted for a plant in the 1920s, he jotted down difficult stains in a notebook to keep track of how much to charge customers.
One day, a pair of blood-stained pants came in from a delivery from Gallipolis, OH. "I didn't have my notebook, so I wrote it up on the white-washed wall right next to me," Jim said. Later, a sheriff came to the plant and asked him if he had received any unusual orders that week.
It turned out that the man who owned the pants was a murder suspect, and the police were able to capture him thanks to Jim's assistance.
Almost three decades later, Jim helped the police again when he was working in North Vernon, IN. He discovered a pile of clothes on the floor one Sunday morning when he opened the store.
Jim figured out which garments had been stolen and he called the police. He was able to describe the size of the thieves by the clothes they had stolen.
"It wound up that they picked up three boys down in Florida. They were going from Michigan to Florida," Jim said. When the three juveniles were arrested, they were still wearing the stolen clothes.
For over 53 years, Jim has been married to his wife, Pat (see picture). The couple have raised a son and two daughters. Back in 1953, they moved to Sharon, PA, armed only with a short-term plan.
"Well, I came up here to Pennsylvania to semi-retire, to be truthful with you," he explained. "I was going to run the plant for two years and sell it, make a profit, move on and do it again."
However, the plan changed a little bit. For the past 48 years, Jim and Pat have owned and operated that plant, Newell Cleaners, in the same location. Jim can't seem to get enough of his job, and it doesn't bother him that he faces a variety of daily problems.
"That's the reason I am in this business. There's a problem every day," he pointed out. "Something new comes up every day that you have to solve."
Jim is also proud of the fact that he delivers a fine, quality product.
"I don't give discounts. I don't give coupons," he said. "I try my best on every garment, regardless of who they belong to. I do the best job possible. People keep coming, so I guess I must have been right half the time. That's better than being half-right all of the time."
Jim has no plans to change either. "I don't intend to cut my price because I know what it's worth. I do all minor repairs. I say nothing about it... if it's minor. I have always been that way. I haven't changed. I'm too damn contrary to change."
Back in October of last year, Jim wrote to the National Enquirer, chastising the publication because it printed an article entitled "Beware! Dry-Cleaned Clothes Can Kill You." (National Clothesline wrote an article about Jim's letter in its December 2000 issue.)
Among other things, Jim informed the tabloid publication: "The write-up in your paper is absolutely the worst ever that I have come across. I do not read the 'rags' because they are mostly untruths, but this was called to may attention by a friend. Your writer, S.D. Hubbard, did not stretch the truth, tell the truth, but his comments were downright all outright lies."
Though the industry is often plagued with bad publicity, Jim believes that cleaners should never tolerate it. In fact, Jim feels strongly about any dishonest tactics.
"People catch up with your lies. People catch up with your false advertising," he said. "I know some cleaners here who have done a bit of false advertising, but I, too, don't hesitate to run an ad, and, in a nice, sweet way, call them a damn liar.
"In other words, you can fool people and maybe get by with it once, but there's no use. It'll catch up with you."
After a period of several years without a public relations firm, the Neighborhood Cleaners Association has selected Jeffrey Sussman Inc. to handle the information services requirements of the association.
Sussman previously worked with NCA on association marketing from 1982 through 1988 and is familiar with garment care. He is working with Nora Nealis and the NCA Board of Directors to create public awareness of the professional neighborhood cleaner and the importance of educating consumers to look for the Neighborhood Cleaners Association logo.
As president of the company, Sussman has represented many kinds of businesses, including manufacturers, distributors, and retailers, as well as law firms, accounting firms, banks, technology companies, insurance companies, trade associations, hospitals, publishers, and politicians.
Jeffrey Sussman Inc. can be reached at (212) 421-4475.
Columbia/ILSA Dry Cleaning Machines Corp., which distributes the Columbia brand of drycleaning and hydrocarbon machines through a nationwide network, has added Jeff Boltuc to its staff as national parts manager.
Boltuc has been in the drycleaning and laundry industry for over 20 years. In his new position, Boltuc will assist Columbia distributors and Columbia owners with parts issues, product updates, technical assistance, warranty programs and other support. He also will provide feedback to the ILSA factory.
Boltuc said he chose Columbia/ILSA because of the company's advanced technology, commitment to quality machines and continuing desire to provide the best in customer support.
"We are very excited that Jeff has joined our team," said Columbia/ILSA Machines Corporation President Steve Langiulli. "Owners of Columbia Dry Cleaning Machines along with our Distributors will really benefit from his knowledge and experience."
Columbia/ILSA Machines Corp., located in Long Island, NY, can be reached at (800) 446-5634 or by e-mail at info@drycleaningmachine.com.
The company's web site is www.drycleaningmachine.com.
ArctiChill Inc. has appointed Forenta LP as its exclusive marketing representative for the drycleaning industry. Marvin Wheaton, president, said the move will bring increased marketing coverage, sales support and service back-up for ArctiChill's water chillers, fan cooling coils, evaporative coolers and cooling towers.
Stan King, marketing vice president for Forenta, noted that his company has sold ArctiChill water chillers to some of its distributors for the past two years. "We are looking forward to offering these products to ArctiChill's distributors and the entire market place," King added.
A wide range of water chillers and cooling products for the food medical, drycleaning and general industrial markets is manufactured at ArctiChill's plant is located in Newberry, SC. The company sells its products throughout the world.
Forenta manufactures its pressing and finishing equipment in Morristown, TN, and sells its products to the laundry and drycleaning industries throughout the world.
Three new directors have joined the Coin Laundry Association's board.
They are Mike Floyd of Ripon, WI; Jefferson Hooper of Salem, MA; and Greg Tompkins of Walla Walla, WA.
Floyd is executive vice president of Continental Girbau Inc., and has held a number of management positions with laundry equipment manufacturers over the past 13 years.
Hooper is president of Salem Laundry Co. Inc., a business that has been in the family for four generations. The company owns and operates six self-serve laundries in Massachusetts. Hooper helped his father develop and market a debit card system with the Easy Card Corp. in the early 1990s.
Tompkins is the owner of Coin Op of Walla Walla and serves as president of the Washington State Coin Laundry Association. He and his wife, Nancy, have been in the self-service laundry business since 1988. They also have laundry equipment in apartment complexes and operate a family major appliance repair business.
The CLA board of directors is comprised of store owners, distributors and manufacturers who serve as volunteers.
They represent the CLA membership and the industry at large, acting as the policy making arm of the association. Each director will serve a three year term on the board.
Metropolitan Laundry Machinery Co. has added the Sailstar USA line of drycleaning machines and laundry equipment. The SailStar line includes machines that clean with perchloroethylene, hydrocarbon, and liquid carbon dioxide and water.
Established in 1952, Metropolitan Machinery sells installs and services equipment from leading manufacturers, has an extensive parts department and an extensive sales force. The company is located at 127-19 101st Ave. in Richmond Hill, NY 11419. The phone numbers are (718) 441-4000 in New York; (908) 687-9400 in New Jersey and (800) 214-9300 elsewhere.
Equipment Marketers of Cherry Hill, NJ, was awarded Maytag Corp.'s oldest and most prestigious award in commercial distribution industry, the Fred Maytag Award.
The award recognizes a Maytag commercial laundry distributor for outstanding achievement and customer service.
Equipment Marketers is the only Maytag distributor to have won the Fred Maytag Award in addition to Maytag's Red Carpet Service Award and the first On-Premises Laundry Award.
Bill Beer (right) president of Maytag major Appliances, presented the Fred Maytag Award to Dick and Sue LaMaina (second and third from left), owners of the distributorship, at Maytag's annual international commercial laundry sales conference in Marco Island, FL. Also on hand were, from left, Ron Fey of Maytag, and Bob LaMaina and Larry LaMaina of Equipment Marketers.
Hoffman/New Yorker has opened a web site that provides information on the company and its products. The address of the site is www.hoffman-newyorker.com.
Copyright © 2001, National Clothesline Maintained by: Hal Horning