In the dream, I was at the place I used to work - KMA, but the building was more like another place I worked (Provo Craft) ...but it had a toy department like when I worked at Walmart... Ok, that's a bit confusing - let's back up the barge (none of the stuff that happened in the dream really happened anyway.)
I've had a lot of jobs in my time, but being without a degree of any kind, I just had to take what I could get - which was mostly retail. I did odd jobs at first, like seasonal stints at Muir Roberts, a fruit processing plant in Payson - a few short weeks of the worst job ever, but good money (for a pauper.)
Then a little part time work at the 7-11 my husband managed...
The first job I went out and got on my own, was at a little craft store (The Hobby Hive) in Spanish Fork. I had stalked the place for years, admiring the pretty displays - and later took my first painting class there, so I was a fan. When it came time to seriously look for work - it's the first place I thought of. I applied and got an interview. I couldn't get a baby sitter, so I had to take my little boy with me, (4 year old Bradley.) That should have been a deterrent, but I think he actually got the job for me :-) He was, and is, a cutie! ...Anyway, that was the start of my crafting career.
I loved working there, and had lots of opportunities to learn and to stretch and grow my skills. The owner - Clella Gustin, was the art director for Provo Craft publications. There were always displays in the basement - set up's for her photo shoots for those tole painting books. I loved getting to see the new designs before the rest of the world did...
(This is the store front of the former Hobbie Hive - it is currently the site of MVP Sports)
At the time I was hired, it was managed by a young, single BYU coed. She wasn't very happy there - not much social life for a single gal, and she didn't have much patience for us "older" girls. She didn't stay there very long...
Clella took over for a short time, then a young couple moved in - a son of the owner of Provo Craft and his wife. They were good to work for, and appreciated anything we did. I was given a lot of opportunities while they were there. (Teaching classes, taking seminars etc.)
One time, I was asked to step in and cover a class at the last minute when the teacher didn't show up. That was very stressful, seeing as how it was for something I had never done before! Somehow, I was able to bluff my way through it without anyone being any the wiser, but I was sweating bullets the whole time.
As I mentioned, I taught some classes there - so I spent a lot of nights in the store by myself. The store must have been built partially under the sidewalk, because when someone would run down the street, it sounded exactly like someone was running down the main aisle of the store. It was creepy!
One night while I was teaching I heard that sound, and I went upstairs to check things out - about the time I walked into the "safe" room (the store was a bank at one time, and had an entire room that locked with the door of a safe, and only opened with a combination.) I thought - "this is really stupid, what if I find somebody?" I was "protecting" my store, but who was protecting me? ha ha
Another time, I was teaching on a dark and stormy night, when the power went out. That basement has no windows and the stairwell had a turn in it so that no light came down that way. You do not know what darkness is until you've experienced total darkness underground! ...And I was responsible for all those people! Luckily, it didn't stay off too long...
I got my first (and only) obscene phone call while I was working there - one night - alone. I don't think I ever felt safe there by myself again. I always felt that someone was watching me - a sitting duck in a glass bowl...
One time, a shipment came after the store was closed for the weekend, so the truck just left the merchandise outside the back door. Monday morning, when the boss came and brought it in - and opened it, (it was a box of dried indian corn for autumn decor) he found that it was clear full of mice! He gathered up as many as he could and threw them in a bucket to be disposed of later - (ie: set free in the wild,) but that building was never mouse free again.
I met some great people there - Clella was a good friend, and she was instrumental in getting me some fun opportunities. One other lady who got on after I did (Kathy M.) followed me from job to job over the years after the Hobbie Hive closed. (We worked at the fabric store together and KMA.) She is still a good friend.
That place caused me so many nightmares while I was there - after a year or two, I was put in charge of closing the store sometimes - I would always wake up in the night and wonder if I remembered to lock the back door, or dream about getting locked in that safe room all weekend...
The Workman's (the young managers) were good to us all - they loved their food, and fed us well any time we had a sale or event of any kind. :-) Not long after they arrived though, the Hobby Hive was purchased by Provo Craft. Not a good thing for me, because their intention was not to build up the store, but rather to absorb it and eliminate the competition. So, I had to help liquidate and close up my fun little playground. It was while I was doing that, that the manager of Provo Craft decided to absorb me as well, and I ended up staying on there for a while.
But that is a story for another day...
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