of hard work

By

Kerry Whipple

The Natchez Democrat

FENWICK &045; All of his life, George Parish has understood the keys to success.

Since 1946, those keys have been part of the typewriters he repairs at his longtime business, but even before that Parish was working long hours.

As a boy, he worked from sunup to sundown at his father’s sawmill &045; after walking 12 miles to get there.

&uot;You’d start when it was barely daylight and go as long as you could see, six days a week,&uot; Parish said.

At the end of the week, Parish took a quarter from his $10 paycheck and went into town. The rest of the money went to his mother.

&uot;I’d buy an RC Cola and a Moonpie and still have 15 cents left over to go to a movie,&uot; he said.

&uot;It was hard work, but I enjoyed my childhood.&uot;

That work ethic only grew as Parish grew up. He moved to Natchez not long after graduating from college and was joined later by his wife, Erleine, who worked for the department of health until she began raising their family.

Parish worked for two different office supply companies in Natchez, repairing typewriters and taking his customers wherever he was working.

Eventually, he decided to go into business for himself.

He started out with $65 in his pocket and no money in the bank &045; and hasn’t seen a week without a profit since.

Selling and repairing typewriters was a booming business in the days before computers. Parish recalls the years when he sold at least one typewriter per day. He was one of the top salesmen in the country, even narrowly missing a trip for two to Brussels when a Dallas salesman beat his sales record at the last minute.

When the repair business was at its height, Parish worked long nights &045; sometimes until 2 in the morning &045; to keep up with the demand. He recalls one week when Erleine went out of town that he worked day and night the whole time.

Parish has had customers large and small &045; both institutions like banks and schools and individuals. He continues to call on those who need his service.

Parish’s partner, Marion Murphy, retired in 1985, the same year Parish tried to get out of the business.

&uot;I closed my business in town and moved out here,&uot; he said. &uot;But the customers said, ‘Don’t you quit.’&uot;

&uot;He can’t be still,&uot; Parish’s wife Erleine said.

It’s a good thing for Parish &045; who until just a few years ago ran 5 to 10 miles a day &045; that his customers still keep him in high demand.

These days, he only sells about a dozen typewriters per year, although he still sells a fair amount of calculators.

But &uot;people come from far and wide&uot; to get their typewriters repaired at Parish’s shop, located in the garage of his home just off U.S. 84 in Fenwick.

And Parish continues to sell supplies, although &uot;for some people, one ribbon will last them a year,&uot; he said. &uot;People still need a typewriter for certain things.&uot;

Parish resisted getting into the computer business; he thought it would be too much trouble.

Even now, Erleine said, &uot;We don’t have a computer and we don’t want one.&uot;

She still uses a 1940s-model typewriter similar to the one Parish gave her when she was in graduate school, before they were married.

But the Parishes’ children &045; a son and daughter &045; have followed in similar footsteps.

Their son is a computer programmer, while their daughter teaches computer science.

And while the Parish children have changed with technology, they still have their parents’ old-fashioned work ethic.

&uot;I told my son, ‘If you want to make something of yourself, you have to work longer than eight hours a day,’&uot; Parish said.