.
You may ask, “Why do the employees work so
hard”? Why . . . it is because they all want to win the coveted Sadie
Smitherphart Award.
You see, many years ago there was an employee by the name of Sadie Smitherphart. She was an inspiration to
all of her fellow employees. She was self-giving, hard-working and would
sacrifice all for the good for her employer. In her younger years she
was a real knock out. All the young guys would buy the stale tobacco
products there just to get to talk to Sadie. As the years wore on they
took a toll on Sadie, but she never slacked off in her dedication to the store.
She came early and stayed late, cleaning and polishing, oiling the cash
registers, and in the early days, would oil the bare wood floors with linseed
oil to keep the dust down. Alas, one fateful day a circus came to town and she
was smitten with love at first sight for a trapeze artist that came into the
store. Sadie was heart broken when he would have nothing to do with
her. She left the store early that day and was never seen there again.
In the long history
of the home town business there has never been an employee quite like
Sadie Smitherphart. That is why the CEO has awarded the traveling
Sadie Smitherphart Employee of the Month award to a deserving employee
monthly. When the employees seem to be running out of gas and their
enthusiasm for their work seems to slack off, he gathers them around and even
allows some of the younger ones to sit on his knee, and, in his fatherly way,
once again tells the story of Sadie Smitherphart.
He becomes quite
emotional at times and it never fails to inspire the employees of the town business to work hard and continue to serve the people of Emporia in the tradition
that was first started by Sadie Smitherphart so many years ago.