Loyalty: you don’t see much of it any more.
Loyalty is a faithfulness to commitments or obligations.
Loyalty is faithful adherence to a cause, a group, an employer.
Loyalty is a pledge of truth to oneself and others.
Lack of loyalty is one of the major causes of failure in every walk of life.
Remember when most folks worked at the same job and for the same firm all their working careers? And did so because they wanted to instead of because they had to?
It doesn’t happen much any more.
When it does, it’s an occasion to rejoice.
So we rejoice for Cecil Rogers, for Dozier Smith T and his father and grandfather.
You see, loyalty is a two-way street, employee to employer as well as employer to employee. Cecil to Dozier; Dozier to Cecil.
It’s the same sort of loyalty that Cecil’s shown the previous generations of Smith T owners before Dozier – both Winston Smith Ts, Senior and Junior.
It’s worked so well on South Railroad Avenue that Cecil Rogers is Smith T’s Building Supply to many people, especially their oldest customers, and some of those have been customers for at least 40 years.
We used to think this was normal. Now it’s rare.
It’s a shame. And a sad commentary on the human situation.
