The Town Crier: Century of service

Published 8:15 am Saturday, May 17, 2025

I was aware that Barrett’s Flower Shop downtown turned 100 this year and was pleased to see a great article about the company in the newspaper. One hundred years of service is pretty remarkable for any business. And let’s face it, 100 years worth of flowers… is a lot of flowers! How many dozens of red roses for dates and anniversaries? How many corsages for first dances, both the kind worn pinned on a dress and ones worn on the wrist? I think I remember that mums were for Homecoming. There have been 100 years of wedding flowers and flowers for funerals, and get well flowers for folks recuperating. I remember a flower worn on Mother’s Day to church, either red or white depending on whether she was still with you or had passed. It isn’t raining rain, it’s raining daffodils, and it’s also raining tears of joy from the flowers Barrett’s provided.

It’s estimated there are about 1000 companies in the US that are 100 years old or older. That’s less than half a percent of all companies out there. Many of those companies that are still going are no longer in the original founders’ family, having been bought out by bigger companies. At a business convention a speaker pointed out that he knew a major American beer company that was over 100 years old was soon to be sold, and sure enough, it was sold to a European company. He was asked how he knew. Did he have insider information? Did he know someone on the board of directors? No, he replied. He just knew that the company was currently owned by a fourth generation of the family who had not had to work hard to establish the company and that he was currently on his third wife. Someone like that invariably looks to cash out, and so he did.

My wife’s family had a business in their family for over 100 years. Her great-great-great (etc.) grandfather had immigrated from Italy in the late 1800’s for the obvious reason… he was supposed to marry the older daughter but fell in love with the youngest, so they hopped on a ship to elope across the Atlantic. Arriving in the New World his skill set was that of the cobbler; making shoes. He had a house he lived in with the workshop in the basement and the front of the building the shoe store. The business passed through the generations from father to son until my wife’s father gained possession and eventually passed it to his son, my brother-in-law. A small town shoe store is a hard thing to keep going into the 21st century with the competition from the big box stores, the mall chains and online shopping. The business was eventually closed due to the competition, but not before it passed the century mark of service to the community. For those of you who grew up and remember Macintosh Shoe Store at Bry-Man’s Plaza back in the day, you know what the joys of small town shoe stores can be. The Buster Brown shoes they sold made it past the 100 year mark, with the parent company established in 1875, 150 years ago.

Another Georgia company that’s 100 this year is Delta Airlines. They started in 1925 as a crop dusting operation out of Macon, Georgia and added passenger service in 1929. They moved their headquarters to Louisiana for several years but returned to Atlanta in 1941. They are generally considered the number one airline in the US and in the summer of 2024 flew almost 900 daily flights out of the Atlanta airport alone, helping Atlanta to be the busiest airport in the world. Delta was one of the first airlines to have an all jet fleet and to use a computer to book flights. The “Delta” design emblem is based on both the Greek “Delta” letter as well as a call back to their days in Louisiana in the Mississippi Delta region. Delta flies over 5,400 flights daily and serves 52 different countries, and it only took 100 years to go from a single crop dusting biplane that was fighting the Boll Weevil on Georgia’s cotton fields to a company the size it is today, bringing people together all over the world.

An even closer business that turns 100 this year is just up the road in Catoosa County. In 1925 Carl and Minette Dixon bought 100 acres that featured a 9 acre lake that dated back to  Indian days. They named it Lake Winnepesaukah (Native American for “Bountiful Waters”) and opened it to the public for fishing, picnicking, boating and swimming. The next year they opened the south’s largest swimming pool, and the year after, 1927, they opened the Boat Chute. It’s a “Mill Chute” type ride that features a dark “Tunnel of Love” followed by a trip to the top of ramp and a plunge down the other side for a splash down in the lake below. It’s the oldest ride of this type still in use. They also have a carousel that was built in 1916, making it over 100 years old and older than the park.

The park is still owned and operated by the same family. Less than 10 years after the park opened, Carl passed away suddenly, but instead of selling the park, his wife Minette continued to run it and operations and ownership has passed down through the women of the family for four generations so far. Among the notable attractions there is the Cannonball Rollercoaster, a giant wooden coaster, The Wacky Factory, originally built as The Castle haunted ride-through attraction designed by Bill Tracy, and the park train that circles the park.

For those that put in a century of service, the smiles put on peoples’ faces over 10 decades makes it all the more amazing!

Mark Hannah is a Dalton native who works in the film and video industry.