Sweet Sunday (as read in the instructions of the Pay Day board game.) Sweet Sunday spaces have neither an award nor a penalty, just a space to “rest.”
Several years ago now, Sue over at McCartee’s Barn gave me a Pay Day game board. I had been admiring it 
in her unique art and antique shop over in Salem, NY and was telling her about how I used to play Pay Day all the time with my cousins Kelly and Stephanie. She said, “Just take it…. It obviously makes you happy.” That game board has sort of been a work of art propped up in corners of my home ever since. Most recently it’s lived near my messy desk.
I’ve been looking for a way to tell you some news, and when my eyes hit the 31-day calendar on the Pay Day board the other morning and specifically the “Sweet Sunday” square, I found my inspiration. The news is that we are going to start being closed on Sundays.
I posted a “Contemplating Options” vlog (video blog) on Facebook a couple of weeks ago where I talked about a big change at JOY in that Lila is moving to St. Louis and won’t be working with us anymore. Lila does a lot at this little bra shop and her leaving is a big deal. In addition to being an amazing bra fitter, sales person, and overall excellent employee, Lila checks in product when it arrives in big boxes from our vendors and keeps all the pricing and quantities straight. We are going to miss her on a lot of levels. Lila is cool.
Katherine is going to pick-up those nitty-gritty, detail oriented duties that Lila has done for the past three years. Katherine has worked at the shop on the sales floor for past four summers. She’s meticulous and likes to be right in all things she does, just like Lila. I’m lucky to have someone else with those traits and accompanying skills to do this type of work for my company. Making sure our inventory information is correct and accurate is vital to our success. Have you ever seen how many bras we have?
All this shuffling, with Lila leaving and Katherine taking over her inventory management duties, leaves us with a big void on the sales floor. We are basically losing two sales people with this move.
To me, Sundays are a day like no other. If you know me well, you may already know that I don’t like to work on Sundays. With this change in our staff, I was personally staring down the barrel of having to work on a lot of them this summer. Not just me, but Julie too. Many of those Sunday shifts were going to transfer to us. I wasn’t going to do that to her or her family. We already work together on Saturdays. Life is too short. All we have is time.
Julie was the first person I told about this idea of mine to close on Sundays. I thought of it a couple of weeks ago when I was weeding my rhubarb patch and decided to record that vlog about the upcoming changes to the shop. I wasn’t sure how we were going to proceed with Lila’s departure at that point. As the manager at JOY, Julie has a wide view of the trickle-down effects a decision to close one day a week has on our business. She’s asked me all the right questions. With the decision made, we move forward along with the rest of the team with a lot of joy. Knowing we have Sundays off is pretty sweet.
Thank you for understanding and sincere hopes and gratitude if you can switch your shopping at JOY to any day but Sunday.
Happy Mothers Day. What a perfect Sweet Sunday to kick things off.
Much Love,
Joy
Joy Proft is the owner of JOY all things underthings in Manchester Center, Vermont. JOY will be open 5 years this summer. Not to confuse the issue, but the shop still might be on on Sundays that make sense…like Memorial Day weekend Sunday, or if Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday. Options are good, but you can pretty much count on us being closed on the day of “rest.”
PS: This song has been running in my head all week. It’s from the album Common One.
“Wild Honey” – lyrics by Van Morrison
Open your arms in the early mornin’
When the light comes shinin’ through
Can’t you hear my heart beat just for you?
It’s beating so wild, honey.
And light comes shinin’
Singin’ my song
And the band is playin’
And the music is tried and true
Can’t you hear my heart beat just for you?
It’s beating so wild, honey.
And light comes shinin’
I’ll be waiting for you
I’ll be waiting here for me
Way up on the mountain
Where the hillside rolls down to the sea
Tell me what’s real?
What I feel inside
Any time of day or night will do
It’s alright
Can’t you hear my heart beat just for you?
It’s beating so wild, honey.
And your light comes shining through.
Tell me what’s real
What I feel inside
Any time of day or night will do
It’s alright.
Can’t you hear my heart beat just for you?
It’s beating so wild, honey.
And the light comes shining through
And the light comes shining through
It’s beating so wild
And the light comes shining through
And the light comes shining through.
