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Our State/Tar Heel People/July/1449 words When Opportunities Knocked By Ralph Grizzle In this age of e-commerce and warehouse-size superstores, Luther Clegg is something of an anomaly. While the Greensboro-resident remains part of the retail revolution, the mechanism that drives his merchandise is not bottom-line pricing or the World Wide Web. It is a 1977 Buick. You see, Luther Clegg still peddles his wares the old-fashioned way: door-to-door. "Miracle Cloth," Clegg says while holding up the all-purpose polishing cloth. "They named it right. It will take out scratches and remove rust. 1001 uses. Never wash it. Keep it in a Ziplock bag, and it will last a long time." At a time when the world seems steadfast on moving increasingly toward impersonal sales venues - the internet and mail order shopping - Luther Clegg serves as a living reminder that door-to-door salesmanship and the personal touch still have a place in this ever-changing world. A Brisk Business On the trunk of his Buick, Clegg lays a black suitcase on its side and opens it. He shows how he once presented the Fuller Brush merchandise that he sold from 1956 until 1962. "Selling for Fuller Brush was hard," he says. "They gave you the worst territory in town, just to see if you could cut it. I had to order $200 worth of merchandise a week. I got a $20 production discount, which was my take. So I had to sell other things to keep my head above water." Those other things included household-cleaning supplies and other products that now represent Clegg's sole sources of income. How is it going for Clegg? While he can't provide specific sales analysis - in fact, he uses a pad and carbon paper to write receipts - Clegg can tell you he has a "hard time keeping up" with demand. Beginning his rounds in the early afternoon, he returns home each night - most times after 10 - with an "inch thick of invoices," which he tallies up before making his nightly bank deposit. His Own Man At 81, Clegg has the stamina of men half his age. "He's the hardest working man I know," says Zelle Jester, a Greensboro resident who has been buying goods from Clegg for 34 years. "He's also as self-sufficient as they come." Probably the height of his self-sufficiency took place the time he performed surgery on himself to save $50. While pruning a tree for one of his customers, the ax he was using fell on his shin, cutting a gash that exposed bone. Clegg limped to his car and drove to the emergency room. But upon being told the cost to treat and stitch the wound, he turned and drove himself home. There, he poured alcohol on the gash and stitched it - with fishing line no less. He still has a scar to show the shortcomings of his medical handiwork. But to Clegg it was worth the savings. When we visited Clegg in May, his hip was giving way. It hurt him so much that he practically had to crawl up stairs - "like a baby," he says - lugging his wares. A few days before our interview, Clegg was scheduled to enter the hospital for hip surgery. (Apparently, he felt this was beyond the scope of his limited medical abilities.) Nonetheless, the worn out hip did not keep Clegg from going to work each day right up until his operation. Clegg works in what should be his golden years because he must. His rent has more than tripled in past years, from $75 to $275 a month. Plus, Clegg needs to earn extra cash to keep his favorite charities going - the Bible League and other organizations that distribute the "good book" worldwide. "I try to do a little good with what little I make," he says. "My main goal is to get out Bibles to countries where Christians are being persecuted. I want as many points as I can accumulate when I get to heaven." A Family Tradition Clegg inherited his work ethic from his father. Born in 1869, W.F. Clegg manufactured cigars in Greensboro beginning in the late 1800s. His factory was situated across from the train station, and with such proximity to travelers coming and going, the elder Clegg soon began to offer sandwiches and coffee, and eventually, rooms. In 1891, the business was expanded to incorporate Hotel Clegg. Young Luther, born in 1919, remembers visiting the hotel and the cigar factory on the third floor above the guestrooms. "I could barely look over the table where the women were rolling cigars," he says. Clegg's father lost nearly everything during the Depression. In 1941, he was broke and dying at Wesley Long Hospital. Clegg went with his mother and sister to visit the ailing patriarch. From the side of his father's bed, Clegg watched something about the size of a bumblebee exit and fly out a partially opened window. "Did you see that?" Clegg asked his mother. She did not. "Did you?" he asked his sister. No. "I think it was his soul leaving his body," Clegg says all these years later. "Whatever it was, it sure knew where it was going." Following his father's death, Clegg took on the responsibility of caring for his mother, a role he played for the next 37 years. He still mourns her death. "She lived 97 years, three months and 15 days," Clegg says reflectively. On his own since 1978, Clegg never married. "I thought taking care of my mother was more important than marriage," he says. "I guess the Lord will have to pick me out somebody." A Bag Full Of Goodies Clegg's father left his son with a fine appreciation for numbers. His reality, in fact, seems to be steeped in the value of things, including his own merchandise. "Perma Scour," he says. "Cleans without scratching surfaces. Rosemary Crank [one of regular Clegg's customers] dropped one in her garbage disposal. Hardly hurt it. $1.98." Carbon steel scissors. "16.50," he says. "They're the only scissors that will cut silk without causing it to unravel." Garden shears. "$22.50. Painted orange so that you won't lose them. Clips on to your belt." Clear Magic. "If you have a dog and it urinates on your rug or something, this will take it out. $12.06." In 1937, he had surgery on a hernia: "$25," he says, adding, "I made a deal with the doctor." The house on Mendenhall Street where he lived with his mother in 1941: $65 per month. His salary as a teenager for delivering baked goods: $18 a week. The amount he earned on his first day as a nine-year-old selling the Saturday Evening Post: a nickel. The Navy paid him $21 a month in 1942. His father paid $540 a year for Clegg to attend Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Virginia. The rent his father paid for his cigar factory: $30 a month. Giving Thanks With no wife, no children, his mother and father gone, Luther Clegg is not entirely alone. "He probably knows more people than anybody else in Greensboro," Zelle Jester says. And most folks do welcome a visit from Clegg. The lean senior citizen shows up dressed as the professional that he is. He wears a tie clip that bears his name and a pocket protector with several pens - tools of his trade. He also brings with him a sweetness that is immediately apparent to anyone he meets. "He doesn't have an unkind thought in his head," Jester says. Clegg will sometimes show up with a loaf of bread or a carton of sweet rolls, intended as gifts for his customers. "He just wants to give something back," Jester says. "He wants to thank people for what they're doing for him." As if a visit from Luther Clegg weren't thanks enough. Editor's Note: Concerned about how Luther Clegg would cope with his hip surgery in May, Zelle Jester suggested that we let Our State readers know how to write him. His address is 427 North Cedar Street, Greensboro, NC 27401. "It would be nice if his friends would send him a card," Jester says. Box: Did You Know? Fuller Brush currently maintains a sales force 8,000-to-9,000 strong, according to Kaye Kreger, a spokesperson for New York-based CPAC, the company that has owned Fuller Brush since 1994. But the enterprise 21-year-old Alfred C. Fuller began New Year's Day 1906 with $65 worth of fibers, wires and handles has found new ways to sell its wares. Products are being marketed through 10 retail outlets, catalogs and now, the Internet, www.fuller.com. "All of this is part of a larger effort to reintroduce Fuller Brush to the buying public," Kreger says. |
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