In other words, you had to be cool with this guy, or she wouldn’t let any of her employees work on your heating system! The problem did not simply go away, but most of the locals eventually went along with it, and Grandma Rose hired many more HVAC techs of different races after that
Grandma Rose has been telling me her life story. She heard that I was a writer, and asked if I would write about her. She even offered to pay me, but I of course said no dice to that! Taking money from your elderly grandma just to listen to her tell stories is not how family treats one another. Anyway, I have come to find out that Rose was a real firecracker back in her day. She wasn’t one to abide social injustices, so she was one of the first local business owners to hire African Americans in the 50s. She owned an HVAC factory, and a repair service that was connected to it, and had over 100 people on her payroll at any given time. Because the town was so small and remote, her HVAC company was the biggest employer in the area, so she had some real clout. When she hired the first African American HVAC tech in the state, there was a lot of pushback from the backwoods locals. Grandma Rose pushed back, and said flat out that anyone who wouldn’t allow her new HVAC tech into their home would simply not receive service. In other words, you had to be cool with this guy, or she wouldn’t let any of her employees work on your heating system! The problem did not simply go away, but most of the locals eventually went along with it, and Grandma Rose hired many more HVAC techs of different races after that. All this is just one chapter in the book of her life.