A Sentimental Journey

 

Slipping away to go back down the starry midnight trail to the enchanted forest of old memories is something all of us no-longer-young citizens do from time to time.  We're allowed.  Making that trip in real time rarely happens but a few weeks ago it did for me.  I sold my Jostens sales territory to Brian Coushay 31 years ago and recently he invited me to lunch where he told me of a special gathering of old and new Jostens representatives (reps) that would take place in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. It was to honor the retirement of Karen Mauldin.

Karen Mauldin.

 In the fifteen years I ran a Jostens territory, Karen and I developed a friendship that had a dimension beyond the purely business dealings. Lots of laughs and then one day when I got old I decided to retire.  And who flew in from Minnesota on her own dime for my retirement party?  Yeah, the girl herself.

I, like every salesman who has ever worked for Jostens in the last 44 years,  knows Karen as the Queen of the hive who ensures that when the annual accounting is made, every comb is overflowing with honey.  To understand the respect the sales reps have for her you need to know Jostens mission statement: it is organized to recognize student achievement in the high schools of America. Products associated with graduation. Apparel with school identification.  Class rings.  Academic award certificates. Athletic awards. Everything designed to connect the individual student to the school.

In this kind of operation lots can go wrong. Size, color, wording and on and on.  The plants depend on the reps to send in accurate specifications for each individual. And the plants are not allowed to make errors even if human beings design and produce the individual products in plants scattered around different parts of the nation. And each plant has people like Karen Mauldin who control the levers that route the individual products to the right school to the right student.

 Karen Mauldin spent 44 years as the liaison between the plant and the sales reps and she made that crazy circus work: the clown car discharges its load just before the elephant picks the car up and the man on the flying trapeze  grabs the swing in the nick of time.  That interaction between Karen and the hundreds of reps was an annual wild buffalo stampede that tested the minds and the physical endurance of all parties concerned.

But every year, somehow, it worked and every Jostens rep knew that girl in Minnesota juggling the active chainsaws was a big part of why it worked. And the positive effect it had on their settlement check. So, on August 8th in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho a group of reps brought Karen out to a foot-stomping, shouting celebration of her retirement.  War stories were told and she was forced to admit the truth to the rumor she kept a dartboard in her home to which she would affix pictures of certain reps and power launch her darts. Then the presentation of an Apple watch from her NorthWest cult members.

I don't travel a lot these days but I wouldn't have missed that Hidey-ho in Idaho for a million bitcoins.