A 47-year career in lights and water

By WALLYCE TODD

Forty-seven years have come and gone, and Bobby Worthington has stayed put. In a world that now sees people moving from job to job, Worthington (“just Bobby,” he’ll tell you) has been with one business for nearly 50 years.

Until 2005, that business was Scotts Inc.; now it’s Cregger and Co. Inc. But whatever the name, plumbers, electricians and contractors in Columbus County have likely come to know Bobby’s face over the years. He’s sat behind the counter or walked around the store to help them find what they needed to make a house under construction (or needing repair) into a home more comfortable for living.

A quiet man who’s not uncomfortable staying out of the limelight, Bobby’s smile may sometimes come slowly, but always sincerely. Just ask him about his family or people he cares about to see his eyes light up. Since he knows a lot of people, if you watch, you’ll see his eyes light up a lot.

“I was born and raised in Columbus County,” he says. “I know most people by name – but if I don’t know them by name, I know them by their faces.”

In a business that’s about parts and pieces most people don’t really understand, Bobby has developed good listening skills and problem-solving techniques.

“Most customers don’t know what they want. They don’t really know how to describe what they want,” he states. “You have to listen to them and help them figure it out. You got to bear with them and help them…you have to pay attention.”

Paying attention is something Bobby and his team also had to do during the storms and hot spots of business life.

“I’ve been through two floods and a fire,” he recollects. “The first flood we had, the water rose up 17 inches inside the store. The second time, it was 27 inches inside the store. The floods made a mess.

“We had mud in here,” Bobby remembers about the store on Franklin Street. It took two to three days to clean up. The water got quite a bit…. Nobody in Whiteville had ever seen something like that here…We didn’t have no idea that it would come up that high, but the second time, we knew it was coming…so we put everything up we could.”

The fire Scotts suffered “moved us into the warehouse; we did business out the back door. We lost the whole display in the front,” said Bobby.

Many folks will remember the years of riding by the Scotts store and seeing the entire front window shimmering from a variety of lighting fixtures and sparkling chandeliers. This was not always the case. Scotts Inc. didn’t start out in lights.

“Scotts Inc. was established about a 100 years ago,” states Bobby. “Mr. I.M.’s daddy started it, and it was a blacksmith shop in Fair Bluff. They eventually put in plumbing, tubs, commodes, stuff like that. When Mr. I.M.’s daddy passed on, Mr. I.M. became president. He built this place here (on Franklin Street).”

“I first started off in the Fair Bluff store – worked there for about six months before coming to work in Whiteville,” says Bobby. At the time, Scotts Inc. was located on Madison Street, near where What-a-Burger is now.

“I moved to Whiteville about a year after I started working here,” he says. “I (started as) a counter salesman, delivery, first one thing then another – wherever I was needed.”

Bobby worked at the Madison Street building until the Franklin Street location was built. “When we moved ‘round here to this new store, I was promoted to manager,” he says. “I was manager for about 35 years.”

While not quite newly-weds when he and his wife, Jeannette (formerly a Nobles from Chadbourn), moved to the county seat – they were still a young couple that waited a bit before buying a home and starting a family.

“We waited four years to have children because we were going to wait until we got our start. We were working toward our own home,” Bobby recollects.

“(The younger generation) want everything right now. We had to wait. It used to be hard times. It comes right much easier now,” he states. “Credit is so easy to get these days, but (I think) credit cards are ruining people.

“Y’know, the families want their children to have more – but they get themselves in a bind to do so. It’s through love, but really, I think it’s a bad thing. (Parents) ought to let their children get out and work and earn what they have. They will appreciate it more.”

Bobby is definitive about what he appreciates most in his life. “My family. I have a good family,” he says and his face brightens. “I have good grandchildren (three). I’m proud - real proud of my family.”

Three sons, Randy, Mickey and Steven make up the Worthington crew. Mickey is a manager in the pharmacy at Wal-Mart (His two children are Meghan and Ryan). Steven is with the police department’s drug unit.

Randy’s son, Randall, is already following his grandfather’s footsteps as a hard worker. “He lives at home, but he makes his own way. He goes to school at Southeastern and he’s got two jobs,” Bobby states with pride.

About being a grandfather, Bobby says, “I like it fine. There’s nothing like it. There’s something special about your grandchildren. You can spoil them and send them home. If you spoil your kids, you’ve got to contend with them.”

Bobby’s boys weren’t contentious. “We never did have any trouble with my boys,” their father says. “I kept them on the ball field, in fishing or in church.”

Those are still not bad places to be found. In fact, fishing is high on Bobby’s full-time retirement agenda. (He’s been semi-retired since 1999). His last official day of work at Cregger and Company was on Sept. 27. Bobby says he’s already got plans.

“Well, I’m going to fish. I’d like to travel a little bit. I still mow grass,” he states. Then he adds on the clincher, “What I can’t think of to do, I imagine my wife will.”

His eyes sparkle a bit like the lights did in the front of Scotts store for so many years as Bobby chuckles about his retirement activities. He has nearly five decades of memories from working within the same business, four of those decades spent in the same location. One particular saying still resonates when he thinks of his first boss, I.M. Scott.

“Mr. I.M. Scott always told me: ‘Bobby, you can’t sell it if you ain’t got it…if someone wants it, get it.’” Bobby acknowledges times have changed as the world has.

But he also remembers another saying that people in the community often stated about the store he’s been proud to be a part of all these years: “If Scotts don’t have it, it ain’t no use going anywhere else to try to find it.”

From the year 1959 to 2006, Bobby has more or less manifested what that saying entails. He found what he needed at Scotts, so he stayed there and didn’t go anywhere else. The building won’t be quite the same without his presence each week, but one can imagine the walls will remember his life there. In fact, it’s likely there are a lot of walls around the county that appreciate the help Bobby gave them.

More importantly, there are the people who have benefited--thousands of them over the years. It’s a self-evident fact when Bobby states:

“I like people. I like the people of Columbus County.”