Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 17, 1994 TAG: 9402170283
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: N-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Of course, it's no longer 1954, and a set of custom seat covers costs closer to $75 than to $15 these days. But Maxey's Seat Cover Center is still serving Northwest Roanoke - and the rest of Virginia - from a spot not far from its original 11th Street location.
Maxey, 73, turned operations over to his son, Mahlon, in 1977. But he returned Feb. 2 for a 40th anniversary open house at the Melrose Avenue building that has housed Maxey's Seat Cover Center since 1979.
"It's really a different business now," said the elder Maxey, gazing around the shop, where family members and employees had gathered for the celebration. And more than just the prices have changed over 40 years, he said.
Although seat covers were the business's mainstay in the '50s, Maxey said demand for them "just faded on out" with the increased popularity of innovations such as sunroofs and vinyl tops and the accompanying need for installation and maintenance. The business had to respond to the changing times, he said, and so began offering a wider range of services.
True to its name, the shop still makes seat covers and reupholsters automobile interiors. But services such as installing sunroofs and specialty grilles have become a significant part of the business, Mahlon Maxey said.
Even the crafting of seat covers has changed, said George Bush, the first employee Perry Maxey hired.
"It was a whole lot easier, really," Bush said, remembering the early days. "The seats were easier to work on, and you didn't have all the different materials and colors you need now." The shop had just one sewing machine back then, he said; the rest of the work was done by hand.
With that single sewing machine and a crew of about five employees, the shop on 11th Street could turn out up to 9 1/2 sets of seat covers a day, Perry Maxey said. The days were often long, he said, but the hard work was necessary to keep the business afloat during what he called "skimpy days."
Maxey's humor kept things lively around the shop through those long hours, said Bush, recalling an incident from his first months as a Maxey employee:
Representatives from the city directory were making the rounds of Roanoke businesses, collecting employees' names and addresses. When they came to the seat cover shop and asked Bush for his job title, the boss jumped into the conversation.
"Before I could say anything, he told them, `Flunky,' " Bush said. The representatives wrote it down, and George Bush, Maxey employee, was listed in the directory as "flunky" for several years.
"He had a good sense of humor," said Bush, who worked for Maxey for 12 years. "It was funny - it wasn't malicious or anything like that."
Although Perry Maxey officially retired in 1982, he kept close ties to the business for several more years, helping his son and training new employees. Heart problems prompted full retirement in 1989, and Maxey now spends time on his farm, tending his herd of about 35 Angus cows.
"But he still comes in and tells me what I'm doing wrong," Mahlon Maxey said, laughing. "He just likes to think he's retired."
by CNB