"Get a Job, Get a Life, or Get a Divorce"

March 8, 2010, Fort Davis, TX

While driving in Fort Davis, we passed by a store that sells brooms and walking sticks. Seems like a business that was doomed to fail, so I was curious why it was on a main street and why its name appeared on several tourist brochures. Adolfo was taking photos of yet another Airstream on a lot next door, so this was my chance to check out The Broom Shop.

The place looked more like a workshop than a store. Outside were stacks of tree limbs sitting like firewood, and inside was a lot of old equipment and a man sitting on a makeshift piece of equipment he was using to make a broom. Every broom in the store looked like it should belong to a classy witch. The handles were long and rustic--made from trees or from cholla. Rather than made of straw, these brooms were made from broom corn (sorghum) shipped in from South Carolina.

The real charm of the shop was the broom maker, Ron Cox. He is a real talker, and has a great story to tell. He was a master plumber in Bryan, TX before an accident caused him to quit plumbing. He kept busy raising a daughter, but when he started buying more toys than he needed, his wife told him to "get a life, get a job, or get a divorce." On his wife's suggestion, he took up broom making. I assume she didn't expect him to make a fortune at this, but probably expected him to keep busy and stop buying vehicles.

Ron, worked on 100-year-old Shaker broom making equipment until recently when he invented a new tool that allows him to work with curved sticks. The new tool retains the traditional style of broom making and has no motor.

Ron sells his brooms from his small store and to a distributor in Massachusetts. I can only assume that many are sold in the Salem area.

Ron was as happy to just chat as he was to sell brooms. In fact, there was no pressure what so ever. He told me the history of a broom maker in North Carolina who used sorghum to make a quick broom for his wife when he had run out of straw. His wife was so impressed that he started using sorghum in all his brooms. His business skyrocketed. A businessman from the north visited and asked the secret. Unwilling to tell, the broom maker called the sorghum “broom corn.”

Ron Cox didn’t seem to have many secrets. He was happy to show just how his brooms were made and to share stories of his family, his wife, and the many interesting customers he meets. He seemed to truly enjoy life and his work.