The Economy, According to Del and Loyd

Del Saxon had just made an $8,000 sale when I reached him on the phone yesterday. “Things are going really well. I’ve got a warehouse full of things and people are interested in buying,” he told me. After closing his antiques storefront on Slocum Street for good in January (”I’m really glad to finally get out from under that $5,000 rent every month,” he said), he’s been sleeping in an extra 30 minutes in the mornings and then padding into the home office he set up in his condo on Travis St. He doesn’t sound like a man who’s worried about the econonmy.

“People still have money and they’re doing things,” Loyd Taylor said last night as he perused the quiche lorraine, stuffed mushrooms, and roasted asparagus behind the counter at Whole Foods, where I bumped into him. “It’s been a really busy January for us, we’ve had lots of work,” he said of the decorating business he and partner Paxton Gremillion have shared since the 1970s. “The economy? The media reports are the problem. They try to scare everyone. The people who have money in Dallas always have money to spend, no matter what. Look at what’s going on in Westover Hills in Fort Worth right now– all those houses being torn up and redone. All that natural gas money is coming in. It’s just like the 80s,when Texas had oil money and the rest of the country was in trouble.” He looked pensive. “In the 80s, people put their big jewels away and even though they had the money, they stopped redoing their houses because it just didn’t look right when so many people were losing their jobs.” Then he was off, headed towards the fresh cheeses and wines.