"Knowing Who You Are"
St. Louis, Missouri, USA
12/24/2025
.jpg)
My first business experiences. Growing in rural Chesterfield, Missouri, USA made it hard to find business experiences in my early formative years other than small businesses. I saw businesses but the experiences were as the customer. Hellwig's Produce Market and the Chesterfield Grain Elevator were my very first businesses to observe on a large scale. The way things progress define who we are. It was strange being a small part of the larger community. This is not about race, but it was a "Barrier to Entry." However, I was from an area the locals called "Little Africa." This brings me to the story of how the family started Frazier and Sons. I told you before it was Therone Louis Frazier Sr. that was the Frazier in Frazier and Sons. However, Dad said he was not the person that started Frazier and Sons. Therone Frazier (Ronnie) started the story with "It was a wagon and a horse." Ok, I should have listen I laughed so hard I missed. In the beginning. All I remember is a pick-up with really high sideboards and a tarp top. This is a good place to start.
I did not see the business grow. This is what I knew Dad (Ronnie) was almost never home. The man Ronnie left before daylight and wasn't home until 9pm it seems like. I listen to other kids talk about their Dad's and couldn't explain who my Dad was that way. Everything starts at seven years old. He says he is not my Daddy. I got the business from your Daddy. With that being said the business is growing as I rode with him. It then that I learned he worked for Mississippi Valley Steel. "Is that why your gone in the morning?" He explained that he has worked at the Steel Mill since I was born. I was seven I guess when the family bought the first Sanitation Truck. It's Saturday morning and my first day of real work has arrived. I walk out of the house, and we are on our way out the drive. "Do you have your lunch?" "No." We stopped at Mom Mag's house. She handed me a sack lunch and talk to me about making money. Mom Mag was going to keep track of my money. At home Ronnie's house there were new rules. Don't answer the phone let an adult answer the phone. "I am running a business we need to be more business-like." "Frazier and Sons this is Margret. Could I help you?" Margret won the business level of the household. I don't know who Margret is, but she won. "Mickey, you going to get in trouble you're not an adult." She wasn't in trouble. She was the voice of the company. Therone Louis Frazier Jr. said she had been promoted. "I didn't want the job." Soon after she was answering billing questions of the customers. The Customers Center had to use the business level. We only had the one phone line. "Riiing" Riiing" "Ring" "Answer the phone!" "I am not old enough and I don't have the business level." I was given a stern look. "You pick up that phone and answer it the right way." "I have customers calling that need to talk to somebody." That wasn't the problem. Hueffmeier Sanitation was knocking at the door. Kevin Hueffmeier was a guy I knew years later. We were being challenged. The Frazier's were on the eastside, and the Hueffmeier (bought by Rockwood Sanitation) were on the westside.
I learned Customer Service at an early age. The strange thing was we knew most of the customers. Our family had lived in the area since before 1900. Pop (Henry Joseph Frazier born 1886 (the one that Ronnie said gave him the horse and wagon)) lived here 50 years before Ronnie (Dad) was born. Ronnie's mother Marie (Frazier) Thompson was born in 1917 in the Chesterfield area. This is a family business, right? Being a young man at school and getting customer complaints was crazy. "Your Daddy didn't pick up the trash, and no one is answering the phone." "Write it down and bring it home." It wasn't a problem until I had five or more complaints a week. "Here." "Another complaint?" "No, this one isn't a complaint." "I do have a question that is not a complaint, but the bill is not paid is wrong." Sometime around the same time within the same month another customer complained in Highcroft Subdivision is not in my school district, but it is a complaint. Checks are not being credited, and they have been processed. "What happened?!" "Kurf took a check." "He said he needed fuel." "I got mess now. It can't be done this way anymore!" "I have to find all these checks and fix this mess." "Margret enter the checks first then give it to Kurf if I am not here." "I just answer the phone." "Frazier Cookie Factory which crumb do you want to speak too;" wasn't funny anymore. "This is Mrs. Tuttle are you picking up the trash today you missed it last week. Taht's the problem you're running too many businesses." "Yes Mam' I was joking." "You need another phone line." "I want to speak to the Crumb that is going to pick up my trash." Christmas Valley and Sheperd Valley were the main customers that were hard to keep serviced. The truck would break on Sheperd Road almost all the time. The customers were understanding because of who we were, but the competition is gaining ground. We all had to learn customer service. The company now had an answering machine. "Fix the truck and fix the accounting." click up. "I forgot who we were." Ya just my sons. As a family we learned so much along way. Owning a business was a lot of hard work. We had been Hog Farmers before moving to sanitation. This was really a farming community that needed their trash removed from the property. St. Louis was expanding and Chesterfield was the new area being developed piles of waste on your property was no acceptable. Corporate America had migrated to rural St. Louis County, Missouri, USA. We had to understand that we couldn't just say the check wasn't recorded. We need another check sent. These people don't know us. Vehicle maintenance, Customer service and bookkeeping were all part of running a business. We had to know who we were. I think the word Fraud was used once. "I will take care of the problem even if the check isn't found." "These people don't know us, and I am running a business."
By Darren Dwayne Frazier
Photograph by Highland Productions LLC