I was born in Montgomery, Alabama about the same time Willie Nelson released the Red Headed Stranger album. Nothing really interesting happened to me for thefirst twelve years of life, but when I turned thirteen my father, John Parrish, put me to work in his saddle shop. I worked after school and on weekends up until I left for college at Auburn University. After a few short years away at school I realized that working in the saddle shop had been a lot more rewarding than any of my more cerebral ventures. So I quit.
I moved home and went to work in the saddle shop, which at that time was located in our family garage. After six months I convinced the old man to partner with me and rent a storefront in town. We did, and had a good time for the three years until his death in 1999. After that it just wasn't the same.
I kept the business going for a few more years until a job offer came to me from Steve Tucker of Tucker Saddlery in Memphis Tennessee. It was a good job offer and I took it. I closed the doors at J.P. Leather Works and moved on up to Memphis. I started off as supply chain manager then moved on to pickup the warehouse manager position, then cutting department manager, then flat shop manager. Then the big change occurred.
Steve Tucker purchased Circle Y Saddlery of Yoakum Texas, and with the buyout most of the Tucker Saddlery operation moved to Yoakum, my job with it. So I followed, dragging my fiancée, Angie, along. We soon married at the Lavaca County Courthouse in Hallettsville. After the ceremony on the drive back to our little house my cell took to ringing. It was work; they had machine problems and needed me to come on in. That happened a lot while we were in Texas.
Texas was a strange place to us. We had never heard of barbequed brisket, to us it was all about the pork, and what is it with cowboys and polka. Time passes and we adjusted, that is, except for the heat. After a couple of years it started to drive us totally insane. That kind of heat can cause brain damage. It was time for a change.
We loaded up a Budget rental truck and were Alabama bound. We settled down in Grady Alabama. Angie went to work at Montgomery Serum, the largest western store in the state, and I went full time in the roofing industry and part time in my own saddle shop. After a couple of years the saddle shop grew to the point that I went full time, and that brings us to now. I've worked both sides of the saddle industry both in one man shops and in the big factories. I have met and learned from some of the finest saddle makers around, Bull Swanson and Dana Thweat to name a few.
It has all kind of come full circle; I am back in Alabama working in my own saddle shop. I am 33, I have a beautiful wife, a great dog named Theo, and I am knee deep in saddle work. Life might not get any better.
