Good manners still count in business

Our parents drilled into our heads that saying “please” and “thank you” were not only part of everyday life, but were essential to operating a successful business.

They are the basic ingredients of “Good Manners.”

For more than 30 years, our family owned and operated the garbage collection business for Walkerville; a small, incorporated Montana city north of Butte.

It was a part-time operation, which required about eight hours a week.

In the early 1950s, our family posted a $100 bond and took it over. Previous owners thought it was too small to be profitable given the start-up costs. There wer...