With Christmas music playing in the background, we come to time of year when we think about the many things for which we are grateful.
I’m mixing my holidays, but when Thanksgiving comes less than a month before Christmas, some mixing is in order.
Job opportunities are on the gratefulness list. Rowan County needs more of them, and that makes us all the more grateful for the jobs we have — and the people who offered them to us.
I’m thinking here about the job that brought my husband to Salisbury right out of college. Miles Smith Jr. of Carolina Rubber Hose recruited Ed as a management trainee. We finished summer school in Chapel Hill at the end of June 1977, got married July 16 and moved to Salisbury before the end of the month.
We thought we’d be here a couple of years, max.
Ed worked for the Smiths only a couple of years, but when it comes to Salisbury, we definitely have tar on our heels. We haven’t budged.

Miles passed away Nov. 4 at the age of 86. As we shook hands with the family after his funeral, I thought about what a profound effect Miles had on our lives. What if he’d chosen one of those other Carolina soon-to-be-graduates? I’m grateful that he chose Ed and we landed here.
In a community that has companies with high-profile brands like Food Lion and Cheerwine, a manufacturer of rubber hose was hardly a household name. But Salisbury owes its prosperous foundation to businesses of all sizes and the entrepreneurial spirit that launched them.
Miles’ father, Miles Sr., started Carolina Rubber Hose. The Smiths sold the company to BFGoodrich, which later became HBD Industries. The family has started other companies since then.
Miles had friends in high places, all the way to the governor’s mansion.
“I got to know Miles when I began campaigning for lieutenant governor in 1972,” former Gov. Jim Hunt said in a phone interview shortly after Miles’ funeral.
Hunt said they met through friends, and Miles agreed to co-chair Hunt’s first statewide campaign.
“Miles Smith had a great deal to do with starting my career. … I’m deeply sorry for his passing and so thankful for all he did for our state.”
In 1977, Hunt appointed Smith to the State Economic Development Board, on which he served until 1984. That role carried Smith on industry-recruiting trips to Europe, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China.
“Miles was a great citizen of our state, coming from a great family,” Hunt said. “He cared deeply about the University of North Carolina and all the things that affected the growth and progress of the state.”
Miles had a zest for life, Hunt recalled. “He was enthusiastic and excited about the future,” the former governor said.

Local business leaders are trying to get that same kind of economic enthusiasm going in Rowan County again. Last week the Chamber of Commerce and RowanWorks brought in Erik Pages, an expert on small-business start-ups, to spread the entrepreneurial message.
Leaders said they hope the well-attended sessions Pages led will jump-start a movement in Rowan County to embrace and encourage start-up businesses.
Pages said just starting a business isn’t enough. The community also has to figure out how to help budding businesses get beyond the “incubator” stage to accelerate and grow.
The time may be right. The great recession didn’t stop the trend toward companies merging and morphing into ever-bigger corporations. But layoffs and closures taught some hard lessons about company loyalty and job security. They don’t survive economic downturns.
Here’s hoping more of the people burned by the recession find something better in the days ahead — whether it’s their own venture or a job at a new company.
At Thanksgiving, we’re grateful for the jobs that help us put food on the table — and committed to making that possible for more people.
Elizabeth Cook is editor of the Salisbury Post. Contact her at 704-797-4244.