THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 12, 1995 TAG: 9512120267
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERRI WILLIAMS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 129 lines
There's more than brick and mortar joining the tiny shops at 106 and 108 N. Saratoga St.
If you ask Ernestine Mills and Joan Gray, they'd say faith is what binds these stores, and the spirit brought the women together.
Both women quit their jobs to start their businesses in October. Joan started an inspirational shop - DJ's Variety Shoppe Inc. - and Mills opened Changin Faces hair salon.
For them it took a leap of faith to take the plunge into entrepreneurship. Starting a business in downtown Suffolk is not easy.
Many businesses along Saratoga Street are boarded up or condemned. Many others are gone, victims of the wrecking ball.
It wasn't always that way.
In the 1950s, downtown Suffolk had three movie theaters, groceries and a host of department stores.
Main Street was the scene of grand parades celebrating the year's peanut harvest. On weekends, families came from North Carolina to shop along Saratoga Street.
City officials are hoping for a resurgence with the building this spring of the $14 million Suffolk Courts Complex.
But if Suffolk's best days seem behind it, Joan Gray and Ernestine Mills haven't noticed.
The two women met about a month before they opened. They were sweeping debris from their storefronts.
``We hit it off immediately and it wasn't because she's black. The spirit knows the spirit,'' says Gray, her bell-like voice rising excitedly.
Mills agrees. Yet she's more contemplative when speculating why her hair salon is next door to DJ's.
``I can't say why,'' says Mills, running a hand through her mass of heavy black curls. ``But whatever it is, we're together for a purpose.''
``Joan has this spirit about her. It's a loving kind of spirit. We just clicked.''
They became fast friends. Gray has invited Mills to her church several times. They hype each other's store to their customers.
They pray together each morning and counsel each other when times get tough.
And these two know tough times.
It was 15 years ago and Mills, now 40, and her husband, Donald, were expecting their second child when they learned Mills had breast cancer.
Doctors told her she would need an abortion since the surgery to remove the malignancy could cause complications. She opposed the abortion, prayed and had the surgery. Her daughter Donna, whom she describes as ``blessed,'' is now a sophomore at Nansemond River High School.
A few years later, she and Donald, 41, filed for bankruptcy. Donald, a builder, was having difficulty making payments on lumber. The price had quadrupled after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida. He fell three months behind on payments to the Internal Revenue Service and the government seized their assets.
The couple moved from their $300,000, two-acre estate into a two-bedroom, mobile home at the Magnolia Lake Trailer Park where they still live.
``In everyone's life, there is a funeral,'' says Donald. ``For me, it was my finances. It was my faith that wavered but hers never did.''
Mills says material things never mattered.
``I wasn't raised with anything. I went to school with a $3 pair of sneakers,''she says.
``The only thing that matters to me is my husband, my children and my faith. If I have all those things, I'm fine.''
The situation turned around when Donald began a new company. But this time, Mills also wanted to start a business.
It was always her dream to own a salon. She had worked as a stylist at the Hair Cuttery at Chesapeake Square Mall.
Several stylists advised her to work five years before venturing on her own. She didn't listen. Instead she prayed. She and Donald chose the downtown location because they heard the area would be redeveloped. With a lot of work and loans from friends and family, they refurbished the tiny shop.
There's a warmth that emanates from the dark wood panels and the soft spiritual music that plays in this shop. Customers can have their hair relaxed or finger waved for $30. Most, says Mills proudly, simply fall asleep when she's working on them.
``I want them to be relaxed,'' she says.
The smell of potpourri and scented candles dominate DJ's Variety. On the shelves are Bibles and plaques with sentimental verses. cherubic, blue-eyed dolls with auburn curls and delicate, miniature African-American figurines sit side by side.
The variety, says Gray, sums up her life.
Gray's husband Daniel is white, the children biracial. Through Gray's eyes, race doesn't matter. But it has mattered to some shoppers.
``I've had people come in and when they realize that I'm the owner, they leave,'' says an exasperated Gray. ``Why should my color have anything to do with what I have to offer?''
Before opening DJ's, Gray was a computer service administrator responsible for 34 staffers at Wang Federal. She was comfortable and making good money. But when threats of layoffs began making life stressful, her dream to have her own store became more real.
``I wrote a letter to the Lord, and I asked Him if this wasn't something I was supposed to do, to take that desire away from me. But that desire intensified,'' says Gray.
She resigned her job during the summer. But it hasn't been easy.
When she first looked at the site, ``it was a dump. I saw no vision. I walked away feeling very discouraged,'' says Gray.
But her husband and friends encouraged her, and she couldn't beat the $225 rental fee. With the help of a business loan, she opened in October. Most items she gets are from wholesalers, friends or on consignment.
Business has been slow. She and Daniel subsist on his salary as a technician at Tidewater Scale and Butcher Supplies.
Now she barters to get her coiffed salt and pepper gray hair done by a friend in Chesapeake. She shops at Goodwill instead of Casual Corner. And they got rid of all the credit cards. It's been a lesson in discipline, she says with a smile.
There have been times when she wants to give up. Like that time in October when her cash register didn't ring for three days.
``I had come to a point where I had to trust God instead of just giving lip service,'' says Gray.
On Saturday for the first time, the store stayed open past closing as a group lingered to make several purchases.
It's a late December evening and a strong wind blows a parade of dancing leaves along an empty Saratoga Street. Mills and Gray turn their signs over. It's closing time.
But one thing you can count on. They'll be back tomorrow. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MICHAEL KESTNER/The Virginian-Pilot
Joan Gray, left, of DJ's Variety Shoppe Inc. and Ernestine Mills of
Changin Faces hair salon appear in front of their businesses at 106
and 108 N. Saratoga St. in downtown Suffolk. Both women quit their
jobs to start their businesses in October.
by CNB