Norton's Flooring -Nearly Five Decades of Serving Randolph County
✍️ By Charley and Tom Norton
Our family moved to Roanoke in 1970, leaving Memphis, Tennessee, after my dad, Jay Norton, was offered a job as Vice President of Sales at Vernon Carpet Mills in Wedowee. Mom, Evelyn Norton, found our new home on Guy Street, which was within walking distance to both the school and the town.
Our neighbors generously allowed us to place a mobile home in the front yard while we worked on making our old 1909 house livable. If you’re imagining a scene out of The Beverly Hillbillies, you wouldn’t be far off. 😄
A few years later, Vernon Carpet Mills in Wedowee closed, leaving Dad, and many others, without jobs. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but Dad eventually found work representing several carpet mills as a territory manager, selling to retail stores.
The job kept him on the road four to six days a week, but it paid enough for Mom to keep two meals on the table every day for us four kids and even find a way to serve dessert after supper. Mom never applied for free school lunches or asked for handouts, but the help came anyway.
Family, friends, and the community were there for us, and when we were finally able to get ahead, Mom and Dad made sure to do the same for others in need.
If there’s one thing I want the Norton family to be remembered for, it’s the selfless acts of kindness we both received and gave in return.
💔 A New Start in Roanoke
Looking back, I can only imagine how hard it must have been for Dad just before he started Norton’s Flooring. He had been incredibly successful before — he started the first ServiceMaster in Nashville and opened a flooring store called The Carpet Barn, both of which are still operating today.
Despite his resilience, everything had changed for him, and I can only imagine how much pride he must have swallowed while doing whatever it took to provide for the family. Especially after all the tragedy we endured before moving to Roanoke.
Mom said to me one time, that she felt we hadn’t just moved to Roanoke — we had escaped.
In the year or so before we arrived, Mom had lost both of her parents and, tragically, her oldest daughter, Jenny. She was in a dark place. But the caring people of Roanoke, unknowingly, helped pull her out of the grief that was consuming her.
🎶 Music, Work, and Resilience
Even though money was tight then, I never felt looked down upon by anyone in town.
Mom took a job as the secretary at the First Methodist Church in Roanoke and later rented a booth at the flea market from George Davis, which is now the Randolph Leader building. While Dad was on the road, he would pick up remnants of carpet and vinyl for Mom to sell at her booth. She was smart and resourceful.
Bill, my oldest brother, a talented drummer, finished his senior year at Handley High School and worked at Vernon Carpet Mills until he went on to Auburn University, where he earned a degree in engineering. He even played in a local band called Rock Candy.
Laura, my sister, played flute and xylophone in the school band. She was an amazing singer and I am sure she was the most beautiful Miss Handleyan that Handley High School ever produced.
Tom, like the rest of us kids, was musically talented. He played saxophone in the school band, but his real passion was guitar. During his teen years he worked as a soda jerk at City Pharmacy and was lead guitarist in the band Wind that performed at the Armory on weekends. He earned enough to buy his prized 1969 GTO — and, yes, he was quite popular. 😎
After high school, Tom went to Southern Union Junior College while he worked for local general contractor Johnny Deason for two years, and at a hardware store called 3-D Cash N Carry. After that, he spent a couple of years on the road performing in a band known as Islander. He returned home and worked at Loy’s Office Supplies in LaGrange, Georgia. Eventually, he moved to Nashville and worked for a specialty hardwood supplier before he returned home to stay.
As for me (Charley), I played the drums in the marching band and worked mostly at the Carpet Shop before and after school. I also worked at Amoco Fabrics before joining the AirForce, where I just knew I would never again have to roll up another carpet remnant. 😅
🏠 The Depot and the Dream
In 1976, Dad rented the old railroad depot across the street from the flea market where Mom had been selling her wares. This is where it all began for Norton’s Flooring.
The building had been vacant for years and was in pretty rough shape, but the rent was right, so the whole family pitched in to make it usable. One time, during the renovation, Tom and I ran the natural gas line to the back of the warehouse where the heater was. It was a good 100 feet or so, and we made sure to check every joint for gas leaks with a lighter — which could have ended the carpet shop before it even began! 😬
Mom ran the store, initially called The Carpet Shop. She was a genius with retail and office organization. Dad got the accounts and the products in place.
🌐 Growth, Vision & The Big Map
In the old days, (before the internet, ahem) we would advertise in Southern Living Magazine and would get orders all over the nation.
When the internet came along, Dad embraced it (at 70 years old!), launching a website where orders could come directly to us from everywhere. This is when the name changed to Norton’s Flooring. He was a visionary and was able to establish a national sales network where he kept a map marked with a pin of every city and state that he shipped flooring to customers. That map is still in our office today, and it is impressive. 📍
🛍️ Moving to Wedowee
In 1981, when Tom returned home, he initially helped out part-time doing the subfloor removals and cutting doors (all the dirty work!), but bit by bit he got drawn into the business like others of us in the family.
Kim, my wife, and I joined the team in 1991. We had been talking about raising a child in a small town, so coming back to Roanoke felt like the right choice.
Tom introduced hardwood flooring into the business, which allowed us to offer installation and expand our services. We were growing!
Around 1995, Tom and I were running the store in Roanoke on our own. Mom had retired to bake pies and casseroles for people in need, some she knew, and some she didn’t. It didn’t matter to her, she loved it. 💛
She also had such a good green thumb that if she threw a rock in a pile of salt, a tree would grow and bear fruit. Dad was able to take more time for his favorite hobbies, barbershop singing and golf, but kept working the website business and adding to his big map of customers.
🚚 One Drive Changed Everything
A few years later, while Tom and I were traveling to Wedowee to finish a hardwood sanding job, we passed the old Hurley Manufacturing plant on Hwy 431.
One of us said to the other, pointing as we rolled past it, “That would make a great carpet shop.”
I figured, with Tom’s personality, wisdom, musical ability, and my charm and salesmanship, we were confident we couldn’t fail.
A few months later, we were in our new facility.
It was formerly a Coca-Cola Distribution location, then used as a sewing plant for men’s slacks. It had been closed for years, but it had room to grow, and boy, have we grown! Norton’s Flooring has been calling this home since 1998.
It started as the flooring outlet center to the main store in Roanoke, but over a year or two of transition, we moved all our retail to Wedowee, ramping up operations where we began stocking flooring and supplies on a much larger scale.
🎉 Nearly 50 Years & Still Rolling
Once we proved ourselves to the locals, lake homeowners and even contractors from Georgia, business boomed.
We have counted ourselves blessed that people who come here as customers, leave as friends.
Next year, we’ll celebrate the 50th anniversary of our two-generation business.
We’re still here offering great deals on the most popular designer floors because of our wonderful community who supported us, fantastic people on our team of experts, and the legacy of generosity that lives on from the beginning. 🙌
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