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Katie Galyean
Summer jobs are typically thought of as tasks for high school and college aged students. However, if you were to go to Goldston’s Gift Shop at White Lake, you would find Johnna Anderson, a 54-year-old employee who has been working there for the past 35 summers.
“I started at Goldston’s Gift Shop after my freshman year in college, which was 1981,” said Anderson.
Anderson graduated from Bladen Community College with a degree in business. In 1990, she bought the H&R Block in Elizabethtown where she still is still the owner.
Anderson said she works at H&R Block during the tax season, but keeping the summer job at the lake provides her with a break from all the metal work that goes on in her own business.
“It is completely different from H&R Block,” said Anderson. “H&R Block is all mental and this is all physical.”
Anderson’s main job at the store is the t-shirt desk. The store offers the option for customer’s to choose different designs to be hand printed onto a t-shirt. After the customer orders the design, Anderson will print the t-shirt for them.
“[I call the people I work for] my White Lake family,” said Anderson. “If it wasn’t for the people I work for and work with, I probably wouldn’t keep coming back.”
Anderson said Ramona Strickland, the manager at the gift shop, has been working in the store since the late 60’s and has taught Anderson a lot. “She instills good work values in me and all the young people we have to come through. She has taught a lot of us how to sweep, dust, how to put a hanger on the rack and it carries though at home,” said Anderson.
All of Anderson’s daughters have worked at the gift shop as well. “They haven’t lasted quite as long as I have,” said Anderson.
Anderson said she has been saying it is her last year to work at the gift shop since her youngest daughter, now age 21, was little. “[My family] doesn’t even pay attention to me now when I say it is my last year,” she said.
“You see some of the same people on vacation down here year after year,” said Anderson. She also said while you may not remember their names, it is always good to recognize those people and talk to them.
Anderson said many people assume working at the lake is an easy job, but it is not all fun and games. “I don’t walk down on the pier, I don’t lay out in the water. You bring the stock in, you price it, you have to put it up, you need to make sure everything is clean because we like for out shop to be clean,” she said.
As much as Anderson enjoys working at the lake, she said that her time there is probably coming to a close. “I’ll be 55 in December and my husband is about ready to retire and my daughter graduates in December, so I think it is coming in the next little bit,” she said.
“It will be sad to go because I have really enjoyed it,” said Anderson.
Anderson mentioned one of the previous owners of the store, Johnnie Womble, who passed away in the mid ‘80s, told her ‘once you have that White Lake sand in your shoes, its hard to get it out.’
“I haven’t gotten [the sand] out of my shoes yet,” said Anderson.
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