All in all, life was good. I wasn't ready to get married and start a family quite yet, mainly because the only woman I had deep feelings for had shipped herself off to New York years ago. I was 'surviving', just sailing along successful and satisfied (often), when I received a phone call on a Friday afternoon around 5:00 that started a chain-reaction avalanche.
"Les is Mor, can I help you?"
"Are you Les?" His tone was belligerent.
"Speaking."
"You'll get yours too." There was anger in his threat, and I wondered who else got theirs because of the 'too'. In fact, I wondered what any of it meant, but despite my curiosity I didn't need to hear him explain, so I disconnected. Within 15 seconds, it rang again, and this time I noticed the number. I wasn't surprised when the same hostility interrupted me.
"Les is ..."
"What are your hours?" Disrespect was dripping, and I immediately suspected racial animosity.
"Noon to six, Wednesday through Sunday." There wasn't any respect in my tone either.
"We can't make it then."
"Sorry." I wasn't, and disconnected. I wished for the old phones that could be slammed down so the other end would know you were hanging up in anger.
When it rang again, it was the same number, and I had to fight myself to stop it from going to voicemail. I didn't because I hate automated, impersonal routing that often doesn't let you address the real problem. My policy is to always answer in person during my open hours, and I wasn't going to break my own rule for the first time.
"Les is Mor. Can ..." I was interrupted again.
"Stay open until 7 tonight." A demand without a please. Hearty har har.
"Our hours are noon to six." I was reaching for the disconnect button when he enticed in his own way.
"We will make it worth your time."
"You know our hours. I have plans tonight." I disconnected again.
It was 5:57 when the perfect rich guy-trophy wife-stereotype couple walked in. The man was on the far downhill side of middle age and the young eye candy hanging on his arm was beautiful. He looked familiar but I couldn't place him, and I knew I'd seen her but couldn't remember where. He was tall and lanky, with a shaved head and a mostly gray beard. She was as hot as it gets, and what she wore didn't hide it. They walked right past my sales girl without answering when she said we were closing and they didn't slow until they stood in front of my perch. They both put their left hands on the counter so I could see their matching wedding rings. It was odd, approaching weird.
"I called earlier and asked you to stay open until 7:00." He was as blunt and obnoxious in person, but it was harder to disconnect. I was cold as I tried to hang up anyway. I hoped he could feel the phone slamming down.
"That was not a request, it was a demand, and I already said no."
"You did not. You said you have plans."
"It's the same, and I do."
"We made it before six, and we're going to shop."
Well, I'll give him credit for having balls. I don't know why he thought he could decide what happened in my store, but it was ballsy. And incorrect.
"No, you're not. Come back tomorrow. It's 6:00 and we are now closed."
All the other customers were gone and my sales girls were fidgeting. It was 6:00 straight up. I waved goodbye to my girls, and they were out the door in a flash.
****************
My birth certificate says Les s Moore. That's right, I have a middle initial but no middle name, and that middle initial is neither capitalized nor punctuated. My parents are big on things they think funny, especially my dad, and he likes me to say my name by drawling the s so it sounds like is.
A few people make the connection that my store name is a play on my name, which is partly true, but it mainly comes from the message it conveys. Since Mies Van Der Rohe expounded on it in the 1940's, 'less is more' has been a foundation principle of design. It means that designers, architects, and artists should only use the minimum amount necessary. Extra fluff and stuff doesn't add to the design, it detracts. Minimalism. Simplicity. Form follows function. Less is more.
I think 'less is more', spelled correctly, uses some extra unnecessary letters, so I believe my store name is a more appropriate spelling for the design principle it reflects.
I started Les is Mor with financial backing from my grandfather after I broke two bones in my neck during a fall at a college basketball game. Coach K thought I had a future in pro ball before the fall, but doctors said I didn't after it. They said contact sports were out because another collision or fall could easily paralyze me and might kill me.
Less time playing sports, especially the kind involving collisions, meant more time to do something else I love: designing women's clothes. That love is why I have both a store named Les is Mor and a design studio named Les is Mor with its own label. I only go to my design studio on Monday and Tuesday, although I do have two full time seamstresses that work normal hours Monday through Friday. They are both excellent at turning a sketch into a finished product and they can make necessary alterations to any item that needs it. My time with them early in the week keeps them hopping for the rest of the week.
The hard fall on the court also gave me more time to do something else I love and already did a lot: removing women's clothes before proving that stopping all contact was a doctor's prescription I wouldn't fill.
I awarded myself an MD, so I diagnosed from symptoms and wrote my own prescriptions. They weren't for me and they didn't need to be filled with pills, but they did need filling. They required me to repeatedly fill a patient with the same diagnostic probe needing my care for her affliction. It was not only a contact prescription, it was a prescription that required prolonged close contact, and my office hours were very flexible outside of my store hours.