Leadership and Life at the Guthrie

“While I was trailing behind my grandma in all of the moments that might have seemed like typical daily activities at the time, I was really observing how independent women acted in various situations.”

Lessons in leadership and humanity can come from formal classrooms and halls of learning. They can also come from everyday experiences. Sometimes you may not understand the lessons for what they are until much later. I am who I am as a leader and a human being due to many influences. But, one of the greatest influences in my life comes from someone that I consider to be the strongest woman I know, my Grandma Vonnie. 

I spent a lot of time with my grandmother growing up. We would have dinner at her house every Sunday, and often during the summer, I would stay after and spend the night. She lives on a farm, so the next morning, I would slip on my very own pair of barn boots that sat next to hers on the porch and help her feed the animals. We would work on puzzles and I would always make sure the candy jar was filled to the top. We did a lot together. Often, we would go on outings to the store, to visit my grandfather’s grave site, to pick up meat at the market, and to get ice cream. We always got white house cherry. It was our favorite. At that time, she owned a movie theatre, so I would go there with her in the evenings and help her pop the popcorn, sell the entry tickets, and then follow her around with her flashlight once the movie had started so she could shine it at people and yell at them to get their feet off of the seats. Many of my childhood friends remember her movie theatre flashlight, but not fondly. Once the movie was up and running, we would often sit up in the balcony, where no one was allowed but family, and watch the show. Sometimes if she was very busy working, she would allow me to go up there and sit alone. It felt very special! But honestly, it really didn’t matter what we were doing. I just enjoyed spending time with her. 

What I didn’t realize until I was an adult was how much I was learning from her in those seemingly mundane moments. My grandma became a widow at age 55. I can’t even imagine how difficult that must have been for her at the time. But, she never let it show. Or at least she didn’t to me. So while I was trailing behind her for all of the moments that might have seemed like typical daily activities at the time, I was really observing how independent women acted in various situations. I watched her navigate the markets and her home without the help of a man. She always made sure the work got done on her farm, and rarely asked for help. One of the places, however, where that was most evident was at the movie theatre. She was in charge there. That was incredibly obvious. Not just by her title, but by her actions. I watched as she interviewed, hired, and fired employees. I saw her take inventory of the candy, pop, and popcorn, balance the books and order what was needed. I observed as she updated the answering machine weekly with the coming attractions for the following week. I accompanied her walk to the bank to deposit each night’s earnings. I also watched as she corrected papers for her day job while the movie was playing. That’s right, on top of all of these things that my grandma and I did together, she was also an English and Latin teacher at the local high school. She went back to college and got that job, by the way, after birthing and raising nine children. When I say that my grandma is the strongest woman I know, that is not just a phrase I am using to represent her spitfire personality. It is the absolute truth. 

As I got older, everything that I was observing on a daily basis slowly turned into life lessons. My grandma gave me my first job when I was 14 working at her movie theatre. Even though I had been going there with her for years, now I was going to get paid for it. I was so excited. I can still remember walking into the theatre for my first shift that day. I remember exactly what I was wearing, short little shorts that had sunflowers on them and a white shirt with the same sunflower in the middle. The shirt was also short, and when I raised my arms up, you could see my belly. The theatre did not have uniforms, and to me this seemed like a cute little outfit for my first day of work. Cut me a break, I was 14. I walked in with a smile on my face. My grandma turned to look at me and said, “Go home.” 

“What? Why?” I replied. 

“Go home and come back when you're dressed appropriately for work,” she barked. Anyone who knows her and is reading this right now can imagine the exact tone of voice that she used when saying this. No one questions grandma, so I called my mom to come get me and take me home to change. At the time, I probably rolled my eyes or thought it was unnecessary. But, that was my first lesson, at the age of 14, in how to get your boss to take you seriously. First impressions are everything. 

As I continued to work at the movie theatre with my grandmother, the life lessons I received at that job were invaluable. I worked there with her all through high school until I went away to college. You might think, oh how nice, your grandma was your boss, you probably got off easy and got the best schedule of all. Ummm, no. Not with my grandma. “You won’t be getting those breaks in life, so you won’t get them here with me either,” she said. I remember begrudgingly having to leave her own dinner table on Thanksgiving to go to work at the movie theatre. “Who goes to the movie on Thanksgiving?” I had retorted in a very teenage way. It turns out, many people do. She did prepare me a plate to take with me in case I got hungry while I was there, though. 

As I progressed through high school, she made me the assistant manager, which wasn’t just a title. She gave me more responsibility, and I had to learn how to manage people and products. As I look back now as an adult with a doctoral degree in organizational leadership, many of the lessons about leading people that I write about now started for me back at the movie theatre in high school. Some of the initial responsibilities she gave me were to change the answering machine message to update it to the new movie weekly. It was a thrill to hear my own voice when I called the theatre. When I was first assigned that responsibility, I would just call to hear myself on the machine, and would think about how all of the callers were hearing it too. That excitement eventually wore off, but it was incredibly empowering as a teenager. I also started to do the weekly inventory and place the orders for the cups, popcorn, and candy needed for the upcoming week. I was the projectionist, so I had to put together the reels of movies that came each week and get them prepared for showing. And if there was a problem during the movie, I had to run up to the projection booth to fix it, which involved splicing and taping the film back together with a splicing machine. I can remember doing that multiple times with the crowd booing and jeering because they wanted the movie back on. Talk about learning how to stay calm under pressure, a life skill that I now use daily. 

My grandma also showed me to do the financial books and make the deposits. Part of that responsibility involved physically depositing the cash at the bank nightly, something I had watched her do many times before. But, before she allowed me to make my first nightly deposit alone, she taught me how to put one of my keys from my key ring in between each of my fingers and walk toward the deposit box with my hand in a fist and the keys sticking out. This was in case anyone tried to rob or attack me when I was walking out of the theatre or up to the bank with the money. I was supposed to punch them as hard as I could with the keys sticking out. She showed me how to hold the keys and what to do if it happened. What I didn't realize at the time was that she was teaching me how to be a strong woman who was not afraid to walk alone. She was teaching me to stand up for myself, even physically, and not to be afraid. 

Another valuable lesson I mastered at the movie theatre was how to deal with upset customers when they didn’t get what they wanted. Often, it was that they weren’t allowed to come to a rated R movie because they weren’t old enough. Funny to reflect on that now, because most likely I wasn’t old enough to see the movie either, but I had been given the responsibility to tell them they couldn’t. My grandma taught me to interview candidates for jobs as well. I would do the first round interviews and then pass the candidates on to her if I thought they deserved a second interview. I can only imagine what some of the adult candidates thought of a 17-year-old kid sitting on the other side of the interview table asking questions. The fact that I was just a kid performing these duties did not even cross my mind at the time. My grandma empowered me to believe I could do anything at that very young age, which is probably why when I was hired as an elementary school principal at the young age of 33, it never crossed my mind that my age would be a restriction to being able to lead. 

All of these are lessons and skills that I use constantly in leadership now as an adult. First impressions are everything, staying calm under pressure, not being afraid to walk through life alone, conflict resolution when someone is upset, and the importance of nailing an interview are life skills that I had the privilege of learning through experience at a young age. For four years at that theatre, my grandma and I were a great team. We made it work, and as far as I know, she never got questioned about the kid running the theatre when she wasn’t around. Or once again, if she did, she never let me know about it. 

The Guthrie Theatre - Grove City, PA