National Clothesline

If things don’t work out for Gary and Keh McCracken in the drycleaning industry, they can always fall back on a career in entertainment.

During the recent Methods-For-Management (MFM) Success 2010 conference, held from March 22 to 26 on a Norwegian Sky cruise ship, the couple brought the house down performing a self-penned song entitled “Success 2010 Blues.”

“My wife sings and I play guitar,” Gary McCracken explained. “We just took a simple 12-bar blues riff and put some words to it. We just used poetry that was pertinent to the group, to Methods for Management and the drycleaning business.”

During the rousing live rendition, the audience related all-too-well with lyrics such as:

We’re all about the same;

We’re on the same track,

Cleaning people’s clothes

like sweaters, coats and slacks.

Mustard stains, the boiler pains,

drapes on the line,

Hangers clips and tissue paper,

shirts done on time.

A million different messages,

buttons and soap,

We lost that one shirt,

Now we feel like a dope.

Based on the success of the performance, however, maybe drycleaning should be the couple’s backup profession.

“I’ve always wanted to be a rock star, but drycleaning has gotten in the way of it,” McCracken quipped.

Having cleaners provide their own entertainment at the conference was the brainchild idea of Diana Vollmer, the executive director for Methods-For-Management.

“She asked members, if they had a talent, to please bring their talent and plan to share it. So, we did,” McCracken said.

In addition to singing the drycleaning ditty with her husband, Keh McCracken also brought her well-honed hula skills for the trip and taught close to 50 attendees how to dance and shake their hips Hawaiian style.

Keh, along with her daughters, Keli and Mali, works professionally as a hula performer for Owyhee Hana Hula Club in Boise, ID, where the McCrackens own their 31-year old Clothesline Cleaners drycleaning business.

The couple also enjoys performing songs for the local Red Rock Christian Church.

“We actually sing and play at our church and my wife sings for funerals and weddings,” McCracken added. “But this Methods-For-Management Conference allowed us the opportunity to do some things we don’t normally do.”

The conference is a biennial event that brings all of MFM’s members together to promote business development and profitability by giving them a fun forum in which to exchange creative solutions and ideas.

The McCrackens summed up the event in song:

Later in the song, the McCrackens also paid tribute to many of their fellow MFM members.

“Once we decided what we were going to do, we realized that it was an inclusive song — when you include everybody who is in the group in that moment, it makes it endearing,” McCracken added. “So, everybody enjoyed it. Their business names were mentioned in the song. It went over pretty well. We enjoyed it.”

For a full listing of the lyrics to “Success 2010 Blues” visit the company’s site at www.clotheslinecleaners.com and click on the “blog” link from the menu at the top of the homepage.

In addition to providing cruise entertainment, the McCrackens also received MFM awards for “New Store of the Year” and “Social Media Effort of the Year,” and runner-up recognition for van design.