Anyone across the Delta will tell you that the yellow building in Indianola is something special.
It’s not the paint or location, as the shades and addresses have been a bit different at times over the years.
But the man inside the yellow building is none other than Harvey Clifford Watson Jr., a hard-working Delta man looking to give folks a good deal on a mattress or even a hand up.
The 1984 Indianola Academy grad has spent most of his life in Sunflower County. Born and raised in Indianola on Lee Street, Watson did a stint at community college in Moorhead before heading to Cleveland to finish his accounting degree at Delta State University in December of 1990.
Watson celebrates 35 years in business here this year. Those decades of success did not come by accident.
His father, the late Harvey Watson Sr., showed his namesake what a strong work ethic looked like, and Harvey Jr. never forgot those lessons.
“He’d get up at 5 a.m. and go work on the farm and then head to Lewis Grocery Company and work 8 to 5 and then head back to the farm and work till about 9 p.m. or later,” Harvey Jr. explained. “He was the frozen food and dairy director. He grew up with the Lewises and his best friend was Marshall Lewis III.”
In high school Harvey Jr. spent many a late night picking groceries at Lewis Grocery Company for trucks, but he was just modeling the life his dad had.
“I was pulling orders in high school. I was probably working until 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning a lot, until Darvin Welch, my supervisor, came and told me about 2 o'clock one morning – he said, ‘Dudley Burwell just said you need to get out of here and get home. You're not supposed to be out here past 10 o'clock.’ I said, ‘you're cutting my overtime, man!’ But I loved working out there, too. I met a lot of good friends at Lewis Grocery that I've had lifelong relationships with. All kind of good friends from out there.”
His father managed about 5,000 acres of farmland for a triumvirate of landowners including Posey Brown, Burton Moore and Dr. Walter Rose. And the younger Harvey’s first job was on the farm.
“We farmed out on Beaverdam Road. I was driving a tractor when I was 9 years old. I guess I got my work ethic from him, no doubt,” he said.
It was that tenacity that helped Harvey Jr. through the most tragic stretch of his young life in 1989 and 1990.
“I actually lost my first son, Brett, when he was 3 1/2. He had spinal meningitis. Three years, 242 days young, contracted spinal meningitis. He was in a coma August 11th of ‘89 and died on the 18th of ‘89,” he explained.
The following year in December, Harvey Jr. lost his father and idol in a freak hunting accident.
“I can question a lot of things, but I guess I wouldn't be the person I am today if that didn't happen. It’s made me a little tougher,” Harvey Jr. said.
Harvey pushed on, starting a career selling furniture in Greenville.
At one point, he ventured into selling cars but always came back to furniture. He took what he learned from others and put it under one roof for himself.
But that wasn’t the original plan.
“Actually, when I went to college, I wanted to be a coach and own a sporting goods store. That's what my original plan was. But I decided not to do that. I got back in school and I was married at 19 and I think I graduated college around 24. Two and a half years later, I went into business myself,” he said. “I love the furniture business. I've always loved sales. I can't keep my mouth shut sometimes, so it helps!”
No two days are alike for Watson.
“It's something new every day. I love dealing with people. I love trying to help people out. I really pride myself on customer service. You can sell anything you want, but if you don't take care of the customers, it doesn't matter what you sell. I remember Jeff Bezos – he said that in an interview as the interviewer kept asking what business he was in. He said, ‘I'm in the customer service business.’”
Taking knowledge from every step in his career, Watson has accumulated knowledge and experience needed to survive and eventually thrive.
“I started in Greenville, worked with my father-in-law over there until 1993. And I approached Sledge Allen. He had Indianola Furniture Company downtown. And I was still working in Greenville at the time. I decided to part out on my own. And I approached Mr. Allen and he was trying to retire but that really wasn't the location I wanted. He was right there where Nola's restaurant is as a matter of fact.”
Then he got a call and an offer from Bill Coleman.
“He heard I was in Indianola looking for a building and he offered to rent me all of his building or half of it. I was kind of a little gun shy so I took half of his building instead of the whole thing. And after a year I bought the building and stayed downtown for about 16 years. It was wholesale furniture and appliances,” he explained.
Then in 2015 he leased and eventually bought the iconic Weathersby Chevrolet building on Highway 82.
“I started this business in June or July of 2015 with eight mattress sets. And I flipped them and flipped them and flipped them. I'm proud of what I've done. It's been a lot of hard work and a lot of long hours. But I've enjoyed it. I wouldn't, I don't know anything else. I don't know how to work for anybody either,” he said. “Stayed there a year, then I rented it for a year. Mr. Weathersby really helped me out. I'll tell you what, the building had been empty for quite a while.”
Watson moved in and started his Wholesale Mattress & Furniture business. The former auto dealership was ripe with space for opportunities. Being an entrepreneur and businessman, he found ways to utilize the space he wasn’t using.
“I rented the back out to a mechanic who I made an agreement with that I wouldn't charge him rent if he wouldn't charge me to work on my trucks,” Watson said. “He's worked out pretty good. He's done well also.”
Harvey Jr. has kept an open mind and has opened his space up to multiple small ventures.
“I had a beauty shop in the store at Weathersby one time. Carly Hardin (Meaker) came to work for me when she moved back here, and I asked her what she planned to do in five or six years. She said she'd like to have her own shop. One day I came in and she'd been sick for a little while, both her kids had been sick, and I walked in the front door. It was cold outside; it was colder in the warehouse. Her son on her hip, she was selling mattresses for me in the warehouse back there and I told her right then, I said, ‘When you get ready, I'll open a beauty shop in the front of the store.’ And she really did well for me. I appreciated her.”
Watson did not become a coach, nor a sporting goods store owner, but he did get his coaching itch scratched by taking on the opportunities with his youngest son.
“I always loved kids. I coached here when my son was four until he was 13. I coached him in everything he did,” Watson explained. “Still, all the kids around here, his age, always call me Coach Harvey. Every sport he played – basketball, baseball. He started playing golf so I cut him off some clubs when he was about 7 or 8 years old. He did okay in golf. He liked golf.”
His youngest, Dylan, has also followed in the work ethic footsteps forged by the elder Harvey Watson Sr.
“He's in Shanghai, China, right now. He got a full-ride scholarship to Millsaps, finished second in his class there and went to Loyola Law School for two semesters. Decided he did not want to be an attorney so he called me one day and asked me what I thought about him going to get a master's in accounting from Tulane,” Watson said. “I said, “Son, I can tell you it's a good degree to have but I've never used it so I can't give you any forethought on what you'll do in the field but it's a good degree to have.’ He got his master's there. He works for a big-four accounting firm.
He can talk a little Mandarin and he just seems to like it over there. I tell him as long as he's happy that's fine with me.”
Harvey Jr. isn’t moving to China, but he does not mind a change of scenery.
After getting an offer he really couldn’t refuse a couple of years ago, Watson sold the Weathersby location, set up temporarily down and across the street, then found a new location – the former Slater Jigs and then Delta Outdoors location.
He bought it, painted it yellow and has kept on selling mattresses and furniture.
When he’s not selling mattresses, Harvey Jr. enjoys eating steaks around the Delta and posting on his social media but with one caveat. He loves his ketchup – always with steak.
“I'll pay for my steak, I'm going to put ketchup on it but if you want to pay for my steak, I'll still put ketchup on it,” he said. “I'm the one eating it. Why is it bothering you? And the same people that put Heinz 57 and A1 on theirs will chastise me for putting ketchup on mine.”
Mattresses, furniture and steak with a bit of ketchup, the junior version of Harvey Clifford Watson is a hard-working Delta native and a man who makes Indianola and Sunflower County a great place to be.
