Published: February 20, 2008 10:41 pm            

Friends & Neighbors: Jay Blaylock

Who says you can’t go home again — even if home isn’t where you were raised?

Jay Blaylock, 43, did just that in 2006 when he relocated to Dalton after living in various cities in the Southeast for much of his adult life. Born in Atlanta, Blaylock has strong Dalton ties. His parents, Ron and Charlotte Blaylock, grew up here and were high school sweethearts. The couple married in 1958 soon after graduation and settled down in Dalton. Their daughter, Rhonda, was born in 1959.

In 1964, Charlotte Blaylock was pregnant with their firstborn son when her husband got a job in Roswell. Another son, Rod, completed the family in 1965. Rather than distance themselves from their roots, the couple made sure their children had ample opportunity to foster close relationships with their grandparents through frequent visits.

“We always came to visit Dalton on holidays and during the summers,” said Blaylock.

At 13, Blaylock and his brother began working each summer at their grandfather Dave Blaylock’s yarn plant Twist Tend. Not much work actually got done, Blaylock says.

“My brother and I and our two cousins would hang out, do a little work and have a lot more fun,” he said.

Evenings were spent playing games at Funway Arcade in Bry-Man’s Plaza, cruising downtown, chowing down on pizza at Pizza Inn and lime sherbet floats at Kay’s Kastle ice cream parlor, and spending time with their grandparents, Dave and Ann Blaylock and Jewel and Lo Stinson.

Holidays were always fun, too.

“I remember one Christmas my brother and I got Big Wheels from my grandparents and were riding them through the house. After about 15 minutes, Dad ripped the noisemakers off both of them,” laughed Blaylock. “And holidays were always food fests. We’d go back and forth between both grandparents’ houses.”

In his mid-teens, Blaylock found his time being taken up with girls and playing on the football team at Crestwood High School, so his visits slowed. Soon after finishing his marketing and management degree at Valdosta State University in 1987, he started his career in Atlanta with Nabisco, but it wasn’t long before another city beckoned.

“I transferred to Tampa as operations manager after a year, then a year after that went to Birmingham for five years,” he said.

Friends who were in sales told him he was on the wrong side of the business because of his naturally outgoing personality, so he agreed to give that a try.

“I don’t meet strangers. I can talk to anybody,” Blaylock said. “People say I have a good sense of humor. I can be persuasive. I turn the whole sales process into something laid back and try to build friendships with people.”

After years of working in sales for many different companies, he became a stockbroker for Morgan Stanley in Savannah in 2002, mostly doing manage-money portfolios for clients. It was rough going at the beginning.

“I started when the stock market was at its lowest, and it took a long time to build relationships,” he said. “I enjoyed helping people grow their money back. If you use a plan and stay with it, you’ll beat the market.”

By 2006, however, the stress of the volatile stock market became too much, so Blaylock headed to Dalton for a change of pace. He liked the size of the town, the terrain, comparably less traffic and the people. His parents had also moved back to the area. In April 2007 he answered an ad in The Daily Citizen for a job selling ads for the paper as a subcontractor. He began working full-time for the paper on Jan. 26 as a telemarketing ad sales representative.

“My biggest challenge is convincing people that even in a down market when times are tougher, advertising is needed more,” he said.

One of his biggest loves away from the office is cooking, a hobby he picked up from his dad.

“I like cooking with a lot of vegetables and herbs and experimenting with different kinds of sauces,” he said. “One time I got up at 4 a.m. to make mini molten lava cakes for Teacher Appreciation Day at my daughter’s elementary school. I like doing things like that.”

His children — Katelyn, 17, Sara, 14 and Bo, 9 — reside in Florida with their mother.

Blaylock also enjoys playing acoustic guitar, singing and is a confessed “NASCAR junkie.”

“I hope to leave this world a better place than what I found it,” he said. “How to accomplish that is something we need to continue to strive for every day. It’s a never-ending process.”

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.