I started
out driving my father’s orange 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970 Chevrolet pickup truck. One day that fall, I was assembling bicycles
in the backroom of the Western Auto Store.
I came out of the back room rolling a bicycle and saw there were
customers everywhere and no one to help them.
I tried to
go back towards the back room, but there were people there. I could not go forward with the bike for the
same reason. So, I just stuck it in my
mom’s office. I then began helping
customers.
About an
hour later, I finished with the rush of customers. My father, mother, and Marlene Hanks (one of
our employees) had come in and were helping.
As I
started towards the back, my father opened the office door and saw the bike I
put in there. He cussed me with every
name you can think of. He called me
stupid, lazy, and thoughtless for leaving that bike there.
Well, my
mother and Marlene (who was just like one of the family) lit in on him like a
cat on a June bug. They both told him
that he always rode me too hard and that I might have a reason for not putting
the bike where it belonged.
He came up
to me and asked me why I put it where I did.
I explained and then he realized it was his fault. He had left the showroom with no one there to
wait on the customers. He told me to go
to town and pick out any $500 car I wanted and that he would pay for it.
I had about
$600 saved myself and so now, I could buy a $1,000 car. If you are reading this, I know you are
thinking that $1,000 wouldn’t buy much of a car today. Well, it wouldn’t buy much of a car then
either. I started looking, but did not
find anything I liked.
That was good that your mom stood up for you and your dad was sorry.
ReplyDeleteNormally, he was a great man. I did inherit his tendency to speak before I think, hence the hippo comment you will read about on Suzanne's blog/Instagram. Click the Instagram link under the hippo picture to read the story behind it. Have a great week.
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