sponsors

 

 

sponsors

 

 

 

 

One day at our morning meeting at work, we were discussing a news show that had reported on encyclopedia salesmen that were working the town and ripping off homeowners. A few minutes later, Fred came in bragging about how he had been selected to buy a set of encyclopedias at a cheap price. Two young, beautiful women had come to his door and convinced him to buy the encyclopedias.

One day Fred came to work talking about some new fire alarms he had bought from a door-to-door salesman. The alarms were pressurized air horns that were set off when a strip of metal was melted by the heat of a fire. The salesman had shown photos of children scorched by the heat of house fires and shamed Fred into buying the alarms. I pointed out to Fred that most people were dead of smoke inhalation before they ever felt heat, and since the house would have to be in total flames before the alarms would should, the alarms were useless. He called the salesman to come and pick up the alarms. However, instead of picking up the alarms, the salesman convinced Fred to work for him as an alarm salesman.

Once as he was waiting for a potential alarm customer to come home, Fred and his wife went into a furniture store to look around. They came out with new living room furniture.

Another time Fred went to a customer’s house to sell him alarms and, instead of selling the alarms, he ended up buying a poodle puppy from the man. The puppy was black except for a white spot on its back. The man had convicted Fred that the spot would spread as the puppy grew older until he would be a solid white poodle. Of course, this never happened.

Fred’s car needed a new muffler so he went to the dealer to get one. He came back with a new car.

Fred bought a boat for fishing. He wanted to fish in the ocean, even though the ocean was 100 miles away, so he bought a relatively large boat. The boat was too big to be towed by his new car, so to use it he had to find someone with a truck or a car large enough to tow the boat to the coast for him.

I had a motorcycle so Fred wanted a motorcycle. He and his wife were about to have a baby so she did not want to spend any more money. He said he really wanted a motorcycle, so she finally agreed—if she could get a new washer and dryer. Now they were even more in debt.

After three years at the base, Fred and I transferred for a few months of school before getting assigned new duty stations. He still had the boat while he was in school, but it was uncared for and had deteriorated until it was worth very little.

After the school, Fred and I transferred to different duty stations. I never saw Fred again.

Page 2 of 2:  NEXT Back  First  Last | Share | Errors | Last Modified:

Subtopics:  NEXT| Preface  Chief Oglesby  Edmund Scientific  Judo  Pikes Peak Padget  Saga of James  Sage of Fred  Mass  Rotor Patch  Body On Recliner

Topic:  Comments: Add View | Sources | Related: None