My brother Gilbert lived most of his adult life in the small town of Omaha, AR. It has a very small population of 134. Gilbert worked at a convenience store, gas station, tire shop there. In the small town tradition, Gilbert made many road trips, 10, 15 even 20 miles, out into the countryside to change flat tires for his customers and they did much business on credit. Not credit card credit like the big stores, but personal credit where purchases are tallied on a running bill and the customer comes in on payday with his paycheck. They cashed the pay check, keeping what the customer has run up on his 'tab' and the remainder is given to the customer.
One week, Gilbert was visited by the local policeman. Earlier in the day, he had answered the phone at the store to a very angry woman. It took a while to get the gist of her story. It seems she lived out on Sand Flat Road over by Alpena, 20 miles or so from Omaha, but, somehow, the source of her water is the same as the town of Omaha and she was having water problems. Seems a large construction company was daily drawing down the water, leaving her with limited water pressure. She was going to call the EPA and the Police to get a boil order started. Gilbert told her several times, he could not help her and she needed to call Omaha City Hall, which is next door to the store. She said she had tried that and no one answered the phone there. She called someone else and they gave her Gilbert's number. After going round in circles several minutes, with three customers waiting to cash their pay checks and pay their bills, Gilbert told her he did not care and hung up.
The Police came to visit Gilbert. They said the Sand Flat lady said he was rude and they asked if he was rude. Yes, he said, he was rude and he did not care. They said he could not do that, but he said, 'yes I can and I don't care.'
Only in Arkansas do you get a visit by the home town police because you were rude to someone who called you because you happened to be next door to city hall. But, Gilbert is true to his raising. He did not care!
No comments:
Post a Comment