Dialing for dollars

Hey, the temps have already hit the 80’s, tomatoes and peppers are in the ground, NASCAR has started and finally received the first social security check. That is hard to beat.

Old cuz up in Montana said the snow is still coming down. By the time my tomatoes run out, old cuz will be planting and eating tomato sandwiches in August. Told old cuz they only have two seasons, winter and the Fourth of July.

Being retired from the bank and finance business, one has many tales of events, adventures and OMG’s.

The very bad past dues or way past dues however you want to call them, the branch manager would go with me, or I would go with him to see the customer. This customer lived in a mobile home not far off the beach and it was a very sandy area indeed.

The customer let us in the trailer and the boss did the talking. He got to be real pushy in trying to collect monies due. About that time, this ole customer come out and said, “By God, I’ll show you what you can do.”

You know if you explain to somebody in plain English what can happen in the collection of a debt from court to writs of sequestration, the customers get very offensive.

The weapon was a .30 lever action, I knew because I’ve seen lots of Westerns. About that time I’m nearest the door heading out and the boss gets in front of me at the door and started to get mouthy again. I told him “let’s get out of here.”

Ain’t no sense getting in that hairy of a situation. I am not that brave, that bullet would have gone through him, me and the trailer house.

One of my buddies was out in the country collecting and went to the barn where the customer was with several of his cronies. Long story short, they surrounded my buddy and gave him a few shoves. He came out of the situation ill as a hornet and told the district supervisor, who called the customer and read the riot act to him over the phone. People are real brave and brazen while on the phone. Face to face confrontations are very much different.

Glad to be out of that business. Always believed one can get more from honey than vinegar.

One fellow from my hometown in Georgia got shot and killed in Atlanta while chasing. Chasing is the slang for out collecting. He walked up on the porch and got shot through the screen door.

Another man from here was collecting over near the Louisiana border and got shot by the debtor.

If I ever do another book, I have thought of calling it DIALING FOR DOLLARS.

Charlie A. Farrar is author of many columns of homespun Georgia thoughts, that have appeared in local newspapers. He has published a book with some of the best, “Two Cents Worth.” To purchase a copy, send $12.95 to Newspaper, PO Box 405, Highlands, TX 77562.