A Story From My Past…

The story I was thinking about earlier was triggered by JNuts saying something about looking into the barrel of a loaded shotgun over on his blog.

In the mid eighties I lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee for a while. That is where Alex was born, but I digress. I was working for the Scott Fetzer Corporation which in case you are unfamiliar with the name sells Kirby vacuum cleaners. That’s right I sold Kirby’s door to door. For the most part this was a wonderful experience for me although the hours were long and the pay was not wonderful. I got to go into all kinds of people’s homes and talk to them. Sometimes it was a mansion and sometimes it was a little above a cardboard box. You never knew which would be the filthiest either. I honestly meet people all over North Georgia, Alabama, North and South Carolina, and portions of Tennessee who seem to recognize me, and I figure this has to do with working Kirby all those years ago. Kirby never failed to impress.

One day I knocked into a house on Sand Mountain, this was an average home. The wife invited me in and I did a portion of my demo routine. She loved the Kirby and was super nice. If you’ve ever seen one of the demonstrations you know at one point we go into the bedroom and show all the stuff you get out of the mattress. Well I was going through that what you pulled out was dead skin and dust mites and showing her the literature about it when her husband came home. This man was a little brusque when he came in and saw me and all the pads of dirt laying around, but I figured all was well when he left the room. Now this was kind of a tough looking fellow and in a couple of minutes he came back with a shotgun. He pointed the gun at me with his finger on the trigger and told me to get the hell out of his house. The wife told him to calm down, but he continued to hold the gun on me. Knowing that you never point a gun on someone unless you are prepared to use it I was understandably shaken. I gathered up all the Kirby parts which are numerous, and hurried out of the house. I swear I stood in the driveway with him pointing that weapon at me while waiting for my supervisor to return with the van. She dressed me down for leaving the house. I told her that the man was still standing in the doorway with a shotgun pointed at me if she wanted to talk to him. She of course looked up and declined. I became a legend in the Kirby office. I think that was the most forceful eviction anybody there ever experienced. I did not like to go into houses on Sand Mountain after that day. Some of those people are real hillbillies up there.

I can honestly say looking into the barrel of a loaded gun makes your blood run cold. I love to shoot, but I am a little uncomfortable when anyone else has a weapon in their hands. I have looked into one of those cold pieces of steel enough times to never have to do it again.

Well, that is all for now.

Always,

Jo Ann