Daily Dunklin Democrat: Story : Column by Bud Hunt

Email link

Respond to editor

Good causes benefit from local auctions

Bud Hunt
Sunday, March 4, 2007

Auction update

The Rotary auction, also known as Rotary Survival Reality Show, has come and gone. This week's edition of Rotary News had an interesting little tidbit about the history of the auction.

"This event sprang from a humble beginning in 1953 and Banker Joe (Ford) was there."

These are some of Joe's recollections from that first auction.

"The auction was held in the old Baldwin Drug Store on the southeast corner of the Kennett square in the spring of 1953. The auction was broadcast on radio station JBOA. You made your bid by calling the radio station, however, the Rotary Club set up a bench at the drug store and you could go inside the drug store and make a bid. Bids were accepted in 25-cent increments. Freytag Implement donated a John Deere pedal tractor and I bought it for my son for $12.50. Some Rotarians at the time were Mitchell Simer, John Cary, H.V. Sewell, Jodie Mills, John Nutt, Bill Rasberry, Curt Williams & Bill Martin."

* * *

Stiffed

The saga of Ron Harris and the customer who discombobulated customer who left before paying continues. However, I suspect the situation is coming to a head fairly soon.

It's been about four weeks since this happened and that's about the length of time this guy goes between haircuts.

Of course, one option would be to find another barber, or hair stylists. However, I suspect there is a phone tree between all the hair care places in the area for such customers. I think they call to let each other know about people who break appointments and forget to pay. I don't think there's any kind of discussion about pricing, because I know that's different for different stylists.

Speaking of appointments, there is one story that comes to mind about how a local guy put one over on his stylist.

Ashley Edmonston is known to be very diligent about appointments. An appointment made is one she expects to be kept. Shucks, she's been known to even drop a customer if they make a habit of breaking appointments.

Several months ago Mark Pelts had an appointment with Ashley to cut his hair. Now as sometimes happen people get busy, emergencies arise, a customer or client calls or walks in and those situations have to take priority.

Of course in Mark's case that's not what happened. He just forgot.

I think Mark's appointment was for 2:30 on a Tuesday afternoon. So, being Mark, he decided to show up on Wednesday at 2:30 and run a scam - there's no other word for it - on Ashley.

When he walked in Ashley kinda chuckled and said, "Uh, huh. You forgot didn't you." She was about to prove she has a heart and was going to give Mark one of her rare second chances.

At that point Mark responded, "Forgot what?"

"Your appointment," Ashley replied.

"Oh, no," he said, "my appointment is for 2:30 today."

Ashley consulted her appointment book and saw Mark's name clearly written on Tuesday afternoon.

Mark dug in his heels. The end result was that he convinced Ashley she had made the error and written his appointment down on the wrong day.

Come to think of it, that same thing might work with Ron. As I recall the story it's entirely possible Ron was paid and just forgot. Seems like I've heard memory can be a problem once one reaches a certain age.

* * *

More auction news

Last week my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the annual Bootheel Youth Museum's annual Mardi Gras festivities. As the headline read in the newspaper, "A good time was had by all."

Patsy Reublin and her gang of volunteers, which include Liz Provance as chairperson of the event, did a wonderful job organizing the museum's fundraiser that resulted in another sellout with somewhere around a little over 500 tickets being sold.

Among those gathered was a table of very attractive women dubbed The Ski Widows (see below) who looked like they were enjoying themselves without the old ball-and chain.

A little bluegrass music by Common Thread kept things moving as revelers feasted, and feasted is the right word on a variety of fish and seafood supplied by BRS Seafood of LapPace, La. Desserts were a real treat courtesy of Steve Wallace and his crew from Wallace & Owens Country Mart. Honestly, I didn't know Steve had that kind of talent in him, but he makes a mean cinnamon bun.

Butch Burrow and Gary Rhine took control of the evening for the auction. I don't know how much was raised yet, but maybe Pat Morehead will be able to update us on the numbers in her column next week in the Delta News-Citizen.

By the way, did Gary ever auction off his Stetson that night?

* * *

Safe and sound

The Bootheel Sled and Ski Team is back in town. We're able to report that all of these guys made it back this year safe and, well, mostly sound. A quick headcount late last week noted that every one of the guys we sent west came back home. That's not a bad average in some circles.

I took the liberty of checking wire service reports for the days these guys were in the mountains, just to make sure that they were having good weather you understand, and it looked like the weather fully cooperated.

Bud Hunt is publisher of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.

Mailing list

Enter your email address to join our daily headline mailing list: