The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1951-01-05
TT TAKES
Continued from Page Four)

Ogallalah, Nebraska. Guy was Ine
easiest man in the world with
n whom to keep a conversation Ego
ing" You couldn't trick him, Ell
Their. He could parry an irrelevant
remark Of yours with the skill Of
trial lawyer. Occasionally we'd
try to test him. When we did, our
conversations ran something like
i this
Guy: &c. and then I'd say,
n BUT, Mister, with OUR shoes you
never get that sort of complaint.
NEVER. And so he said he'd take
a couple of dozen pairs. And be-
fore / left I'd got his order for
ten dozen pairs. How about that ?"
= Us (opening one eye. slightly i:
q E"If we don't get some rain soon,
~ the lawns are all going to be dried
up"
Guy: "You think THIS is dry?
Why, it's so dry out around the
Platte River that the poor guys
haven't sold pair of rubbers or
, overshoes all summer. You can
betcha it was pretty hard to make
4them see that they couldn't let
their stocks of wet weather shoes
get out of date. And do you know
how / got 'em to restock with
new overshoes? Well, I'll tell you.
=" and he told us.
n One of Guys utterances is more
y memorable than all the other vol
umes of words we heard him
speak. He was describing the case
of what he called a "poor, little,
miserable fellow" who had shoe
store in Omaha. The fellow was
=, so hard up, his business so bad,
Guy said, "That you just didn't
n have the heart to put the heat
- on IN THE WAY YOU OUGHT
TO-" We SILVER when we think of
that wretched shoe merchant, for
we felt that we were in pitiable
condition ourself when Guy'd had
:. us by the buttonhole for couple
of hours, and we never saw the
q day when he'd let up on us, no
matter how miserable we looked.
-
Edna, Guys wife, was an amaz-
ing gal. There was neither any
thing the matter with her, nor
=, anything TO her. Had she been
carved out of wood, you might
have thought the sculpture amaz-
ingly lifelike. She could move,
could make sounds and seemed to
have some mild likes and dis
likes; and yet Edna seemed a
i, little less alive than very realis-
: tic puppet. Her face reminded one
tof lovely face on. calendar
decorative, but there was nothing
behind it. She could laugh and
show anger, but when she did, it
gave one. the feeling that it did
MT express anything-it was as
y though Edna were a robot and
someone had pressed buttons lab
4 eled laughter" and sanger" She
had kind of uncanny quality
about her that made her neigh
bors feel odd in her company. One
was left, after talking to Edna,
with the uneasy impression that
I she had been speaking to floor
lamp or that the walls themsel-
YES had been making conversa-
ton.
Two things Edna said during
the months we knew her that
\. kept bobbing up in our memory.
= She had called the doctor for her
baby when the child had teething
trouble. She told US what occur
red when the doctor came. "Doc-
tor took out a scapula and rub
bed the baby's teeth through"
tshe declared Two little boys
coasting in a wagon in our neigh
borhood were hit by an auto and
miraculously escaped serious IN
jury. It happened that our Nell
had been out of town that day.
When Nell returned, Edna rushed
into our apartment to say: "You
have the worst luck! You didn't
, get to be here for the Adams boys
accident!"
>
There was Ralph, who came out
to western Iowa from Chicago to
apply for a rather lucrative job
for which there were a number
of other high-powered candidates.
= The hiring board did not favor his
~ candidacy before Ralph appeared
> on the scene, because the men,
bers felt that the position should
go to one of the local applicants.
But Ralph simply moved 'em
down with his powerful personal
ity and the brilliance he showed
when the board interviewed him.
y He had every qualification the
board sought, and at the end of
the interview it expressed itself
as unanimously in favor of his
being hired. Ralph, too, had
found the situation all that he