A water main break in Cape Girardeau led to boil water advisories and an actual shutdown of the city’s water supply for almost a week.
I used that as an excuse to go to Wib’s in Jackson to keep from having dishes pile up at the house, and to swing by Harp’s Food Store to see if they had water (they did).
When I got back in my van, I looked up to see this guy staring at me.
He was probably clean-shaven when his significant other said, “You can stay in the truck if you like. I’m only going to be a minute.”
(You can click on the photo to get a closer look.)
Dad travelled quite a bit looking to buy used heavy equipment for his next job. He’d pore over auction and sales catalogs until he had made a list of possible buys; then, he’d saddle up his pony and take off to see if the equipment was suitable and in good condition.
He told me one time that if you were going to stay in the construction business, you had to work the margins: one piece of equipment too many or one too few, or one worker too many or one too few could mean the difference between making deadlines, and profits and loss.
He had a good track record of paying a good price for a bulldozer or dragline, using it on a job, then selling it for what he had paid for it or more.
Disputing a charge
LV Steinhoff credit card receipts 1977
One file folder I ran across had many exchanges between Dad and his credit card company over a Cullman, Ala, Days Inn charge that had been double-billed.
The amount in dispute was $14.71. Like I said, it was all about the margins. Nobody was going to soak Dad for $15.
Look at these amounts
I’m sure Dad gritted his teeth before paying a Best Western in Americus, Ga., $21.20. I can remember the first time I stayed in a place that gouged me $24.99 (plus tax).
The Guest House Hotel in Bushnell, Fl., was a more reasonable $12.48, and even the Cullman Days Inn wouldn’t have been bad at $14.71 if they hadn’t tried to charge him twice.
Expense account confessions
LV Steinhoff credit card receipts 1977
I was a collector of receipts, even if I didn’t use them on a particular trip. I was especially fond of Waffle Houses because they were almost everywhere, and they didn’t have any identifying marks on them.
Not all my staffers were as diligent about keeping track of receipts, so I went to an office supply store and bought one of each receipt pads they stocked. Rather than having accounting kick back a report that was light on backup, I’d give the staffer some receipt books, and say, “Fill in the holes, but don’t use the same book in multiple towns, and don’t keep them in numerical order.”
I learned that from Dad
Dad’s partners were great at what they were great at, but they were a little light when it came to business matters.
At tax time, Dad sat them down and said, fill out your expense diaries to account for what you spent to the best of your knowledge. Don’t use the same pen to fill out the entries. Here are black, blue, green and red pens. Vary them.
They followed his directions
When he looked at their diaries, they had followed his directions.
Exactly.
The entries were black, blue, green and red; black, blue, green and red; black, blue, green and red….
That’s when I learned that you can never be too careful giving directions.
“Find the jacket”
Florida-born Sarah Steinhoff shovels snow on Christmas Eve 2000 while I watch in my field jacket
When I left on an out-of-town assignment, the weather was supposed to be warm at my destination. Unfortunately, a cold front moved through and caused the mercury to plummet.
It’s hard to take sharp photos when you a shivering, so I dropped into an army surplus store and picked up a field jacket for less than fifteen bucks.
Accounting kicked it back saying that we don’t pay for clothing items.
I reworked my report and shot it back.
“This is for the same amount as your first report,” accounting said.
“Find the jacket,” was my answer.
That coat is still one of my favorite pieces of clothing, even if it HAS managed to shrink in the dark of the closet over the years.,
There’s no telling what might pop up when you start digging through boxes of Steinhoff heirlooms.
It’s appropriate that this metal toy soldier came to light in time to commemorate Memorial Day. It looks like he might be dressed in a World War I uniform. I don’t ever recall seeing him before, so I have no idea of his history.
Now that he’s had a chance to see the light, I’m going to have him march over to the Cape Girardeau County History Center in Jackson so he can be enjoyed by others.
One Tin Soldier
While working on this guy, One Tim Soldier, the 1971 hit song in the movie Billy Jack, came to mind.
The song told the story of two neighboring tribes, the warlike Valley People and the peaceful Mountain Kingdom which possesses a great treasure buried under a stone. The Valley People demand the treasure. The Mountain People respond that they will share it with “their brothers,” but the Valley People invade and slaughter the Mountain People. On overturning the stone, they find nothing except the words “Peace On Earth” inscribed beneath it.
The song ends
Go ahead and hate your neighbor Go ahead and cheat a friend Do it in the name of heaven You can justify it in the end There won’t be any trumpets blowing Come the judgment day On the bloody morning after One tin soldier rides away
I was passing the candy shelves in Buchheit’s the other night when a bag of orange somethings called out my name.
It triggered an immediate memory.
When I was about two years old, Dad must have been building a road around Poplar Bluff, which meant we were living in the trailer he pulled from job to job.
Mother came back from shopping all excited because she had won a full grocery cart of goodies in some kind of store promotion. The only thing I can remember about the contents was a cellophane package of something that looked like peanuts, was a color of orange not found in nature, and tasted vaguely like bananas.
That could have very well been the last time I ate one.
I didn’t need a lifetime supply
Back to Buchheit’s: the bag I spotted contained a lifetime supply of the marshmallow goodies, and cost way more than I wanted to invest in a trip down memory lane.
On a subsequent pass, though, I spotted a smaller bag that was priced low enough that it was worth an experiment. I tore it open and was immediately transported back to my childhood.
I put some samples in plastic bags and went making the rounds of Cape friends and relatives (full disclosure: it only took two bags). They too, allowed as how they still tasted and smelled the same as the ones they had wrestled away from dinosaurs in their childhoods.
What’s the story about these things?
Circus Peanuts candy 05-05-2022
Google says that circus peanuts are an American peanut-shaped marshmallow candy that date back to the 19th century, when they were one of a large variety of unwrapped “penny candy” sold in retail outlets like five-and-dime stores.
As of the 2010s, the most familiar variety of mass-produced circus peanuts is orange-colored and flavored with an artificial banana flavor
Confectioners originally distributed an orange-flavored variety that was only available seasonally due to a lack of packaging capable of preserving the candy. In the 1940s, circus peanuts became one of the many candies to become available year-round owing to the industrial proliferation of cellophane packaging.
You have to draw the line somewhere
My memory lane hits a dead end before it gets to Candy Corn Blvd. I don’t care to revisit some things.
