Madness and Irishmen - Part 2

Well, I started working my way through the best prospects for the screening plants we sold and was really fortunate that the Vice President at one of the largest companies who made the buying decisions was originally from Minnesota (I found out later that nobody admitted to being from Dallas). We really hit it off from the first meeting, and he told me that if my “Irish Harp” could screen the material called caliche that the railroad used for laying track base that he would purchase at least ten machines which was about a half million dollar sale. Well, I didn’t have a clue as to whether or not the machine could screen this material…but again “faint heart never filled a flush”. He introduced me to another vice president (you now understand why I had the cards made) named Buck. He was a “Good Old Boy” and we got along fine…I even drank Jack Daniels with him (which I detested).

Now when I was at the executive offices I was wearing a three piece suit and Florshiem Wingtips…Buck assured me that if I wanted to do any business in Texas I couldn’t dress like that. He took me to a boot shop and bought me a pair of very expensive snakeskin boots. I later went to another store and bought a half dozen pair of jeans and some casual shirts that I would wear open-necked. I was all set to head for West Texas and a lot of new experiences. Our destination was Van Horn, Texas…one hundred and fifty miles from nowhere. Now I mentioned before that these were portable plants, our competitors had what they called portable plants but they needed to be loaded on the flatbed of a semi and hauled from place to place. This screening plant had wheels and could be pulled by a half-ton pickup.

When I got to Van Horn, Buck asked me: “Where’s your pistol…you can shoot, can’t you?” I told him I was a “crack shot” with a rifle, but really wasn’t “worth a damn” with a pistol. He told me “If you are in West Texas for any length of time you will be.” The next morning I figured out what he was talking about…as the sun got hotter more and more Diamondbacks came out to sun themselves…I bought a .38 that afternoon. When Terry (the 24 year-old Vice President of Operations) showed up with the portable plant all of the men in the quarry really thought this was a big joke. Terry’s first words were: “Eddie, me lad you wouldn’t have a drink about you now, that drive definitely parched me throat.” I offered him some water that I had bought earlier and he said: “that shite is only good for washing…I’m looking for a Bushmill or even a Jamison.” I promised to make sure he had plenty to drink after he had everything set up. We need to “test the screening plant on the material. Terry looked at the material and said: “Laddie that is some nasty shite, but just wait and see what ‘Mollie’ does to it.” (I found out later that each of the plants he used had a girl’s name). By the end of the second day we had the entire operation in absolute awe…we “screened” everything they gave us faster than they thought possible. They didn’t buy ten machines, they bought twelve and gave us orders to head to Shreveport, Louisiana to see if we could screen some material that was so nasty that it had never been done. I hadn’t been in Texas for two weeks and we already had written $750,000 in business. I was extremely full of myself!

More about that in my next post…