Madness and Irishmen - Part 3

When I arrived in Shreveport, I took one look at the operation and was sure that there was no way we could get the screening plant to screen the muck that was supposed to be roadbed product…it was coming out of a swamp for Pete’s sake. Terry told me not to worry and again he was right he made some adjustments to the screening plant and it worked like a charm. The amazing thing about this little portable screening plant was that it had no cross members…what I mean is that most screening plants have different size screens that are like giant window screens. The need a different one for each size material, but ours was a truly unique design it had no cross members which is why they called it the Irish Harp. The key to it’s marvelous performance was the pitch that it was set at and the vibrations of the screen. It had so many applications that I could just see it “printing money”.

While we were at Shreveport, I remember a dinner that Terry and I had together. We were sitting in the restaurant and terry had just started his second fifth of Old Bushmill, and was “primed”. Now you need to understand that Terry was this very handsome “Black Irishman” (he had coal black hair and blue eyes) and could be very charming. The waitress came over with the check and Terry said “Aye Lassie, have you a wee bit of Irish in you…would you like a wee bit of Irish in you?” I thought for sure that he would get his face slapped, but she left with him.

After the success in Shreveport, John called the whole group of us together for a little celebration. It was my first chance to meet ALL the crazy blokes. Language was and wasn’t a problem. The version of English that they spoke was truly unique…everything was “fu’ing bloody” this or “fu’ing bloody” that, and there were the “laddies and lassies and boyos”, but if you sorted it out and listened carefully you could understand them. Well almost understand them (except for the Belfast boys...they had a different brogue all together). Well, the party included an authentic Irish band…and soon they were teaching me how to “jig”...I never met a group of people that could drink more or had more fun than these crazy blokes.

After the party John told me that Del (the VP in Dallas) had called and wanted me to see if we could demonstrate the plant for the Texas Highway department in Amarillo…it would mean at least five or six more sales…but that’s the next post…