ORIGINALLY WRITTEN JOEL KLAASSEN
Do you know that the only producer of nails left in the United States is located in Hillsboro? Hillsboro, Texas, that is. And right outside of town is the Willie Nelson Theater under construction and Willie Diesel Fuel Plant. Willie was born in nearby Abbott, Texas, and hopes to build the area into another Branson, Mo.
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When we first moved back to Hillsboro in 1977, my biggest obstacle was not being able to buy nails on Sunday. You soon learn to buy them on Saturday.
I don’t need nails much anymore so it hasn’t been a problem. Besides, I have a pie tin with all kinds of bolts, nails, washers, screws leftover from past projects and it usually gets me by in a pinch.
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Wife Nancy has been limping around lately because of a pain in the knee. I kept after her to get medical assistance and finally she went.
After a visit to the clinic, she said, “I was told to take Aleve.”
I said, “How long will you be gone?”
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Some of my best ideas have come when I’ve been sick.
Recently, when I was awake half the night with a major head cold and a nose that wouldn’t quit dripping, a solution to one of my dilemmas popped right into my head.
Last winter, when I was home for a few days because I didn’t want to spread my germs around the office, I found the perfect piece of inkjet addressing equipment in St. Louis after researching our needs on the Internet.
I was dizzy when I bought it, but must have had enough wits because it does exactly what we need it to do. Last week we had it running at the rate of 19,000 pieces per hour while addressing the Buyer’s Edge.
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If one works while sick, does it mean one is not sick after all?
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I’ve done a little plumbing in my lifetime, but there’s one thing I have never been able to figure out about it: When you have a two-handle faucet and water leaks out of the cold handle, which is not open, while the hot is running, but the cold doesn’t leak when the hot isn’t running.
What is even quirkier is that it doesn’t do it all of the time. There is probably a plumber out there who is laughing at my ignorance, but it’s a mystery to me.
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If one works while sick does it mean one is not sick after all?
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The businessman I am remembering this week is Norton Goertz. He was the second-generation owner of Goertz Furniture and Goertz Funeral Home.
I don’t think there was any committee in town he wasn’t involved with at one time or another. I know he was treasurer of the Kiwanis Club, the Methodist Church and the American Legion for many years.
He invented the no-interest, no-payment plan long before anyone else thought of it.
His deal went like this: You would go in and pick out the furniture you wanted. He would deliver it, and then all he asked you to do was pay what you could, when you could pay it, until it was paid for. No terms were spelled out. Each time you made a payment, he would write it down in his book.
We still have quite a few pieces that were bought from Norton in our house today. He was a cheerful man with a can-do attitude.
