14 years ago i walked into a model train shop in Texas, for the first time since child hood.
The old timer behind the counter eyed me suspiciously, with my leather jacket, wool cap, and boots...I smiled and said "Hello", introduced myself and as he responded with the magic question - "What can I help you with?", within 10 minutes he began to no longer look at me in suspicion.
His wife sat in her wheelchair doing store related tasks, and as I asked questions, and he answered them, I could tell he was amused at my thick headed thinking and in ability to understand....he used words and statements such as:
"If you are not going to do it right then don't do it at all"
'Why are you in a rush?"
"Take your time"
"Do it right"
"What's your hurry?"
"Why do feel that way?"
"Why do you say that?'
Over the years, I got used to all this, and as I broke everyone of his model railroad construction rules as I built my layout I could hear his voice saying these things...the result....of not heeding his advice was frustration and failure.
The tunnel vision I would get in my hurry and excitement to get the layout done, would cause me to do silly things in the construction of the layout, bad things that I would only see later on when I was burnt out.
Several layouts were semi built and then dismantled...I had not done it right...I had rushed....it looked like ****.
The old timer was a difficult man to talk to over the years on any topic....they say his father was a Texas Judge or was it a "Constitutional Attorney'?
I don't remember...
The area where is shop was/is.....saw every store go out of business except his...only the fancy new fitness center and gym seemed to prosper thru the crime...the floods...the bad economic times.
He never accepted credit or debit cards...only cash or checks...he liked checks....as he once proclaimed "a person goes to jail for writing a bad check".
Despite this, if someone was short of cash or forgot this policy, he would offer to let them take the things they bought home, and just come back with the cash or check as soon as they could....I never took advantage of his offer....
He did everything slow....he thought about your questions...he thought about his answers....when he rang up the stuff you bought, he did it very slow...he wrote out hand receipts...very carefully...very slowly...very neatly....his letters and numbers written with the precision of a printer...
He had no website...and the first time I called his store and asked what his website address was, he bluntly declared "I do not buy or sell anything over the internet".....despite the fact, he was a PC expert...despite the fact he once owned a part time Information Technology company, and had a room that had the role as a "server and PC graveyard"...where the chassis, innards, and other parts of dead and dying PC's were piled high in a mess.
As an avid internet consumer I never asked him why he never partook in eCommerce...maybe it was because deep down I did not want to know.
He had a love/hate relationship with MTH, which grew more as hate over time, and he never said what the reason was, although I later found out he was denied as an official MTH Dealer ....but he did sell Lionel Trains, as well as almost every other brand of O, HO, and N scale products.
The old timer was an out spoken man, with a strong opinion on a "great many things"...
He was often calling some entity to chew them out...logically...methodically...piece by piece for their stupidity...for things done that made no sense.
The bus company, the city, the county....
Enemies were many, and he rarely forgave and never forgot....Yet...if you were his friend...you were his friend for life.
Many years later as I build my latest layout, I am heeding his wisdom....and you know what? The layout is coming along great, I am happy, and wish I had listened to this man, a long long time ago.....
I often wonder what happened to this old timer, his store, his life...regardless...I wish him well...
And if the unfortunate has happened, and he has passed, I know he has gone to heaven...and that despite possibly getting into a debate with Saint Peter at the pearly gates...I bet he was still allowed in....
And now God has the perfect model train layout.
Thank you