the cowboy

He rode up from somewhere... His agent , a rookie, called for the appointment.

What he wanted to see on Memorial Day was the only house for sale in Columbus Ohio (1977) @ more than a million dollars

I couldn't get there fast enough.So far the much touted property had appealed only to:

1. a local sanitarium to use as a dry out hospital  

2. Reverend Moon's followers who thought the owner would donate it to their cause

3. an under funded caterer who fancied turning it into a wedding palace

Otherwise, customers had found it to be WAY over the top. I t was tournament weekend and the Jack Nicholas championship course was an equal seesaw of big wigs and partysports. The house was in the neighborhood.

I arrived by car, the customer arrived on horseback.

His sidekick drove across an entire subdivision of backyards in her horse hauling truck when the tournament people preferred she wait at an intersection.More memorable than the arrival was her toothless face when she alighted from the vehicle.

The rookie agent had long eyelashes, huge boobs and stars in her checkbook eyes.

What would be most memorable about the offer the cowboy decided to write on the spot is that he failed to ask the price of the property. I told him to hand over the deposit check, written on a bank in Santa Barbara California.

The bank account in Santa Barbara didn't exist by Tuesday morning and that cowboy had ridden off leaving the young agent with less virtue and no fat commission.

Not long after, an article appeared with an associated press byline about a cowboy singer who had lost his appeal to be remanded to jail.....the photo was familiar...The cowboy was Johhny Paycheck, a one song wonder, "take this job and shove it".

I think the rookie gave him one heck of a send off....

 

original story by Sarah Simpson