On one of our first calls, Andy introduced
me to the customer. I shook hands with him and said, “Hello.” Then when I was introduced to his secretary, I again
shook hands and said, “Hello.” With a smile in their eyes, they hung on my every word as I presented my sales
pitch. All of a sudden, the man turned to his secretary and in his excitement nearly shouted, “I know who he reminds
me of! Herb Shriner.”
“Yes! Yes! He not only sounds like
him, but he looks like him,” she answered.
When it was time to leave, I turned and
started walking back toward the door. I had my left hand in my pocket, looked down at the floor, and as I got to his desk,
ran the fingers of my right hand through my hair kind of like I was scratching my head. Then, I looked up at them and said,
simply, “Hello.” They nearly cracked up laughing. But, they weren’t laughing at me. They were just appreciating my Hoosier accent. You see, I had my gimmick all the time and didn’t
realize it. Shucks, I never did think I looked like Herb Shriner, though.
When we were kids on the farm, a family
from Kentucky
moved onto a neighboring farm. It was a rarity to get new neighbors. “Foreigners,” Dad called them. We seldom
saw anybody from a state other than Indiana. Then when I
heard Ray Combs talk, I was just sure he was from another country.
One day, I was out in the yard with Dad.
He had the left side of the hood up on his Model T. He was just looking at it when Ray walked up to the car and helped him
stare at the motor. Then Dad went into the garage to get some sort of a tool. By that time, Ray was really engrossed with
something under the hood. Ray abruptly raised up. Turning toward the garage he called, “See-e-sul! Ye git me a par-r-r
o’plahers, a haimer and some baylin war-r-r and ah kin fix this h’year T Model.” My brothers and I had trouble
holding back real genuine guffaws. It was one of the funniest sounds we had ever heard.
Then there was the time Charles and Wayne
were hunting cottontail rabbits with Ray. The boys were spread out in a field of wheat stubble, walking along with Ray somewhat
in the lead. Ray suddenly stopped. Turning his head toward Charles and Wayne, he shouted, “Be quite, boys! Be quite!
Ah sees a ray-but.” By the time the boys got through laughing, the “ray-but” was long gone.
On another occasion, Ray Combs was with
my brothers back in the big woods. They were watching a big, red fox squirrel scamper along the ground. He took a big jump
and landed about six feet up the trunk of a giant oak tree. No more did he touch the tree than he darted around to the blind
side. The boys ran around the other side and the squirrel changed sides, still going up. Then he scrambled into his nest,
which was out on a limb between 40 and 50 feet from the ground. This was too much of a temptation. As I’ve reported
before, my brothers were climbers, so up the tree they went with Lloyd in the lead. Ray stayed on the ground.
When Lloyd reached the limb the nest
was on, he started inching out on it toward the nest. He was holding on with his hands and feet and his legs wrapped around
the limb. Just as he was able to reach out and touch the nest, the squirrel came zooming out of the nest; and with all claws
extended, he tore along Lloyd’s hands, arms, head, body and legs. Lloyd promptly let go with his feet and legs—still
holding on with his hands. But, with the weight of his whole body suddenly coming to bear on the very end of the limb, it
broke, and down he came. About 10 feet further down, another limb broke some of the fall and stunned him. When he did hit
the ground, he landed face first on a big root of the tree. Unconscious! Completely out cold!
Charles and Wayne were really scared
because Lloyd was lying so still. They started climbing down out of the tree so fast it’s a wonder they didn’t
fall too. Ray started nudging Lloyd with his foot. “Git up, Loyud! Git up! Ye ain’t hurt none. Git up! Th
ey ain’t nuthin’ wrong with
ye! Git up!” The boys finally got to the ground and stopped Ray from kicking
at Lloyd and yelling at him.
They all pulled Lloyd over to the tree
and propped him up against it. His face was bloody and his nose was literally crushed.
Finally, he started to come around. “What happened?” he mumbled.
Not one to miss an opportunity for a
good joke, Ray answered, “Ye done fail outen a tree an kilt yerself! That’s whut haypened.”
“But . . . but . . . where am I?”
Lloyd stammered.
Louder than before, Ray answered, “Yer
in Hail! That’s whur y’ar! Yer in Hail!”
With eyes wide open now, Lloyd asked,
“Well…then…who are you?”
Building to a red-faced crescendo, Ray
shouted, “Ahm thuh Day-vil! Who’d ye ’spect to find in Hail?”
Whereupon, Lloyd fainted dead away.
