Salesmen and others

Every once in a while, after I tell my daughter, Brenda, a story about Ekalaka, she tells me; “You should write a story about that!” This is what happened with this story. I was telling her about this salesman, Lee Bair. Later I realized that he was the only salesman that I could remember, so I will write about him and also some related things.

Lee Bair only had one leg, but had a wooden or other prosthetic leg. He walked kind of stilted but got around very well. He lived either in Camp Crook or around there. He was a salesman for Raleigh Products which was a big name then. He would come to the house and offer, usually to the lady, things for the home. He usually had some little treats for the kids. One time he offered and sold my Mother an orange flavored Cod Liver Oil. We had to take that in the wintertime for, was it Vitamin D? The usual Cod Liver Oil was very yucky and we really enjoyed the orange flavored one. We could never get it again. Anyway, Lee Bair was a very nice man and we really liked to see him come.

I will tell you of my experience with Raleigh Products later in life. Since I knew about it, I contacted them about becoming a salesman for them. I didn't do very well and ended up owing them some small sum of money which I disputed. Finally, I wrote them a semi­-nasty letter and said that enclosed was the check. The only thing was, I forgot to enclose the check. They wrote back a really nice letter and pointed out that I hadn't enclosed the check. I felt real bad and sent it in right away. So much for Raleigh Products.

In a way, my Father was a salesman. He used to take trips around the countryside, stopping at ranches and buying or trading things with them. Many times he would came home with gunny sacks full of chickens which he had bought. Sometimes he had them sold to a local restaurant, but usually they were for us. Either way, he would tell my Mother, "Get the water on", and then when it got hot we had a family chicken killing, plucking and dressing session. He pitched right in, but would quit early and let us finish up. After the REA came in, Dad, being a junk buyer, would buy the battery systems for the Windcharger systems around the county. I helped him carry out many of them.

I think that I might have told this story before, but one time when I was with Dad on a ranch visit I asked the rancher; "How many cows do you have"? Dad just hit the ceiling, he told me; "You never ask something like that". The rancher was real nice and said that was all right, but he also never told us how many cows he had. I told that story at my brother in law, Eddie Malenovsky's funeral and my other brother in law, Roy Cornwell said; "Oh no, I just asked the rancher how many cows he had". We got a good laugh out of that.

One of the things about salesmen, or people like Dad in Montana, was that they knew which ranch had the best cook and timed their visits accordingly. If you were at a ranch at meal time you were always asked to stay and eat. Just a few years ago, while visiting during the Days of 85, I was at Jimmie Carroll's place near Belltower. They had a whole bunch of guests and were about ready to sit down for supper, as we called it then. He asked me to stay and he said, “Remember, this is Montana". I had several places to go and was not particularly hungry so didn't stay, but have always kind of regretted that.

I remember another visit to Jimmie Carroll's place some years before that when I was a young married man on vacation from California. They were shearing sheep and I was there with my Uncles, I don't remember who all was there. Anyway, I watched for awhile, but couldn't resist it and got in there and helped them with the sheep. Jimmie laughed and said, "I wondered how long it would take you to get in here".

I sold Aerial photos of rural homes for 15 years or so here in California. I only did it to keep my kiwifruit farm going. I really enjoyed it. Mostly people welcomed me but occasionally I got an angry, troublesome customer or potential customer. Here in the community I live now people get really excited if someone comes to their house trying to sell them something. I am really glad that I don't have to sell aerial photos here. I'm sure there were other salesmen around Ekalaka but that is all I can think of.