Buying a Mercedes

Old Nelson Halferson, the farmer I was talking about yesterday, decided he wanted a Mercedes Benz. It all came from his penny pinching mindset. I suspect he had rationalized himself into a position where he thought a pretty new MB would last him for the rest of his life and save him a lot of money since it was a diesel and was supposed to get over forty miles to the gallon. So, Nelson took off to New Orleans on the train. He took of to New Orleans but he didn't take off his overalls and showed up at the MB dealership looking like he just set down the plow and hit the road. There were about ten shiny cars in the showroom and old Nelson looked them all over. He was completely ignored by the spiffy salesmen until, as a kinda joke, one of the older, more seasoned guys sent a young fellow over to help the wandering farmer. It was the young guy's first week and he was enthusiastic enough to jump at any opportunity. The sale was easy.

Nelson said, "I'll take that one and that one."

The youngster was stunned. All he could say was, "Will that be paid with a check or credit card." Nelson replied, "Ain't got no bank account. Ain't carrying no credit cards. It'll have to be cash or nothing." Then he pulled out a roll of hundred dollar bills big enough to choke an elephant.

The young man called one of the older guys over 'cause he had not been given cash sale instructions.
The older guy saw the roll of money and said, "I'll take over here. You go check out that woman who just walked in."

Nelson looked him in the eye and said, "Like hell you will. You left me standing here for almost an hour. Now move on along and let me settle things up with this nice young man."

"But but but," said the salesman.

"Move on now," said Nelson. When the spiffy guy was gone Nelson winked at the young man and said, "I hope you get paid on commission."

"Yes, sir. Thank you sir."

"Thank you," said Nelson. Then he went to the manager and arranged for the young boy to drive one of the cars back to Harper. When they arrived he got his wife, Effie Halferson, to fix a big midday meal for them, gave the boy two crisp one-hundred dollar bills and sent him back to New Orleans with a smile on his face.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle