Geoff was acar salesman for many years.

One nighthe came home

and told methe story of his big sale that day.

A man haddriven into the parking lot

in abeat-up pickup truck,

one bumpertied in place with baling wire,

rust allover it and a cracked windshield.

He and hiswife emerged from the vehicle

and startedwalking around the show lot

looking atcars and drifting towards the trucks.

The man wasvery large,

Geoffestimated 6′5″ and 280 lbs

and wearingbib overalls, a plaid flannel shirt,

well wornboots, and a John Deere baseball cap.

All of hisclothing was showing age, dirt, and stains.

His wifewas very plain and

wearingsimilarly worn clothing, but neat

and shealmost never stopped smiling.

They walkedaround for about 15 minutes

as thesalesmen watched them from the showroom.

All ofthese guys were triple-A personalities

who werelike sharks as salesmen

andnormally would have been fighting

or drawingstraws as to who got the next customer.

Nobodywanted to go talk to these people,

the verydefinition of hayseed goobers

with bigeyes but no money

and theyclearly had nothing to offer as a trade in.

Geoff hadjust finished up showing a customer a few cars

and writingup prices and a trade-in offer

and wasirritated that

the othershad all left these people out there

withouteven a “hello”.

He wentstraight out and started talking to them.

The manwanted to buy a truck

to replacethe one he had driven in on.

He alsowanted to buy his wife a car

becausetheir son had just run their old one

into atelephone pole and totaled it.

Geoff spentabout two hours chatting with them,

getting andgiving information.

He learnedthat they owned and ran a large farm

 with 40 horses, 80 head of cattle, otherlivestock,

crops andside businesses running farmland

that othershad leased from him,

and hadabout 20 employees working for him.

When he gotdone

and waswriting up the sale of two brand new,

fullyloaded vehicles, heasked how they would like to pay.

The manreached into his bib overalls

and pulledout a roll as big as his country-ham fist

and said“sorry, I don’t have cash for both of them,

but I’llpay for one with cash and give you a check for the other;

the bank’sopen and you can verify

the fundsare there right now”.

So, becausethese people looked like

dirt-kickerrednecks to the auto sales staff,

Geoff soldtwo top-line vehicles for cash,

earned avery substantial commission,

and madetwo acquaintances

who invitedhim out to their farm to visit,

and thenbecame good friends for the next 30 years.

I got to gowith Geoff to their beautiful farm once;

among thenicest folks I’ve ever met.

What’s thatold saw about not judging a book by its cover….?