Thursday, January 24, 2008

Accordin' to Gordon...

I've decided to give a name to the wonderful new computer that the "Lovely Jules" gave me for Christmas. Gordon is his name and he's clearly a male computer. I know he's a male computer because he's never going to shop online. In the future, whenever I look up something on the computer, I'm going to refer to my found information as, "Accordin' to Gordon".. I kind of the ring of that...
Shortly over 33 years ago I moved to AZ, Along with my (then) wife and 2 sons, ages 18 mo. and 5 years. One of our very first stops, when we arrived in Scottsdale was a real estate office as we were in search of a family home. We met a salesman named Bill Barham and he seemed pretty good at his job and we got together and searched the area for a dwelling that would appeal to a family of 4. We eventually found a place that was 2500 Sq. ft along with a swimming pool and an acre of land that had a coral and chicken coup. We were in "pig heaven" having come from the Chicago area and getting a chance to live in what we called the country. Mr. Barham did a great job for us and even though the house was a "fix-up", it was just what we wanted and all for less than we sold our little house in the Chicago suburbs.. A little paint and a few repairs and we were cowboys living the dream.
We met some of the neighbors in that area and eventually I got involved in the automobile business at the suggestion of the neighbor across the street who offered me a partnership in his business. When Bill Barham needed a car, he came to me and I sold him one at a very fair price and we had what you might call a working relationship. After about 5 years we wanted to sell that house, we'd had enough of the fresh odors of horse manure and we looking for more of a city lifestyle. Bill, not only sold our old house, but found us a new one, again a win, win situation.
When it came time for us to put down an earnest check for the new house, I didn't have my checkbook with me, so Bill offered to lend me a thousand dollars and put it down for me, along with our offer contract. I paid him back the following day and we were even once again. Several years went by and although I would run into Bill occasionally, we really didn't keep in touch as friends. Bill was several years older than me. One day I got a call from old Bill and he was telling me that he'd been going through a tough time. His wife had died of cancer and he had lost his job somehow and was just buried with bills, but had an opportunity to buy an existing vacuum cleaner repair business in a city named Casa Grande, about 50 miles from Scottsdale. He said he was going to need a car for his new business, a station wagon for transporting vacuum cleaners to and from customers houses. I didn't have one at the time, but found him one shortly after. That's when he told me how short he was with money and could I finance it for him? In other words, can he have the car for a small down payment and make payment directly to me, as his credit at the bank was "shot", after paying for all of the medical care his wife had received. I normally didn't do business that way. That's a good way to go broke in the car business and I knew that, but I agreed because it was Bill and he'd gone through such a tough time. About 6 months after that and Bill was not regular with payments, he asked me if I could give him a clear title for the car, in spite of the fact that he still owed me the entire amount of $1500. Bill told me that if he could show some assets to the bank, they would give him a business loan to get his new place rolling. I felt real bad about the whole thing. Bill had met a new woman and she had been a poor influence on him. The Bill I used to know would never have gotten himself into this kind of a situation, but reluctantly I agreed and had the Department of Motor Vehicle erase my lien on the car. Bill gave me a $300 payment and I was feeling a little better about it. That was the last money I ever saw. I'd call and get so mad that I would scream into the phone how he had conned me, but nothing mattered, no money. Then, around Christmas time in 1987, I got a call from a woman that claimed to be Bill's widow. She said she found my name and number in one of Bill's jacket pockets and wanted to know how I knew Bill. I told her that I was the fool that loaned him the money for the station wagon and he never paid me back. She said she was sorry, but it's too late now, he's dead. She did tell me that the car is still running great and she loves it and hung up. You know, I never really believed that he was dead, but more likely it was another scam to get me off of his back for my money. I tried calling a few times, hoping that he's slip up and answer, but that never happened and it was before the Internet was so readily available too. That was all 20 years ago.
There is a search engine for people that I've had a great deal of luck with, being a single man now. It's called Zabasearch.com and it finds everyone. All you do is fill in the name and state and any other pertinent info you can supply and it will give you current addresses, "real" dates of birth, phone numbers and so forth. You'll thank me for this one for years to come. I even got my vet's home number when my pup was sick, try that!
Well, "Accordin' to Gordon" old Bill is alive and well living in Casa Grande, just not answering the phone, HA! Today, I called a friend of mine that's in the collection business and he advises me that debts are only good for 3 years without a signed contract and 6 years with a contract, that I'd be better off to just leave old Bill buried, he'd probably stink either way... but can you imagine faking your own death over $1200???

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