One day back in the late 1970s Cecil, our dad, called and asked if we could do a favor for George. George is Smithwick’s own George Despain. They both knew we did a lot business with Holt Caterpillar. “Would we put a set of dozer tracks on our account, so George could get the best deal possible”? George would give Cec a check for the bill. We readily agreed to it. Wasn’t any skin off of us.

George got his tracks all was great. Kenny nor I gave it much thought, figuring that Cec gave the check to the other one. Couple of months rocked along and something was said and that’s when we figured out that neither of us had ever seen the money. Kenny was at Smithwick soon there after and asked about it.

Cec inquired and found out that George took a check by the office the same day he picked up the tracks from Holt. Woody our office manager deposited the check and paid the bill, and never thought to even mention it.

We both felt a little sheepish, that we even questioned that George Despain took care of his obligations. I think we both learned a valuable lesson to not question anyone’s integrity without having the whole story.

I write this today, the day of George’s 80th birthday celebration, which I’m heading to for fried catfish and a lot of reminiscing.

Funny thing is, it’s possible that George never had a clue he was a subject of this story.