RAY: About 40 years ago, a guy took a job as a traveling salesman. He immediately fell out of favor with his boss, who assigned him to spend the winter traveling around exotic places like Moose Jaw, Maine and Freeze-Your-Butt, New Hampshire. He had to travel by car from one location to another, so he often found himself driving from town to town in the winter looking for cheap motels in which to spend the night.
He began to notice a disturbing thing. When he would stop at these motels, oftentimes the owner of the motel was also the clerk, and they'd have you fill out that little card--you know, name, address, home phone--in case you skipped out in the middle of the night. Also, the motel owner would ask him what he did for a living.
When he said he was a salesman, he would almost always be assigned a room on the second floor. I asked him if it had anything to do with the car that he drove. And he said, "I guess you could say so. At the time I was driving a Volkswagen." And that's your hint.
Why was he always assigned to a room on the second floor?
RAY: Many years ago, it was a bright and sunny day and Tommy was driving our dad's '51 Dodge. Suddenly he noticed steam coming out from under the hood. He pulled over and located a slit in one of the two heater hoses, about two inches long.
He carefully removed the radiator cap to relieve the pressure, and he was pleased to find that he'd lost very little coolant. He opened the trunk, confident that he would find tools there. To his surprise, the trunk was empty.
Ever the optimist, he began walking and found a corner store. He pulled out the only money he had -- a one-dollar bill -- and bought a five-cent candy bar. He returned to the car and was soon back on the road.
How did he fix the car?
The Candy-Bar Solution
RAY: It wasn’t the candy bar or the wrapper. It was the change that he got: three quarters and two dimes. He used one of the dimes as a screwdriver, with which he was able to remove three hose clamps: the two from the broken hose, and the one from the heater core end of the good hose. He ran that good hose back to the return on the engine block, thereby removing the heater entirely from the car, so water no longer circulated through it. Instead, it circulated just through one piece of hose that went out from the engine and then right back in, and he used the dime to loosen and then retighten the hose clamp.
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The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
A 1951 Hershey bar was a nickel. It's now about 75 cents. (plus or minus 25 cents depending on the store)
I think they went up to seven cents in about 1955, then a dime soon after. Then they got smaller, then the price went up again, and now finally, that 1.5 ounce Hershey bar is back up to 1.5 ounces.
Most candy bars sold for 5 cents each in the early 1950's, when a nickel actually had some value and a penny could buy a piece of Bazooka bubblegum with a comic strip in the wrapper.
-- Edited by ed11563 on Monday 3rd of August 2015 07:46:05 PM
__________________
The Principle of Least Interest: He who cares least about a relationship, controls it.
