The O.J. Truck, Snow Removal, Youth, and Eddie Bauer

I was 19 and had my sights dead set on an Eddie Bauer Ford Explorer. There was just one problem – I couldn’t afford one. I still figured I could use my hooptie as a down payment and figure out the rest later.

While most car salesmen were quick to shoot down my dream – there was one that tried to persuade me into another option. I can’t remember the guy’s name, but he was a typical salesman: shite shirt, grey pants, and overly friendly. He called me, and told me he had sometime better than a Explorer but I had to come in. I showed up excited; he walked me out to the lot past the a few Explorers, Suburbans, and Mustangs to a White Ford Bronco with a snow plow attached to it.

I didn’t know whether to vomit or burst out into insane laughter. There was no way I was going back to the neighborhood with a truck that had a snow plow attached to it. I would be the laughing stock of all my friends. Though the salesman pulled out all of his best antics – I would not budge. There was no way I was buying this truck (no matter how good of a deal it was). He basically told me that it was the only truck on the lot that he could get me in. I left frustrated, mad, and disappointed.

A few weeks later I bought a Chevy Cavalier (and immediately pimped it out with rims, sounds, and a paint job). The winter that followed was one of the worst ever. I had quite a hard time puttering around in my little 4 cylinder car with the fancy rims. The Cavalier was totaled one hanging out downtown the next summer.

I have never stopped thinking about that white Ford Bronco. Every harsh winter that goes by, I always think about how much money I could have made. Although the car salesman that day was just trying to get rid of that truck; he basically was also trying to “give” me a new business and I was too young to see that.

So YES- I should have bought that truck! Started Kahn Santori Snow Removal (sounds great doesn’t it?) Though my friends would have laughed at me; I would have been laughing at end with all the money I would have mad. I could have started with one truck, than bought 4 more trucks and hired drivers. I would have given jobs to all my friends that didn’t laugh at me, and expanding my business to Ohio and Illinois. I could have made a killing. Oh well, that’s water under the bridge (as my grandfather used to say.) Too many new opportunities to be discovered, so no sense in beating this old story any more……


Leave a comment