NEW CASTLE —
I heard the rare sound of someone knocking on our front door the other day.
Since I was very busy checking my Facebook page, my wife answered the door.
There was a gentleman there, who was selling some kind of soap that cleaned really well.
I knew soap salesmen were in the area and had a permit to go door-to-door, so I stayed where I was at.
The dude selling the stuff was very personable. He mentioned his birthday was the next day, and my wife said that hers was, too.
They sort of bonded.
I got a kick out of him calling her "Miss Carol."
After the demonstration, and cleaning half our house, the salesman went on his merry way.
I got off the computer to see what all had transpired.
She showed me the stains he had gotten out of our carpet, and everything else that he had cleaned.
I think my wife was trying to get him to do all her fall cleaning for her.
She liked the product, but it cost $40 a bottle, so she didn't get it.
I was impressed too, but we had important business to attend to. They were giving out free turkey sandwiches at Arby’s.
After lunch, we drove around the neighborhood and spotted the salesman at my friend Jim's house.
The salesman saw my wife approaching and said, "Here comes Miss Carol! Both of our birthdays are tomorrow."
You had to like the guy.
I told him I wanted to buy my wife a bottle of the stuff for her birthday. I even bought the additional $5 spray bottle.
Have you ever seen a guy more thoughtful than I am? I just wished he could have gift-wrapped it.
Jim ended up getting a bottle too, but not the spray bottle. He liked how it cleaned his tennis shoes.
Is the product worth $40?
Probably not, but it did clean the spaghetti sauce off my car seat, and the stains on our carpet.
My daughter had mentioned that my grandson had gotten magic marker on his new shirt at school.
I told her I had just bought a bottle of soap that will take that stain right out, and it cost me only $40.
She said she didn't need it because she got the stain out with her $3 bottle of hair spray.
That might have been the cheaper of the two, but she didn't get to have anyone call her, "Miss Leann."
That was probably worth the additional $37.
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About Gary Church: Gary is a columnist and contributing writer for The News. He’ll share his thoughts on this blog each Tuesday and Friday.
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