Solicitations

If the carrot was a salesman and I was the deer . . . um . . .you know what I would do. Four a.m. and the telephone rang. It spoiled a very lovely dream and all I got for my effort, to be pleasant a that time of day, or be scared out of my wits that someone died, was a loud buzz which meant someone was sending a fax. A fax, don't you have to have a machine? I think so. This continued for four more calls only this time the recorder on the telephone listened to the buzz. I contacted son John to see if he was expecting a fax but he said no, the fax machine is not hooked up . . . thank God . . . it would be one more modern appliance I would have to learn. I don't even use a cell phone, how would I manage a fax machine.

Daughter Pat tells me that she had the same experience some time ago and had to change her telephone number. Oh for my soap box!!

How do we end the harrassment of salespeople. I know they have to make a living, but do they have to do it in such obnoxious ways? The telephone rings and there is silence for a second or two, then a recorder . . . by that time I have hung up and gone about my business. Then there are those who solicite for one cause or another and will not take no for an answer. I had one last week about some ball game for the high school which I would gladly donate to, but the lady insisted that seventy five dollars would be good for me . . . is she kidding? I politely told her I did not do anything by telephone and to send me something in the mail. She got 'hot' and said they didn't do that, and I told her I couldn't do anything either. Manners have gone by the wayside.

The new sales pitch by door was cleverly done this week. A man came to the door and handed out a brochure about his new business that would be moving into our area this year, stores up and down the coast, and he was introducing himself and the product. Fine. No problem. But, the very next day along came another salesman to demonstrate the product, the one you were not intrested in having demonstrated . . . a new type water vacuum that costs over nineteen hundred dollars. The saleman was a soft man and I knew he got paid by showing the vacuum. He wound up telling me I had a very clean house and left. I'm smiling. I hate to be hard on salespeople and even invite the 'holy rollers' for a cup of tea, but, the new modern push to shove to get you to listen to their spiels is getting a bit much when your telephone rings at four a.m.

I hope your phone is not ringing at an ungodly hour and that you are resting and dreaming good dreams as you plot and plan to slow down this mad rush of the sales people. We all know how bad it is when we turn the TV on. Now if we didn't buy anything they advertise, do you think they would get a message? I do.