The Lie… a hard way to relearn a lesson…
One Halloween night in Verbena, my brother and I joined with another local boy to move an old mule wagon off the front porch of Will Gulledge’s general store. The next morning Russell and I saw old man Gulledge and his son, Frank, pulled his old 56 ford custom into our front yard. We saw Mr. Gulledge get out of the car and talk to our father. In a few seconds, Daddy called for us. Daddy asked us, “Do you know what happened to Mr. Gull edge’s Wagon”. We said, “Yes Sir”. Daddy said go moved the wagon back to the porch. We call our other conspirator and he said he had told Mr.Gulledge he did not know anything about the wagon, and thus could not help us move it back. My brother and I moved it back. Daddy told us that night at supper he had told Mr.Gulledge that if his sons knew anything about his wagon, “My boys will tell the truth”.
This was a lesson I learned. Always tell the truth. How simple. This was before my job became my passion, pride, and income for my family. I became very proud being the youngest General Manager of a large motel in Birmingham. I considered this job as having made my goal of becoming a General Manager of a motel. I worked my way up to this position by managing two restaurants for the owner, we called him Mr. E.
This is what I did when I thought my job was on the line.
It happened when Mr. E came to the Hotel to have a meeting. After the meeting, he called me to his room. Then in front of his other managers said that one of his worst deals he had ever made was making me the manager of his motel. He laughed; but, I sensed I was in trouble. He then stated lets go the bar and have dinner. Mr. E ordered an open face roast beef sandwich. When it arrived served on toast points, he stated “why wasn’t it served on a hamburger bun”. He looked at me. I forgot the lesson,” I said the bread man did not have any buns today”. I was on the chopping block and I said the first thing that came to my mind. Mr. E knew that was a lie. The next day he had his Operations Manager fire me.
I don’t know if the lie had anything to do with being fired. I did know, I would never let my fear of losing a job prevent me from telling the Truth, or to just keep my mouth shut.
