This local high stepping local farmer give a landlady a ride to the grocery store.
Instead of driving his newer fancy fourwheel drive, he drives his old rusty pickup, and puts on his ripped overalls.
He doesn't want to look prosperous, so his rent goes up.
So the story goes........
Story goes there used to be a guy in Arkansas kinda like that, not ripped old clothes, but old pickup and unassuming manner.
In my case, the farmer did not want his rent to go up.
Do you save your old ripped overalls for just these occasions Richard?
Knew a black man that did 'handy' work around a town I lived in. Drove an old beat up pickup with an advertising sign on the side. He had a good business, doing just about any kind of work.... Yard work, small job carpentry, plumbing, hauling, etc.
Now this fellow lived a couple towns over and his wife drove a late model Lincoln and he had a fine pickup. I just happened to be doing a job in the town where he lived and saw him at a store, in his good truck. A few days later, I ran into him in the town where he worked, and he was in the old truck. I asked why he was driving the old truck, instead of the newer one. He replied, "If I was to show up for work in the new one, the white people wont hire me".
Appearances may be deceiving...
One of my clients from 40 years ago, 1981 to be exact.-Woody was a bachelor that lived on a 200 acre hill farm. A run down old farm house that needed paint and a roof. The few outbuildings were falling in. '62 Rambler in the drive with peeling paint. Woody was about 75, tattered overalls that needed mending and washed. He shaved his face every week or two.
A couple things looked out of place. A 20 X 70 Harvestore with the automated feeding apron/trough for the 30-40 knothead calves that he bought to feed. A D-9G Cat dozer was backed into a shed that had the wall chainsawed out big enough to get the dozer in.
Woody had lived in Chicago and worked as a high school custodian for fourty years and retired at 65. He started with nothing-saved money and invested in the stock market. He apparently was a pretty good investor. He owned multiple Super 8 Motels...
He didn't like the finance terms Harvestore offered- so he wrote them a check!
Rolled his own smokes, he'd always offer me a beer-and it was the very cheapest brand available.
He always seemed calm and easy-going, a really nice guy. To look at him, you'd think he was barely getting by!
I knew a few of those closet millionaire's.
The county I live in is split geographically, with the southern half being flat to gently rolling highly productive farmland, and the northern half being more hilly and wooded, with less productive land. The southern part was home to large plantations growing a variety of crops, while the north farms were much smaller, with tobacco being the main crop. Consequently, the southern half farmers and landowners always looked down upon their northern neighbors, considering themselves to be "better". Historically though, the people in the northern part of the county were usually more financially stable.
So to my story, and a true one it is. A large farmer from the south part of the county was in a bank trying to line up his operating loan for the upcoming year. While he was talking to the banker, in walked a man wearing bib overalls and a tattered coat. The farmer told the banker that he was glad he didn't have to go around dressed like that. The banker then told the client, that the man was a farmer from the north part of the county, and it was his money that he had deposited in the bank, that the client was trying to borrow.
Know a brick mason that is in his late 70's and still laying brick. Has his money buried in his back yard. Pays cash for everything he buys. Many years ago his wife got sick and had to go to hospital for major surgery....was several thousand $, and when he was checking out he asked nurses where to go to pay his bill. Oh, you don't have to worry about that, your insurance will be contacted and will take care of it....they told him. Well, he inquired again and finally ended up in the business office. Lady behind the counter tried to explain how insurance would be contacted and would let him know what they would pay. It was said that he reached in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money big enough to choke a bull....told her to figure up the bill and he would sit down over here....let me know when you got the figure. Think he had to wait a while but they got the message....he paid the bill and they wrote Paid in Full on it. True story.