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Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
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March 2022 #14272 Page #76
Memories
of Dickie Vail
I had the pleasure of working with/for Dickie for a few years and, trust me, that was quite the experience at times. We both concluded very quickly that the other was the most hardheaded person we had ever worked with. We argued constantly but always ended the argument with a great laugh, a handshake, and picking on each other as we went to Cracker Barrel or some family diner for dinner (or sometimes even a late breakfast). He always had a way to lighten the situation, no matter how serious, with one of his great one-liners, without losing the ability to get his point across. I will bore you with one quick story that still makes me laugh to this day when I think about it. Dickie came to visit my plant and wanted to talk about physical inventory management. So, we put on our hard hats and headed out to the sheds (this was in the AM). He quickly came to the opinion that all my lumber should be stored up on railroad ties for air circulation. I, being less hardheaded than he, used my “expert” selling skills to explain to Dickie that all my lumber was under roof and stacked on sloping slabs to run any possible water away from under the lumber, thus there was no need for railroad ties. Let’s just say he had a few points of his own that he shared with me and then said, “we need to get you some railroad ties, son!” Seeing that I did not convince him with that argument, I tried another approach explaining that the depth of the railroad ties would likely keep me from being able to stack the lumber 6-units high due to height restrictions thus less protected inventory. He was quiet after that, so I thought… yes! Subject closed. Later that afternoon, I couldn’t find Dickie and he was out at the lumber sheds measuring the height… and of course six units would still fit with the railroad ties! Dickie just smiled! I saved my last argument for after the office had left, and we were standing in the front parking lot before leaving for the day. Safety!!! This had to work! I explained to Dickie that surely those rough-cut railroad ties would make the lumber stacked 6-units high very unstable and could be a safety risk. This didn’t fly too well as I quickly learned he had stacked inventory this way for a hundred years and no problems. Next, he pointed out that I was being hardheaded, and I quickly reminded him of the old “pot calling the kettle black” one-liner. Needless to say, before we finished our conversation, the night shift supervisor came outside because one of the employees told him I was getting ready to fight some guy in the parking lot! To quickly summarize the ending, we shook hands, agreed to disagree, laughed, and went to Cracker Barrel for dinner. I was so proud of myself for winning the argument and standing my ground. The following week, one of my associates came to my office and stated we had a truck load of lumber sitting out front that was not in our system. I asked her to check the PO number to see if it belonged to one of the other plants, and she quickly replied that it just said Dickie on the PO line. Immediately I got up and went outside to find a tractor trailer load of railroad ties! To this day, I still trip over those stupid things in our yard all the time! As normal… Dickie won!!!!!!! I hope you enjoyed that story, and I’m sure we all have dozens and dozens of them. Don’t ever be afraid to share them as Dickie always liked to put a smile on people’s faces and this is a way we can help carry on his legacy! Darren Hedrick Trussway Manufacturing, LLC, Fredericksburg, VA
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