Dad Story: Buck's Telephone

Dad's best man at his wedding was a guy named Frank "Buck" Brown. Buck was a leather-skinned man who lost an arm in a farm accident. He lived in an old run down house that seemed to me as a lonely place. Dad would check in on Buck every now and again as his health wasn't the best. When I think of Buck I see his old gray, weather-beaten, paint-deprived house and the following story that Dad told more than once about Buck.

One day Buck was talking on the phone to an operator. Somehow Buck and the operator were not getting along well that day. As Dad tells it, "Buck verbally roughed-up the operator." Unless Buck apologized to the operator the phone company was going to remove the phone and phone service from him. Those were the days when the phone company owned the phone. Well Buck was not about to apologize. So out to Buck's house came the phone company representatives to remove Buck's phone and cut off his service. Buck allowed the phone guys to come into his house to get the phone. One of the phone guys told Buck, "If you call the operator and apologize we will allow you to keep the phone." Buck said, "Okay." So, the phone guy called the operator and made sure that the correct operator was on the line before handing the phone to Buck.

Buck took the phone in hand and asked the operator, "Is this the woman I roughed-up last week?" After making sure he was about to apologize to the right operator Buck said, "Get your ass ready! They are bringing in the phone!"