The Thompson’s Water Seal Story

2006

A true story

Written 2017* 423 Words

#166 By Howard Yasgar

This story was told to me several years ago by one of my good friends and neighbor, named Charlie Visco.

Every time we get together, we always ask Charlie to tell this story, because it’s a classic.

Charlie is originally from New Jersey, and his wife is from Natchez Mississippi.

Charlie’s wife’s family still own farms in Mississippi and Louisiana, so every year, Charlie and his wife would drive up to her ancestral home in Natchez.

While Charlie’s wife takes care of family business, Charlie, being an excellent craftsman, always spends a couple of weeks fixing up, and repairing the old farm buildings on the property. Some of those buildings being more than a hundred years old.

One year, Charlie’s project was to repair a farm building that was very run down and needed quite a bit of exterior wood replaced.

A decision was made that after he repaired the building, the best approach would be to coat it with Thompson’s Water Seal.

Thompson’s Water Seal is a popular product sold worldwide. It is used to preserve and protect wood from the elements.

You can buy Thompsons Water Seal in any hardware store it’s usually sold by the gallon.

Charlie estimated that he would need at least 10 gallons of Thompsons Water Seal. But i0 gallons was much more Thompson’s water seal than he cared to have to haul up to Natchez in the back his pickup truck.

So, Charlie called up the Thompson water seal company, and they told him that they would arrange it so he could pre-order what he needed, and they would make sure it was waiting for him when he got to Natchez.

They said his local hardware store in Natchez would have the water seal ready for him when he arrived.

So just to double check, before he left for Natchez, Charlie made a call to the Natchez hardware store.

Charlie said he just wanted to confirm that his order for the Thompsons Water Seal would be ready when he arrived there

So, Charlie called the Natchez Hardware store and asked the salesclerk if he could speak to someone regarding his order for the Thompson’s Water Seal.

There was silence on the phone for several seconds.

Then the clerk replied, Wasseal, he doesn’t work here no mo.

Obviously, the clerk misunderstood him, so Charlie again said, “I just want to confirm my order for Thompsons Water Seal is ready.

The clerk said, “Just a minute” and there was silence on the phone again.

Then the clerk once again came back on the phone and said, “I done told you, Wasseal don’t work here no mo”.