Understated Joe

Me Grandpa Joe could be, indeed he generally was, the kind of guy to go off on a dime. We expected it, quite frankly. He also had many uses for the world, 'hell', many of them actually rather profound in their employment. But at times he might actually be understated on both counts.

As a rule me Pops answered the phone for Joe's welder rental business. Joe only answered when Pops was out or otherwise occupied. One time he took a call (I don't know where Dad was) from an old but annoying customer, I'll call him Cloyce just to give him a name, wanting to rent a welding machine. It seems though that on Cloyce's last rental there had been issues with whichever of Joe's units he had. Cloyce decided to use the opportunity of having the boss's ear to lament them.

He made the mistake of calling when things were very busy at the Shop. Still, Joe listened, holding his tongue surprising well. He waited until a break in Cloyce's litany of woe to say to him calmly, "Well, I'm so busy right now that I don't know if I even want more more work. So you can either stop whining and tell me when and where you want a machine, or keep talking until I tell you to go hell and hang up this phone."

Cloyce shut up about the troubles and got his welder. Maybe he was reading between the lines, or rightly caught the undercurrent of me Grandpa's intent.