Kirby, Cold Calling and Catching Up On Crockett

KIRBY VACUUM CLEANERS are the finest machines in the world of cleaning carpet and tile. Of that I am convinced. This has been demonstrably impressed upon me on no fewer than four occasions. The company does no advertising in the media, and relies only on cold call demonstrations, which last about an hour and a half. Each of the four times its sales reps have knocked on m door during the past four years, I have invited them in, and taken advantage of their display to get about ten square feet of carpet cleaned to the point that it looks like virgin carpet. The dirt they extract is healed upon small circular white paper cut outs, each disk progressively less filthy, as they demonstrate the remarkable suction power of their two thousand dollar vacuum cleaner. Its quite impressive, the amount of filth extracted prodigious, somewhat disconcerting. The price is beyond my pay grade, and I let them know this from the start. It doesn't deter them; for each demonstration, they get a commission, and I'm always glad to help a fledgling career along. Turnover is high, invariably they young gentlemen have not worked for Kirby long. Yesterday I convinced them that I had the presentation memorized, so they dispensed with the narrative, and got right to the cleaning. Still, it took twice as long as it should have: I assured them that they'll smooth out the kinks in due time. The young gentleman was named "Crockett". and told me he is the great great great great great great grand son of the famed American hero. Since I adore David Crockett, and know all about him, our conversation flowed beautifully. I taught him more than he taught me. He was young, thirty five, engaged to marry his second wife, has children, and they all seem to. He cleaned more of my floor than was necessary, maybe owing to our affinity. I hope he comes back next year, but he won't; its always a new team. He indicated that he has seen neither version of "The Alamo", nor has read Crockett's delightful autobiography "A narrative of the Life of David Crockett, of the State of Tennessee". He said it was only his fourth demo, his fourth day on the job. So I reckon he has a heap of cactchin' up to do.