Knowing people with Talent | Eastern North Carolina Now

    If you don't have enough money maybe you can make a trade.

    It nice to buy the things you want. However, what do you do when you do not have the money to buy those things? Well, one thing people do is trade or barter their talents with others.

    As a kid, I was a big cowboy fan. I loved to play cowboys and Native Americans anytime I got the chance. My older brother was a horse nut. Atlanta, like most cities, had a stockyard where animals were housed temporarily pending their disposition to either another location or the glue factory. On any given day, you could go to the Atlanta stockyard and see a wide variety of animals on their way to their prescribed reward.

    My dad knew the manager of the stockyard and made a deal to trade his electrician talents for a horse for my brother. He made a similar deal when I got old enough for a pony. My little pony was a Shetland, which I named "Peanut". I have forgotten how the name was determined but suspect that it was because the horse was a smaller version of my brothers horse "Dude".

    We were quite popular in our neighborhood. Both horses stayed in a small shed in our backyard. Do not ask how this was legal, but it may have involved another trade.

    Dad also knew a leather smith named Johnny Klatz (funny how you remember certain names). Dad always said that Johnny was one of the best leather smiths in Atlanta, if you could "keep him out of the bottle". Another trade resulted in a great Christmas present for me one year. I did not ask any questions about that trade.

    A few years ago, we decided to downsize since our children were out of college and on their own. I managed to get through the inevitable tossing of artifacts representing long kept memories. I could not bring myself to get rid of everything, so I now have the Saddle Bags in my "Memory Trophy Room.

It is funny how that old leather will age if you do not maintain it.