Never Judge A Man By His Overalls

"Never Judge A Man By His Overalls" is a quote from my daddy that has stuck with me through life.  You'll notice that it is in the heading of my blog, along with a picture of my daddy's overalls.  He always wore the Liberty brand and he always smelled of sawdust.  He was a carpenter, a home builder, he could fix anything.  He was bigger than life to me and I loved him.  He's been gone from my life way too long.  Several friends that read my blog have asked me what this saying meant.  So it's time to tell the story.

My first recollection of hearing that phrase was when I was probably 10 or 11 years old.  It was mama's birthday.  It was August and it was hot.  Daddy and I went downtown on a secret mission.  He in his old overalls and me in a pair of shorts and flip flops.  We had a jewelry store in the little town that I grew up in but this was a special day.  It was mama's birthday and we went to the real jewelry store downtown in a big city nearby.  As we sped along the highway in daddy's old turquoise colored step-side Chevrolet truck, I remember talking with him about what mama's favorite color was.  Maybe we could find something for her in green.  I remember his arm hanging out the window and my hair blowing in the wind.  It was a simple time between us, but embedded in my memory forever.

We pulled up in front of the jewelry store and walked inside.  I'd never seen a place so elegant.  It was quiet and somber like a funeral home.  Beautiful jewelry was displayed in long, lighted, glass cases.  Glittering diamonds, beautiful white pearls.  I reached up and took daddy's hand, expecting any minute to see a casket sitting over to the side.  I remember a man coming from the back of the store, smiling, glad to see us.  Wanting my daddy's money.  Daddy told him we were there for a special gift for mama.  I pulled away from his hand and started looking.  Pearls, no.  Diamonds, no.  I couldn't find anything in green.  Daddy put his hands inside the front bib of his overalls and bent over the cases.  "Ya see anything ya like sugar?"  "Not yet..." I replied.  And then!  There it was!  A beautiful, silver stick-pin with an oval, emerald green stone.  The color was perfect and it was her favorite.  Something was engraved in the middle of the stone.  I pulled at daddy's hand and pointed.  The smiling salesman gently tried to guide us away.  "Perhaps something over in this case would better suit you..."  Daddy and I looked together as he lured us away to less expensive jewelry.  A plastic looking bracelet, a pair of earrings that looked like cut glass.  I wasn't old enough then to realize what the salesman was doing but I know now.  He had judged the man by his overalls.  I had witnessed one of the great tragedies in the world of sales.  I was just too young to realize it.
 

"No...I think she's got something in mind over here." daddy said.  And we walked back to the lighted case with the green stick pin.  "But maybe something here would be a little less expensive."  The man was still making a mistake and I felt daddy's hand squeeze around mine.  I was looking at an idiot in elegant!  "We'll take the green pin and please wrap it for a birthday."  I couldn't believe it.  Daddy didn't even ask him how much it was and to this day, I don't know.  I just remember seeing him pull out a folded $100 bill from his wallet.  I couldn't tell you if he got any change back or not.  I was too excited about the surprise for mama.  When we got back in daddy's truck and headed home, he told me a story I didn't understand.  He told me to be careful about judging a man just because he had on a pair of overalls.  All that mattered to me was that we hurry home with this beautifully wrapped present and give it to mama.  Of course, she loved it and on the following Sunday morning I sat on the end of their bed and watched daddy help her pin it to her dress.  She looked beautiful.

Years later, in my senior year of high school, it was the night before I started my first job at a bank.  Daddy sat me down at their little kitchen table and talked to me about how important a good job was.  "You make sure you never judge a man by his overalls, watch out for the ones in suits and ties, and you'll make a fine banker."  I was taken back to that day about 7 years ago, a little girl holding her daddy's hand in a fancy jewelry store.  I knew what daddy meant.  And to this day, I've met more wealthy customers in my line of work that were just plain, hard-working people with overalls, painters pants, dirty shoes caked with mud, leathery hands and faces.  Some of my very largest customers didn't look the part at all, but thanks to daddy, I knew better than to judge them by their overalls!  It was a very valuable lesson that I still carry with me, even today, some thirty six years later in banking.

Mama died in 1995 and I now have the pin in my jewelry box.  One day, long after she was gone, I took a really close look at the stick pin and realized it was a scorpion engraved in the green stone.  For some reason that struck me funny and I laughed out loud.  Knowing mama, it didn't matter what was engraved in the stone.  Just the fact that daddy had given it to her was all she needed to know.  She and I both loved the man in the overalls. 

Now, when I see that salesman around town, I smile.  He'll never realize the impact his actions that day had on a little girl's life.  And, although I never darkened the door of his jewelry store again, I'm left wondering if he ever learned the valuable lesson of judging someone by their overalls.