At age 10, my mother took me to Blakely, Ga to visit my grandfather
My grandfather’s name was Eugene, but everybody called him Euphus. I don’t know where the name Euphus came from, but he certainly looked the part. He wasn’t a tall man, but granddad had a large presence. When he wasn’t working, you’d find him wearing a brimmed hat, often with a feather. The brim, always curved up, never flat. With a cigar in his mouth, he reminded me of a small locomotive.
One day my granddad asked me, ”Boy, what’s your most valuable possession?” I didn’t have a clue. I mean I was only 10 and didn’t have much. Was it my shoes? My GI Joe toys? After staring at him blankly for a few minutes, he told me that he was going to take me to work with him on the next morning. My eyes lit up, “I’M GOING TO WORK WITH GRANDDADDY!!!”. I barely slept a wink that night
My granddad owned a farm. He had spent most of the early years of his life working for the local peanut mills. But over the years, he had saved enough money to eventually acquire land. He had a few cows, a nice sized garden with greens, butter beans, corn, squash(my hands are hurting from just thinking of picking beans). His main asset were his hogs. Big, loud, dirty, stinky, but apparently very valuable hogs.
Work for granddad revolved around the exchange of things that he grew or possessed on his farm for the things that he needed to keep his farm and the family afloat. Basically he bartered.
Our first meeting that morning was at a local diner. We walked into an already full room. The smell of coffee brewing, bacon and grease filled the air. As we walked in the door, almost in unison the room warmly greeted him. “Morn’n Euphus”. I thought, “Everybody knows my granddad’s name”. I felt like I had walked into the room with the mayor. He quickly acknowledged the greetings and continued to an open seat at a booth where another guy had been sitting. He acknowledged me as his grandson and then went straight to business. He needed feed for his hogs and apparently this was the feed guy Granddad negotiated a trade of items from his farm in exchange for feed.
Once completed, a simple handshake sealed the deal.
Through the remainder of that work day, I watched my granddad conduct similar negotiations.
Every deal sealed with a simple handshake.
As we headed home that day, my granddad taught me that in most places when deals were negotiated, you would often see attorneys involved and paper work had to be signed, because most people don’t trust. He told me that he didn’t need a contract, because people knew that when “Euphus” shook on it, his word is his bond. “Euphus McClendon” is the name of a person that can be trusted.
It was then that I learned my most valuable possession is my name.
My granddad taught me that my name and reputation would proceed me into whatever room or environment that I found myself entering into and that it would linger long after I have left this earth.
Does your name restore honor to the sanctity of a handshake?
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