You either get old John or you don't. He once told me he has two lists, one of current customers and one with ex customers. The funny part was the ex customer list was twice as long as the current customer list. It was easy to get on the ex list, if John gives you a price for a knife and you question him more than twice on that price, i.e. try and continue to chew him down after he said this is the price, well, you just made the wrong list. As he also told me, he sells knives to keep busy and have some fun. The profit doesn't even pay his telephone bill, so he won't deal with much aggravation. I think that's why we always got along, he gives you his best deal up front and keeps his word to a fault.

Last year my son and I were in Chicago, we stopped by John's place and had a ball. We went to dinner and he gave both of us an education with some of his "old school wisdom". I am not a religious man, however I ask the "powers that be" every day for his speedy recovery...Al