Going after parts

I’ve put in a few miles driving to and from parts departments of farm equipment dealers. I remember one trip that lasted all day… returning time after time because they kept sending the wrong parts or not enough of something.

My very first “parts run” though, was memorable. It was just a short trip to the local John Deere Store where I needed to get some hydraulic hoses made. My husband sent me to pick up the hoses and specifically said, “I need one female end and one male end.”

I looked at him incredulously. “I’m not gonna say THAT! What are they really called?”

We hadn’t been married for too long, but I had already discovered that his labels and other people’s labels for the same item didn’t always match.

“Send someone else, ” I pleaded. “I won’t say that!”

I might have been a child of the sixties but I was also raised not to discuss anything that had to do with sex.

There was no one else to send. The hoses were needed STAT! So off I went, muttering under my breath, wondering what my mother would say. I entered the parts department and shuffled up to the counter and said my piece (waiting for the laughter to come from all the farmers in the store) I was ready to turn and run.

Instead the clerk said, “It’ll just be a few minutes and we’ll have them ready for you”. I looked around again still waiting for everyone to burst out laughing or say something like “You must be Roger’s wife… that’s what HE calls them!” But it didn’t happen and I went home with two hoses … a male and a female.

“Did you have any problems with the order?” he grinned when I handed them to him.

“No problems,” I replied, “but you should be set for awhile with hoses… I put them together in the backseat; so now we can produce our own.”