#VeteranOfTheDay Thomas and Elaine Joyce - VA News

Truly blessed couple.

Exactly so!

My condolences .

A story I've heard all too often. Happened to a good friend of mine's dad--and then they turned around and killed him when he suffered a cardiac arrest.

MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. - My dad and most of my uncles were quite hands on when it came to keeping everything running around the house. I was with my family in the mid '60s to visit his family in Central Florida. During that wek, a neighbor gave him a lawn mower that wouldn't start. He had it running a few hours later. A friend of his saw him using it to test it and traded him a riding mower that needed work. It was running the next day, when another friend traded him a car for the mower. He tuned it up and sold it for several hundred dollars when someone saw it sitting in his driveway. He was quite well known around town as someone honest, and reliable. He also gave me some very good advice. He had stomach cancer in the late '50s. After the surgery, he could only hold about two tablespoons of food at a time. His doctors told him that he wouldn't survive a winter in rural Kentucky. They told him to move to a warm climate, or die. He sold off most things from his farm without any trouble. The only thing that had no interest was his pair of mules. He had priced them at $50 for the pair. When they didn't sell, he raised the price to $150 for the pair and the sold almost immediately. He grinned and said, "I learned that no one wants cheap mules!" then he explained that if the price is too low on things, people think they are defective or stolen.
years later I was at the Cincinnati Hamfest. An electronic surplus dealer that I knew asked my why no one was buying anything from him. I ripped up his cards with prices and set higher prices. He asked, "If I can't sell this for 25 cents, why would anyone pay three dollars for it?" I told him that similar items were selling or $2.50 to $3.50 so the sweet spot was in the middle. He ended up selling everything that he had brought. I took him home to Dayton that night so he could leave his tables and van, then he gathered up everything that would fit into his wife's car for the next day. He sold all of that, as well. For the next six months, he would drag me into the back room to help him price items until he got the hang of it. In exchange, he gave me deep discounts on things that I wanted. I still have a nice workbench that I bought from him. I also bought a Bogen PA amplifier and a weird GE high speed band printer. Al for $100 that was on Saturday. On Monday, my boss commented, "I'd love to find another MX60 Bogen amplifier." I sold him mine for $100. :)

Amn Dale Preisach - Thank you. He was one of my favorite uncles. Sadly everyone from my dad's family has passed on. My dad was the youngest, and he passed about two years ago.