sprog4

One very good story Joe's father (known as Bearskin I believe) was at a sale at Ruddington and was bidding and buying lot after lot. The auctioneer after a time suggested that it was about time there was some money on the table. He stood up walked to the front of the room, reached inside his ex army greatcoat and produced a wad of white five pound notes, slapped them on the rostrum and without saying a word walked back to his seat.

 

Thanks for mentioning that:

As a young teen, I met either Joe or Jacob, I don't know. My father used to buy equipment from Molesworth, and he passed on a wonderful couple of stories like the one above. Once when Hunt was buying petrol tankers by the dozen at an auction, my father saw him crush a huge bundle of notes in one of his kids' hands, saying "Go give that to the man." Not spoiled by money, you could say.

 

My favourite story, and a type of occurrence which has cropped up in other scrap yards: I should say that my dad used to push me back a few feet because he and Joe/Jacob used what my mum called "language" in their dealings. So, one day a car dealer from London had been snooping around the piled up wrecks, and came across a Lagonda --- maybe 1930's vintage and quite rare. Joe/Jacob, as always, quoted a cash price, and the Lagonda was lifted onto one of Joe's trucks for delivery. At this point the car dealer got "clever" and started pointing to defects,damages, missing items, and said [the actual figures are forgotten] "No, I can't give you 300, here's 200." Joe said "No, 300 is the price so you're not having it." The dealer countered, typically, saying "Okay, you're a hard man, I'll give you 250 cash." At this point my father re-telling the story always insisted the main point was coming. Joe Hunt said "No, you're not having it. I quoted you a fair price and you tried to cheat me. Unload it, boys!" So the lads there lifted the Lagonda up off the truck, and the dealer went wide-eyed and started pushing notes, 'way higher than 300, at Joe. Joe just said "You think you're better than me, don't you. Well you're not. Put it in the crusher, boys," --- and they did, in front of the dealer's eyes! Never mind the value, it was a principle at stake, and Joe finished by saying to the man "Now go back to bloody London and learn some manners."

My father used to remind me that men like Joe were good men, never mind whether or not he washed and shaved or lived in a neat house; "You know a man's character by his actions", and I have never forgotten it, 50 years later.