Odell Lemons started his appliance business in Hollis, Oklahoma coming from Texas with a Texas electrician license. The day he applied to transfer his license from Texas to Oklahoma, Oklahoma stopped reciprocating with Texas for the license transfer. This was in 1978. "I was 20 some years in the appliance business before I became sick and had to quit. Anyway, I enjoyed it. I had lots of fun and understand that the ladies that are working on this project want me to tell some of the fun things that happened."
The first day I worked a woman came in and said, "Mr. Lemons, my refrigerator isn�t cooling. Will you come see about it?" I went to her house and after looking at it told her she had a defrost problem. She didn�t agree and said that I didn�t know what I was doing because she had automatic defrost. So I left and about 2 days later, she came and apologized and asked me to come back. She had called Frank Luce, and he told her that was what the problem was. He didn�t have any Whirlpool parts so she had to call me back up there. Ever since then, we have been real good friends. Sometimes bad things turn out to be a good thing.
The next opportunity I had to enjoy myself was when a girl called from the bank where she worked to see if I could fix her "Whirlpool" dryer. I got her key and went to her house and came back to the bank and said, "Mam, you don�t have a Whirlpool dryer. You have a Westinghouse." She said, "I know good and well I do. I bought it new from Doug Burns." I told her that I didn�t think so. "Yes I did, I know who I bought it from." I told her that I couldn�t fix it because I didn�t have any Westinghouse parts, but could order some and get them here in 2 days. She said that she had to have it fixed today. I told her that I was sorry that I couldn�t fix it. The next day she called me and said, "Mr. Lemons, can you get those parts for this dryer? It IS STILL a Whirlpool and I can�t find anybody else to work on it." I ordered the parts and fixed it in a couple of days. When I went back to the bank to collect, she was still saying it WAS a Whirlpool. So I printed out Westinghouse on a piece of paper and told her to check the name and see what the letters said. Later she called me and said, "You know, I need to learn how to spell, don�t I?" I said, "Yeah, it might help sometimes." I got a kick out of that.
One day I ran out of gas out east of town. Jerry Reynold came by and didn�t stop, so I was kinda mad at him. Others drove by without stopping. Jerry Bob Whorton came by, stopped and brought me to town to get some gas and took me back. He didn�t want any money, but I gave him $10. He gave it back, and I said, "All right be contrary and I�ll just keep my $10." Next time I saw Jerry Reynold I told him about it and he said, "I didn�t see you sitting there. I saw some guy and didn�t know who it was." Later on when Jerry needed a refrigerator worked on, I said, "I can�t work on it. I don�t know who you are." Jerry said, "I�m real sorry I didn�t know who you were." I made him sweat a little over it, but fixed his refrigerator.
I ran out of gas about l/2 block north of Cummin�s Building Supply on North Main. I walked over to the bank and used their phone to call Hoot Green, and he brought me some gas. The next day, I ran out of gas in the same dad blame spot...within 2 feet from where I had run out the day before. I walked over to the bank again to call Hoot. He said, "Odell, I�ll just set you 5 gallons of gas here so when you run out tomorrow it�ll be here."
In 1980 I got into the selling business as a Whirlpool dealer. I was doing pretty good until Sight and Sound went and they kinda took me under, but I survived until I got sick and had to quit.�
One day a lady came in and bought a whole houseful of appliances. I delivered them the same day. She came in and said, "Mr. Lemons, I�m not going to have the money for 60 days." I told her I would have to come get them and take them back to the store. She wanted to know why. I explained that when the Whirlpool man comes around if the appliances aren�t on the floor, I have to pay for them. She told me I wasn�t going to get them. It was a new house and they weren�t living there. I started loading them up. When I got the refrigerator loaded she said, "Well if you have to take them back let me help you." I told her I was real sorry, but I had to take them back. The next day she came in and said they could pay for them, so I took them back out there. Her husband wrote me a check. I took it to the bank and it wasn�t any good. I went back and told them the check bounced, and I would have to take the appliances back. So we loaded them back up and took them back to the store. The next day he came in with cash money and we loaded them back up and took them back up there. I moved the things 4 times before I got paid for them.
One day I got a call real early from a frantic mother. She said, "Odell, please come down here to my house. My daughter is locked in the bathroom and the heater is on in there and it�s hot in there and I can�t get it unlocked and we can�t get her out." So I trotted on down there. The door was hot even on the outside. We liked to never have figured out to get that door opened without tearing it to pieces. We finally got her out. She was crying and scared to death and hot, but OK. I left and drove a little way, and a lady came running out of her house and into the middle of the road. I slammed on my brakes and almost ran over her. She stopped me and said, "Mr. Lemons, Mr. Lemons my son is locked in the bathroom and I can�t get the door opened." This time I had to take the window out of the house, get a ladder, get in the bathroom and get the little boy out and put the window back up. It was kinda odd that two calls in a row I was confronted with 2 people scared to death because their kids were locked in the bathroom.
I went to work one time for a guy whose freezer was out. I fixed it and charged a minimal charge...$15 to $20...because all I had to do was fix some loose wires. He told me his tank had some good fish in it and to go down there and fish. The next Sunday I went fishing, caught a few fish, went by, thanked him for the fish and asked him if he wanted some fish. He didn�t. About 2 years later his washing machine went out. I went out and put a pump, belt and a water valve on it...about $75 worth of stuff. I handed him a bill and he said, "I figure that�s about what those fish you caught were worth". And I said, "Yes sir, it sure is, but I won�t be going back down there any more." He said that I could go any time I wanted to. I said, "No sir, I can�t afford it. Your fish are too high." I didn�t fish or work there any more.
There was the time a guy wanted me to go hunting with him on his place. We killed two turkeys. I took one home and skinned it. I will never kill another turkey. I had stickers, sand burrs in my hands. It was dirty and nasty and bugs all over it. They�re the nastiest critters that ever lived in the wild. He invited me over to eat turkey Thanksgiving dinner with him. He said, "Now, before we get started you got to fix my oven." So I fixed his oven for nothing. After that I never did go hunting with him or anybody else ever again.
One evening about dark I got a call from a young lady who said her oven was bad and she needed some help fixing it. I told her I could be there in about 15 minutes. She said that she would be waiting. Walk in over there and here is this gorgeous supper on the table...steaks, potatoes, wine. I said, "Are you expecting company?" She said, "Yeah". I said, "Who?"� And she said, "You." I said, "I�m sorry Mam, but I have a date with my girl friend in Childress and I�m running late because I came to help you fix your oven." She said, "You mean you aren�t going to take advantage of this situation? I said, "No Mam, I�m not. I like that gal pretty much and if she found out I was messing around she would run me off." "Well, I�m gonna run you off if you don�t take advantage of it so get out of here!" I said, "OK" and she never did speak to me again.
As most of you know, I have been attached to this Jack Rabbit Junction thing for 16 years. The guys accused me of starting it up as free advertisement for Lemons� Appliance. The only time I used Lemons� Appliance was when we gave away a microwave to help Vicky Kromer when her husband was ill. We had a drawing and gave away the oven. They got all the money out of it. When we gave it away I said it was from Lemons' Appliance. That is the only time Lemons' Appliance was ever used at Jack Rabbit Junction."
Let�s take a little tour over to Carolton Texas...north of Shamrock about 10 to 12 miles and back up in the fields 4 or 5 miles there�s an old school there. I went over there to fix a freezer for Sears Roebuck. Their service manager couldn�t find out what was the matter so they called me and said they heard I was pretty good, and they would sure pay me fine to go over there and see about it. I got the big head over them bragging on me so I went. I got over there and this lady said that I should have called that I was coming. "I�ve got it out here in the chicken coop and it�s got a blanket over it and chicken tar all over it." I said that I didn�t care. She had built a quilt that just fit the chest type freezer. I said, Mam, I�ll tell you what�s the matter with your freezer. It won�t work with this blanket over it. She said that it had to. "If I don�t cover it, it�s going to get chicken poop all over it." I told her to set it on the back porch. She said that she couldn�t set it out in the weather. I told her that it would work out in the weather, but wouldn�t work in this chicken house with a blanket on it. I told her to cut off all the blanket but 6 in. from the top and that would keep the wind and sand out of it. I guess she did, because I never did hear any more about it. I sent Sears the bill, and they paid me right off so guess we got her fixed.
Now, let�s take a little trip down to Eldorado. Right there on that sharp turn when you are coming in from the west. Wayne Stewart lived in one of the houses. The other people had an old dog. He kept barking. When I finished the job for Wayne, I went out to my pickup and it wouldn�t start. I had a loose battery cable. I was tightening it up and looked under the pickup and there was a skunk under the pickup. I was afraid to step down off the pickup... scared he would spray me. Bout that time the neighbor�s dog spotted that skunk and here he comes. I had one of my doors open and that thing got full of skunk stink. I stunk and had that whole shebang down there stinking. I came home, opened the door and my wife said, "What in the world have you been into...a skunk?" and I said, "Naw, I just bought me some new shaving lotion." Course she didn�t take too kindly to that. That�s some of the things you can get into if you are not careful.
Let�s go to Vinson now. It was in the dead of winter. It was so cold....in about 1982....solid ice on the road. You couldn�t go but 15-20 miles an hour. Just creeping along. Went up there to fix a washing machine. Got up there and the timer was bad on it. I put a new timer on it and it still didn�t work, so I had to creep back to Hollis to get another timer. Creeped back up there and put it on and it still didn�t work. I told them that I had a new washing machine and I would go take the timer off it. Took me about an hour to get back up there. Finally got it put on. Still didn�t work. Looked over and there was an extension cord...the washer wasn�t plugged in. I snuck around and plugged it in...went back to the washer, raised the top, wriggled some wires around like I was really working on it. I said, "Well, I finally found it. It was the timer all right. I just didn�t have this one plugged in good." I never did tell them that I was foolish enough to make two trips to Hollis. Took me all day and I wasn�t smart enough to plug it in after I put the first timer on. That�s the kind of stuff you keep to yourself. It happens once in a while...to the best of us!
Let's go to the Ron Community now. It was Christmas Eve. We were sitting there eating Christmas dinner. All my kin folks were there. This lady calls and says, "Mr. Lemons, you brought a stove out here today to me and it won�t work." I said, "Well, did you read your book? It comes in a little sealed package. Did you find it?" She said, "Yeah, I found it." I told her that I just delivered the stove for Jr. Hubanks. She had tried to call him, but he wasn�t home. So I went out there to look at it. All I did was twist the control that said manual control and it came on. I said, "I thought you said you read the book". I picked up the package and it was still sealed at both ends. I said, "You�re the only person I ever saw that could read the book without ever opening the package" I sent her a bill for $25 on that little deal and she wouldn�t pay it. So when she called me in the middle of August to come fix her freezer, I told her she owed me $25. I told her to have cash money ready when I came to fix her freezer. She did and I did and we worked things out and we became good friends after that.
Let's go over to Wellington, Texas now. I had a lady over there who bought a new washing machine. She was real proud of it, but she said it was the noisiest thing she ever, ever had in her house. So I went over there. She had bought a metal bucket to mop her floor with and sat it right against that washing machine. When you turned that machine on the bucket made it sound terrible, so I reached down and moved the bucket about l/2 inch. She said, "Is that all that�s the matter with that washing machine?" I said, "Yes Mam, it is, but you are going to have to pay me for the trip." "Why is that? Because there is nothing wrong with the washing machine." That made her about half mad so I said that I would charge her $15 for coming over there to pay for the gas. She said that she goes to Hollis for less than half that. I said, "Yeah, but do you fix a washing machine while you are there?" She threw a ten dollar bill at me and told me that that was all I was going to get. About 6 months later she called and said that her ice box wasn�t working. I told her that I would have to charge her extra because last time I got short changed. She said that she would pay what ever I wanted. When I got there she asked me what kind of pie I liked. I fixed her refrigerator and she paid me...no hassle. Two days later she called me and said, "Mr. Lemons, my oven went crazy last night and cooked 2 pineapple cream pies, and I don�t even like them. Next time you are over here come by and pick them up." I went by there to pick them up and she gave me another $10 and told me I was worth it.
Let's go over to Eldorado, Oklahoma. This lady said her refrigerator beeped ever once in a while. I thought it was the evaporator motor, but I wanted to hear it, so I sat around and never did hear it. When I got ready to leave she heard it again. I never heard anything, so I just charged her mileage and came home. She called that night and said, "Mr. Lemons, that refrigerator is doing it again." Just as I walked in the door the next morning, I heard the beeping noise. I asked her if she had a smoke detector. She said, "No, sir I ain�t" I pulled the refrigerator out and took the back off, checked the motor, and oiled it. When I put it back in we heard the beeping noise again. I told her that it couldn�t be the ice box, because it was unplugged. We took some cereal off the top and there was a brand new smoke detector back there. She said, "Somebody got that thing for me for Christmas and I didn�t know what it was, so I just put it up there." I went to the little country store and bought some batteries for it and put it up in the hallway for her. She wanted to know how she would know if it was working. I told her to get one of those long lighters and hold it up by it and see if it comes on. So the next day, she called me and said that she had set her house on fire. She had gotten too close to the ceiling and set it on fire, but got the water hose and put it out right quick. She said, "You don�t tell people to do that any more." I said, "Yes Mam, I won�t." And I never did.
A guy called me with a dryer problem that lived down south of town a little ways. He said that the tub wouldn�t turn. I went out and found that a mouse has built a nest in there and had chewed the belt into with her teeth. I got seven little mice...well they were rats...out of there. The momma rat hissed at me and I knocked her in the head with a wrench so I got all of them. I fixed the dryer went to the Hollis Inn to eat. Her husband was there and asked me what was wrong. I wouldn�t tell him right there so he told me he wouldn�t pay me until I did. They had a new house and I didn�t want to embarrass him. He said again that he wouldn�t pay me until I told him. After I did, he said that he didn�t have any rats...there wasn�t any way they could get in there. I told him that I got seven babies and a momma out of there. He asked me if I could figure out how they got in there and stop it. I saw real quick that he had his vent pipe too close to the ground and the momma rat could reach right up there and hop right in. I got a piece of hail screen and put over it. Later on he got another rat and a snake in his house. I told him that the only way they could get in was if they left the door open. They had left the garage door open for about 10 minutes. The snake went under the dryer. When I turned on the dryer I heard a terrible knocking and carrying on. His tail was hung in the dryer motor. He twisted it off and got out the dryer vents.
I went over to Centralview to work on something for 3 sisters. One was named Nora. The other two were hiding behind the door watching me fix it. When I got through I told Nora that I was ready for her to pay me. She said to her sisters to come out and help pay for the work. The bill was a number that 3 wouldn�t divide into. They argued about it for 15 minutes. Finally I told them I was going to change the price where it would come out even divided by 3. One penny wasn�t going to make that much difference to me. The next day Nora had a black eye. She said that one of her sisters had hit her for trying to cheat me out of a penny.
I used to have to go to Texas to school about every 3 months. One time the guys were standing in the hall telling dirty tricks they pulled on people. One of them said what I hate about this is having a hard time getting into peoples houses. When I told them that I had a key to nearly everybody�s house or know where they hide them, they said that no one would let them have their keys. I told them that after what they pull on people, I could understand that.. They didn�t like that answer so I left....they were all bigger than I was.
I won $500 a year for 3 straight years because I didn�t have any complaints from customers called into Whirlpool against my work. I was in line for 6 when this lady called that her oven was acting up....the thermostat was bad on it. I called her and told her I had a new thermostat and would put it on. She said that she would call me when she was ready for me to put it on. Time went on for about a month and I never did hear from her. I got a call from Whirlpool. They wanted to know why I didn�t go fix that lady�s oven. I told them that she was going to call me and never did call me. I explained the situation to Whirlpool, but I didn�t get my $500. I never did tell her what the deal was, but I sure did want to. $500 to me was a lot of money. That is not a funny story, but I thought it needed to be told...You bend over backwards to help someone and they stab you in the back. It happens a lot more than you think.
A guy called me one time and said that his refrigerator smelled like frying bacon. I went over there and noticed a 1 pound package of thin bacon was pushed too far back and was against the heating element that was in there to defrost the refrigerator. It gets red hot just like the oven on a stove for about 10 minutes and then goes off. I said, "You know you�re right. Your refrigerator was cooking this bacon." He got a big kick out of that. I told him that we could turn a refrigerator into a stove if we wanted to. Now Whirlpool has a refrigerator and cook stove combination on the market. Believe it or not. It keeps stuff cold and when you get ready to cook it, a timer comes on and cooks it for you. I was joking with him, but it came true.
I tried to save the best for last. I guess the best story I ever had. I went up to Karla Kromer's one time at Vinson to fix a dish washer. She would always make me a sandwich and set it by the counter for me to eat. When I got up there I saw a nice, neat package of brownies setting there on the counter so I just helped myself to them while I was working. I ate them all. There was 3 or 4 of them. They were real good brownies. When I went in the bank, I said, "Karla, those brownies you left me yesterday were really, really good." She said, "Did you really think so? I hope so. They were my daughter�s entry in the county fair." I felt really small and apologized. She said that if was OK and that her daughter had had time to make some more and won a ribbon with them. I sure did feel stupid about eating that girl�s prize brownies.
The next best is the snake story. I was working up there for Mrs. Claude Haught one day in the early, early spring when I got a call from John Denton. He asked me to stop at Luther Stevens on my way back to town. I stopped and they took me back to a room that was real narrow about 3-4 feet wide. So narrow that you couldn�t pull the washer out without taking the dryer out in pieces. I was lucky that I didn�t need to work on the washer. I could pull the dryer out and get up on a table and drop down behind it. I need to set the scene first. This narrow room had 1 door. The door opened straight back in the way and hung on the floor. Luther was standing there. He had had a heart operation and was standing there hold his shirt open. He was touching those steel wires that held his chest together...aggravating me. Anyway, I pulled the dryer out from the wall and dropped down behind it. There was a shelf up there that had towels, and wash rags and that little half pint jar that holds nuts and washers and bolts and that one pecan that is always in there. It was on two of those corner braces. I had to stoop over to get in there because it was so low. I got down there behind that dryer on my hands and knees and was working on it and felt something hit my foot. I looked down and there was a snake wrapped around my leg. I jumped up from there hollering, "Snake, Snake, Snake," Hit that shelf about 3 times, knocked it loose, scattered those rags. Nuts and bolts went all over the floor. That little woman busted through the door. She turned around just in time to hit that door smack in the face. She hit so hard it knocked her down. I was bucking and jumping and hollering with that snake around my leg. Finally I got it loose and slung it against the wall. The little old lady finally came to. The man was sitting by the dryer holding his shirt open, breathing real hard. She was patting him on the head. "Honey you all right, honey you all right." He said, "If you hit me on the head one more time, I�m gonna black that other eye." She was standing there with a black eye. As soon as she hit that door it blackened her eye. I asked Mrs. Stevens to go out to my red tool box and get a pair of channel locks...a big pair of green channel locks...right in the top. It�ll be the first thing you see. She was gone about a week...well it seemed like a week...she came back and said she couldn�t find them. I got a hold of the corner braces that the shelf was on before I knocked it loose, stepped on top of the dryer and got out of there. I finally caught the snakes head in a pair of pliers...Liked to never have got it! I had on a brand new pair of $185 alligator skin boots. I hung that boot on a screw that was too long on that dryer and ripped my boot. I got out of there with that snake in those pliers. That rascal got wrapped around my arm and started squeezing it. I managed to get out to my pickup and get a big old butcher knife that I carry and cut his head off and he went to loosen up on me. I didn�t know a bull snake could put that much pressure. If I hadn�t killed him, I think he would have killed me. I got the dryer back together. She wrote a check and I wrote...removing snake from dryer...on the check. Every year that they lived, at Christmas time they had to hear the story about the snake. They enjoyed it, but it liked to have scared me to death. I went home with knots on my head and face scratched. Barbara asked me what happened. "You wouldn�t believe me if I told you," I told her and she laughed and laughed at me. "These knots on my head hurt. Do you have anything to put on them?" "Yeah, some snake oil."
Note: Even after Odell had to give up his appliance business due to bad health, he continues to serve the community by training Matt Kellison and assisting him on house calls.
