We were going to renovate the house and then "turn it over" within the year. The home was a smaller home that had three rooms on each floor. Living on the top floor was Mr. Hammer, a 90 year old World War I Veteran who had a huge American flag hanging in his front window.
Mr. Hammer was quite a character.. He was still strong as an ox, even at 90.. He could whistle as loud as a steam engine through his missing two front teeth. The whistle could scare the bejesus out of anyone and he used it for just that! Mr. Hammer was extremely suspicious of us young whippersnappers and rightly so. One of our upgrades to the property involved separating the utilities so that each tenant paid for their own. Mr. Hammer was used to living in the apartment without paying for any utilities, so he decided that he was NOT going to use any electricity or gas until he figured out if the separated utilities were working correctly!! If he used NOTHING and his bill was NOTHING then that would be proof that all was well. Here is how he did it... He only listened to a battery operated radio - no TV. no phone, no air conditioning, no cooking. He took a cool bath once a week and washed out his underwear in the bathwater. He then proceeded to use the bath water to flush the toilet for a week. Luckily for Mr. Hammer, it was summer time and he didn't have to worry about heat. When the electric company came to read Mr. Hammer's meter, they decided that it must be broken... It did not move from month to month!
It was then that Mr. Hammer revealed his frugal lifestyle. Can you imagine??? He even ate only one meal a day which he got from a local catering business... He paid minimally for whatever leftovers they had that day.
We sold the house after one year as we had planned and we often drove by to see if the American flag was still hanging in the window.. it was for many years thereafter so we knew Mr. Hammer had lived a long and good life. Here's to you, Mr. Hammer.
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