And the nail cost how much more than a cent ...?ÿ How did he save money on nails?
These were common concrete nails from the hardware store. With a black head about 1/4" across. We would hammer them into asphalt and they were practically invisible. We didn't carry paint or flagging either.?ÿ Truly, this guy was epic cheap. I worked there a year and a half nearly 30 years ago and I still haven't downloaded all the cheap stories.?ÿ
One rainy day the muffler and a few feet of pipe fell off the truck as we pulled away from a stop sign. Clunk! We stopped and kicked the steaming hunk of metal off the road and left it there. We told the boss, he made us go back and collect it so he could have it put back on. Of course the muffler shop laughed at him. We drove around for 3 weeks with no muffler - you can imagine the noise!?ÿ
Years ago I worked at a large engineering consultancy that had a survey dept on our floor, that included a slimy wee fellow who was a notorious tightwad. The usual MO for someones birthday would be for the birthdayee to invite the floor to the pub for lunch, the deal being that everyone would buy their own meals but the birthdayee would shout everyone a drink. So, on one such occasion, there were about a couple of dozen of us and the surveyor spies a "meal + drink" deal so he has that and chuffs it down, grinning like a Cheshire cat. But come payout time, the staff collar him for the full amount, and then he looks like he's swallowed some flagging and starts protesting, and then they look like they're going to beat it out of him, so he pays. Afterwards, back in the office, he slides over to the birthday girl and in front of about six of us, suggests that she might like to reimburse him for the value of the drink. One of the senior draftsmen stood up and suggested that he might like to .... off.
@mark-mayer I've done that too.?ÿ The more the penny is run over the shinier it gets.