Country and Western Radio

                           Country and Western Radio

   Paul Wack and his friend Willy flew down from Portland Oregon to attend "Vanning for Tots" at Los Banos California.  Paul rented a Mini Van at the local airport for the weekend.  Friday evening we are going to go out to a local restaurant for dinner and Paul volunteers to drive all of us in his bright new shinny rental Ford Aerostar. We all load into the van and head down the road.      Paul turns on the radio and tunes in a station.  What Paul does not know is that on the Ford Aerostar they have a special radio feature. On the window sill next to the seat directly behind the drivers seat, are some auxillary controls for the radio to change channels remotely. The first radio station that comes in and blaring out of the speakers is a Country and Western station with steel guitars twanging.

  Paul yells a very gutteral AAAHHHHHHHG, and darts his hand to the controls to change the station, while stating "I HATE Country and Western Music". He pushes the button and a rock and roll song plays for about five seconds, then the channel automatically changes back to a Country and Western station.  AAAhhhhhhhg Paul yells and punches the change channel button. Again rock and roll music plays for five seconds and the radio automatically changes back to a Country and Western station.  Paul tries to change the station 6 or 7 more times to a rock and roll station, always with the same results.  The radio always  returns to a Country and Western station, automatically. Paul is screaming and very frustrated.

 We inquire what rental agency did he get his van at?  He replies "Acme Rental Vans".  Oohhhh,  that explains  the radio then!  "Acme" Rental Vans has a new service  for their customers, you may order your rental vehicle  with a radio that is preprogrammed with a radio that  ONLY plays your favorite music. That's right, with all of the new advancements in electronics, you can  pre-select the style of music you like and they will program the radio to play just that type. You must have gotten a van that was programmed for just Country and Western music for the last person to rent this vehicle!  Well Paul has never heard of this.  EVERYBODY else in the van has though.  We have seen TV ads, radio commercials and magazine ads. This is the latest "Hot" thing. Paul turns off the radio in disgust.

"Well I am not listening to Country and Western Music".  We arrive at the restaurant and have a very enjoyable dinner together. None of the dinner conversation was about the automatic radio. With dinner over, we load back into the  Ford for the trip home.  Paul retries the radio with the same results-automatic tuning to Country and Western Music.  He turns off the radio and says "I can't believe that "Acme Rental" forgot to un-program this radio. We all commiserate with Paul for the rentals agency's lack of attention to detail. Paul turns off the radio and we return to the Fairgrounds .  We have a great time the rest of the van run and no one ever mentions the Rental Van Radio again. We all bid a fond adieu and go home.

Springtime returns, and I see Willy at another van run. After exchanging pleasantries, I ask if Paul has rented any other vehicles with an automatic tuning radio? Willy Laughs and says "OMG—when we went to return the van at the rental agency counter, Paul was very upset and explaining to the agent, they should have told him all about the new radio features and given him the option to chose what type of music the automatic tuning radio in his rental van would play!" The counter girl is very patiently trying to calm Paul down while explaining that they don't have  any vehicle of that type in their inventory, and she has not heard of any other rental companies with this feature!  Everyone behind ALL of the rental counters has now heard  this conversation, and are now looking at Paul like he has just dropped off of the Moon! You know the look ; See what kind of crazies we have to put up with in this business! Paul is not having any of this explanation because he knows he just returned this kind of rental van and ALL of his friends have seen the ads for it. At this point Willy said " I had to tell him all about it, I was afraid if I didn't , he was so angry, he was going to climb across the counter after her!

I saw Paul a little while later and all he said was "You SOB, you all really got me with that one. Here try this new micro brew I just found. It's great beer! As always, Paul took this joke on him with out anger or resentment.  And could enjoy the humor behind it.

Paul stated it best   "Vanning, nothing else matters"  Rest in Peace Brother

Paul Wack 1957 - 2010

Billo