QUICKIE

In a recent post I mentioned that I had briefly worked for a car dealership. One of the salesmen, Bucky, was of the good looking, sex sells type.

One day, I saw Bucky take a very tall,muscular young man with a military buzz cut to the back lot to look at the many cars in stock. When they came back, Bucky looked strained and a little wild eyed as he took the man to his office. He left him there and stopped by my desk on the way to get some coffee for his customer.

The normally cocky salesman looked quite ruffled. Bucky quietly told me they had been walking down the stairs to the lot when the customer turned to him and asked,"Do you think my being a queer Marine will affect my credit application?"

Bucky was rattled and couldn't understand why the fellow thought it necessary to even bring it up. I asked how he had answered and he said he mumbled something about how it shouldn't matter. Remember this was way before "don't ask don't tell."

Just then the Marine came out of Bucky's office and asked if he could have cream for his coffee. Bucky said he would get it and left me with the young man so we started talking. He said he was visiting his parents while on leave but that he was stationed at Camp LeJune, NC. I told him that I had once been engaged to a Marine lieutenant stationed at Camp LeJune and he asked, "Oh, was he a "career" Marine also?" It was unladylike but my coffee shot out my nose anyway.

I know I should have gotten Bucky aside and tell him that his "queer" Marine was really a "career" Marine but you know, Bucky was such an arrogant little dude and such a raging hetero that he deserved to squirm. I told him later, long after the marine had left and for a long time he no longer trusted me, but then, that made us even for after all, he was a salesman.