Tom & Mr. Nippy - Wish Farms

Tom & Mr. Nippy

 

My brother-in-law, Tom Cobey worked for  me for over 20 years.  He had previously worked for Grumman Aerospace in the space program and helped design the Lunar Module.  He was working for Gordon’s Jewelers when I hired him. It was actually Tom who recommended another Gordon’s employee to the company.  That was Chuck Hollenkamp.

Those of you who knew Tom, knew he had many idiosyncrasies.  While he was tall and lean, Tom had a voracious appetite.  Lunch was certainly his favorite part of the work day.  Of course, my favorite Tom story centers on food.

Back in the 1980’s & 90’s we had a fine gentleman named Chester Dexter working for us.  Among Chester’s daily responsibilities was to go out and pick up Tom’s lunch.  A new locally owned sandwich shop opened up called Nippy’s.  This quickly became Tom’s go-to place to order lunch.

Now back to Tom’s idiosyncrasies.  Tom was extremely particular about his sandwich and how it was made.  Tom would give Chester very  specific instructions.  It was something like this;   I want mustard on one side, but not touching the cheese and a pickle on the other side not touching the turkey and have him cut it in a triangle.  One day Tom sent Chester to retrieve his creation from Nippy’s.

When Chester returned with Tom’s sandwich, he politely laid it on his desk and announced that Mr. Nippy has a message he wants me to give you.  Tom looked up with his glasses on the end of his nose, as he was getting ready to dig into his lunch.  Chester announced, “Mr. Nippy said to tell you that he really appreciates your business, ………but he don’t want no more of it.”

Banned from Nippy’s  for life, is part of Tom’s legacy.  Nippy’s didn’t last too many years without Tom’s business.

It is just like Bon Qui Qui from MadTV once said, “You can have it your way, but don’t get crazy”.

(To see a video clip to get the inside joke click here)

Wish Farms is headed for great things.

Gary Wishnatzki

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