When we began business in 1972, Buell Baclesse had been our organizer, our first President, and the guy who arranged for our banking. He banked at Jefferson City’s Exchange National Bank and talked to its president, Don Campbell, about a line of credit, secured by all six of the shareholders. It served us well for two years. In the Spring of 1975, I went with Buell to see Don and others at the bank about extending our line from its maximum of $80,000 to $117,500. The bank turned us down.
A funny story about that meeting: Both Buell and Don within that week had undergone a medical procedure which required filling, rectally, the lower intestines with barium or some similar fluid that x-rays could detect. After our rejection, these two older men compared their exams. Don complained that the hardest part was “holding” the solution “in” while the x-ray table moved wildly. Buell pointed out that his physician had inserted a little valve, so he didn’t have to undergo that agony. Well, Don couldn’t understand why his doctor didn’t do the same thing, to which Buell quickly replied: “Well, Don, he musta known you were a banker and had a tight ass!”