With Only A Handshake

Overheard in Oklahoma City at the Western Writers of America Convention --

 

"West of Fort Worth, a handshake is as good as a written contract. East of Fort Worth, you better have lines."

 

My father told me that he bought his first car, a Model T, in Corpus Christi, with just a handshake. The dealer said, "You're Professor Crossley's grandson? He used to whip my butt in school. I guess you're okay." And that was it. Monthly payments made on time. 

Years later, I bought my first new car in Amarillo and sealed the deal with a handshake. I was $ 300 short of a down payment. The dealer told me, "Just send me a little money every now and then." I did, as fast as I could. 

Handshake contracts are more problematic with real estate, as Joyce H. recently pointed out to me. From San Antonio south, Tejano families typically exchanged properties without benefit of a written contract. Handshake deals can be hard to untangle where real estate is concerned. 

Are we past the point when you can look a man (or woman) in the eye, shake hands, and live up to a contract? I hope not. At least, not west of Fort Worth.

Dac

06/28/2009

"Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip." -- Elmore Leonard.

Comments

[Irene]

Dac, I'm afraid that world is gone and I miss it.
I bought my first farm with a handshake and my second with a cold check on a bank in which I didn't have an account.
I've known my husband to get in the truck on Christmas day during a snow storm to return money to an auction house when they paid him for an item that was not his.
Those are memory treasures you will always hold even if others even don't understand why they are important.