💸 Ask Tip! — "Speechless in Spokane"

The wife of a hardware store clerk seeks justice for her husband in a thankless town.

“Speechless in Spokane”

Dear Tippi,

My husband has worked for thirty-two years at Hal’s Hardware. The Spokane Journal of Business called Frank “King of the Sliding Stepladder.” The man from the paper took a picture of him on the top rung leaning on one foot holding a paint can. He was scared spitless to do it, but Frank’s a smiler alright and also Hal made him.

Well, if Frank didn’t look like heaven shone out of his bottom on that cover. That’s a Spokane Saying! It means sweeter than sucking on a honeysuckle vine.

And believe you me, you have no idea what it takes to be helpful in this town. You learn to hold your tongue inside the city limits. Spokanites were voted the Rudest Small to Medium City in the Pacific Northwest, and not just by the National Parkers driving through from Portland. Those Electric Car People make Frank charge them up out back like he’s an Oregon gas station attendant. It boggles.

But you better believe they’ve never had a kinder, gentler hardware store clerk in Fra…