Bush shops for flashlight at Dallas hardware store

Indepenedent:

How fast they fade. Poor George W Bush decided that an unannounced visit to a Dallas hardware shop at the weekend would be a fun way to emerge from a month of post-presidential purdah and make a splash with his new neighbours. But the greeter who met him inside, a pensioner named Henry Long, didn’t recognise him.

It could be that Mr Bush looks smaller in real life than he does on TV. That, at least, was the observation yesterday of Andrea Bond, the marketing director for Elliott’s Hardware, who was there the moment the 43rd President of the United States pushed open the door on Saturday and asked Mr Long where he might find a torch and batteries. It probably didn’t help that Mr Bush was dressed not in a suit but, says Ms Bond, “sweatpants and a windbreaker”.

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And maybe showing up like an “ordinary George” at Elliott’s was a smart move. Ms Bond insists that her staff had had no warning of the visit. “I heard my boss saying something about the Secret Service outside and I thought it was a joke. Then George Bush was coming in the door with a big smile on his face. He walked in the door and said he was looking for a job and laughed about it.”

This wasn’t an entirely spontaneous joke, however. It was a few weeks back when the owners of Elliott’s used an open letter to the former president offering him a job – in fact Mr Long’s job, as a greeter – in the Dallas newspapers as a fun way to promote itself. Someone on Mr Bush’s staff must have spotted it.

“We’re confident that your experience working in your own family business, as well as your people skills developed throughout years of meeting with foreign dignitaries would make you an excellent candidate for the position,” read the offer, signed by Kyle Walters, the president and chief executive of Elliott’s Hardware.

“Furthermore, like you, many of our greeters are retired from the corporate world, so we’re sure you’ll have no trouble making new friends.”

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Elliott's is one of those Dallas institutions. It is the type of hardware store that has almost everything and long time employees who know where to find it.

I am not sure why the Brits still use the primitive term "torch" for flashlights. I hope someone was able to show him the new LCD lights that have a white light and the batteries last for years because of the low power consumption.