One piece the Dept.
recommended we sell for $1,500 and take our loss we sold last
fall for $3,300. Another they thought should be sold for about
$3,000 brought $6,750 this January, cash in hand. Couldn't loan
the purchaser a cent. That was bad. We've made money on every
piece we took over, and have sold to date. And every property
paid more than its way as we went along. . .
I really should tell you about the oldest piece of real estate we
had on hands--at the extreme northeast edge of Russellville, east
of the Carter house. . . It consisted of five little lots, as
lonesome a five lots as you would want to see. Away back there,
20 or 25 years ago, Uncle Ernest loaned a fellow $300, and as a
precaution pure and simple took a mortgage on those five lots.
The fellow paid the loan down to $150 in drabs, got sick, moved
away, and eventually deeded the Bank the lots and called the loan
square. Time went on. No one thought much about those lots. Uncle
Ernest died. The panic came on, and every once in a while, Mr.
Boyd, our President, would suggest we sell "those lots up in the
east part of town." In the meantime he rented the grass here and
there. . .
About two years ago, Bill C-- got drunk one day and offered Mr.
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