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What do Jack Case and Boss Hogg have in common? (05/11/2006)

By D. Ray Smith — Mike Bradshaw, Wackenhut retiree and long-time Y 12 employee, shares a humorous Jack Case story.

For many years in the 1970’s and 1980’s, there was a quarterly requirement for representatives from Y 12, along with all other Weapons Complex contractors, to travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to review production status, and cost and budget.

On one trip, Case accompanied Bradshaw and Bill Thompson. He gave them $100 to buy him a white cowboy hat, telling them the required size. The two of them searched Albuquerque's western clothing stores. They found many cowboy hats, many of them white, but they were having a tough time finding one large enough for Case’s specified size.

Finally, they found a specialty western clothing store that carried extra large clothing and hats. They hurriedly purchased the largest hat in the store, which happened to be the exact size Case had specified. It was a huge white Stetson with the crease running down the middle of the crown and the brim curved just right. (Roy Rogers, Gene Autry or Hopalong Cassidy would have been proud to be seen in this hat.)
Bradshaw and Thompson even got a box for the hat. However, the box was so large that it would not fit into a suitcase, so they hand-carried it to the airport.

Case was elated with the excellent choice Bradshaw and Thompson had made, and the hat fit just right. He took it in the box through the airport ticket lines and gates, taking care to keep it with him at all times. The trouble began when he tried to fit the huge hat box anywhere in the airplane cabin. He had refused to check it at the ticket counter or when the stewardess tried to help stow it for the trip, afraid something would happen to it. It would not fit in the overhead carry-on luggage bin and would not go beneath the seat. After trying everything he could think of, Case found the solution — he would wear the hat. So, he discarded the box and put the hat on his head.

There was no missing him; the huge hat shone for all to see. Those of you who recall Case’s appearance will not be surprised that when wearing that huge white Stetson he looked a bit like “Boss Hogg,” the television character on the Dukes of Hazard. More than one person on the flight asked the attendants whether the person in the white cowboy hat was Boss Hogg.

Bradshaw and Thompson got a huge kick out of the spectacle of their boss being oblivious to the questions being asked about him and only being concerned with getting his prize cowboy hat home without any damage.
If you have a Jack Case story, please email it to me at smithdr@y12.doe.gov, or call me at 576 7781.

 

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