john amato

for the uninformed, i made the trip to columbus again to peddle some shirts. andrew weiser, of toledo toboggan fame, made the trip to help me out. we went straight to cousin jeff’s to unload our inventory. cousin kate waited up just to see us. my suspicion that she still doesn’t like me was confirmed when she was immediately more excited to see andrew than me. she eventually opened up and showed us her scary halloween costume.

friday night we met up with focker in downtown columbus. it was a fantastic bar with plenty of meatheads - one that i was pretty sure was going to throw his fist through my face for “f-ing” with him and there was nothing i could have done about it. the specialty at the bar was dollar shots. focker made sure to order 20 at a time. always a good plan. later in the night special guest appearances were made by doug logsdon and noah schwind. noah schwind! the kid is amazing. and if memory serves me correctly, he used to make bets with my dad that michigan would beat ND. the traitor.

with the game starting at 3:30 on saturday we were allowed to sleep in a bit. lucky for me i was the only amato missing out on the ND vs. USC game and the ones going thought it would be fun to call at 5 am. guess that’s what i deserve for not joining the fun.

sales started slow during the early going, but picked up when our good friend sanford tatum showed up. sanman, cousin of art tatum (or not), bought the first shirt of the day and quickly gave it away in exchange for some chicks phone number. this must be a pretty amazing shirt if she was willing to give her phone number to a man without teeth. aside from scaring away most of our customers, sanford also came through with some other great moments. when asked what all of his keys were for, he responded “locks!”. then andrew asked if one was for his car. “no i don’t have a car. it’s around the corned. aaahhh!” repeatedly he dispensed advice that everyone should hear, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” i’m sure knowing him will pay off some day soon. can’t wait to see him again in two weekends.

sales went well. we had so many shirts packed in the black pearl, focker barely fit in the morning. at the end of the day we sold roughly 129 shirts. not a bad days work. i think nathan sites’ sales pitch is what did it for us. he wandered the streets with the stick letting everyone know that the OSU sweater vest t-shirt would save them money in laundry costs. he proudly proclaimed himself to be the “braveheart of laundry” and that everyone could follow him to laundry freedom.

we’ll be back for the wisconsin game on november 3. who’s going to join us in all of the fun? i’m thinking little boy.