The early issues of Electrical Wholesaling's predecessor, The
Jobber's Salesman, contained many humorous words of wisdom and
inspirational stories. Many of those stories' messages still
ring true today, 80 years later. Here's an excerpt from a 1920
issue:  Selling and advertising effort, when you are behind with
your orders, is a preparation - a prudence - for the period when
you are ahead with orders.  The other day a fish monger went
through the streets of a small New England town, blowing a horn
and between blasts yelling "Scup and scrod!" - two well known
kinds of fish in that part of the country.  A woman asked for
some scup.  "Haven't got any scup," said the fish monger.  "Then
what are you yelling `scup' for?"  "Why," replied the fish
monger, "I didn't want you to forget scup when I got scup!"