RUSH: Here’s Robert in Norfolk, Virginia, on Open Line Friday. Welcome, sir, great to have you.
CALLER: Hey, old friend. I was calling to brag on one of your advertisers. My mother’s 85, she lives in Wichita Falls, Texas, and I ordered those flowers on your flower program for Mother’s Day, and I gotta tell you the truth. I ordered ’em so they’d get there early because she’s old, and I e-mailed her to see if she received a package from me. She said, “No.” So I said, “Mom, I’m gonna call you back in two minutes.” So I called 1-800-FLOWERS program, and I said, “My mom’s expecting something. She said she didn’t receive ’em.” And they said, “They’re on the front door step.” So I call Mom back, she’s 85. I said, “Mom, when’s the last time you went to your front door?” And she said, “I never go to my front door.” She’s in a big old house, widow. So she goes to the front door, she says, “There’s two big boxes here, Bobby.” I said, “Mom, don’t bend down and pick them up. You’re gonna fall down.” So she kicks ’em in. I talked to Mom yesterday. Those flowers are still going. I doubled the order, mentioned your name. It’s not a setup call, America. I mean, it was a good day. It was a good day.
RUSH: That’s absolutely phenomenal.
CALLER: It was a good day. And when I had e-mailed ’em, my computer blew out that day, the thing is totally shot, but, I mean, they followed up. And then, about four hours later they called to see, “Did she not get ’em at the front door?” I told them the story anyway, and I talked to Mom today, and I talk to her almost every day, and she says those flowers are still going. She’s thinned ’em down to about 18 out of the two dozen. I doubled it, like I said. And she said they’re gorgeous. All her friends are jealous.
RUSH: Where does your mother live?
CALLER: Wichita Falls, Texas.
RUSH: Wichita Falls, Texas.
CALLER: Sheppard Air Force Base. My old man is — well, he passed. He was an old Phantom pilot. But she lives out there in Wichita Falls, Texas. That’s up north by the Oklahoma border. She’s got a tornado shelter. (laughing)
RUSH: How old is your mom?
CALLER: 85.
RUSH: 85.
CALLER: And, like I said, she didn’t get the e-mail. I didn’t know my computer had blown out. But, God bless her, you know, I mean, she loved that. I said, “Mom, I got ’em off the Rush Limbaugh Show.” She said, “I listen to him all the time. All my girlfriends like him.”
RUSH: (laughing) Part of blue-haired bloody Mary gang like my mom.
CALLER: I’m telling you, she’s arthritic blue-haired bloody Mary. She’s still driving her own car. She’s talking about going into another home, but, you know what, that was good thing. That corporation is exactly what it says.
RUSH: Well, you know, they’re the first, 1-800-FLOWERS is the first. They started, they owned a couple flower shops.
CALLER: Hm-hm.
RUSH: And they pioneered the entire overnight delivery of flowers concept. And, in conjunction with their flower shops, in many cases grow their own and come up with their own unique bouquets. And they really are great people. They’ve also got a company called the Popcorn Factory. And they make more flavors and concoctions of popcorn than you can possibly imagine.
CALLER: I’ll be darned. I’ll be darned.
RUSH: And it’s delicious. I think that’s out of Chicago.
CALLER: I’ll be darned. Well, you know, the thing is, they did exactly what they said, and when they called me back, they said, “Didn’t she know?” I said, “Nah, I couldn’t get through to her with the e-mail, she loves her e-mail,” but I said, “Mom, do not bend down.” She said, “There are two boxes out here, Bobby.” And I said, “Mom, push ’em in somehow or get my brother over.” I got eight brothers and sisters. I said the last thing they need to do is find you out there on the sidewalk and blame me for sending you flowers.
RUSH: Well, that’s great. I can’t thank you enough for that. Did you say your dad flew Phantoms? Did you mean the McDonnell Douglas F-4.
CALLER: My dad flew F-86s, P-51s.
RUSH: My dad flew P-51s.
CALLER: My dad flew in Joe Foss and the South Dakota Air National Guard. He was his left wingman.
RUSH: No kidding.
CALLER: And my family’s from South Dakota. I was born there. I never really lived there, but he was a P-51 pilot in the South Dakota Air National Guard, P-51s. I didn’t know your old man flew.
RUSH: China Burma.
CALLER: I’ll be darned. When I was a young man I met General Claire Chennault. That was back a long time ago.
RUSH: I can’t thank you enough. I appreciate that and the people at 1-800-FLOWERS are going to adore hearing the story. We go to the great lengths to make sure that sponsors here who claim certain levels of customer service actually can pull it off. I don’t want to give away our techniques in determining this stuff, but we do it. We create scenarios, like yours, and we try it. If they’re gonna claim it we want to know that it happens, and it’s fabulous news.
Now, folks, for those of you who may not know what an F-4 Phantom is. If you happen to see the movie The Right Stuff, there’s a scene near the end of the movie where the actor playing Chuck Yeager steals an F-4, commandeers an F-4 and Yeager is just dying to go into space and he missed it by virtue of age. So he gets in that F-4, and, the incident didn’t really happen the way it’s portrayed. He didn’t illegally commandeer an F-4 and take off in violation of control tower authority and so forth.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All right, now I’m being told that I got it wrong. It was not an F-4 Phantom in the movie The Right Stuff. It was an F-104 Starfighter. And I coulda sworn, I coulda sworn it was an F-4. I could have sworn I heard Yeager talking about that scene in the movie, claiming, “I didn’t steal an F-4.” I coulda sworn he said F-4. But now I’m being told here it was an F-104, a Lockheed, as opposed to McDonnell Douglas. Sorry for the confusion.