(Editor's note: The following column appeared originally in the Sunday, Dec. 14, 1997, and Sunday, Jan. 4, 1998, editions of the Herald Democrat. It has been edited for this new publication.)

We left Big Mac (C.J. McManus) tangled in barbed wire on the beach at Guadalcanal with Japanese planes strafing the beach and bullets hitting all around him. At that moment his future didn't look bright.

Who can say what went through his mind? Possibly he prayed, as he was a practicing Baptist. Maybe his entire life flashed before his mind's eye. I have heard of this happening to some people in time of great crisis. More likely Big Mac was so furiously involved in getting himself disentangled from the barbed wire and finding cover that his mind wouldn't accommodate any other thoughts.

Luckily none of the bullets had his name written on them and the missiles with "To whom it may concern" on them didn't find him. Big Mac told the rest of it in a nutshell:

"After our Seabees outfit left Guadalcanal we were in New Guinea and all over the South Pacific. I was in the supply corps, handling different kinds of supplies. The Seabees built airstrips, docks -- you name it, we did it. Bob Wilson was in the payroll section. We got to be real close friends. We agreed that when we both got out we would get together.

"I got out of the service Nov. 14, 1945, after three years and one month. Bob Wilson got out in early January, 1946. I had already got things started toward reopening the store. We reopened Dad & Lad's March 23, 1946, at 312 W. Main Street in Denison. This was on the south side of Main, just across from our former location at 313 on the north side of Main.

"We had to buy out a store to get a location. It was a shoe store. I bought it and closed it out. I had most everything ready by the time Bob was discharged. I could get an allotment of clothing from the different manufacturers because I was in business when the war started.

"I had an allotment of topcoats and we weren't going to open till March. Normally you couldn't sell a topcoat in March in Texas. We worked till 5 o'clock on the morning of March 23rd in order to get open.

"We sold practically out of merchandise the first day we opened. We had suits, white shirts and other items people couldn't get. We put just the regular price on the merchandise and they cleaned us out. A lot of stores were getting just ungodly prices for clothing then. In two weeks I was going to California and any other place I could find merchandise.

"It was one of the biggest days we ever had. We sold all those topcoats, and normally you couldn't give one away in March.

"Bob Wilson and I were partners and remained partners until we both retired. We are still the very best of friends."

*

After returning from the war in 1945, Big Mac wanted to go on the road, selling to retailers. He applied for a job with Curlee Clothing Company, his number one choice, but his application was turned down due to his lack of experience selling on the road.

Determined to get experience on the road, he applied for a job with International Shoe Co., was hired, and by the end of the second year he was its number one salesman west of the Mississippi. He received a call from Curlee Clothing Co., asking him to come to the corporate office in St. Louis. Now let him tell it in his own words:

"I went on to St. Louis and I got the job. The other salesmen were already out in their territories. They made two trips. They came in in February and started out with topcoats, sports coats and slacks, and they made about a six-weeks trip. Then they came back and picked up the other part of their clothing line, suits, and continued on.

"My territory was North Texas -- Fort Worth, Dallas, then skipping Houston, over to Beaumont and up to Texarkana. I had a very small territory for a clothing firm. The company had 35 salesmen and that territory had dropped to 32nd place, nearly at the bottom.

"They used to rate you by army terminology: 'Big Chief' was the top man in sales; then came two generals, four colonels, four captains, four lieutenants, four sergeants, and the rest were privates. That's what you rank or status was.

"When you started out with them you were a 'volunteer.' That's what they called me, a volunteer.

"The seven top salesmen were 'board advisors.' If you were in the top seven you were on the board of advisors, which was made up of the Big Chief, two generals and four colonels. Then the top gainer in sales percentage-wise for the year became an advisory board member.

"You made two trips a year covering your territory. On my second trip I made advisory board member, as the top gainer. The advisory board met with the president and other officers of the company.

"It took me four years to become Curlee Clothing Co.'s top salesman -- Big Chief. I stayed there 14 years as Big Chief, except for one year when another salesman beat me out and I went back to being a general during that year."

"In 1970 I retired from the company at age 55."

R.C. VAUGHAN of Sherman is a retired senior District Judge.