The Ears Have It

by John Passmore

The “ears” are the two little boxes stuck on the sides of the Mini. They are business card boxes and the idea came from America as so many do. It’s so unbelievably simple, I can’t imagine why nobody thought of it before (as they said about sliced bread and Sellotape).

The idea is that you fill them with business cards – there’s a little lid to keep the rain off and to stop them blowing away when you’re blowing down the motorway. But if somebody decides the Mini looks intriguing, it’s far more likely they will take a card than fumble for a pen and a piece of paper to write down the phone number.

I stuck them on the door panels on Saturday night ready for Gerry to borrow the car for a boot sale on Sunday morning.

The first time I used it after that was today to go to the Holiday Inn to sign up a new distributor. When I came out both the lids were open. Did this mean two people had taken cards? Or did someone secretly hope they would all blow away? Was this business card vandalism?

From there I drove to Felixstowe to see another distributor, a letting agent who has not been on training, clearly knows nothing but has still signed up three customers. Coming back from the Pay and Display Machine, I found a man removing a card from the passenger-side box.

Intriguingly, my first reaction was to challenge him – as if he was breaking into my car.

“Is there much work about?” he asked me.

“More than you can possibly imagine, “ I told him.

And by default, I was off on my quest for the six.

They came in here and there – a shop – another appeared from the internet. Two referrals answered the phone and listened politely. I’m sure there was another but I never made a note.

The point is that if the ears continue to do their stuff, I shall only need to find five a day.

Or do you think I should increase the target to seven?