If you need a pick-me-up about the inherent goodness of humans...

I’ve been searching for a couple of weeks for large springs—like the kind used in old mattresses—for Boone’s science fair project. He’s building spring shoes and is going to test his friends’ jump height to see if they increase it or not. (I know cockeyed.com did this back in 2002, but I don’t care. Neither does Boone.)

So, I’ve tried hardware stores, auto supply stores, my buddy who makes props—everywhere. No large springs. Finally, I learn they’re called upholstery springs and there’s ONE upholstery supply place in our entire valley.

Their storefront is basically a loading dock, so I go in and told the warehouse manager guy I need four upholstery springs. He showed me some samples and they’re perfect. I’m not done with the story yet, but here’s a pic of them…

He asked why I only need four because they come in packs of 100 and I told him about Boone’s science experiment. He joked about how Nike’s going to want to buy the concept from Boone. Then, I asked how much they were, assuming he was going to say, y’know, $500 for the lot of 100 or whatever (not that buying 100 was an option, I just needed to know where to start my plea to just sell me four).

Then, he handed me the four samples and said, “For science.”

Awesome, right? I thanked him a bunch of times and as I was leaving he said, “If he gets that Nike contract, you guys come to me as your spring distributor.”