Alright, let me walk you through this whole Buddy Leroux thing I stumbled upon.
It wasn’t exactly planned, you know? I was digging through some old boxes my folks had left, mostly junk, but then I found this dusty old photo album. Tucked in the back, behind a picture of who-knows-who from the 70s, was this small, faded business card. Just said ‘Buddy Leroux – Fixes Things’. No number, no address, nothing else.
Curiosity got the better of me. Who was this guy? Buddy Leroux. Sounds like a character from an old movie. So, I started asking around. First, I asked my dad. He vaguely remembered someone neighbours mentioned maybe fixing a lawnmower once, years ago, possibly named Buddy? Not much help there.
Hitting the digital pavement
Next step, obviously, was the internet. I punched ‘Buddy Leroux’ into the search bar. Expected maybe an old local news article, an obituary, something. What I got was… well, a bit of everything and nothing specific. Lots of people named Buddy or Leroux, but no clear ‘Fixes Things’ guy matching the timeframe or the likely location.
- Searched local town history sites.
- Tried genealogy forums.
- Even scrolled through ancient-looking online yellow page archives.
It felt like chasing a ghost. I spent a couple of evenings just clicking, reading snippets here and there. Found a Buddy Leroux who was apparently a minor league baseball player in the 50s. Close, but probably not my ‘Fixes Things’ guy. Found another referenced in some old town council minutes from decades back, but the context was unclear.
Then I thought, maybe the card was a clue itself. The paper felt old, thick. The printing was simple, raised ink. Definitely not something made recently. It felt like something from the 60s or 70s, maybe even earlier.
So, I changed tactics. Instead of searching for Buddy Leroux, I started thinking about what ‘Fixes Things’ meant back then. Not computers or smartphones, obviously. More like appliances, maybe radios, furniture? Handyman stuff.
I started looking through old local newspaper classifieds online, the ones they’ve digitized. Tedious work, let me tell you. Just scanning page after page of tiny print ads for plumbers, electricians, roofers.
A tiny breakthrough, maybe?
After what felt like forever, I found a tiny ad in a digital copy of the local paper from 1978. It just said ‘Things broken? Call Buddy L. Reliable service.’ No last name, just ‘Buddy L.’ Could that be him? Leroux starts with L. It was the closest I got.
But there was no phone number listed in the digital copy I saw! Maybe it was smudged on the original paper, or the scan was bad. Dead end again.
So, what did I achieve? Well, not much in terms of finding the actual Buddy Leroux. He remains a bit of a mystery man from that old business card. But the process itself, the digging around, the little puzzle pieces… it was kind of fun in its own way. It’s like time travelling a bit, seeing those old ads and names.
In the end, I put the card back in the album. Maybe Buddy Leroux was just some guy who helped people out, never made a big name for himself, but left behind this one little card I happened to find. It’s a reminder, I guess, that there are stories everywhere, even on a faded piece of cardboard.
