The Tompkins Times

PAGE 4 • ROCHELLE NEWS-LEADER
THURSDAY, JUNE 15, 2023
Big John Talking
ANYONE who knew John, knew he was a talker. When Trina was a kid she often didn’t know how to
explain her dad’s profession. Owning newspapers didn’t sound like something someone did at work
all day so she explained it like this: “My dad reads newspapers and talks on the phone all day!”
John had quite the vocabulary, often leaving us scurrying to the dictionary to figure out exactly what he meant
with “that” word. Here are a few words we’ve now added to our vocabulary. Maybe you will too (feel free to
look them up at your own leisure):
Fastidious
Feckless
Superfluous
Machinations
Capricious
Capitulate
Histrionic
Sycophant
Sardonic
Schnick (ok, we will define this one as it was a made up word, he
liked those too).
[Shh-nik]: noun
A small bite or taste of someone else’s food. Often asked for
when you didn’t order food that you really wanted, but pretended
you didn’t. i.e. “Can I have a schnick of your cheeseburger?”
JOHN was also famous for one liners and idioms. We often
heard him say, “In our company we have a saying . . . .”
“No decision is a decision”
“Numbers don’t lie”
“Cash is King”
“Tompkins don’t do that”
“I’ve had enough now”
“In our company we have a saying”
“I don’t do guilt”
“Leaders are readers”
“Make me”
“I don’t make decisions with a
gun to my head”
“Don’t tell me what to do”
“Fish is brain food” (he was
way ahead of the times on this!)
“Maintain low tones” (quoted
from The Coneheads movie)
“Ya think?”
“People Don’t Change”
And when he was ready to be done talking he had always had a canny way to end
the conversation. Trina recalls hearing him ending a phone conversation like this:
“Let me, let you, let me go now.”
We wish we didn’t have to let you go now, Dad. You left too soon.
But your larger than life presence will live on in your family and “business family.”
~ John C. Tompkins ~