The Honorable Mayor Flint Ulysses “Ben Franklin” Jessup, III, was the third of his name and fifth in his family tree to rule the town of Julep. The Jessup family was one of the founding families of the town of Julep. They were old money and had been easily coasting on a fortune from agriculture machinery patents since the early days of the industrial revolution. As lore has it they came from a long line of master blacksmiths with each generation passing on their traditions to the next. The truth was, that because of their wealth, they never needed real jobs and learned to pass the time by lighting fires and banging on metal. “There ain’t a sweeter sound than steel under a hammer.”
Sadly, Mayor Jessup was the end of the line for his once sprawling family of natural born leaders. A genteel, yet eccentric fellow. He had never married. No children. No heirs. “There is no tender fruit of my loins to pass down my legacy of leadership and skills of blacksmithery...or the family scissors.” The Family Scissors were actually the only reason that the Jessup family ever came to be the mayoral family of Julep. When the first town municipal building was constructed and the forefathers came out to cut the ribbon they realized they had yet to elect a mayor to give the honor of the cutting. It happened that Theodore Augustus Jessup, Sr. showed up with an over-sized pair of shears he created for the occasion. “Y’all made the scissors, y’all get to cut the ribbon.” After that everyone just started calling him mayor and the rest was history. “The family blessing and curse.”
Eventually Julep started holding elections but the people of never challenged the incumbent. There was no reason to. The Mayor didn’t actually have any legal responsibilities or authority nor did he collect a salary. He had an office in City Hall but since his family had built the building and donated it to the people it was only fair. The only real thing the mayor did in an official capacity was cutting the ribbon every time a new business moved into the ol’ Willis building on Main Street or handing out Keys to the City when someone did something remarkable or was given the honor of Grand Marshall of the Julep Tulip Parade. “This cross is just so much for this old soul to carry...so heavy is the weight of my office.”
Mayor Jessup had a habit of staring at the family scissors, not unlike a fortune teller stares at a crystal ball or a mystic reads tea leaves. One afternoon as he “lost himself in the smooth steel.” It had dawned on him that his only purpose in life, other than banging on hot metal with a hammer, was cutting ribbons at the ol’ Willis Building. In the past six months the little blue building had housed Tim’s Wing Shop, Terry’s Hair House, The Cash Hut - Check Cashing, Inc., Mike’s TV and VCR Repair, Big Jim’s Wing Shack, Cash for Gold II, Big Mike’s Wing Shack, Loraine’s Luau, and Terry’s Wings and Pawn. “I realized that it was time to pass the torch...I won’t be around forever...but business will always be moving in and out of the economic curse and blessing, that is the ol’ Willis Building.”
The honorable Mayor verbally abdicated his throne and donated the Jessup Family Scissors to the youth leadership project at the high school. Everything was right with the world. Each and every kid that went through the program got to cut a ribbon when a new business opened at the the Willis Building. Flint Ulysses “Ben Franklin” Jessup, III enjoyed sitting in his blacksmith shop, banging on “hot, soft metal” all day. Then the elections came around again and the good people of Julep elected him back to office…Turns out the shop owners didn’t like kids opening their stores. They felt it was bad for business, so it was back to work Mayor Jessup...”Y’all made the scissors...y’all get to cut the ribbon”.