Air Warden

During the war my grandpa, mama's daddy, were what we called a air raid warden. He went out at night and made sure peoples had their lights out when they called for a blackout. I don't reckon them Nazis had Harper, Mississippi on their target list, but that didn't matter to grandpa. He taken his job real serious and wrote a whole bunch of citations for local folks. Made 'em mad too, but he didn't care. Sometime he would let me go with him and help him look out for any lights I could spot. One night we seen a light in a upstair window and it come up quick and went out fast. It were a man names Horace Havers lighting up a cigarette. Grandpa yelled up at him and told him he were writing him up and would leave the ticket on his front door. Havers come running down his stairs (we could hear him from outsides) and swinged open his door and was standing right in front of grandpa breathing right into his face. Grandpa didn't back up one bit. But Havers did. When he seen my grandpa meant business he decided he had better rethink his anger.
He just stood there with his cigarette in his mouth puffing away like nobody's business. Grandpa taken the cigarette from Haver's mouth and stomped out the fire with his boot. He told Haver's he ought not to be smoking them things anyway, air raid or not.