Boasting

It's kind of a hard thing to talk about yourself just the right amount. If a fellow goes on too long and with too much information it turns to boasting.

Yesterday, Samuel Barqueson came into the barbershop. He moved away from Harper about twenty years ago and was back visiting his mother. Horace McFarlowe made the mistake of asking what Sam, we used to call him Sam, was up to.

"Well, a lot," said Samuel. "Y'all probably know I was first in my class in law school so that got me a good position right off the bat. I was with the number one firm in Atlanta and it didn't take me too long to move up the ladder. I did the research that won one of the biggest cases the firm had (up to that date) and the partners were so impressed they gave me my own office. Within three years I was asked to be a partner, but I told them to wait a couple of years and let me get a little more experience. But within a year they insisted and so I made partner. As y'all know I have always been passionate in my political beliefs so when a committee came to me and asked me to run for state senate I couldn't turn them down. I won. I stayed in that body for several years in spite of several attempts to get me to run for governor. I just couldn't justify all that time and money when so many people in the state don't have a clue about what's going on. I have served the Chamber of Commerce, church committees, feed the hungry committees, flood support, hurricane support, and too many other committees to name."

He looked over at me and asked, "Harvey Lee, what have you been up to?"

"Nuthin'," I replied.

Tales of Harper, short stories and poems about the fictional town of Harper, Mississippi is available on Amazon Kindle