Shotgun, Mississippi

I reckon there has always been stories going around that were not true, but that a lot of people took stock in. One that was real big when I was a boy was about this town between Harper and the Mississippi River called Shotgun. It wasn't true. But for a young boy it was just the thing to give that little element of fear that young boys enjoy so much.

Story was that this family, the Perdoodles, lived in an area known as Perdoodle Hollow. They were truly non-prejudiced folks in that they hated everybody that wasn't a Perdoodle equally. A traveling salesman made the mistake of trying to enter their little settlement with the idea of getting everyone there to sign up for burial insurance. He walked into Perdoodle Merchantile and found a whole bunch of the family sitting around a potbellied stove sipping some liquid from jugs and chewing and spitting up a storm. Old man Perdoodle gave his boys a wink that was his signal for giving the fellow enough rope to hang himself. The little salesman gave them his best spiel and figured from their enthusiasm he had a bunch of new business. He had everything settled, he thought, except the written contract.

"What name to do you want on this policy?" he asked.

"What's your name, boy?" said old man Perdoodle. "Put your name on it."

"But it ain't for me, sir."

"Well, I figure you the only one in this room what's gonna need buryin'"

The salesman hurried to his car and made it out of Perdoodle Hollow safe in body, but a little shook up in spirit. He described to others the big salute to his departure in the form of shotgun blasts and cussing. And after that Perdoodle Hollow was know as Shotgun. But don't get out your maps, you won't find it.

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