Passing the Buck

Me and Dorothy get along pretty good, but ever now and then we have a little spat. Yesterday we had one that ended with both of us accusing the other of passing the buck. I'll tell you more about the spat later. This old saying of passing the buck got me to wondering where that term came from so, as I usually do, I went down to the library where I volunteer and looked it up.
Seems passing the buck comes from poker. Back in the old West when poker was played they used a procedure of passing the deal around to avoid cheating. The next person in line was given a marker to remind everyone who was the next dealer. The marker was usually a knife and knives back then often had a handle made of buckhorn. Thus the term passing the buck.

Back to me and Dorothy. About a week ago she was at the beauty parlor when her friend, Sue Sue Smith, came by and left a little package. She told me to put it in the freezer. I had no idea what it was and figured she had told Dorothy she was dropping it by. This morning Dorothy went over to her house to get it. It turned out to be some kind of gluten-free, sugar-free bread that is supposed to be real good. When Dorothy got home she was miffed at me for not telling her Sue Sue had come by. I told Dorothy she and Sue Sue should communicate better and Dorothy told me I should communicate better with her. I said, "Dorothy, don't you think this is one of those argument that ain't gonna ever get to a conclusion. In the process we gonna pass the buck back and forth so much that George Washington's picture is gonna be worn off." She said that wasn't the kind of buck that was meant in that saying and suggested I look it up. I did. It gave me new information and gave Dorothy a little time with me out of the house.

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

Harper's Population Problem

Yesterday I told y'all about our new traffic light. I kinda feel like that light is a harbinger of problems to come. Our population. For years things worked out well and the number of people living in Harper was pretty much constant. Our kids got the benefit of being raised in a small tight community, going off to college, and then finding meaningful employment in a larger town. A few stayed and raised their children here. And we had new people moving in to get away from big city life. So for years we stayed right around the 2000 mark. That all changed with Hurricane Katrina. Some people moved up from New Orleans temporarily until things stabilized down there. But some stayed. I noticed five cars stopped waiting for the red light to change and realized we were on a downward spiral in terms of quality of life. Down at the barbershop today Hilburn Hawkside summed it up.  Hilburn is the fellow that keeps up with the animal population for the county. He said, "I don't know if you guys realize it, but we are approaching a time when people will outnumber chickens here in Harper. And that's bad, folks. That's real bad."

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

Red Light

Harper is getting too big. Yesterday they installed a traffic light at the intersection of Harper Lake Drive and East-West Street. It's our first. People around here call it the red light and I reckon that's a good name since its importance is much more significant when it is on red than yellow or green. The consequence of continuing what you were doing and where you were going is greatly increased with you see red. However calling it a red light has its drawbacks when giving directions. A real smart fellow who takes things literally might have a problem finding his way if he's looking for a red light and it's green when he comes upon it.
Tomorrow: Harper's Population Problem

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

The Secret Agent, a Simple Tale (Hollis)

The Secret Agent, a Simple Tale by Joseph Conrad
Greenwich Observatory bombing attempt - secret agent Verloc - wife Winnie - simple brother-in-law - professor (bomb maker) - Comrade Ossipon - Chief Inspector Heat - assistant commissioner - premature explosion - shovel - coat scrap with address - stabbing - fear of gallows - escape across channel - suicide - uncertain future for terrorism in early 20th century

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

Senior Day at the Harper Pool

Every Wednesday is senior day at the community pool. That's the same day that Harper merchants give a 10% discount to people over sixty-five, so the turnout downtown is substantial. The pool committee decided it would be a good idea to try to get all the older folks to swim on the same day after a youngster tripped over a walker left poolside causing a domino effect with several other walkers. I, of course, qualify to go to the pool on Wednesday because I'm eighty-one years old but I get a little feeling of nausea when I see the condition of some of our people; people who have not taken good care of themselves. That's the main reason I built my own pool. Dorothy and I swim almost every day; rain or shine, hot weather or cold. Unlike the Harper Town Pool our's in not cluttered around the edge with walkers, crutches, wheel chairs, artificial limbs, and back and neck braces. Last week there was quite a disturbance down there. Carlos Quintbalm left his heart monitor on the side and it was drenched with a tsunami size wave when Mertis Mercher, who was trying for a smooth-entry dive, hit the water with what we used to call a belly flop. Apparently, the medics down at the Harper Hospital received a signal and mistook the water attack for a heart attack. The ambulance arrived in twelve minutes. Panic swept through the swimmers with several of them certain they were the one that was being called for. Five people were admitted to the E. R. All were released in time to get home for supper. Got me to thinking that the fifty-thousand I paid out for my pool was well spent indeed.

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

Duplex

We ain't got but one duplex in Harper. It was built back in the 1960's by this fellow Fitzbanks (I forget his first name) and his wife Merijoan. He was a painter. For a while this couple from Coffeeville, Kansas lived in one side and the Fitzbanks lived in the other. Later on when the Kansas folks moved to Memphis their side stayed empty for a few years until the oldest Fitzbanks boy, Bartholomew, got married. Then he and his wife, Sufrancis, moved in right next to his parents. I reckon they got on okay 'cause I never heard any rumblings about their situation. Anyway, I was driving by the duplex today and noticed they had begun painting the right side again. They change the color every couple of years sort of as an advertisement for their painting business. This time it looks like it's gonna be blue. The left side is left unpainted and in the front yard they have a "BEFORE" sign on the left and an "AFTER" sign on the right. I reckon they know how to market their business 'cause they have painted almost every house and building in Harper at least once. One thing they do for the community is donate their time to paint at least one of the building downtown every year. The merchant or owner buys the paint, wholesale, and they do the painting for free. I will say they play their part in keeping Harper looking spiffy. You can read more about the Fitzbanks if you go back to the story that begins with "Lures" and goes through "The Jury's Still Out."

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

Dorothy's Fishing Rules

When it comes to fishing Dorothy doesn't get in my way too much. I can go when I want to and come home only when I've caught enough to satisfy my wants. But there is one rule and it's hard and fast. I can only bring home the part of the fish that we are going to eat. That means cleaning and processing right on the lake. So I got me a cleaning station. My camera is not working too good so I just pulled a sample of what my dockside table looks like. I have actually hooked up a garden hose to mine and have a little rooftop for shade, but you can get the idea. When I walk in the door with my fish they are ready to hit the skillet, grill or oven. Before I married Dorothy and was living down by the lake in my little cabin I brought everything home and prepared it there. I will say when somebody walked in to my little place they had no doubt it was a fishing cabin. Dorothy wasn't going to have any part of that.

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

Sometimes Euphemisms Are Good

I ain't much on sugar-coating things. We may do too much of that, like calling a terrorist a militant and things like that. But I think dentists should consider using euphemisms for their tools and procedures. When you are sitting in the chair fully awake and they ask for their tools it can come close to causing a panic. They need burs, drills, scalers, dams, retractors; to name a few. We got this old dentist who has figured that out. He has a name for each of his instruments. A bur is a Ben, a drill is a David, scaler is Sam, etc. He started all this when a man named Squimey Wallace jumped out of the chair and ran all the way home leaving his car in the parking lot. When he got home, all pale and out of breath, his wife asked what was wrong. Squimey said, "I just went in to get a cavity fixed up not to have the Panama Canal dug out in my mouth."

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

What's In a Name

I see they're putting up quite a row about what the name of the new royal prince is going to be. People are placing bets and they have odds charts just like they do for football and such. From what I have seen you have a much better chance of winning a bet in England than you would over here. I know we have a lot of people with double names like Tom Bob and Susan Faye, but over there they have five or six names like: James George St. John William Henry Thomas Geoffrey or Victoria Elizabeth Anne Diana Grace. Another advantage is the fact that the list of possibilities is much shorter over there. It's not like here where a baby could be named just about anything. We had a kid born last week at Harper Hospital named Treetrunk. The daddy said it had something to do with the place where he had proposed to the mother. Glad it wasn't down at the sinkhole or gravel pit. Anyway around here we must have thousands of names and in addition almost everyone has a nickname. When we go to an event and have to fill out a name tag we have to decide what name we are going to use. For church or school events it is good manners to use the name on your birth certificate. This causes confusion because a lot of people don't know you by that name. They see William on your tag and look up to see Stinky standing before them.

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

Breaking Through the Smile Barrier

Last night Dorothy made what she calls Creme Brulee. She let me use my littlest blowtorch to make the top work like the top on Creme Brulee is supposed to work. You know before you eat it you got to break through the top crust by tapping it with your spoon. It got me to thinking about this old woman that use to live in Harper who never smiled. At least not until she got her smile barrier broke. For years this old woman whose name was Hattie Pearl Grey walked around with a sour look on her face. I told my mamma I thought this old crone was the meanest woman in the world. My mamma told me I should not make fun of her because she probably was born without the muscles in her face necessary to produce the upward movement of a smile. For years I believed this. Then one day her husband was out mowing the yard when all hell broke loose. He ran over a yellow jacket nest in the ground in an area that he had not mowed over in years. The yellow jackets were real upset about this and started to take their revenge on old man Grey. His wife was sitting on the porch pealing figs. She stood when she saw him swatting and trying to make a get-away. He ran as fast as his old legs could carry him and ended up by jumping on Harper Lake, only a few feet from where he left the lawn mover. That's what caused the muscles in his wife's face to crack loose. When she told the story later she claimed it wasn't just a smile that presented itself, it was an outright grin. Somebody said they didn't understand how she could laugh when her husband was in such danger. Old lady Grey said, "There warn't no real danger. That boy can swim real good. Besides don't go judging me. I daresay if you had been there you would have laughed too at them skinny legs churning their way down to the water." And Hattie Pearl was a big smiler after that. The story goes that when she died the undertaker has to do considerable work to keep her smile from being too big; not to scare the viewers, doncha know?

Car Hood Boat

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

Yesterday I was out at the old Hassle farm out on County Road 6. The Bogue Chitto River runs right through the farm and sometimes we go out there for boat rides. At least we used to. Hank Hassle, the current owner, took me down to a place on the river bank and showed me the remains of an old boat I helped build several years ago. His daddy came up to my welding shop one day with two old Ford car hoods on the back of his truck and asked me to weld them together. The old boat was pretty well rusted out, from neglect I guess, but just seeing it brought back memories of me and Bethel, my first wife, and our kids riding up and down that little river.

Buying a Mercedes

Old Nelson Halferson, the farmer I was talking about yesterday, decided he wanted a Mercedes Benz. It all came from his penny pinching mindset. I suspect he had rationalized himself into a position where he thought a pretty new MB would last him for the rest of his life and save him a lot of money since it was a diesel and was supposed to get over forty miles to the gallon. So, Nelson took off to New Orleans on the train. He took of to New Orleans but he didn't take off his overalls and showed up at the MB dealership looking like he just set down the plow and hit the road. There were about ten shiny cars in the showroom and old Nelson looked them all over. He was completely ignored by the spiffy salesmen until, as a kinda joke, one of the older, more seasoned guys sent a young fellow over to help the wandering farmer. It was the young guy's first week and he was enthusiastic enough to jump at any opportunity. The sale was easy.

Nelson said, "I'll take that one and that one."

The youngster was stunned. All he could say was, "Will that be paid with a check or credit card." Nelson replied, "Ain't got no bank account. Ain't carrying no credit cards. It'll have to be cash or nothing." Then he pulled out a roll of hundred dollar bills big enough to choke an elephant.

The young man called one of the older guys over 'cause he had not been given cash sale instructions.
The older guy saw the roll of money and said, "I'll take over here. You go check out that woman who just walked in."

Nelson looked him in the eye and said, "Like hell you will. You left me standing here for almost an hour. Now move on along and let me settle things up with this nice young man."

"But but but," said the salesman.

"Move on now," said Nelson. When the spiffy guy was gone Nelson winked at the young man and said, "I hope you get paid on commission."

"Yes, sir. Thank you sir."

"Thank you," said Nelson. Then he went to the manager and arranged for the young boy to drive one of the cars back to Harper. When they arrived he got his wife, Effie Halferson, to fix a big midday meal for them, gave the boy two crisp one-hundred dollar bills and sent him back to New Orleans with a smile on his face.

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

Bankrupt

I saw on the news yesterday where this US city went bankrupt. A whole city. I have only known one person who went bankrupt. He was a little man who ran a news stand in Harper for a few years. He was thought of as being very successful. He had a young, beautiful wife, always drove a new Cadillac, lived in a big house with lots of hired help, and flashed a rolls of bills (always with a hundred dollar bill on top.) One day all this was gone. We found out he owed thousands of dollars and had nothing in the bank. Most people around here don't live like that. One rule my daddy always stressed: Live beneath your means. If I heard him say that once I heard him say it a million times. One funny example of this is this old farmer, Nelson Halferson. To look at him you'd have thought he was poor as a church mouse. But that wasn't the case. He didn't spend money, didn't have to. He was pretty much self-sufficient and raised all his own food. Tomorrow I'll tell you a little story about him finally deciding to get a new car.

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

Learning to Swim

I saw this thing on TV about teaching babies how to swim. They kinda threw them in and let them fend for themselves. Of course, the parents were standing by so there wasn't any real danger there. When we were kids we had to learn on our own. I only knew one kid whose daddy threw him in the lake and made him swim out. This particular daddy was one that mistreated all the family members and one day he just disappeared. Nobody ever knew what happened, but a lot of folks suspected the daddy of his wife, who was known for taking the law in his own hands in several situations. But that's not what I want to talk about. Back in those days there wasn't a swimming pool within a hundred miles of Harper. We went to swimming holes. I can name about twenty such places in our county. We had Harper Lake but it sat still and the water tended to be warmer than we liked on a hot summer day. My favorite swimming hole, the one where I learned to swim, was called Passion Pool. Apparently it was used for swimming and picnics during the daylight and for something else after dark. Peer pressure was what taught me how to swim. When my friends could swim across (about twenty feet) I felt it necessary to do the same thing. I don't know how close I came to drowning, but I must have gone under at least ten times before I got the rhythm necessary to swim the rest of the way. Then I had to swim back. I don't think I went under but five times on that trip. Keeping face is a powerful thing. Some people would rather die than lose that battle. I reckon I was one of them.

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

Pennies From Blevin

Now we got it figured out. It seems every time Carlox Blevin went to the bank he got twenty rolls of pennies. They, the ones at the bank, always wondered what he was up to. Carlox was as unique as his name so people just kept on wondering and no one came out and asked him what was going on. It all  started when Birdniece Blevin, Carlox's wife, walked out one Saturday night, hired a fancy lawyer, and began divorce proceedings against her husband. Carlox obtained W. D. Fourney, attorney-at-law, to represent him and to look out for his interests. Birdniece had the better lawyers and they took Carlox to the cleaners. The wife got the car, the house, all the furnishings, the books, records; everything. Carlox was left with an old piece of truck that required tweaking on a daily basis just to get it cranked. And a bill  from W. D. for $1000.00. For a year Carlox protested the amount on the grounds he lost everything as a result of W. D.'s negligence. His lawyer would not relent. So Carlox began collecting pennies and last Friday afternoon he grabbed a wheelbarrow, took all the pennies from their wrappers, and headed out to the lawyer's office where he dumped them all on the floor in front of the receptionist's desk. He claims it was $1000.00 but I figured it would take 1000 rolls and more than one wheelbarrow trip to handle the deal. I know one thing, I'm not going to think any harder on it than that.

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

Flat Tire Story

J. F. Billipool, has lived in Harper all his life, over seventy years, and is known around here for telling long stories. When I say long stories I mean War and Peace long tales. Yesterday he was in the cafe and was telling about the flat tire he had on the way in that morning. He started out by telling us what he had for breakfast, how his wife had given him a long list of things to do, and how he left home in his pickup which he described completely including the story of how he decided to buy it over a pretty red sedan. Then he described the weather, the condition of the roads, and a little quiver he felt in his stomach probably from the spicy sausage he ate earlier. He had passed Jerome Williwag, an old farmer, who was standing out by the road waiting for his daughter to pick him up and take him to the doctor. J. F. had stopped to talk a spell and proceeded to tell us about the condition of Jerome as it had been related to him. When he left and was driving along, he came across a board with a nail sticking out of it. He tried to miss the board but failed. His description of his attempt to miss the board took about a thousand words; swerving, reeling, sliding. Then he described the nail, where it had possibly come from, how it got to be in the road, the negligence of the driver who left it there, and the condition of his poor tire.
I asked him if he got it fixed and he said, "Naw, not yet. I been a little busy this morning. I caught a ride into town with Jerome's daughter when she passed by taking her daddy to the doctor, so I just come in here for coffee. I'll fix it when I get everything sorted out."

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

Things We Did For Fun In Harper

When I was a boy growing up in Harper, Mississippi there wasn't a lot going on. Since television was a few years away from reaching us, we spent a lot of time within hearing distance of a radio. Other than that we had to make our own fun. I got to thinking about some of the things we did to amuse ourselves.

1. Prank calls. (Do you have Prince Albert in a can?)
2. Cow tipping.
3. Walking to school without stepping on any cracks in the sidewalk.
4. Hold your breath contests.
5. Putting paper bags with dog-do on the front porch of belligerent old people, setting the top afire, ringing door bell, hiding in bushes to watch them stomp out the flame.
6. Watching the A & P truck unload on Friday night.
7. Putting a penny in the newly installed parking meter and watching it click down to "expired."
8. Writing anonymous love letters to old maids.
9. Tractor races.
10. Talking in pig-latin.
11. Letting the cat die ie. sitting in a swing until it came to a complete stop.
12. Weeny roasts.
13. Making sure everyone had a nickname and routinely changing those names.
14. Making up our own lyrics (we thought they were funny) to popular songs.
15. Trading comic books.
16. Playing marbles for keeps.
17. No cost games: hide and seek, catch, red rover, and (my favorite) post office.
18. Touch football.
19. Cow pasture baseball.
20. Dirt court basketball.

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

Catfish, Catfish; Everywhere You Look There's Catfish

When I was a young'n if we ate fish it was fish we caught ourselves. We hardly ever had catfish because they were considered bottom feeders and you usually had to wait till dark to catch one. They are nocturnal, doncha know? Now, you can't go to a restaurant and not find catfish on the menu. They are raised on catfish farms and the supply is plentiful to say the least. Most restaurants offer both fried and baked catfish. When I realized how extensive the use of this fish had become was when Dorothy and I ate at the new Chinese restaurant, Hong Kong Harper. They offer six kinds of catfish: Mongolian Catfish, Catfish with Lobster Sauce, Catfish Suey, Ginger Catfish, Kung Pao Catfish, and Peking Catfish. We decided against any of those and chose the Moo Goo Gai Pan. I thought I was being funny and ordered Moo Cow Gai Pan because I wanted beef and not chicken. Dorothy didn't laugh and informed me Moo Goo is mushroom, Gai is chicken, and Pan means slices. So she says if they even had what I ordered it would be mushrooms, beef, chicken slices. Sometimes I thing she knows way too much.

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

Don't Leave in the Middle of the Show

Last week, Dorothy and I went to Atlanta to visit my cousin. He and his wife took us the big new aquarium they got there. It is tremendous and well worth seeing. One thing that caught my notice was this little girl, I reckon she was about four years old, standing in front of the whale display. Her daddy kept trying to get her to move on.
"Come on, honey. We need to see the rest of the fish."
The little girl looked up with pleading eyes. "Can't we just stay until the part where Jonah come out," she said.
If you go to Atlanta be sure you see this attraction.

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

The Way of All Flesh (Hollis)

Someone asked about Hollis. He is a sophomore in college studying journalism. Hopes to become a writer. Here's his book review:

The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
Five generations of the Pontifex family - old John, carpenter and organ maker - George, publisher who achieves wealth - Theobald, rigid minister - Ernest (main character)  who leaves the ministry - prison - tailor shop - alcoholic wife - gift from aunt - writer of controversial literature - paid family to raise his children. Basically a study of father/son relationship and changing role of church in nineteenth century England.

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

That Ain't Funny

I came across this quote today: "Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber

It got me thinking about what is really funny and what is not. The next time you watch a real funny show on TV just put yourself in the position of the guy whose struggling to make ends meet or finish a project and had to deal with all kinds of happenings. Then it doesn't seem so funny. BUT, thank goodness we aren't wired that way. If we were we would go around with droopy faces and tears in our eyes. Wait, some people do that already. Do you reckon that's their problem, they can't think funny?

We got this old woman, Harriet Housetill, who walks around in black dresses like she is in mourning. Yesterday, I was in the library working and she came in and checked out some book that looked like it was filled with misfortune. The cover was gray with about a dozen black birds flying around a house that was caving in. I smiled and told her not to open the book inside the library and let them birds out. I said, "If you do you gonna have to clean up the mess."

"That ain't funny," she said.

I reckon she was right about that one, but I don't think I could have thought of anything that would make that old biddy crack a smile.

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

Teachers Who Taught

One lesson I learned before I dropped out of school was taking a shortcut is not always a good idea. We had this teacher back in the seventh grade who believed all students should read every day. And they should read good books. She would assign us a book and we had one month to read it and prepare a book report. I got Les Miserables and checked the book out at the library. After three weeks I had managed to read about twenty-five pages. One day I was taking a break and went down to the Harper News Stand to look at comic books. And there it was. A comic book of Les Miserables. And it only cost fifteen cents. I bought it, took it home, and read it in one night. That same night I prepared my book report. I was pretty thorough and checked my work several times for errors. It was perfect. Or so I thought. Our teacher, Miss Betty Glassblower, was pretty sharp. She beat us to the punch and bought a comic book for each of the books she had assigned. Then she prepared a test, not from the comic book, but from the real book. Every student except Margaret Buckburn failed. Margaret was always causing problems and had read the book itself. Today, it's hard to find a classic comic book, but they have Cliff Notes for students to fall back on. I overheard one of the kids down at the library where I volunteer say, "Thank God Cliff took notes." Is he in for a surprise. The seventh grade teacher at Harper School is the same Margaret Buckburn that gave us regular students such a hard time. Good luck, kid.

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

Jim Bob's Monkey

I saw this thing on TV this morning about goats climbing trees. I have seen that right here in Harper County. Somebody on that show talked about a fish that walked across the dry ground on his flippers to get from one pond to another. I have seen that too. But the strangest animal act I have come upon is Jim Bob Bumpp's lawn mowing monkey. You may remember a couple of days ago I talked about Jim Bob's new house. Well, a few years ago somebody gave Jim Bob a pet monkey. It was supposed to be a joke. Jim Bob can come up with all kinds of stuff and decided he could use that monkey to help with mowing his six acre yard. It was either that or plant trees and Jim Bob feels closed in with a lot of trees around. So he made a little attachment for his riding lawn mower that allowed the monkey to operate it and set about teaching little Harvey Lee Jr. (he named that cute little thing after me) how to run the machine. He made a pair of earphones to fit the monkey's head and before you know it Harvey Lee Jr. was cutting grass, listening to gospel music, and seemed to be happy as can be. One old lady asked Jim Bob if he wasn't making a slave of a poor defenseless animal. Jim Bob said, "Junior (that's what he calls him) ain't about to do nothing he don't want to do. Besides I split the work with him. He mows on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and I mow on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. And I reward him with an ice cold beer when he finishes, same reward as I get."

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