TJ just ran across these pics & i just had 2 share. do ya'll remember the series that used 2 be in the readers digest entitiled "my most unforgetable character"? well, for me & TJ this is definately 1 of ours. this is the little guy that i mentioned earlier in my story who told us he had killed a possum with a stick the nite before & had him in the fridge if we wanted it. now you have 2 understand, this is also the same guy who had sold my dad a horse, which he said was a real good plow horse. turned out she had probably never even been sucessfully hitched up 2 a plow--although she did make a good trail horse for TJ. anyhow mr. B was known for spinnin some tall yarns. most folks didn't believe a word he said. but after the possum incident, we started payin a little closer attention 2 what he said--tryin 2 seperate truth from fiction. his little house in the picture was not much more than a snuffy smith shack. it was only 200 yards or so from a little crossroads store, which he went 2 every day. he'd sit on a bench there & harass the folks as they came in. he wasn't mean spirited at all. he was just havin fun. some folks just didn't know how 2 take him. he bought all his groceries there & if nobody offered him a ride, he would walk back home, carryin his little sack. this little store was on my milk route, & i always left some real butter there for mr. B. he told us it lubricated his intestines 2 aid digestion. i don't remember now just exactly why we went the 1st time, but when we went 2 visit him the sign in the 1st pic is what we saw. its out by the front gate which was always locked. its supposed 2 say somethin like "holler before interin please". he had obviously hand painted the sign himself, but i can't remember now what it was painted on. TJ said it looks like it might have been the fender off an old tractor. anyhow we hollered & we could here a rather hi pitched answer "hey". then he'd slowly shuffle along towards the gate, which he had 2 unlock with a key. you could sorta hear him muttering 2 himself as he did all this. some folks were scared of him--others just thought he was crazy. at 1st, we didn't know quite what 2 make of him. but, after he invited us in & we had talked 2 him for a while, we discovered a very interesting & quite comical character. he'd tell us a joke of some kind in his hi pitched voice, then say "he, he, he,(as he slapped the knees of his overalls, which he always wore) i have my fun". 1 thing i remember that he told us was about this campmeeting that he use 2 go 2 every summer at a little country church. he told us how he would entertain the young ladies outside the church by climbing up a big tree in the church yard & doing a flip out of it. i didn't really believe that tale until the possum incident. now i believe he mite have been tellin the truth about some of the monkeyshines he pulled. he told us he was 101 years old. a few years later, when he died, his obit said he was 97. either way he lived 2 a ripe old age. as you can see in the pic, we bought him a birthday cake & sat with him & had us a little party--of course, he was the entertainment, & he did a great job. TJ later wrote an article about our experiences with him, which was published in our local newspaper. he was a real "hoot" 2 be around & is definately unforgetable!
