Wing and Peg--Were they real?

I've been asked if the characters in The Red Scarf were based on real people or were they fictional. For the most part I based my characters in the novel on actual residents, and I used their real names. We all lived in the small southern village of Norphlet.---pop---650.

I guess the two brothers, Wing and Doc Ellenburger were the most colorful of the bunch.

Peg, the owner of the local pool hall, was one of the most off-the-wall characters I have ever met. He could cuss like a herd of drunken sailors and looked the part of an old coot---overalls, a beat up felt hat with wiry gray hair sticking out, and he usually had tobacco juice dripping down his chin. I'm sure it's no surprise to know Peg received his nickname because he only had one leg. In place of the leg he lost (and I don't have a clue how he lost it) was something that looked as if it had been made for an old pirate. Peg would hop abound on that old wooden leg cussing a blue streak and giving forth on politics or the weather. He was really a sight to see.

The funniest "Peg" story that has been handed down has to do with Peg trying to court an old maid school teacher. One morning he stepped out of the pool hall just as the lady came walking by and made a deep bow to impress her. The wooden leg splintered and he fell flat on his face. She stepped over him and said, "Drunk and it's not even nine o'clock!" Of course, Peg tried to hop up and apologise, but he forgot his peg leg was broken and he fell again and rolled over her feet sending her sprawling out on top of him. She never walked on the pool hall side of the street again.

That's why I think the best characters are real flesh and blood folks that are so colorful they seem made up.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about Wing--yep--old Wing had one arm and he was the City Marshal.