Richard, the paperboy from The Red Scarf, Sept. 1944 #2

Heck, I ain’t never done something like this so I’m having a little trouble getting started, but here goes. First off, and I guess the first think you’d notice about me is that I’m kinda thin and tall. Uh, well, I’d be lyin’ like a dog if I didn’t tell you I ain’t just thin, I’m skinny as a rail, but I’ve got bunches of black hair…just like my skinny mamma. Anyway that’s me, skinny and, uh, well,… I’ll hafta admit it’s been real hard for me and John Clayton to stay outta trouble…real bad trouble…knock you dead trouble. Heck, just last summer me and one of other friends, Ears,…yeah, you guessed it. Old Leroy has got some saucer like ears, he’s skinny and has a burr haircut. He don’t wear nothing but some old ragged overalls with one strap. Uh, huh, even I think he looks pretty danged country. Well, one of the big heaps of trouble we got into last summer had to do with sorry old man Odom’s watermelon patch. Now don’t get no ideas. We weren’t really stealing one of them big 70 pounders….uh, well, yeah, I’m doing it again, lyin’ like some sorry yard dog. Anyways, he deserved it for just ragging us all the time, spitting tobacco juice on the sidewalk….and you just know, since we all go barefooted, we’s always stepping in it. But what happened when we grabbed up that watermelon still gives me nightmares. Two of the biggest and the danged meanest dogs you’ve ever seen in your whole entire life zoomed out from under his porch and started after us; howling to beat 60. That would have been bad, real bad, but what happened next was a whole lot worser. I heard the back door of old man Odom’s house slam and that old man started a-hollering like somebody was a-stranglin’ him. Course, we was moving on. Heck, if you ain’t seen two boys carrying a 70 pound watermelon try to fly across a corn field you ain’t seen nothing. We were hightailing it like nothing you’ve ever seen and then ‘Boom! Boom’. The danged old man had cut loose with his shotgun loaded with bird shot. That’s when we done started flying…You know, just barely touching the ground, squealing like two stuck pigs, and knocking then cornstalks down like they wasn’t even there. Well, we hung onto God’s coat tail, and he dragged us to the woods where we hid the watermelon…gosh just telling that story has done nearly wiped me out. Course, there’s a bunch more to it, but I done run outta time today. Tomorrow I’ll fill you in on the details. I guess you might say if y’all want to keep hearing ‘bout all the other stuff me and John Clayton got into, I’ll keep on blabbing.