Billy the Bear Was a Great Childhood Friend by Kendall Goode

Unable to have conventional pets due to living next to a busy highway, a five-year old from north Mississippi takes up with a chained black bear in 1962 – an era which was much different from current prevailing opinions regarding animal captivity issues.

 

By Kenny Goode
  Most five year olds have either dogs or cats for pets.  Of course, I would have to be different.  My pet was a black bear named ‘Billy’.  As a child, I lived in the village of Hickory Flat, in north Mississippi. It was as idyllic as Mayberry in those happy and carefree days.  We lived on ‘Goode Hill’ where several families of Goode kinfolks all resided in close proximity.

  My grandfather, John Goode, owned an auto repair shop, known as Goode’s Garage, where the flower shop is now.Across the street, Florene Elliott and her husband, Luther, owned a restaurant and service station, which was where the barbecue restaurant is now. Florene and papaw were distant cousins. Billy belonged to the Elliotts.

  My parents would no longer let me have any pets because they always got run over in  busy, two-laned highway 78, which ran between Memphis and Atlanta.  But, that didn’t matter. I had my wonderful friend, ‘Billy’.   He was also a tourist attraction for those who continually came through on the way to some other destination. Luther and Florene had brought Billy to Hickory Flat from Georgia, North Carolina or somewhere in the Smokies. He created quite a stir to motorists who stopped by.  I liked him too!  Every day, after lunch, I would go and see Billy. Sometimes, I would slip off – a BIG no-no since you had to cross the busy highway.

  Billy loved soft drinks and my grandfather had a coke machine at his business. They were only about a nickel in 1962.  He preferred Pepsi, which he is shown drinking one photo made at that time, but he would drink Coca-Cola too. He was also partial to Orange Crush soda!   When he emptied the bottle, usually in one great big chug-a-lug, he would toss it to the four winds, Russian-style! No recycling for Billy! Florene was constantly sweeping up broken glass in the parking lot, due to Billy’s antics.

 

Now, as I said previously, Billy liked Pepsi and Orange Crush, but would drink practically ANYTHING.

 

  This was a different era regarding animal abuse.  And some nefarious characters always thought it was funny to give Billy moonshine and watch him get drunk

Read more: http://authspot.com/thoughts/goode-news-billy-the-bear-was-a-great-childhood-friend/#ixzz1HaM1mIAN

 

photo

Photot above is copywrite Spiritwalker


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The Gospel of Robert Lee

This is an excerpt of an interview with Robert Lee Henry before his Album “Rest For The Wicked ” was released.  It is reprinted in as it ran in Music Master magazine.
Music Master magazine is sitting down today with Robert Lee Henry who is being tauted as the Godfather of the American Blues revival.  Born in Creekmore, Mississippi, he moved to Memphis in his teens to become a singer.  He started his career as Bobby Sweets, a R&B/ rapper with a small but loyal following.  Despite criticism of “not being real,” he seemed ready to break big. The future looked  bright, when suddenly it all fell apart.  He was dropped by his manager after a disastrous club show and onstage, rage fueled breakdown.  He allegedly killed his girlfriend a week later and was sentenced to the State Correctional Facility in Rankin County.  He only served six months before the State Supreme Court overturned his conviction, but six months was long enough.  Henry was savagely beaten by a prison guard and his larynx was damaged beyond repair.  The gravelly voice coming from the man sitting across from me now bears little resemblance to the voice that was once compared to a young Marvin Gaye.  The state settled for an undisclosed amount and Bobby Sweets was reborn as Robert Lee Henry.  A record deal and club tour followed soon after.  Leaked recordings from the studio appeared on the Internet, and as impossible as it may sound a blues record is now the most eagerly anticipated CD in years.  He’s a man surrounded  with mystery and controversy. Some people in his home town are saying he made a deal with the devil like Robert Johnson claimed to have done years before.  He has granted Music Master an exclusive interview at the Southside Que on Historic Beale Street.  Its his first interview since his release and acquittal.
MM- Its nice to meet you Mr. Henry.  The whole world seems to be waiting for your CD.  How does it  feel to have an early taste of success, then have it pulled from your grip?  You now seemed perched on the verge of even greater success.  Are you afraid of losing it again?

RLH-  Call me Robert or Robert Lee.  I agree the world is waiting.  I don’t believe the world knows why it’s waiting.  Is it waiting for the blues? or just the next big thing?  You say I’m bringing back the blues, but the blues has always been here.  People just want to deny it. They want to close they eyes and think it’s gonna get better.  They want to listen to some happy, bouncy music shit like I used to play. Want to look at the MTV.  They ain’t waiting for me to bring them the blues, they got the blues.  They just waiting for me to maybe TELL them that they got the blues.


Read more: http://authspot.com/short-stories/the-gospel-of-robert-lee/#ixzz1HaDM1CGj

Welcome

Welcome to what I hope will grow to be a home and resource for Southern Writers, those who aspire to the lofty heights of Faulkner or Williams or even the mainstream success of John Gresham.  Here will be links, exceprts, and hopefully original works.  The word will be king here, preference will go to well written tales both real and fiction first.  Then to actual Southern writers, and then to stories set in the south, about the south, or having that peculiar southern flavor.  I will start it off with a meager work of my own