I have mentioned a lot about my grandmother but my grandfather was somewhat unique also. First and foremost he was vertically challenged and was called “Shorty” by everyone that knew him.
He also had the “Little Man Complex” and the few people that messed with him soon learned the error of their ways.
I’m not sure I ever saw him without a pistol in his pocket. A man once asked the Police Chief when was he going to take the pistol away from “Shorty” and the answer was “If you want it taken away then you go do it”.
I don't think anyone tried that I recall.
Granddaddy was a barber and cut hair in the same shop for over fifty years. It was a basement shop right next to a greasy spoon cafe that smelled so good and caused me to be hungry whenever I was in the shop.
My earliest memory of his work was that a haircut cost a dime and a shave was a nickel. There was also an old black man that shined shoes there for a nickel. I would make sure to wear shoes to town because he would shine them for nothing and I loved the feel of him rubbing my feet.
Actually, I would try to get granddaddy to give me a shampoo cause I loved the head massage also. I remember him using Pine Tar shampoo and Lucky Tiger hair tonic. He told me the way to keep from going bald was to have a barber wash my hair every time I had it cut.
I really believe he did more barter business than cash money business. I remember several times each summer a friend would drive him home to bring the watermelons or vegetables he earned by cutting hair.
Now granddaddy may have been “Shorty” but he could out walk anyone I have ever known. He began barbering in that shop in 1941 and bought a house out in the country in 1943. The first car I remember him having was a 1946 Chevy he bought in 1953 so he had to walk to work and home ( three miles each way) for about ten years. Even at fifteen I had to run to keep up with him.
Granddaddy loved to hunt and fish. In the early forties Field and Stream Magazine had a contest on who could catch the largest bass. Granddaddy entered a fish and did win the contest.
He knew lots of things but not why they happened. He never heard of So-lunar Tables but would be sitting on the porch and suddenly jump up and say, “Time to go catch some fish”. I asked him why then and he would say, “because the dogs just started to get active and play. When the dogs are active, the fish are too”.
He would go to Sardis Lake and catch huge catfish and bring them home. They were so big he would have to nail their heads to a tree to have both hands free to skin them.
His favorite hunting was squirrel and possum (opossum to Yankees). He trained squirrel dogs for other people but I think that just was an excuse to get to go hunting a lot. Of course possum hunting was done at night and brought on some special problems.
The major one was that it was dark and the dogs couldn’t tell the difference between a possum and a polecat (skunk). About once every two or three weeks he would get sprayed by a polecat and have to come home and take all his clothes off, bury them and wash down with tomato juice my grandmother canned just for that purpose and then sprayed off with a garden hose. He then could come in the house. I expect that someday archeologists will find where we buried all those clothes and declare that some major activity must have taken place there.
I sometimes wonder if he could drink coffee in a restaurant today. I never saw him drink directly from a cup as he always poured it in a saucer, blew on it to cool it some, and drank directly from the saucer.
Now, granddaddy only had a sixth grade education but was extremely smart. He would work the Commercial Appeal and New York Times crossword puzzle everyday using a pen. He played a mean violin and performed with the family entertainers but that is another story.
Granddaddy was interested in politics and got himself elected “county coroner”. He had some wild stories about things that happened in the line of duty. One of these days I will write a short story that will include some of these tales.
When Ross Barnett was elected Governor he appointed my Grandfather to be a “Governor’s Colonel”. This was largely an honorary position but meant he got to travel to Jackson three to four times a year and have dinner with the Governor. The next Governor was Paul B. Johnson, Jr and he reappointed granddaddy as a “Colonel”. He also appointed him to the Game And Fish Commission which was a working position and he traveled all over the state working with the game wardens.
Granddaddy had emphysema for several years but remained active until it finally got the best of him at seventy eight years old and he had to go on oxygen continually. The doctor said the breathing problems were a combination of the Lucky Strike cigarettes he smoked for years and the hair clippings he inhaled. He lived until just before his 80th birthday and just couldn’t breathe anymore. His family was a long lived one as he was one of seven children and was the first to die. He is buried in the Longview, Mississippi, cemetery along with his grandparents, parents and all three children.
His nickname was “Shorty” but he was a giant of a man to me and is a major factor in who I am today.
