"Some Will Rob You With A Six-Gun, Some With A Fountain Pen"

Marvelous, marvelous new blog from a thoughtful, literary, lyrical country Georgia gentleman who can craft a wonderful, poignant tale steeped in pure southern culture. I'm delighted and honored to bring you Paw Paw Bill. From an August entry, I Hear Woodie Guthrie Singing:

When my Daddy first took sick, one of my sisters stayed with him for a while. Daddy’s health went rapidly downhill after the death of his wife, my stepmother. My sister prepared my stepmother’s clothes to send to the Salvation Army, and after she began to find money, folding money, including $100 bills, tucked away in the pockets of jackets and in purses, she searched through everything carefully. My Daddy and his wife were survivors of The Great Depression of the 1930’s, and they hoarded things and stashed stuff in hiding places.

Before his death, Daddy had explicitly instructed me to take responsibility for his bank safety deposit box. He admonished me about my sisters, “You do right by the girls.” The day after his funeral, I phoned the lawyer to schedule a trip to the bank to clean out the safety deposit box. “Oh, I’ve already taken care of that,” the lawyer informed me. “There wasn’t nothing in it but some insurance papers and property deeds.” Some days later we had the reading of the will, and the lawyer presented me documents to sign releasing him from bond and waiving any claim whatsoever against him for any liability ever conceived by mankind.

I heard Woody Guthrie singing.

Full post here. And here's The Byrd's rendition of the Guthrie song quoted by Paw Paw Bill, from a 1971 rode-hard performance, back when young men were dramatic and fearless and beautiful and poetic.