Euphoria broke out in the hitching alley by the time my father reached Main Street's boardwalk. Farmer's wives had their husbands by their short hairs and they painfully parted from their squirreled away crop money from a year ago. It had been a long time since the country folks had a fair day to shop. My father watched over us while he sought out a familiar face and recognized Jeffrey Bill Jones, his best friend from childhood. Jones' company was like a warm fire on a cold day or a cool breeze on a hot muggy summer day. His presence was never rainy or stormy. Lamar counted him as his best friend. He found Jones, a tall bearded colored man, wearing overalls and a red checkered shirt with a gray dog eared infantryman's cap pulled down to his ears leaning against the brick faced front of Meaders Drug right behind the spot he decided to sit down. My father attempted to surprise his friend but he spotted him first and Jones strolled over to greet him with a question. "Expecting trouble Lamar?" referring to his shotgun. "No I ain't Bill, but if you're gonna be trouble I'll give you some of what I got this shotgun for " and the fun begin. Each tried to out lie the other with neither getting the edge. They talked about good times, bad times, and current times. The newest thing for Jones would be the prophecy made by Wingfoot. When dad told him that story they both laughed until tears filled their eyes. Little did Lamar know that bit of information would come back to haunt him. Another glance up to check on the sky and the same clear blue sky was still there. Jones had been women watching, the equivalent of women window-shopping, one of the favorite pastimes for men while they watched their children and waited for their wives to finish shopping. The well-being of children was always first on their minds when they ventured close to Mack Nickels Meat Market. Old man Nickels tossed fat trimmings to a pack of vicious dogs crowding the front of his store always there anticipating a meal. The old man, known to intentionally toss a hunk of meat out the front door to start a bloody dogfight, became an issue if kids happened along. That, another reason Molly wanted the sawed off in his hands. However, we were cautioned not to kick a can in the meat market direction while absorbed in the pleasure of bestowing severe pain on a tin can. Seldom did a can end up under the hoofs of some cantankerous mule or horse or in the complaint of a dogfight. Bill gave my father a heads up before he left. "Victor Blackwebb and his boy are back in town and I heard, "They be looking for you." Those words put a sense of urgency in my father so he backed up against the brick wall of Meaders and scanned the street. Dad watched for trouble coming out the pool hall and and saw boys old enough to detach from their apron strings but too young to clamp down on a plug of Blood Hound struggle with life pulling to free themselves to start trouble. They thought because they could stand flatfooted on their back porch and piss a six-foot stream while scratching their ass they were men. He knew it took more than a long pisser to handle the debt and responsibility of a family. They would soon enough find that out when they stepped over that threshold of choice. It took valor to grow the courage to battle evil in these times... Edsel's had the thickest T-bone and a shot of white whiskey for a dollar. Then a trip to Shangri la was offered at the busy business upstairs, Miss Daisy May's. Women with baby smooth skin, kitten fur soft hair, tempting and inviting eyes laid many a man down and share the secrets of their sensuous hot bodies for a price.