9
TRICKER LAKE, TN
JULY, 1964
1My days of worryin’ about my boy Stanton bein’ fond of the opposite s*x were over in perpetuity. The kid had gone from square dancin’ with groundhogs to sippin’ a soda with two straws. Guess I needed to have the talk with him before he was baggin’ groceries at eighteen to support a family he never wanted. Need to find him a way to use that gift of his—make a way for himself in the world. No tellin’ what he could’ve done out in Hollywood or—hell—even the Grand Ole Opry. Course I never heard him twist that tongue much far away from Tricker. Never had a teacher at his school mention it once in all these years when they would send him home with a note that he got a paddlin’ again for clownin’ around. Wonder if he used it to bewitch that little number he’d been
