I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a few things I need around the house. For a small country store, Jake keeps a surprising variety of things you can use to fix up and repair. I was having trouble with a light socket and thought it needed replacing. I parked beside the store and went inside. Jake said, “Good afternoon.” as I walked past. Sure enough, over in the household items section, I found exactly what I needed. I wandered over to the canned goods and grabbed a few cans of chicken soup, then I picked up a box of crackers. I was looking to see what else I might could use when I heard an unfamiliar voice from over near the pot belly stove. The voice was complaining about the air conditioning and that it was too hot inside the store. I never remember anyone mentioning the temperature inside Charlie’s before. I guess the temperature always seemed about right and no one thought to mention it. For years, there was never any air conditioning in Charlie’s, then Jake had a big window unit installed in the back of the store. That seemed to satisfy any one who had concern about it.
I made my way over toward the pot belly stove and saw the Reverend Johnson along with Ned Simpson and Hurshel Ledbedder. Another guy was sitting with them, an old man with frizzy gray hair. He was nursing a Coke and looking over the store as he sat there. “I don’t know how people get on in this part of the country,” he was saying. “There ain’t nothing to do around here.”
My own thoughts were that I had more to do than I could find time for, but I just said “Good day,” as I walked up. There were introductions around and the Reverend Johnson introduced the man who had been talking as Raymond Kinner. I said I was glad to know him and asked if he was from around here. No, he explained, he was here visiting his daughter who had lived in these parts since she married a young man she met while he was in the military. Mister Kinner was retired from working in the automobile manufacturing trade which is what he had done all his life. I thought that was interesting. I had an uncle on my mother’s side who made a career in Michigan working for General Motors. I did not see him all that often but I remember him as a nice man I enjoyed being around whenever he brought his family to visit. I asked Mister Kinner which company he had been with and he said he worked in a big factory where they made motors to go into trucks and automobiles. The factory where he worked made motors for all the companies that assembled cars and trucks. Mister Kinner was a union man and proud of it. He said the union took care of employees and he had been a union member all his life. Mister Kinner was surprised to discover the unions are not better represented in Mississippi.
Ned Simpson piped up he thought there were some union plants around in Mississippi some place, but he was not much up on union membership, never having paid much mind to unions except when he heard on the news about some union calling a strike. Ned had worked as an assistant at a state hospital when he was just out of school and had met a man at the hospital who asked him what he thought of unions. Ned had said he had not thought much about them and the man had asked if he would like to join the one for hospital employees. Ned had replied he was not interested and had never seen the man again. Mister Kinner insisted Ned should have joined up, said it would have been the best thing for him. It was easy to see Mister Kinner was a big supporter of the union movement, but Ned insisted he had never had any reason to regret his decision not to join. He gets along just fine without union membership. Mister Kinner conceded that might be true in a backward area such as Northern Mississippi where there was not much opportunity to be had, but if you went into an area of advanced civilization such as around the industrial North, you would be required to join up with one of the big unions if you wanted to hold a good paying job. I could tell from the look on the faces around the pot belly stove most of us thought Northern Mississippi was not all that backward and that there is quite enough opportunity to be had for anyone willing to work at it.
Mister Kinner observed the big manufacturing companies were slowly moving into the South and the unions were coming with them. He was sure there would be some big changes in these parts in the years to come. The unions would see to that. He sat his empty Coke can on the floor and stood up. Mister Kinner said he needed to get back to his daughter’s house. He was planning to go over to visit the casinos that evening to enjoy himself for a while. He might even win him some money. I thought the chances were better he was likely to lose his money. They don’t build those casinos with winners’ money. Mister Kinner asked if any of us sitting there around the stove ever went to the casinos. Both Ned and Hurshel said they were mostly too busy to make the trip to a casino and the Reverend said he did not think it would look good for a preacher to be off gambling on a Saturday night and then up preaching on a Sunday morning. Mister Kinner thought that was funny and he laughed real big. He said there was no sin to gaming. He said he sees a good number of preachers and religious folks over in the casinos. The Reverend Johnson said he did not doubt Mister Kinner’s word, but nobody was going to say they had seen the Reverend Johnson in a gambling dive. Mister Kinner just laughed some more and said that was why it is a free country. Those who enjoy the games are free to go if they like and those who don’t play are free to stay away. It’s a matter of choice. I was thinking to myself that if I want to throw money away, I’ll just flush a fist full down the john and save the cost of gas to drive to the casinos. Mister Kinner waved to Jake as he went out the front door and we heard him start his old car and drive off. Hurshel Ledbedder reached down and picked the Coke can Mister Kinner had left on the floor and tossed it into the trash can.
END
