I drove over to Charlie’s Truck Stop this past week to pick up a supply of grocery items. It’s getting so I hardly ever go to the big supermarkets any longer to get what I need. Jake doesn’t have quite the exotic variety of stuff you can find in a modern supermarket, but he carries enough variety for my needs. I pulled up in front of the gas pumps and I thought I would need to pump my own gas as Jake was not out the door by the time the car had stopped rolling. That happens on occasion when Jake is busy with a customer. It’s not a big deal as I can work the pumps if I need to. I was standing there in the chill wind reaching toward the pump when Jake came bustling out with a big grin on his chin. “Sorry, I didn’t see you drive up,” Jake apologized. “We were all watching the show Reverend Johnson’s grandson is putting on inside.” The words were no sooner out of Jake’s mouth than I heard laughter filtering out from inside the store.

Jake explained the Reverend’s grandson, Jeremy Richard Evansford Johnson, was inside putting on a show for the Charlie’s Regulars. I had met the boy over Thanksgiving and been introduced. I was told everyone calls him Taterbug and that he was down from New York to stay over the weekend with the Reverend. It seems the boy had become such good friends with Ellie, Jake’s Granddaughter who is staying through the Christmas Holidays with Jake, that he had called to beg his parents in New York into letting him stay with the Reverend until Christmas himself. An agreement had been reached and Taterbug was inside putting on a show for Jake’s customers. Jake finished with the gas and we both went inside out of the cold wind, The warmth from the pot belly wood burning stove felt good and I paid Jake for the gas and then wandered over toward the stove where Taterbug was performing.

The child had made himself a small stage out of some old empty crates and had a floor lamp rigged up as a stage light. He was wearing an old hat that was too big for him and came down over his ears, He was dressed in child size overalls and was leaning on a man size walking cane that looked as though it was found in someone’s attic. The boy was telling jokes as fast as they would roll off his lips. To tell the truth, the child was putting on a right entertaining show and he had himself a sizeable audience. The Reverend Johnson was there, of course, as was Hurshel Ledbedder and his wife, Dolly. Dolly was off to the back leaning on a half full shopping cart as though she had stopped to watch as she was gathering up groceries. Willard Smith was sitting on a nail keg as was Hermann Spencer and my good friend, Bob Havershold. Sitting on the floor just in front of the stage and completely caught up in the moment was Jake’s granddaughter, Ellie. I joined the group and parked up against a shelf display of canned goods.

Taterbug was animated and enthusiastic and his delivery made the jokes seem fresh and alive, even the ones we had heard before. “Did you hear about the big oil fire they had out in Texas this past summer?” Taterbug asked. “There was this big explosion at one of the wells at about two in the morning on a Sunday. Everyone ran out to see what had happened and they saw the explosion had created a bowl shaped depression about the size of a football field. Down in the center of the depression the oil was blazing out of the open pipe with flames everywhere. It was the worst disaster the Texas Oil Industry has experienced in twenty years. No one could see how they were going to deal with the fire. The Head of Operations was studying the situation when one of the workers tugged on his sleeve and said, ‘Ya need to call old Martin Salisberry. He’s head of the volunteer fire department over toward Cactus Bluff. He’s pretty good at putting out fires,’ Well, the Head of Operations just looked at the man as though he was out of his mind and he went to the phone and put in a call to one of the biggest oil fire control companies in Texas to send over someone to look at the fire. Well, the company sent an expert over with a crew to look at the situation. They pulled up to the site in a fleet of trucks equipped with the latest in fire fighting equipment and the men climbed out to look. ‘ That fire is costing money every minute it burns,’ said the Head of Operations. ‘We will pay you five million to put that fire out!’ But the man with the fire control said there was no way to get the blaze under control. It just could not be done, and he climbed back into the truck and the fleet drove off. ‘Ya need to call old Martin Salisberry of the Volunteer Fire Department,’ said the worker.

“Next the Head of Operations put in a call to the best professional in the Western Hemisphere. These guys arrived by helicopter and looked over the fire. ‘Nope,’ they said. ‘It can’t be done.’ And they flew off. ‘I’d call old Martin Salisberry, if I were you.’ The Head of Operations didn’t even look at the worker. He put in an emergency call to the best fire fighters in the world and a private jet flew in from Saudi Arabia. The man in charge took one look and said there was no way to put that fire out. ‘Ya need to call old Martin Salisberry over in Cactus Bluff.’ The Head of Operations looked at the worker in exasperation and said, ‘Well, call him then!’ Pretty soon there was a cloud of dust on the horizon and you could hear the clang, clang of an old model fire truck. Pretty soon the truck came into sight going like sixty with half dozen men hanging off the side. That fire truck came to the edge of the depression and it didn’t even slow down, it just went over the edge and right down into that hole where the fire was blazing. The men hopped off and, with blankets and stomping started beating that fire out. Pretty soon the fire was gone and the men, tired and covered with soot, came walking up the slope. The head of Operations ran to congratulate them. He grabbed the hand of old Marvin Salisberry and said, ‘You boys done a fine job! You just earned yourselves five million dollars among you! What are you going to do with all that money?’ Old Martin spit a stream of tobacco juice and said, ‘I dunno know about the other boys but me, the first thing I plan to do is buy some new brakes for that fire truck!’”

END