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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The following short stories were penned by Dr. Paul Thomas Ed.D., an AHS Alumni from the Class of 1952. Presently Paul is an
instructor of Mathematics and Physical Science at the Garland County
Community College in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Many of us have known
Paul as Puff the Magic Clown. Today Paul is also
known as Grandpa Catywampus. Enjoy the
stories! |
In
Memory of
Henry
Willis
Class
of 1952
Atlanta
High School
Atlanta,
Texas
by
Paul Thomas
HENRY, THANKS FOR LETTING ME BE YOUR FRIEND!
By Paul Thomas
Copyright 1999
(Click on Desired Story Below)
III. Henry Siren
IV. THE DAY I WAS A
FOOTBALL HERO
VI. Another Day When Henry Became Me
VII. Human Jackhammer
VIII. Only One Glass of Water
XII. The Great Albino
XIII. Henry's Last Whipping in School
O
Copyright, 1999
Henry and I were in our junior year
in high school. We played basketball in
a very old gym. When it rained, the
roof would leak and wet spots would gather on the floor.
One day after a rain, Henry,
breaking down the sideline dribbling the ball, hit a wet spot. The back of his head was the first thing to
hit the floor. He was unconscious on
the floor with every muscle in a spasm.
I was scared to death. It looked
to me like Henry was about to die.
Thankfully, after a short time the
muscle spasms stopped and Henry lay quietly on the floor surrounded by all the
coaches. The school superintendent
walked onto the gym floor and asked, “What happened to Henry?” One of the coaches replied, “He just got
knocked crazy.”
To which Henry quickly opened one eye and replied, “Good, now I qualify to be a coach.”
O
Copyright, 1999
The girl was beautiful, but her father
was a logger who frightened us all. She
had a big crush on Henry, but he was afraid of her old man. Yet he would slip out to see her after her
father had gone to sleep. She would
meet him in the barn and sometimes they would be there for two or three hours.
Soon, Henry lost interest in her
because of another girl. He knew that I
secretly had a crush on her long before he ever paid her any attention. I was so skinny and ugly that I knew she
would never be interested in me. I
weighed only 115 pounds and was 6 feet 3 inches tall. No girl that had eyes would care for me. Henry knew that I had never even kissed a
girl and he often kidded me about it.
Henry figured out a way for my first
kiss. I was to go into the barn on a
moonless night and kiss her without saying anything first. He kept telling me that she might just like
me if I gave her a real good kiss, but I was very doubtful.
He told her that day that he would
be out late that night and would wait for her in the barn. He drove me out and I walked to the barn to
wait with my heart beating rapidly.
The girl came through the door and
it was so dark that I could only see that it was a person. I walked over and put my arms around
her. When I leaned forward to kiss
her, she pushed me away and walked out of the barn.
I was afraid she was going to get
her father, so I left immediately.
Henry had driven the car away from where he let me out. I waited for about 30 minutes before he
showed up. It was the longest wait of
my life for I feared that the father would be hot on my trail.
I knew Henry would tell my other
friends that I did not kiss her and everyone would laugh at me, so I made like
I had kissed her and that it was great.
A few weeks passed and the girl
stopped Henry at school and told him she was pregnant. He asked her who the father was. She said that he was. Henry answered that he couldn’t be because
he had never “slept with her.”
She told him that her father caught
her when she left the barn the last time they met. The father knew that they made love that night in the barn. Henry was stunned, because he knew that I
was the one in the barn.
She told Henry that her father would
go talk to his father if he didn’t come to her house and meet with him about
the matter that night. She said, “My
father expects us to get married.”
I was in the gym getting ready for
basketball practice when Henry burst through the doors, collared me, plastering
me against the wall. He would not
believe me when I swore that I didn’t even kiss her. He told me he didn’t care what the hell I did while I was in the
barn, but I was going to go with him and admit to her father that I was the one
in the barn on that fateful night.
Needless to say, I just wanted to
die. I was so scared I could hardly breathe. I considered everything from suicide to
running away never to return to Atlanta.
Henry and I said not a word as we
made that dreadful drive to her house.
We drove back and forth past her driveway about ten times before we got
enough nerve to stop.
My heart raced away as we were
entering the house. We sat down on the
couch. She said her father was taking a
nap, but she would go awaken him.
When she appeared from the bedroom
door, she said he wanted us to just come in there where he laid on the
bed. My legs weighed a thousand pounds
each as I attempted to walk through that bedroom door.
Once through the door the light came
on, and there stood some of her friends, holding a sign that read “April
Fool!” We soon learned that she was not
pregnant at all and her family was out of town. She had known it was not Henry in the barn that dark night, but
did not know until then that it was me instead.
Some twenty years later, I was in my
clown suit in Atlanta and had just finished a magic show, when this obese woman
walked up and kissed me on the cheek.
She said, “That is the kiss you missed out on years ago.” With my looks, I guess I was lucky that it
was not still my first kiss.
O Copyright, 1999
Was
Henry every siren? Yes, when Henry was
young he would go like a siren vocally and you could not tell the difference in
the sound of an emergency vehicle and his voice when he copied the siren sound.
One night we were driving back from Vivian,
Louisiana, when he started sirening cars over as we passed them. We would pull up where our lights were about
even with the back of a car, and he would do his impression of an emergency
vehicle. Every car on the highway
pulled over that night.
When we reached Atlanta, we stopped
at the City Hall Cafe. We wanted to
eat, but we only had enough money for one large coke which we shared.
When we walked back to the car,
there were two young men and two policemen looking at my car. One young man was telling them that they
followed us and kept their eyes on the vehicle until we parked. He took out a ten dollar bill and handed it
to the policeman. He said, “If they
will let me search the car, I will find the siren. If I do not find one, you can give them the $10.” We agreed and I opened the trunk, doors and
hood.
The poor guy searched thirty minutes
before he finally gave up. The
policeman handed me the $10, and the guys got in their car and drove away.
Henry and I went back in the cafe
and ordered the most expensive steaks they had. That may sound ridiculous to a person today, but in those days,
$10 was a lot of money, and steaks were inexpensive in comparison to today’s
prices.
We had about finished our steaks
when the two guys walked back in the cafe.
They came to our table and asked if they could sit down.
Henry said, “Anyone that can buy
steaks as good as these is welcome to have a seat at my table.” One guy pulled out another $10 and said,
“I’ll give you this if you will just tell me how you hid that siren. We watched the car continuously and there
was no way you could have removed it.”
Henry picked up the $10 and suddenly
let out like a siren in the middle of the cafe. Three people screamed, and the waitress spilled coffee in one man’s
lap. The two guys left shaking their
heads.
Twenty minutes or so later, we
walked out to my car. The guys
approached us and said, “We were going to Texarkana to spend that twenty
dollars. Now we are broke, and our evening
is wasted. Could we ride around with
you two and siren some cars over?” We
obliged and became good friends and these guys laughed until they almost cried
as they watched car after car pull off the road and stop just like they had
done earlier.
A few years later a man and woman walked
up to me in Atlanta and he said, “You may not recognize me, but several years
ago, I had a big fight with my wife. I
took $20 out of the grocery money and left.
I picked up this friend, and we headed to Texarkana to spend the money
at a business operated by a well known “Madame”. You and this human siren of a friend got all our money. There was nothing left to do but go home and
make up with my wife. I just want to
say thanks.”
His wife said, “I have always wanted
to meet you because you and your friend did me a great, great favor and I
appreciate it.”
They walked away holding hands and I
felt good.
O Copyright, 1999
Atlanta was playing New Boston on Friday
night and we had to win the football game to stay in a tie with DeKalb for the
district championship. Henry and I were
seniors.
Henry got sick on Thursday evening
and by Friday had a temperature of 102.
When we left for New Boston, Coach Cannady did not even carry Henry’s
football uniform. Henry rode the bus,
but attended the game as a spectator.
The first half ended with New Boston leading by a score of 7 - 0. During half-time one of the well known
Atlanta fans accused Henry of “gold bricking.”
Henry was so mad that his face
changed from the pale white due to his illness to a bright red due to
anger. He wanted to play the second
half but had no uniform.
I had sat on the bench the first
half and knew I would not get to play the second half, so I offered Henry my
uniform. Everything fit, except my
shoes were too large for him. Our coach
borrowed a smaller pair from the New Boston coach, and Henry suited up.
Henry played right defensive end and
as angry as he was, no one on the other team could stop him. He sacked them in the backfield on about
every other play.
The radio announcer was seeing my
number break through for all those tackles and was in a rave about what a great
game I was playing. I became an instant
hero in the eastern part of Cass County.
Atlanta won the game 13 - 7 which
would have been impossible without the outstanding playing of Henry
Willis. Yet, I received the credit.
On Saturday morning, I went to work
at Mays Grocery. Abe Mays always let one
of the better football players go back to his office and wash eggs all morning
and they would talk football. It was a
soft job, and all the other employees would be jealous, because everyone else
would have to work really hard.
That morning was the only time I got
to wash eggs and talk football during the two years that I worked for the
grocery store. Abe was really
complimentary of my football abilities.
I was not about to tell him it was Henry in my uniform.
Lunch time came and Abe and I walked out of the store together. A fan walked up to me and said, “Paul, I
thought you were playing the greatest game I had ever seen last night, until I
found out that it was Henry Willis in your uniform.”
Abe Mays looked at me and said,
“Paul, you will work your _ _ _ off before this day is over.” He was right, because I got every dirty job
they could find for the rest of the day.
Our football team won the district
championship and went on to play in the state playoff that year. We would have been second in district if it
had not been for Henry’s outstanding playing against New Boston. Yet, to this day, there are still people
around Atlanta, Texas that think Paul Thomas won that game.
O Copyright, 1999
Henry
and I were in our first few weeks of Kilgore College, and this was just before
he dropped out of school there and later went to Paris Junior College. We decided to hitchhike home to Atlanta,
Texas.
We reached Longview, Texas, and our
luck at catching a ride seemed to play out.
In those days, Highway 155 had not been built, so we had to go by way of
Marshall, Texas.
We got tired of standing on the side
of the road so we went across the street and obtained a large piece of
cardboard from a grocery box. We
borrowed the colored crayon that the store employees used to mark the boxes,
because this was prior to the invention of Magic Markers.
We printed out a large sign that
read, “ATLANTA OR BUST”. Soon a large
transport truck (now commonly referred to as an 18-wheeler) stopped just past
us. He opened the back door to the
trailer and motioned us to come to him.
The driver said, “I have the front
seat filled with items for a short haul, but if you two don’t mind riding back
here, I will let you up front after I deliver the goods in the front seat. You can then ride up there the rest of the
way to Atlanta.”
It was only 80 miles by way of
Marshall to Atlanta, but the truck did not stop for several hours, and we could
tell he had driven through a large city by the number of red lights he had to
stop for. It became dark, and Henry
and I were convinced that the driver was up to no good. We decided that he would probably stop out
in the woods and have a gun to shoot us.
We were both very scared.
We decided to be at the front end of
the trailer and when the driver started opening the doors we would run full
speed and burst out just as the doors came open and try to get away before he
could shoot us.
About 10:00 p.m., he finally stopped
the truck, and we timed our exit just perfect to the surprise of the
driver. The only problem was that I hit
the hood of a car and Henry plastered a gasoline pump, because we were at a gas
station in Monroe, Louisiana.
When we finally got our stories
straight, the driver was going to Atlanta, Georgia, and we were going to
Atlanta, Texas. That was my first time
to ever visit Monroe, Louisiana.
Another Day When Henry Became Me
O
Copyright, 1999
I went to a party down in Louisiana
on a Saturday night. At the party, I
met this attractive girl which none of the other guys showed much interest
in. It surprised me because she was
beautiful.
All evening I thought how I would
like to go out with her. She never
danced with anyone and sat with her girlfriend and talked. When the party broke up, her friend gave her
the keys and said, “Just take my car to your house and I will pick it up
tomorrow morning because I have a date.”
As everyone left the party in their cars, I followed behind the
attractive young lady in my car. I
noticed she had a low tire so I stopped her and said I would follow her to a
station so she could get the flat fixed.
At the station, I invited her to
take a ride with me. We were out
together for about three more hours and finally I drove her back to the station
to get her friend’s car.
I told her I would follow her home
to see she got there safely since it was 2 a.m. She answered that she thought it best I not do so, because her
husband was home by now.
It scared me to death, because I had
no idea she was married. Needless to
say, I did not follow her home.
The next week I got word that her husband had made two
trips to Atlanta to “beat the hell” out of me, but missed me both times. I began to find reasons to not stay in town
very long.
The following Saturday, Henry and I
were standing with some other friends on a street corner when up comes this guy
that was about 50 pounds heavier than me, but about 35 pounds lighter than
Henry.
The guy said, “Which one of you is
Paul Thomas?” Everyone there knew by
then why he was looking for me. My
heart stood still. Suddenly, Henry stepped forward and said, “I am Paul
Thomas. What can I do for you?”
The guy looked at Henry’s size and
suddenly became much more humble. He
said, “I thought you were a smaller man.”
He turned and left without saying one word about his wife.
As I watched him drive off my heart
began to function more normal. Henry
looked at me and said, “If you ever go out with another married woman, you will
have to fight your own battle!”
O Copyright, 1999
Henry
and I had been invited to work out for basketball at Tarelton
College which was at Stephenville, Texas. We
were given money for round trip
tickets to ride buses. We decided to pocket the money and hitchhike.
We
caught a ride in a pickup truck that preceded to go at a speed of nearly
90
m.p.h. We both were sitting with our back to the cab of the truck. The driver was passing on double yellow stripes and on hills and needless to
say,
Henry and I
were scared to death.
The driver suddenly cut to the left
lane and immediately we heard a very loud crushing sound on the right side of
the truck which was on Henry’s side. I
tried to jump out of the truck, but Henry jumped on the top of me and prevented
me from doing so.
When we came to our senses, there
was a jackhammer working on a bridge and the truck had simply moved over to
pass by it. The guys in the cab of the
truck were about to laugh themselves sick watching us unscramble. The sound of the jackhammer grew more
distant as we moved away at a speed of about 80 m.p.h. Henry’s sharp elbows and knees left me
feeling as sore as if a human jackhammer had worked on me.
O Copyright, 1999
Hitchhiking once, Henry and I were
left stranded at a crossroads in hot west Texas as we continued our hitchhiking
trip. There was only one house in sight
and it was about a mile from the crossroads.
Few cars came along and soon we were both starved for a drink of water.
We walked to the house and asked for
a drink. The lady indicated that we
could have only one glass of water because they had to bring their water in
from Ft. Worth.
Henry said, “If you will let me
drink first, I will give you half of my water.” I agreed because I thought that was a good deal. Henry grabbed the glass and drank 3/4 of it
very fast. I complained that he
promised to let me have half of his water yet betrayed me by drinking too
much. A big grin came across his face
and he said, “My half was the bottom half and I had to drink yours to get to my
water and here is my half of my water like I promised.”
O Copyright, 1999
By hitchhiking, we reached Tarelton
College. We worked out for basketball
the first day and the coach lost interest in my ability immediately, but wanted
Henry to workout again the next day.
Since he did not invite me and did not offer to let me stay in the dorm
the second night, I decided to hitchhike west and come back through to meet
Henry later.
I had a gas can that had been
prepared to open by taking the complete top off where I could use it as a
suitcase, yet it looked like a gas can, and could still be used as one by
closing the big lid tightly.
I traveled far out into the west
Texas desert until I decided I had better get back to meet Henry. About 10 miles west of Andrews, Texas, my
ride let me out at a crossroads.
I took my gas can suitcase out of
the paper sack I was carrying it in and folded the sack and put it in the can
with my clothes. Soon an old man in a
T-Model took pity on me and gave me a ride, thinking I had run out of gas.
He asked me where my car was, so I
lied and said it was back about a mile on the other road. The old man drove about 15 miles per hour,
and I thought we would never reach Andrews.
When we finally got there, he told me
he would drive me back to my car when I
got the gas. I told him my brother
lived in Andrews, which was another lie.
I said he would drive me back to my car, and it would give us a chance
to visit. The old man said he would
wait to see if my brother answered my phone call. I went in the station and pretended to talk on the phone. When I returned to tell him my brother would
drive me, he handed me my gas can and said, “I filled yo can wit gas. Good luck and I enjoyed meetin’ ya.”
I took the can in the rest room and
poured the gas off my clothes. I tried
to wash the smell of gas out of the clothes but ended up smelling like a gas
bomb myself.
I got back on the highway to
hitchhike back to meet Henry. I would
catch a ride, but they would let me out within a mile, because the gas smell
was so strong. I think I would still be
in Andrews, Texas, if a pickup truck had not stopped where I could ride in the
back.
When I met Henry at Stephenville, he
would not even walk beside me, because I still smelled like gas. He informed me that if we caught a ride, and
they put us out because of the smell, he was going to hitchhike alone. Luckily, the next ride was on the back of a
truck-load of hay, and I was aired out good by the time we reached Ft. Worth.
The Itch Powder Test!
O Copyright, 1999
When Henry and I reached Dallas, we
went to a trick shop on Commerce Street.
Henry bought two or three items, and one was some itch powder.
It was closing time when we left the
shop and we had no luck trying to hitchhike in downtown Dallas. Soon we started walking. Dallas was bigger than Atlanta, Texas, and
it took us until after midnight to walk to the edge of the city.
That was one of two times I ever saw
Henry Willis scared. We had to walk
through the ghetto and when we would meet another man, which was usually of a
minority race, Henry would step around me so I would be between him and the
man.
It surprised me to see Henry that
frightened. Later, I learned that Henry
had read an article in the Dallas paper about a night stalker that had murdered
white men caught in the ghetto. Henry
had not told me about the stalker, so I
would not be as scared as he was.
When we reached home things got back
to normal, but of all the times to do so, he brought the itch powder to school
when we were taking final tests. He sat
behind me as we took our English IV test from Mrs. Alice O’Neal.
Henry put itch powder down my back
just as the test started. Needless to
say, I did much more scratching than thinking.
I failed the test so bad that I made a “D -” in the course.
O Copyright, 1999
Henry and I could each eat as much
as five normal humans. We would go to
my house for holiday dinners at 12 noon, and then be at his house to repeat the
holiday dinner at about 1:30 p.m. You
must remember the dinner meal in East Texas meant the noon meal which is
different in other areas of the country.
My mother and Mrs. Willis neither
knew that we were eating at both places.
One day my mother met Mrs. Willis in the grocery store in Atlanta. She said, “Mrs. Willis, we sure enjoyed
having Henry over for Christmas dinner the other day.” Mrs. Willis looked surprised and informed
Mother that I had eaten Christmas dinner with Henry at their house.
They did not tell us that they had
caught up with our plan. On New Years
when we ate at both places they pushed as much food on us as they could and
when we tried to refuse more they acted as though they were hurt because we
were not eating more.
Needless to say, Henry and I spent a
miserable night stuffed like two holiday turkeys that we were. The next day they told us that we had been
caught, but we were welcome to continue the habit of two holiday dinners if we
could stand it.
O Copyright, 1999
Henry and I went to a party on a
lake near a town not far from Atlanta.
A six foot six, 200 + pound albino showed up at the party. Apparently he had developed a rather mean
personality as a defense mechanism because he looked different. I’ll refer to the albino as just “Big Al” as
I relate what happened.
Big Al decided that he was going to
run Henry and me off from the party since we were from out of town. He told us
to get in our car and leave. Since he
had three friends by his side, I was ready to oblige, but Henry would not
leave.
Big Al pulled out a knife and held
it in a threatening way. I told Henry
that we had better go. Henry said, “No
way “ and would not back off.
When Big Al sliced at Henry he
jumped to the side and in one quick motion had Big Al ‘s arm twisted behind his
back and forced him to drop the knife.
Henry turned him loose and picked up the knife and threw it in the lake.
Big Al and his friends left and in
about twenty minutes returned and he was swinging a two foot long chain telling
us to leave. I said, “Let’s go,
Henry.” But he ignored me. Henry wadded into the chain and it wrapped
around his arm. He took it away from
Big Al and threw it in the lake.
Big Al left and we never saw him
again but I kept my eyes on every car that drove up for the rest of the
evening. Henry enjoyed the party, but I
was glad to get away.
Henry’s Last Whipping In
School
O Copyright, 1999
We were freshman in high school and
still had the “junior high attitude.”
We
were all showing off like kids do when the biology teacher walked into the
room. Henry’s back was to the door and
he was really clowning around.
The biology teacher was very strong
and was the only person we had seen that could break out of the grasp of the
star football player, “Mule Kinnermer.”
The teacher grabbed Henry and bent him over his desk and gave him about
five good licks with his paddle.
As Henry walked back to his seat, we
knew by the look on his face that he was hurting. The teacher said, “If you are going to act like dogs, I am going
to treat you like dogs.”
The teacher then turned toward the
blackboard and, as he did, Earnest Jackson barked like a dog. I thought the teacher was going to whip
Henry again, since he was between Earnest and the teacher.
He approached Henry but reached
around him and picked Earnest up the collar and carried him to his desk. He bent him across the desk where he was
facing the class. Earnest got ten of
the hardest licks I ever saw given in school.
The smile never left Earnest’s face, but the tears were flowing freely
down his cheeks and around his smile.
Henry
Willis was the greatest friend a person could ever have. Henry and I only visited occasionally during
our adulthood, but those visits made me know that he was very happy, because he
often expressed his great love for his beautiful wife, wonderful children, and
loving grandchild. I know that each of
you have suffered a great loss with the passing of Henry, as I have. But Henry loved you so much that he would
want you to suffer as little as possible and just always remember him with a
smile. You were lucky to have had him
the years that you did. Some people go throughout life without ever
knowing a person that is one-tenth the man that Henry was. I’ll bet God smiled when he saw Henry coming
last summer.
