Saturday, January 26, 2013

Wes Takes a Turn With the Book of the Strange

Jocie Brooke here reporting from Main Street, Hollyhill. Well, I would be reporting except I have to do this science report for school about plant stamens and pistils. I know. Boring!! But Dad says grades are important and I can't just make something up. Pistils sounds like something made up to me. Anyway, since the report is due Monday, I'm turning over this week's search for the strange to Wes. He says he's no good at writing stuff, that his job is to help my father get the papers printed, not put the words on the papers. But I told him this "Book of the Strange" was mostly his idea and so it's his turn. You'll like Wes. Most everybody does, except Zella. But then, Zella doesn't like anybody.  

So here's Wes. I've got to go figure out what pistils are. Only thing I know for sure so far is that you don't shoot with them. That was supposed to make you smile. I need something to make me smile because science reports sure don't. See you next week if I get caught up on my homework.

Wesley Green here. I'm no reporter, no writer either, but I did pester Jo into trying her hand at this. Maybe I'd better tell you a little about myself before you go to thinking I'm a young whippersnapper like Jo. I could be her old uncle. She's hollering "grandfather" back at me, but I'm not about to admit grandfather age to nobody. So what if my hair seems to have lost its color. That could have happened when I fell out of that Jupiter spaceship. Orange Jupiter hair would've made me stand out too much down here on Earth. Folks might have figured out I was worse than what they call a "furriner" here in Hollyhill. Orange hair might be a dead giveaway that I might be an alien from Jupiter just like I've always told Jo. <wink wink> The one thing you can be sure of is that when you start figuring out strange in Hollyhill, old Wesley Green fits right in the number one spot on the list. 

You see, I wasn't born here like most everybody else. Nary a person anywhere for miles around can call me cousin. I figure I'm the only one in Hollyhill what can say that. Folks here are kin to each other on every side of the family. Even old Zella has a pile of cousins scattered around the county. Of  course, she picks and chooses the ones she claims. A person has to qualify to be kin to Zella. 

So you're probably asking how a strange old guy like me ended up here in Hollyhill. First off, I might be old, but I don't know that I've "ended up" anywhere yet. Second off, I rode that old motorcycle up in that picture right into Hollyhill back about nine years ago. Or maybe it was ten years. I lose count. Numbers up on Jupiter aren't all that important. We gave up keeping count of anything on account of all those moons up there. We'd think we had them counted and another one would pop up out of nowhere. Then being sensible folk, we decided not to worry about it. What difference does it make if you have sixty-seven or fifty-seven moons? Folks down here on Earth seem fixated on counting everything. Words in a book. Toes on a foot. Hairs on a head. Oh, wait. That's just the good Lord that numbers that last. 

Anyhow, I never planned on staying here. Just planned to work a few days to make some money to put gas in my old motorcycle and go on down the road. But that Jo was a cute little tyke at three or four and every time I said anything about leaving, her little lip would tremble. Besides she liked my Jupiter stories. Somebody liking your stories isn't something to take too lightly. 

So that's how I got here. Fell right out of that Jupiter spaceship going over Hollyhill and turned into a beatnik on a motorcycle. Now is that strange enough for you? 


(Remember, leave a comment and tell me and Jocie what's strange about your town or just say hi and your name will go in a hat for a March 1 drawing to get Scent of Lilacs.  It's got all kinds of my Jupiter stories in it.)


 

8 comments:

  1. I fell in love with the folks in Hollyhill, reading the other two books. I grew up in West Tennessee where every other person seemed to be my cousin. One of the towns we lived in had a speed limit of 31 mph. It still does. I'm writing about that town in my latest WIP. If I don't win this book, I'll have to buy it.

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    1. 31 mph? Was that because the number 1 took less paint than a zero? LOL. I hope the WIP goes well for you, Betty, with all those hometown memories to draw from.

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  2. Hi ladies, my towns not strange just small, but please enter me in the drawing as i love to read and your book sounds great thanks
    Shirley Blanchard
    jcisforme@aol.com

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    1. Oh, all our towns are strange now and again, don't you think, Shirley? At least maybe we hope they are when we're 13 like Jocie. Thanks for commenting and entering the drawing.

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  3. Hi Ann, The town I live in now is not a town at all, it's a Township. It is very rural here and if you ask directions you are given the name of a road/area by its old name and you have no idea. Everyone is related to one another. I have only my husband and puppy as family here which makes us feel very strange. Wes on the other hand reminds me of someone in a town where I spent part of my childhood. He owned the appliance store and knew everyone and everything. He & his wife had no children and lived in a very large house. Thanks for encouraging my memories...lots of fun. Linda

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  4. Guess you get to know a lot of the town's history while searching for places by those old names, Linda. Funny. It shows how town have a shared history that is hard sometimes for newcomers to figure out. Your "Wes" sounds like a guy everybody liked to know. The church I go to used to be sort of like your Township where everybody was kin to everybody and I had the same kind of feeling you did about being the only one not related. But after a few years, I felt related just because we shared so much in the church. Maybe it will be that way with you and the place you live.

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  5. The little town where I lived before moving here was in the Ghost Towns book. Elgin, KS. if you care to look it up. I thought that was strange. I didn't think anyone lived in ghost towns. It was a important town at one time when cattle drives were going on and they drove their cattle to Elgin to load onto trains. But, first, they had to walk down in this big hole filled with something to kill ticks. When I moved there it had only one business left. A small cafe that only served lunch. At different times, someone would get a small garage-sized building and put a few gro. in it for when folks needed bread or milk or such. But most didn't stay long, for folks had to go to another town to buy enough groceries to get by. Mostly older folks lived there who had grown up there. I worked 4 hrs. a day in the little cafe and most times we only had 4 to 7 people eat Some days only 3. I thought that was strange. I lived there 16 years and the most people we ever had while I worked was 13. That was a big day. And, I heard lots of strange stories. I better go now. Maxie

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    1. Jocie here - Loved hearing about your ghost town, Maxie. I'm going to look up Elgin, KS. Wonder did the horses the men rode have to go down in the hole too or just the cows? That job at the cafe sounds great if you got to read in between customers. Our Hollyhill Grill is a little busier than that, but sometimes it's just the old guys sitting around drinking coffee all day. The waitress there told me she'd like to put an alarm clock on the tables. When it went off, they'd all have to get up and leave, go outside and if they wanted more coffee, come back in and pay for a new cup.

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Jocie loves to know what you're thinking about your visits to Hollyhill.