| Summary: | Folder contains 14 pages of a short story written by Shelby Southard for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the late 1930s.• (1)
• ••• that a Government Of the peopl., the people, and the people
shall Dot perish from the earth•••• " ---Abraham Llncola.
GIlD:lIT GIllllOliS
1II0~ e.emed to be able to figure out w~ GreBn7 Gibbone euddenl,.
took a fool notion in hi. head to run for coroner. Just on appearances
WJ14.1
heAthe last ons on earth 70U would think would WBIlt to get into
politics. J1rst place GreBn7 had a good Job, end on top of that
he Just vun't the politicldng t;n>e. 1II0t that he didn't ha..e the gift
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of gab as the Slll'ing goes, but IlOstlT he uaed his gabbing along other
lineI than electioneering.
There vere several fairlT rellllll'kable things about GreeD¥. One
thing) he veighed near about 400 poull4s and that's no 11e. .And then,
big as he was, he took and £Ot to be one of these here electrical
lineman, fellovs that Climb the poles and fix whatever gets the matter
with the wiring when something gets the matter. Old GreeD¥ put a
big shadow down on the ground when he put on them old heel spike. and
mounted up the pole. Once he got up there he looked like a baked apple
stuck on a toothpick. It was a .ight to vatch him, great big ~blob
of a -sn, no .hape to hill hardl,-, climbing around them poles•, and looping
and cutting and fixing them wires without giving it a secoad thought.
On top of all that, GreBn7 knew more Just plain down dirt,. stori..
than &D¥bodT in the count,., and Bome IlOre of his reputation rested
on h-ill being abls to cook up barbscue so good. Thq. wasn't nobod,-
could hash up better barbecue meat than old GreBn7. lie vas in big
demand vherever there va. & gather1ng.
llut ltill and all that vaan't no reason to go into politiel.
You got 10 used to oeeing him up a pole somewhere It JockeT1ng around
in a tanlile of wires that when the word vent around the equare he
was aiming to run for coroner the,. va.n' t no~ would belie... it till
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they heard tmlll Gre""", in pereon from hll ow lips. Be Juet vasn't
the politician ~e.
The people e"'l7"here knew Gre""",. Be vas easy to get along with)
and had a good I18mory for face.. Waen' t hardly, """,body he couldl1' t
call by ll8JIIe. Bis work wea such he got around quite a bit and that
w~ a person comes to know a lot of people. They all liked Gree~.
Wot in .. serioue w~. of course, for Ilobody could dforcl. to take
"- old Gre""", eerious. but in 1Iteko free and easy way you could say old
Gre""", vae .. popular and .. well-liked man. J:verybody knew him.
Everybody either laughed at him or with hi•• People like to pther JIll
in knots tmdemeath a polo where he 10 worlc1n« and then he will check
back and forth wi th the. while he worb. Be ..... an old hand at
~cutUng Jokes with people and vaSll't hardly ever you could
say the other fellow /lOt Olle off all Gree~. "You got to get up mighty
early in the morning to get ahead of old Gre""",," thsy would say; or, ,
"It ..11 be a cold day ill August whell somebody get's old Greeny's goat."
That w..s .. fact. too. Juet to look ..t him he didn't look liks he had
br&11l olle. lklt opelled up 011 you with his fuIlIlill8 he !D8Mged
to keep ..bout two JUlllpS ahead all the Ume.
Gre""", stopped echool in the o1xth grade the way boye haTe .. trick of
doing. Be Ilever did go b&ck. He had what you would cul Juet 4
"Ter~ educaUon for the sixth grade.
T&1k1ng about hie smutty. storiee, it ' ... fact like I s&1d that he
knew more of the dirtiest pool hall yams .. li1ite III8Il has got ..,y
right to know. You could go off illto MadisOIl County or eomewhere way
off where old Gree~ wouldn't ,go Ollce in .. blue moon.
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liow that sort of .tumped the big man for a second. It wa.
true -- Davson was an ex-moonshiner had got on the sheriff's force
for ths main reason that he knew where .0 many .tills were.
He found out he could me.ke more catchinl. stiU. than running' one
hi.self and had been with the county ever since, ~n!l~" ....
""519 8 or SSB.-er. You had to be a slick: one to put your still where
Blaclde cculdn't find it -- if he, wanted to find it•
All that !!lUst have run throU8h Greeny'. mind in a flash,
for hi. feee cleared up, and I wondered what he was going to s07I'
"Ro, sir,· Greeny s&1d. ·Ile &1n't forget he's been to the
pen, and he don't went you to go forgettin' it neither. That's the
sort of experience e. sheriff needa. Experience with the law•••
Then he knows how it is from the inside that WB,}'I'.
The crowd guffawed. Old Greeny had scored againl And he
knew it, you could teUJ from the w07 he wiped the smirk off his
feee wi th the beck of hi. hand. Then, to rem1l\d them of his own
reee, he fished in his coat pocket and took out a handful of little
printed cards which reed:
GDI:lIT GIBllOIlS
Your liext Coroner
Your Vote'" Influence Ie Appreciated
(SubJ. Action Democratic Prill&ry)
Sept. 25
(Pd. Pol. Adv., Greeny Gibbon.)
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