The Wilmington morning star., 1941-02-08
. Fair Enouuh
BY pECIrD

oAlllUI and
may not always harmonic
with its position.-The Edjtor
NEW YORK, Feb. This place
was a sort Of jock down there =,
you remember where you maka
that square turn to right by tba
entrance to Key Largo and start
down the straight road toward Kew
West, about five or ten miles down
on the left-hand side, toward ,bs
sea. Distance fools you along thera
with those green water bitches bv
the road and the high grass and
jungle, but for a long way before
you came to this place thev had
signs stuck up on stakes about their
wonderful stone crabs and wonder.
full turtle steaks and pompano. So
we finally came to it, and, like
say, there was this girl, or rather
she was a woman about, mavbe
O., in Stacks and a kitchen apron
and this little kid was 1laying ali
alone in a little clearing, a kid
maybe 3 or 4.
She was not bad looking but kind
of sloppy from around the kitchen.
and the place where you eat was
in a screened place with screen
walls but a canvas roof, and these
people lived in a little shanty-look.
ing place out back.
From North Dakota
So we got talking, like, YOU
know, you get talking with strar.
gers, and it turned out she came
from North Dakota, and here II
was up around 100 degrees and
back where she came from prob.
ably 40 below, but she says they
can have Florida but give her
where she came from, because she
wasn't any Daniel Boone, and pion.
eering was out of her line.
Mosquitoes, brother, they eat the
meat off your bones in bloody big
hunks, and if you get a flat along
there at night it was worth your
life to stop, because they would be
attracted by your lights and your
sweat, and sometimes you could
see those conks-what they call the
natives-working naked to the
waist and their hide would be just
black with mosquitoes, but the
conks they hardly feel it on &C.
count of something in their blood.
But if you aren't a conk it's muir
der, where back in Dakota if you
kill a mosquito you have it stuffed
and put it in a museum, and, fur
thermore, one night just lately.
they had a painter on the roof and
it like to scared her crazy.
/ never heard anyone call a pam
Their a painter in speaking, al
though 1 read where people said
like that in books, sc l thought for
a minute it was a, you know, a
house-painter got drunk and went
out lally-gagging because, like |
say, she was pretty good looking,
although she had her husband
there, except he was down the road
when we was there, chopping down
weeds and cane with a machete
and setting out more signs ABOUT
his wonderful crabs and turtle
steak.
She heard this painter scream
ing and came out and sa" 'e
bulge in the canvas where he was
sitting on the roof, so she gave
him a jab with a mop-handle, anu
tefore her husband could get d
shot at him he sailed off into me
weeds, and you could see his "hlle
belly Just as pretty in the moon
1ipht. but his claws ripped the can
vas like someone cut 1t with a Ia
zor.
Wants to Quit
So we said it was a cute NIUE
kid, and she said that was ahotleA
thing why she wanted to quit plon,
eerine. because the week before
the husband heard a rattle IN uit
weeds where he was setting ou'
those damn signs and turned
around and sloughed a rattlesnahs
over the head as big as an nue.
tube with his machete ana pfousn'
II home at noon and threw II III
the ward. Then after lunch ne WEN
back to put out more signs anu
he said after work he was goni5
to skin it and make a "ohoelIul
snakeskin belt or sell it to SOM
tourist. because it wac %pracucanns Any
enormous and no holes IN II LINZ
when you shoot them. o,,t
So a little later she looked ous
the kitchen door, and there wa
the little kid playing around n5
rattler and trying to pet ~ "n'
the snake was coiling up ana con-,
ing around from the sock on We
head with the machete, becauSe ~
wasn't dead but only stunned oV
she damn near died Of fright, pu'
she quick grabbed the old MAJ .
automatic off the bureau anu I'D
back and whammed the shdht Sonre
she had to take a TERRIBLE cnalLe
on killing her own kid, but s she
didn't, and while she was az ~
lie THE snake have five or SIX iiOll,
And so when the old man T0t tnI,
home that night he raised lien
shooting the beautiful snak'S mas
full of holes-so, brother sne INA
all caught up on that plo hef,
stuff, and we didn't olalt az, for
and moreover, don'i ever al lLo a
that turtle steak; it's blue inc ~
football bladder, and you l0S'
soon eat a felt hat.
Ti,nmons Jones Resigns