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TRUE LIFE STORIES


Mr. Chester and P.W. Remembering Howlin’ Wolf and the Sawmill


by Phil Ward As a small child, my family lived in a


company house on the E.L. Bruce Lumber Company yard. There were fourteen or fifteen houses on the Bruce Yard, nothing fancy ex- cept the hardwood floors, since E.L. Bruce was the world’s largest manufac- turer of Hardwood Floor- ing at the time, they got it cheap. The Sawmill was located on Old Macon Rd about a mile from Colum- bus Mississippi, about half a mile from old Highway 82. Back in 1960,


Highway 82 was rela- tively new, over half the roads in North Missis- sippi still weren't paved, road trips were nightmar- ish. Old Macon Road was paved with all of the over- loaded log trucks coming in and out of the yard. One of those tires would hit a piece of creek gravel pulled from the Mill Yard and shoot it out like a bullet. Our house was only 40 feet from the


blacktop so we didn't play in the front yard. However one morning I saw a group of chil- dren walking down the side of Old Macon Road. I asked them where they were going and a boy about 8 years old answered, "The


Wolf is pulling down to the green chain (where the freshly sawed, heavy green lum- ber comes out of the sawmill to be graded and stacked)and we are going to see him.” When I asked him why he wasn’t it


school, he replied, "My Mamma knew that the Wolf would be here today so she let me stay at home." I asked him if I could come along, though he re- sponded with "You better go ask your mother." I replied, "She don't care, all she's gonna do is tell me to get out of the house if I can see straight and noth- ing is broken and I ain't bleeding." He replied, "I can't keep you from going, but you didn't go with me, okay?" I agreed. The green chain was only about 200 yards from the edge of my back yard, granted there were 3 foot to 4 foot diameter logs


piled up over 20 feet high everywhere you looked and green lumber stacked everywhere up to 20 feet high. That's about as high as their lifts could raise a bunk of green oak lumber. We got about halfway there and I hear


a godawful noise over the Sawmill and with all of the machinery, I thought someone had been hurt. Then I hear someone holler "I should have quit you....... a long time ago.”


33


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