All the children with me started smiling


really big, one said, "That's The Wolf." About that time the lunch whistle went off, and the children started running up to where the green chain workers sat to eat their lunch. I asked one of the children, “where is The Wolf? I know all of these men.” She pointed towards the Green Chain,


and standing there was the largest human being I had ever laid eyes on. I asked the little girl, "Is he a giant?” She said, "No, Mister Chester is just a


big man.” Mr. Chester (Arthur Burnette) hadn't


seen any of us children yet, and as he walked down the green chain, he started pulling off his brown cotton work gloves. He pulled the one off of his right hand first, he raised his open hand up and said, "As long as I got this," then he made a fist and he shook his fist, "This," then he pointed down at his feet, "And These, I ain't gotta take no mess off of no- body.” One of the workers waved at Mister Chester and pointed at the pretty little girls dressed in their Sunday best. Mister Chester nodded at his coworker and smiled at the pretty little girls, they smiled back with their missing baby teeth. I was standing next to a man I knew


and he said his work gloves were all used up, and he didn't know when he would be able to get more. The day before, a Hillbilly preacher gave a guest sermon at our church, which was the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Our Pastor went on to teach at Brown. I guess he wanted to show us how lucky we were to have him as our Pastor. I told the man about how the visiting preacher said, "When you need something just work even harder and trust in Jesus. He will take care of everything you need, and if you don't have what you need it your own fault for not working hard enough." Mister Chester didn't hear the whole thing, but the part he did hear scalded his ears. I


34


was about to tell the man that my dad said that visiting preacher was full of number two. ( I'd get in trouble for saying the S-word) be- fore I could get it out, Mister Chester pointed at me and asked, "Who is that?" The worker replied, "That's Truman


Ward's boy. They call him P.W." Mister Chester replied, "Well the name


fits, but if that's Truman Ward's boy, there's a honky in that wood pile." They all laughed. My dad had a Mexican mother and was dark, even for a Mexican. All of the people around the Sawmill thought he was a man of color. Truman was already legendary in sawmill cir- cles. He set the world record for lumber sawed on a single Hardwood sawmill in an 8- hour shift. They asked him to back it up and Mr. George Rodgers, the Vice President of Production for Bruce Company, showed them the production sheets, and said they were more than welcome to stay if they kept out of the way. They stayed two more days and he broke the record he set on the first day for the next two days. Mister Chester just happened to be working there on those days, and wrote a song that went, "Pulling on the Bruce Com- pany Green Chain, Truman Ward up there setting World Records, Lord my back is in such pain." I asked if there were more lyrics, he an-


swered, "No ain't no more lyrics, Just sing that over and over, you'll get tired of it after a while." Then he asked, "Are you sure that boy belongs to Truman?” One of the workers replied, "Truman is


married to a white woman." Mister Chester looked surprised and


said, “Huh? I thought that was against the law."


I told Howlin’ Wolf, "You're a bad man


and I'm gonna tell my Daddy the stuff you've been saying." One of the workers said, "All you kids need to go home and let us eat our lunch."


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