Mister Chester pointed at his car, everyone standing there knew him and said almost in unison, "Here it comes." Mister Chester smiled, and said "You see that car? I own that car, it don't own me." Then Mister Chester looked at dad, and
asked, "Truman, why do you let these people call your boy P.W.?" Dad answered, "Because those are his initials his name is Phillip Ward." His eyes got real big his mouth flew open in shock, he slapped his left leg and busted out laughing, and with tears from laughter in his eyes trying to catch his breath he managed to say, "I thought they was call- ing him Pecker Wood." By this time, all of the people who went to eat supper and clean up had joined the merriment, there were well over a hundred people there, and every one of them were laughing uncontrollably, holding their bellies, coughing, snot coming out of their noses. Then Mister Chester holding up his left hand holding his belly with the other said, "Hey everybody, from now on I want y'all to call that young fellow standing right there," pointing at me, "Mister Pecker Wood." Everyone roared in hysterics, the people in the office came out to see what was going on. I said, "Damn this." Dad looked at me a little surprised that I would use that kind of lan- guage in front of him. I clenched my fist down by my legs, stuck out my chest, and then stuck out my tongue at Mister Chester. Mister Chester looked down at me like he couldn't understand what was going on. My dad asked me where my manners went, and told me not to be sticking my tongue out at people. I pointed at Mister Chester and said, "He just told everybody to call me Mister Pecker Wood from now on, I thought he was my friend." Mister Chester answered, "No I didn’t.”
Everyone in the crowd nodded, "yes you did." He told everyone, "What I meant to say was, from now on call him Mister P.W. so people won’t go thinking that P.W. stands for Pecker Wood." He reached down and brushed away the gravel and put his right knee on the
ground and asked me to come there, I walked over, and he put his arm around my shoulder and said, “P.W. I would never hurt your feel- ings on purpose or make fun of you - still friends?" I answered, "Yes sir." Mister Chester
went back to talking about his exploits. I asked my dad why it was taking so long to get Mister Chester his money. Dad answered, "They are trying to get him to stay." I ask why. Dad said, "Life around this sawmill gets really monotonous." After he translated “monotonous” to mind numbing, I said, “Tell me about it, that tiny backyard is my whole world from breakfast to supper every day. Rayburn Zinn finally got the message.
Howlin' Wolf couldn't be swayed into staying another day, and payed him his money. Everyone started going home, and he mo- tioned that he wanted to talk to my dad be- fore leaving to his band members. So he told my dad that he has some shows at the col- leges in the area and will be around on and off most of the summer, and that he really en- joyed getting to visit with him. I said, “Wow it sounds like you two are very good friends.” Mister Chester told me, "When your Daddy first started with E.L. Bruce Lumber Com- pany, Mr. George Rodgers sent him to me and said show him the ropes and see how tough he is." Then he pulled his silver dollar out and said, "You heard me tell the story about how I got this silver dollar, me and your daddy are the only two men that have ever worked for Bruce that have one, show him Truman." Dad pulled his silver dollar out and showed it to me. Not quite two weeks before one of my dad's coworkers and fishing buddies died on the mill yard from a log pile rolling over him, mamma was constantly complaining about how dangerous working around a sawmill was, and had the kids worried about some- thing happening to dad. I asked Mister Chester if I could ask him a question, not knowing how dad would react. I asked him if
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