(Written in 2013. Taken from my book: "Turnip Greens, Country Club Malt Liquor and Pickled Pigs Feet: The Life & Times of Zeke Kelly".)
BeBop Has a Lapse of Re-memory: My buddy, BeBop, for God-only-knows how many years, is getting old and losing his re-memory powers. We converse via email, and sometimes by phone, several times a day, and practically every day of the week. Earlier this week he sent an email commiserating about an incarceration experience he had circa 1958. Even though I was not party to the circumstances being described I immediately detected embryos of senility beginning to emerge due to some obvious inaccurate descriptions of his experience. I felt encouraged to help him with some of the facts.
So, below is the transcript of our communications this week. It is unique because it gives amusing insight into a happening that occurred damn near fifty five years ago and the recent experience of this week.
So.......here it is:
BeBop:
“Bless Jan Marlows’ heart. She got a copy of the book just published about Mayhaley Lancaster , written by a woman there in the Carrollton area. The book mentions Earl Staples, Lamar Knight and Virgil Bledsoe. Let me refresh u’r memory. There was an old, old jail in Meriwether County that sat right beside the Chattahoochee River ......can’t remember the name of the berg it was located in however. But the sheriff was Virgil Bledsoe. One night, coming home from Simpson’s, he stopped a car load of us. We were all drunk of course. There was about seven of us as I recall….Kenneth Robinson, Joe Cochran, Junior Langford, John West and David Barbee. Virgil got us all crammed in his sheriffs car and took us to jail. He pulled into the parking lot of the jail and as he did, Kenneth and Junior flew out the back door, ran and jumped into the river (at 3 am) and started swimming across, with Virgil threatening to shoot if they didn’t come back. Barbee, e’re the poet, says ‘recapture those villians escaping across yon treacherous Chattahoochee’. I almost laughed my ass off but I didn’t laugh long as we were led up some creaky stairs and placed in a cell. We all slept soundly ‘til about 10:00am when a deputy came in and let us all go. What a relief not to have to call home for bail money. Whew! What an experience that was.”
Zeke:
BeBop: U getting like me...cain’t remember shit. I think U beeeze a little mixed up about that night. Here’s why:Meriwether Countyis southwest of Newnan and Newnan is southwest of Franklin (Simpson). Unless you were lost, which you very well could have been and most likely was, you would not have been in MeriwetherCounty but in Heard County. The Chattahoochee River runs through Franklin (HeardCounty) not through Meriwether County. I just talked to current Heard County Sheriff Ross Henry and he said that Virgil Bledsoe was the sheriff of HeardCounty from around 1950 to 1972. That’s what I thought. I remember granddad talking about him a lot. You were probably in Franklin thinking you were in Greenville, the county seat of Meriwether County. Google, Google Maps and U will see what I mean.
Now...who’s on first?
Damn... you really are becoming a pain in the ass to take care of.
BeBop:
“Well shit...but as I said, we were drunker than shit. I’m just glad I was sober e’nuff to know I was still in Georgia.”
BeBop:
“All these years I thought I was in the one in Greenville and come to find out I was in the one in Franklin. I wondered why Virgil Bledsoe would arrest me if he was the sheriff of Heard County.”
Later on…
BeBop:
“Zeke...I been confused all day about the jails and what city they were in and what sheriff was where. Been doing a lot of research and found photos of the jails as they were back then. Now! Here’s what I have decided. I was in both jails at one time or another. The creepy old jail in Greenville is the one I remember the most about being so scary...like a torture chamber or something. Gonna send u both pics.
Zeke:
Now U beeeze gittin close
MERCY. MERCY. MERCY. Bless his heart.
No other comments are required except: “One thing good about Alzheimer’s is you get to meet new people every day”.
