The Literary Corner: Renegade Writer’s Guild

Published 9:20 am Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Possessed

By  E. Bishop

The following story comes from a recording by my late brother, Pete.

Joe was a Chevrolet man to start with, but he ended up outbidding me for this ’92 Ford truck at auction one Saturday morning. We were all down there bidding on the truck, but Joe bid the thing off for $4250. It had 15,000 miles on it. Nice truck but hit hard in the front, square in the front.  Hit hard.

After three or four years, he had gotten enough parts to fix that old truck, but he come up to me one day and said, “Pete, let me sell you that old Ford truck I got.” I said, “Well, Joe, I can’t give you for it what you got in it.” Joe said, “Well, go by and look at it before you go home today.”

So, before going home, (Tom was along with me) we went riding by Joe’s house down at Rockwell to take a look. Joe said “I’ll call you later and you tell me what you’ll give me for that truck.” I said, “Well, Joe, it ain’t gonna be as much as you got in it. He said, “Well, I’ll take less for it. I gotta get it out of the yard. My wife said that truck’s gotta go!”

After checking that truck out a couple more times, I finally just decided it wasn’t gonna be over $2000. that I’d give him which was less than half what Joe had in it. I didn’t figure he was gonna take it. I told him “Joe, I just rather not even tell you “cause I don’t wanna hurt your feelings.” He said “You ain’t gonna hurt my feelings; my wife said it had to go; it’s been here too long.” So, I went ahead, loaded it up and hauled it home. Set it up out there in front of the shop.

And, it sat out there for a good while; I’d be in the shop working; I’d hear a door slam. I’d go in the house, I’d hear a door slam; look out, there’s nobody out there. Wasn’t nothing out there! That went on for some time. One day, I was sitting in the shop and that door opened; looking out toward the house; nothing was out there; heard racket coming from that truck! So, the next day, I took the tractor, hooked it up to that truck and drug it around behind the shop out there in the woods, trying to keep it together. I was gonna fix it one day. But, then you could hear that door slam way out there in them woods too. But, nothing moved.

Finally, just decided to junk it; used the parts off of it for another truck. And then, I got to worrying if that racket was gonna be in that truck I was fixing. But, it wasn’t. I set that demon truck on down in the woods a little further; but when I was up there in the garden working, I could still hear racket coming from that direction.

One day, the Duke power man come by checking poles down near that truck. I asked him if he’d been bothered by haints down there. He said, “What’s down there?” I said, “Nothing.” He said, “There’s something down there. I parked right beside that old truck where you talking about.  A racket come out of that thing. Everytime I put my head down to write, I’d hear that…it sounded like a door slamming or metal scrapping or something. I got out two or three times and looked and ain’t seen nothing yet. Well…uh, I was a little nervous down there. I stayed in my truck the best I could and got my work done.” I said, “You believe in them things?” “Oh, yeah,”  he said, there’s stuff like that out there.” ….to be continued   

House of Windsor

By Linda H. Barnette

The British royal family had many other names throughout its long history before it became the House of Windsor. Without too much background information to muddy the water, in 1901 a line of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha royal family succeeded to the position of king. He was Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. However, in 1917 because of huge anti-German feelings in the United Kingdom during WWI, the family changed the family name to what it is now, Windsor. There have been 5 monarchs in this line so far: George V, Edward VIII who abdicated in 1936 giving the throne to Queen Elizabeth’s father, George VI, Queen Elizabeth II, and now Charles III. He is the monarch even though he will not be crowned until May 6 of 2023.

Following is the proclamation issued by George V regarding the name change on July 17, 1917:

Now, therefore, We out of our Royal Will and Authority, do hereby declare and announce that as from this date of this our Proclamation, Our Family shall be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, and that all the descendants in the Male line or Our Said Grandmother Queen Victoria who are subject of these Realms, other than females who may marry or may be married, shall bear the said name of Windsor.

Most people think that the family chose the name because of its long association with the town of Windsor and Windsor Castle, where they liked to stay.