We hope to make it till jan. 31.  2020 already a milestone for Earl “Country” Boykin and myself.  Jan.31 we will have the “poker” party after several years hiatus.  We started the first Super Bowl and made it for 51 straight years.

We can’t schedule  golf this year.  No one can get out of a sand trap.  Other than that, the schedule is about the same.  Al  has promised to bring RWL ( run, walk, lay down) moonshine .  Two pops of that and the serious lying starts.  One story is standard.

“Country” — tell em about Ronald and the whiskey”!

Ronald worked for Earl’s Dad.  Drank a lot.  Earl said he once gave him some booze.  Two weeks and no comment from Ronald?  “Finally I asked him…Ronald, how did you like the bottle of booze?”

Ronald responded with “Well, I’ll tell you, that stuff was just right.  If it was any better you wouldn’t have give it to me.   And if it was worse, I couldn’t have drunk it!”

Sam Ervin is a hero in North Carolina.  You’ll see people reading the newspaper stand up and salute when they see his name in print.  He was born in 1896 and died in 1985.   He should have lived forever,  so that 2020 would render him age 124.

So- as I wandered through TAR HEEL LIGHTIN by Daniel S. Pierce, page 194 caught my eye:

(Sam) Ervin told the story of a “constituent” who shared some moonshine with one of his friends.  The constituent then asked his  friend how he liked it.   The friend responded “Well it was just right.” When the constituent asked what that meant, the friend replied, “I mean if it had been any better you wouldn’t have given it to me.  And if it had been any worse I couldn’t have drunk it.”

Hmmm.

I took the book to Earl’s beach place yesterday.  Showed the above to him.

He concluded–that damn Sam!  I must have told him the true version  when I was eight or ten years old.  Hard to trust anyone.   Earl said  I told Ronald it was a blend called “Singing Sam”.  Had a label with Sam playing the banjo.  Ronald said “yeah, he wuz playing the Death March.”