This is Old Blois and we got a situation down here in Wildwood that's so worrisome to some people and they don't know just quite what to do about it. Now it ain't no worry to me, but it is to some people, but I'll tell you about it. There's this old boy down here named Luther Magruder, and he lives down there on the ditch bank down here, and he works up under at that service station up there just about a mile out of town. He's a cracker jack mechanic.
Everybody says so, and if you're having any cars or a boy, you can go in there and he'll tell you how to fix it. If you mechanically you've got some mechanical ability, but if you don't know nothing about the car like I don't, you know, he'll come and fix it for you, and if you've got money you can pay him. Now I've always paid him for what he's done for me because, you know, I'm lucky to be, you know, pretty well off and so I try to pay for what I get, but if somebody come in there and didn't have no money and wanted some help, you know, oh, Luther, he'd help him, wouldn't charge him nothing if they didn't have no money. Well, somebody, he got a call up there from this man down there that worked down there at the cotton gin, and he told Luther, he said, Luther, there's a girl down here in the car that's smoking, the car's smoking at his girdle, wasn't smoking, I don't guess, but the car was smoking, and he said the car won't start and said she won't leave it, and, but she don't know how she's going to get to town, said, you know, she's afraid to go out walking on the road and he said, I don't blame her.
Well, Luther, you know, what he'd done, and he, he went up there in his car and to see what was going on, and he found out, you know, he looked at the car and found out that it was, you know, it was in real, real, man, shape, and he couldn't get it started, so he told that girl, he told her, he told her who he was and everything, and he said, I told you car to town, said, you stay in the car, and you, you lock the car, and said, all you got to do is put the car in neutral and said, I'll hook up to you, and I'll pull you, to town, and we'll take it down there at that service station, and I'll see what I can do for you. Well, he told her down there, and he worked on that car for a good three hours, and he got it running, and he said, now this won't take you very far. He said, you got a bad, a valve, two valves that needs a replacement, or a replacement in the car, but he said, this will get you where you got to go, and he said, I ain't going to charge you nothing for it, well, she, she commits to crying, and, and he said, well, you know, you used to do it, and I had, he said, I didn't mind helping you, but anyway, what I was starting out to tell you, I'm just trying to tell you what kind of a feller that old Luther Magruder is, but what I didn't tell you, what I was aiming to tell you was, that every Saturday night, every dad comes Saturday night, old Luther gets drunk, and he, he, he don't get a little drunk, I mean, he gets, he gets plumb drunk, now he don't bother nobody, but he goes up by the town, and he got him a skillet, I don't know where he got that skillet, but he'll go down there, in the middle of the street, I mean, right in the middle of the town square, and he comes in to be known that skillet and saying it, and of course, he can't sing, but he don't, he don't know it, you know, when he's been drinking that way, but he'll be known that he and, and, and sang at the top of his voice, and, so the police come down and they arrest him and take him in, and I remember, you know, last about two weeks ago, police arrested, old Luther Magruder and took him to the station, and they said, now, Luther, we don't want to hold you, we don't want to keep you in jail. They said, why don't you just go home, and, and, and, and we won't, we won't hold you.
And so, they took him home, you know, he lives right down here on this ditch bank about a mile from town, and so they took him home and let him out, and the next thing you know, it about took him about 30 minutes to get back to town, and he was, had his skillet with him, and he was down there saying and raising Cain, because he does a little cussing when he gets, but he ain't hurting nobody, don't you see? He ain't doing nobody no harm. He ain't trying to fight nobody. He just haven't had a real good time, and every Saturday night come rain comes shine, he's down there, and they arrest him and take him to jail, and what, what I've always said about it is, and I might be wrong about this, and you can tell me what you think, but I don't see that he's hurting nobody.
He's downtown there, don't nobody live there, the stores is all closed, all except that, that little old tavern down there, your car's place, that's a, on the place down there that's open, and, as far as I can see, Luther ain't doing nobody no harm, but what he's doing is again the law, and I know that. You ain't supposed to be down there beating on the tin pan and hollering cussing, but that, as far as I can tell, that's Luther's only fault, and what I have said, and what I have told the policeman down there, the sheriff, I've told him they just ought to leave Luther alone. I said, he's gonna do that, and just leave him alone. I said directly, he'll get, he'll go to sleep, and then next day he'll be alright.
He'll be done, sobered up, and he ain't doing nobody no harm, but they don't see it that way, and every time he comes down there, they arrest him, and take him in and put him in jail, and it ain't, it's just costing people money to take care of him, and he ain't doing nobody no harm, while Luther wouldn't hurt nobody in the world, drunk or sober. So anyway, that's what I wanted to tell you about, and that's a situation down here, and I wish there was something that I could do to help O'Luther, but I can't, I can't, I've talked to him about it, and he always has told me, he said, oh, I'll quit that, he said, I know that's, I'll just quit, I'll just quit. But he can't quit, every time he goes there, and there, just drinking, and he gets drunk, and he's gonna do it every Saturday, you're gonna see your Luther down there in that town square cussing and singing. So I wish I know what to do for him, but only two possibilities that I see is, number one, to leave him alone, or number two, to arrest him.
So if you can think of some other alternative to, to help O'Luther, I wish you'd let me know, because I feel sorry for him, I really do, Luther is a good old boy, and he don't mean no harm to nobody.