Walter - Lucille Hamilton

You never really knew facts about what people call the essentials of life when you talked about Walter. He'd disappear, but nevertheless, talk would always come around to him in our conversations down over breakfast at Loue's.  There'd be a quiet in the conversation, and then someone would say, "Do you remember the day when Walter ……” and so the stories would start.

One thing Walter was known for was his brown overalls.  To anyone's knowledge, he wore them every day, no matter what the occasion.  He was always neat as a pin, but always wearing those overalls.  We had no idea if he had only one pair or if he'd bought out the whole lot from Wilson's Emporium.  We thought he lived at the Wilson's out in their barn on the outskirts of town, but weren't sure about this.

One thing we did know was he had taken on that stray dog - same color as his overalls, and they looked after each other just fine. See Walter, and there'd be the dog.  Walter taught the dog, which was his name, to sing "Moon over Miami." 

Sing, of course is questionable, but they performed a duet on amateur night that was so successful, what with encores and all, that their act was repeated each year, even drawing out-of-towners who'd  come specifically for their performance.  After a number of years, the dog got tired of it all and began to sing off key.  So Walter quit. and that was the end of that.

Kids didn't understand Walter and would play pranks on him.  Once Walter, when he was at the Wilson's, was shaving himself with one of those old-fashioned strop razors. The bathroom had a chimney right near the sink where Walter was lathering up. The kids threw down a lighted firecracker which exploded just as Walter raised the razor to his cheek.  He flew out at those kids, chicken-flapping mad, raising both arms and hell.They were so frightened into good behavior, the event pleased everyone in town.

He took up the harmonica in later years and joined The Thumpers, a mixed group of some old geezers and some of the young college kids.  They could wrangle good melodies out through all their ramifications and then some.

As I said, after a while he just wasn't there - he and the dog just weren't seen again.  Except on amateur night and on many other occasions when the heart longs for the good old days of honor, respect and fun, and then they see them again.

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