Southern Living, 6th Grade

Well, it is now 1958. I am an oldster, in the 6th grade. Not a helluva lot happened to me in the 6th grade. I had a brief and torrid love affair with Carolyn Wallace, a Methodist Preacher's daughter. She dumped me and I met the love of my young life, Helen Smith. A beauty with flaming red hair. I actually dated Helen for 5, countem, 5 years. All the way thru the 11th grade. But alas, it wasn't meant to be. She finally married a preacher wannabe named Higgenbotham! Alas!
Anyhow. Mrs. Donald was my 6th grade teacher. She was a peach! She had a son, who's name was Billy and a foster son who's name escapes me at the moment. I will think of it eventually. Anyhow, Billy was in the band with me, and kept me fairly well posted on what was coming down the 6th grade pike! Billy, wherever you are, I still think of ya occasionally!
Mrs. Donald's foster son is Joe Acree. Another fine Southern gentleman that I still count as a Friend.
I also met the MOST UNIQUE individual of my entire life!
Preacher Campbell! Preacher ran the service station right across the bayou gong to town. He had a father-in-law named Judge Rush and a black employee named Luck Bridges.
I don't know where to start to describe these three individuals. I learned so much from them that 10 years of college couldn't have begun to touch it!
Preacher, who got his name because his daddy was a preacher, was an entrepreneur of the finest kind. He ran the service station, and it WAS a SERVICE STATION. Luck would come out, pump your gas, check your oil and even sometimes wash your windshield!
Let me back up a little. The reason I came to know them so well is that I had a paper route. The Jackson Daily News! My papers would be dropped off at Preacher's station by the Greyhound bus every afternoon. I would pick them up there and deliver them on my Sears Roebuck Moped.
Course before I left on the paper route, I would indulge in a Mr. Cola and a Po Boy. A po Boy was a spice cake with raisins that sold for a nickle. A Mr. Cola was 7 cents. 12 cents got you well filled. At least well enough to go and deliver papers.
Most times, after I ran the paper route, I would stop in for another round of each, just to sustain me enough to get home to supper!
I will elaborate more on Preacher, Judge and Luck as time goes on. They are all passed on now, but wherever they are, I hope they know that they were truly loved by a Mississippi Delta Youngster!