TOJO & MR. ALVIN

**** In 1960 our neighbors to the north were Ms. Belle & Mr. Alvin. They were an older couple whose house was about two football fields from ours .

Ms. Belle was a sweet lady & still very pretty at around 70 . Mr. Alvin was a real deal WW1 hero . He had a cigar box full of medals to prove it . Stars , hearts & ribbons , all kinds of stuff.

Mr. Alvin told me about the battles he fought & how they won the war . All these stories were proved to be true .

Mr. Alvin told me about one battle where Mr. Alvin's group of 205 attacked & only 6 survived . For the longest time they thought Mr.Alvin had died . There was a funeral service for him over at the church . Months later Ms. Belle got a letter from Mr. Alvin saying he was coming home .

A lot of people said Mr. Alvin was so crazy because he was gassed in the war . I don't know but he had the most explosive temper of all time . Mr. Alvin would fly into a rage & go berserk .

Sometimes he would chase Ms.Belle , swinging his walking stick & cussing . Mr. Alvin could cuss better than anyone on earth.

This wasn't really as bad as it sounds . Ms. Belle was really fast for an old lady & Mr. Alvin had no chance to catch her . But you could hear him cussing from a quarter of a mile .

Anyway ,every Saturday morning for about 5 years I went to watch wrestling with Mr. Alvin. The Welsh boys , Jackie Fargo & Tojo were the stars .

Mr. Alvin hated Tojo Yamamoto . He would fly into a rage at the sight of Tojo . Mr. Alvin would throw his pipe across the room & whack the sides of the TV with his walking stick . And do some fine cussing .

Mr . Alvin would yell for Ms. Belle to bring him his gun . He said he was going to Memphis & deal with Tojo once & for all .

Mr. Alvin couldn't drive to Memphis . My parents took him to the Veterans Hospital when he needed to go . I would roll on the floor laughing while Mr. Alvin raged .

This was Saturday morning for a long time . Ms.Belle aways had us some cookies & cokes for the show . I made Mr. Alvin a big orange ashtray for his pipe . And he had the reddest pair of socks possible .

Around 1964 Dad & I stopped in to see Mr. Alvin before we went to Jackson . He had been feeling bad & we wanted to check on him before we left .

While we we visiting Mr . Alvin called for Ms . Belle to bring him his red socks We had a good time & I said" I'll see you Saturday" As we were leaving Mr. Alvin tossed me the red socks .

We made the trip to Jackson & back & had just rolled into the
driveway when Ms. Belle hollered for us . Mr Alvin was gone .

Well that has been 46 years ago & those red socks are still in my sock drawer .

THANK YOU FOR READING !!