Stop me if you’ve heard this one before…
Rollo’s people were from Dyess. Nobody talks about the Dyess Colony any more. But, if you would happen to know anything about our Government’s officially sanctioned, ill-fated, experiment in Socialism using real live sharecroppers as guinea pigs; you would understand that when somebody’s “people come from the Colony”; there is a lot of extra weight attached.
The only time I’ve heard any main stream mention of Dyess was some brief references in the Johnny Cash biopic “Walk The Line”. See, Cash’s people were from the Colony. Matter of fact, at one point, Rollo lived in the house at Dyess that Cash grew up in.
Rollo had many tales of that house…a lot of them were hilarious with a bittersweet after taste.
One day, in need of some beer money, the boys started to assess the gear…find something they could pawn for $20-$25, something like that.
“Jack, one of those guys had an old Strat copy. Whatever the cheapest guitar was at the time; that was it. I’m sure he didn’t pay much more than $50 new.”
So, the guys loaded up in the van and headed to the pawn shop.
“Middle of Summer in the Delta. Hot…Hell, the air sticks to you. Drove out to this place…nothing else around…a pawn shop in the middle of nowhere. No air-conditioning. You know how they hang baggies full of tap water to scare off the flies?”
“This guy, red-faced…easy 400 pounds, sweat beading up on his forehead. He’s got those half-glasses that he looks over the top of for effect; the impression of authority. Jowls hanging over the collar of a white dress shirt. The kind of guy that always wears a dress shirt to work even though he’s going to sweat his ass off…see’s us walking in…pulls those glasses down an inch and says…”
BOYS…What the pawn shop neeeds…is SHOTGUNS and Chainsaws. Don’t be Bringin’ yo’ nasty old GI-tar in here. I got plenty of guitars here. Nobody cares about yo’, nasty ol’ guitar. But, if you got a Shotgun or a Chainsaw…well…you just come on back and Then…we can do some business…
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