The Runner

Abstract

IKJ)I 26 The Runner* by George Strange Detroit, Mich. March 7 To Whom It May Concern: This is to introduce my son, Denton Pridemore, Jr., to any of you who don't remember him or haven't been accorded the pleasure of meeting up with him. He is a fine boy and has been a loving and dutiful son and is now full-grown by four years and of a mind to return to Kentucky, which was my home and the home of generations before me. He is a strong boy and no more afraid of work than a hawk's afraid of a shadow. While he's never farmed, he's wanting work in that line and will do good by any of you who want to hire him on. He's smart and learns fast, and you could pay him whatever you're a mind to until he gets to knowing more and is worth more to you. He is not needing of much money for he will be living on the old homeplace and working my ten acres, and he is not encumbered by as much as a wife or children or anyone to support except himself . 1 have steady worked building Fords for twenty-five years and have no need ofcontributing by him. For those who remember, my father Worth Pridemore and my mother, who was Maudey.Jo Evans, raised six of us younguns. There was me and Felix, Jonas, Daniel, Sophie, and Worthell, all of us living yet. 1 would thank you now in advance for all you can do to help Denton get on with what he wants to do and I would thank you for any news of untoward behavior on his part, not that I expect any such, for he has been a credit to his mother, bless her memory (she was a Detroit girl so you wouldn't have known her), and to his family, and I am yours truly and his loving father, Denton Pridemore, Sr. * © 1981 by George Strange 27 Dear Dad: Beech Grove, Ky. March 10 Everything is right on schedule like an efficient assembly line. I spent last night with the Simpsons like you told me to, and this morning, as soon as I load the truck with firewood that they're giving me for the last of winter, I'm heading up the road a mite, as us country folk say, and make something out of the old homeplace. From what the Simpsons say, that's no easy task. Vester says I'll have to get the cows out first, then the mice and stray dogs or there won't be enough room to swing the broom to sweep the copperheads out. Of course his eyes sparkled so much when he told me that I knew better than to believe him. All the Simpsons say to tell you hello. They were impressed with your letter and said it should get me a job "shorely." Vester says he practically raised you himself, to which his sisters say, "Lord help the Pridemores." The Simpsons are as fun to be around as you said they would, and I can see why you liked them so much. Sadie and Evebell must be getting close to eighty while Vester's just turned seventy. "I'm still a growing boy," he told me. They're always watching him, and he's always giving them reason to. They've been taking care oftheir brother since they were ten, and I guess they'll be taking care of him the day he dies. There's something good to be said for the permanence they've had, living in the house they were born in, milking in the barn they played in as children, and all ofthem playful still. This morning when I sat down with them at breakfast, Evebell told me to get up and wash my hands. 1 turned them up and showed her there was water in my palms. "You washed off the dirt," she smiled. "I'm talking bout getting in there and washing off your city ways." I never could find out how I gave myself away as citified...