That was a strange time. Seems every fifty years or so yeh hear bout them kind a things happenin. Yeh can try to rationalize it, divvy er out. Put the blame wherever it makes yeh feel better bout it all. But it ain’t the truth. All these things happenin now. I remember hearin bout Sheriff Fielding’s cousin, Eli, down in Willow, that’s jest north a Davenport, all em years ago when he was the newly lected sheriff, all em missin people and how it all turned out. That story makes yer skin crawl. Yeh know I’m goin to change what I said earlier bout it bein ever fifty years. Maybe it used to be ever fifty years but it’s happenin more now it seems. The world’s changin.
Here’s a little somethin I told my sisternlaw. Twenty years ago, maybe twenty-five, she chewed me out bout my drinkin, said, Don’t yeh want to live to see a hundern? Ain’t yeh wantin to see them grandkids git married? Ain’t yeh wantin to be a great grandaddy? I told er, if the lord cares fer me to see that age he’ll let me. I told er a hundern ain’t up to me. That’s the way I feel anyway. The damn direction this world is goin, I’d consider myself lucky not to have to live through it.