Fruit of the Vine
Harvey Mardis was late showing up with the rest of the gang one day and no one could figure out where he might be.
Finally, he came walking up looking a little glassy eyed and smacking his lips. He told us how good he was feeling. He said he felt one hundred percent better than
he had felt in a long time. We couldn't figure out what had happened to him that made his health improve so much, but he finally told us to go with him and he would show us the reason.
He took us to a cellar of an old house and there on a table was a keg with a spigot sticking out of it and a tin cup on the table. After everyone had sampled a cup full of the ingredients
from the keg, we all knew why Harvey felt so chipper.
We didn't tell anyone else about the keg for quite a while, but we would make frequent visits to the cellar because we had always heard that
a little wine was good for the stomach. I'm sure you know that it was wine in the keg and I might add that it was well aged.
Things were going on pretty well for us until somehow of all people, Bill Lemon, the older boy, found it out and he wasn't satisfied with a cupful
every now and then. He took a water bucket and emptied the keg and took the bucketful home with him.
A while after Bill took all the wine, the high school basketball team went to Fredonia for a game and for some reason, Mr. Alderdise, the coach,
couldn't go, so Bill, who played on the B team took along some of the wine. As it turned out, the Smithland boys lost both games by a big score, but it was reported that they really put on a
show and had the fans splitting their sides laughing. It was also reported that some of the players didn't know if they had won or lost and didn't care at the time.
(c) copyright by Melvin "Bubbie" Martin 2001