WALKER: A Southern tradition: Practical jokes
Years ago, in small towns and before there were hundreds of television channels and you could keep up with most everyone's business through social media, people actually visited with each other. The men gathered in a local café and solved the country's problems. They also thought up practical jokes and implemented them. Here are four good examples. I could give many more.
1. Two To The Room In New Orleans. In Perry, James Moore may have been the king of the practical jokesters. He could fool even his closest friends on the telephone with his voice, and often did.
James was friends with Unadillians, Frank and Billy Giles, and their families. Frank made the mistake of telling James that the two families were going to New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl, and that both families were going to stay in one room.
Several of Foster and Martha Ann Rhodes' friends, including James and Nellwin, watched the game at the Rhodes' home. About an hour after the game, without saying anything to anyone, James went to the phone, telephoned the motel where the Giles were staying, was put through to their room and said: "Mr. 'Gillis' (he always mispronounced your name to throw you off), this is the management. We've been told there is more than one family in this room. We've got laws to cover this in New Orleans, and you had better come to the desk and pay what you owe." Frank told the caller that they were in bed but that he would come down in the morning and settle up. 'The manager' told him to come down immediately. "We've put folks in jail for this." I believe Frank got up, dressed, and went to the front desk!
2. Christmas Tree Revenge Is Sweet. Foster Rhodes and I put this together. This was after what James Moore did to the Giles, but certainly was not full payment for all he had done. It was still sweet.
About a week before Christmas, I ran an ad in the classifieds that went something like this: "I need your Christmas trees, when Christmas is over, to put in my catfish pond. Just leave them on my front lawn or telephone me and I'll come pick them up." Then, I gave James and Nellwin's address and telephone number. It was a tremendous success. They got lots of trees, several calls and several of James' friends who were "in on the joke" also contributed. I don't know where he took the trees, but it was not to a catfish pond!
3. Beware Mongoose. Do Not Touch. I'll bet you felt sorry for the Giles families that loaded up in that motel room in New Orleans. Hear this.
At their Giles and Hodge Warehouse in Unadilla, they had a prominently placed wooden box with a screen covered end displaying a protruding animal tail (probably a fox tail) and with a sign "Beware of Mongoose. Danger. Do Not Touch," and with a stick in a hole into the enclosed part of the box.
When you inquired about the "mongoose" they would tell you to "push the stick in the hole and it will probably come out," and when you did the tail would fly up in your face and you would almost have a heart attack. I almost tore out the side of the brick warehouse. Still feel sorry for the Billy and Frank Giles' families?
4. Just Taking A Little Right of Way. "This Foster Rhodes' joke" on Riley and Sandra Hunt is my nomination for the best that was ever played on anyone in Perry.
A little background: Several years ago, Riley and Sandra Hunt built a beautiful home on a dirt road on the outskirts of Perry. The house was set back a couple hundred feet from the road. A decision was made to pave the road with an understanding that a "little property" would have to be taken by DOT to "straighten out the curve."
Now Foster Rhodes, friend of the Hunts (who knew they were out of town) enters the picture. Foster was riding by the Hunt's new home, and as he says, "it hit me what I was going to do." I went to Tolleson Supply and got them to cut me what look like right-of-way stakes. Then, I took a marker and I wrote on the stakes "R/W 180, R/W 190," etc. Then I took the stakes and started driving them up in Elmo Meadow's property and on down through Riley and Sandra's to about 20 feet from their front door. Then I waited.
The Hunts came home, discovered the stakes, and all, well, "confusion" breaks loose. Riley calls me, his representative in the State House. He calls county commissioners and the local DOT man who told Riley, "we're just taking a little property." Riley, son of a Primitive Baptist Preacher, and one of Perry's finest responded, "a little ....." (see "confusion" above).
Life was good in small towns. Fun, too!
Larry Walker is a practicing attorney in Perry. He served 32 years in the Georgia General Assembly and presently serves on the University System of Georgia Board of Regents. Email: lwalker@whgmlaw.com
This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 7:47 PM with the headline "WALKER: A Southern tradition: Practical jokes ."