Truths from "Henry"?

There are a number of autobiographical references in the story, "Henry".

First of all, there was a Henry. I believe that was actually his name. When I was boy I often saw him wandering through town. He was strange and I was a little boy, so I was afraid of him. I was also curious about him, but no one would really talk about the man to me. They would seem embarrassed when I asked and dismiss him as "not all there". 

I was a bit "not all there" myself in those days. We had lived in town, and then we lived out in isolation behind a swamp for two years. We moved back to town when I was 81/2 years old, but I was somewhat out of sync with the other kids my age by then. I had a hard time making friends and those I made were a bit outside the inner circle themselves.

The soft drink Upper Ten was popular in those days. It was like 7-Up or Sprite. My grandfather bought it all the time, probably as a mixer. I drank it a lot from a fairly young age, very much pre-school. I called it "wootie".  It was a clear liquid, except for the carbonation bubbles. To my toddler eyes it looked like water and "wootie" was as close to that word I could get. I never did learn to say it right. We had some kind of accent in the family and I am one of those who to this day pronounces it 'wadder', just like milk comes out "melk".

The fair was an annual event I looked forward too.  I was very lucky on those chance wheels as a child. I always won a box of chocolates every time. Hillbilly bands were common at fairs in those days. My dad was a country music fan and we saw a lot of these performances. Almost all had a comic spittoon gag. There was some kind of tricked up cuspidor on stage and at some point one of the band mate would turn it over and this water would pour out. But it never emptied. It would be turned over regularly and water would always flow.

The photo here and with the story on the currents of the Whiskeyrye Blog was taken by R. W. Tipton, who ahs the "Retired in Delaware" blog. I used it because it shows the bridge talked about in the tale. (Well, it is the bridge as it is today. It was quite different in those days as I describe in "Henry" and I was always nervous walking across it because of the wide openings. The story of them redoing the bridge and the board across the creek is true. I mentioned before my acrophobia.

There was no Mister Keltz. There was a hedge along one property that the home owners didn't like kids trying to squeeze through. The character of Mister Keltz was based on a neighbor of my wife and I when we first married and lived in our first home. He wasn't as mean as Keltz, but was just as fussy about his lawn. He would get down and sight across the ground making sure every grass blade was even. I guess my rather haphazard lawn care drove him crazy. 

The ridicule and harassment of "Henry" happened, but not to the real life Henry, nor to me. I witnesses such an encounter against some other unfortunate kid one time. This kind of cruelty was all too common, I fear.