REMEMBERING MY BROTHERS (11-10-07 by Carl A. Patton)

This was yet another day I was

blessed with the inspiration of thought.

This day I thought of my brothers.

Ollie (Pat Patrick, John Hollis) Patton came

from rural Alabama. Daddy was a

rolling stone before he knew Mama.

He had no wife then.

I was about nine or ten and remember

Ollie as a teen-ager scrambling money

we thought he earned working at the

Bowling Alley.

He also gambled at the bowling alley.

I did not know that he would become

a dice, crap shooting magician by

pad rolling the dice.

I saw this later as I got older.

So all the days and hours spent

playing with the dice learning to lock

them up to pad roll paid off, I guess.

William Patton III came next as Daddy was the

II and my grandfather was William Patton

number one. He wasn’t the baby brother

as more would come like me and Gerald,

but we called him Baby Brother but for

short Bay-Bru.

They said he was mean. Was my Daddy

mean? I knew Daddy was not to be played with.

As he would say “don’t play me for no Mickey

Mouse.” But I soon found out that Ollie was

mean like a snake.

Are there different levels of mean?

Some will get you for nothing and some will

tell you as Daddy told Charlie Fowler,

“get off my porch,” and then back handed

him to the ground.

William “Billy” Patton had great strength

in his hands and arms. So did Ollie and

Bay-Bru. They had great strength and

as Mama, Ruby Sue used to say they beared

watching especially if you were in the wrong.

Ollie and Bay-Bru did not have to be

big as win was their game and treachery

if needed brought them fame.

Carl Allen Patton was the third son.

Who wrote these things? Who

would ever tell his story? As he

refuses to really write on self.

One thing though he would go out

with Christ. However not to die hungry.

Gerald Wilson Patton was actually

the baby brother and the baby boy.

Studious and aloof he traveled afar.

Ollie and Bay-Bru are gone in transition

however we long for Gerald to come home.

He looks on and is still confused about

his past. But what is the future?

These are sad days as me and my brother

Gerald will also make the transition as did

Ollie and Bay-Bru. Ollie died without

family around are real friends. He also separated

himself from family long ago.

Bay-Bru died as he lived. A man cloaked

in hate because of race shot him down as

a beast at slaughter. So two of my brothers

have been swallowed up in the great transition.

But I look back and I see us laughing

singing and dancing together on a big

Stage.

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carl@freedomjournalpress.comcastbiz.net