When Marvin was young about 14 or 15 he lived with grandma, on North sixth Street and Shaw Avenue. One night grandma awakened Marvin and told him that she could hear someone in the kitchen. She had a colt 45, one of the old western type I think.
She whispered to Marvin, " get the gun." he fetched it and they were after the intruder. She told Marvin to be sure and not shoot until or unless she told him. Now ole Marvin was as nervous as a pregnant Jenny in a traffic jam. The circumstances being as they were and Marvin being very apprehensive, grandma told Marvin to keep the gun pointed upward. They could hear the person in the kitchen quietly moving around. They were standing in the next room moving nary a hair. The intruder rattled the bedroom door knob and grandma sprung into action by shouting, "Marvin!Before Marvin and Ethel were married, Marvin lived with us on 7th. Street and Shaw Avenue. He had an old Model T touring car with the top taken off.
It was in the winter time and we burned wood for fuel to heat our home. On Sunday mornings daddy, Marvin and usually myself would go some where and cut heater wood and haul it in the back of Marvins T Model Ford. I was only 4 or 5 years old at the time but one Sunday we went out to the old ford, to go cut wood. Oddly enough this old ford was pretty good about starting. They carried a coil for each spark plug and the coil would generate a pretty high voltage when voltage from the magneto was applied. Marvin flipped the T on Magneto and a terrible screeching noise come from under the hood. Marvin turned the key off and excitedly yelled, “what in the world was that noise?”Marvin used to tell a story about grandpa and grandma moving to Sevier County. It went that they had just gotten here and they were out of soap. Grandpa fired up the wash pot for her so she could make some lye soap.
They had noticed a panther screaming but thought nothing about it. After she got everything going and the soap grease was cooking real good they noticed something running through the woods. In just a little bit a panther run out of the thicket and over to the pot and eat every bite of grandmas, soap she was cooking. Now this just didn't set good with Gramps. He ran over and seized the panther by the tail swung him around over his head like a lariat rope, and then held him over the blaze until he burned the panther up plumb. Gramps really felt better until he opened his hand and there was that little piece of rear appendage with which he had been holding the panther. This infuriated gramps all over again so he threw that little piece of rear appendage in the fire and burned it too.