From the Chapter "Mercy Daddy and Brother Soups"

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***NOTE*** This is my rough draft so over look any errors. That's why I have a great editor. thanks Bro D!


Soups and I were booked for Larry Strickland at a “big” 4th blow out in Rennick, WV. They were to have wrestling matches, a cookout, singing, and everything else you would think of for a 4th of July festival. The event was at a hotel.

We make the hour and a half drive. It was all two lane roads and Soups said he would drive. Folks for the next hour and a half it was a non stop game of chicken. We arrive at what once was a motel. At it's best it was a sleazy no tell motel in it’s hey day. In 1995 it was a falling down, nasty, dump. The only part of the motel still in use was the diner that had been turned into a bar.

The matches were outside in the back yard beside a homemade sand volleyball pit. On the other side of the ring was a electrified barbwire fence. On the other side of the fence was a cow pasture. The people who all were drunk and still drinking sitting up on a hill watching.

The matches were to start at 2pm. We never saw the promoter till after 3. He had been up on the hill drinking. We were sitting in the dressing room and wrestler Scotty McKeever says I just looked the only people up there watching are my Dad and his buddies and they will leave once the sports bar in town opens.

Matches finally get started at 3:30 it is hot and nasty humid. You try to have a match but all you hear is a bunch of drunks making fun of you. They did not care who or what was in the ring they just wanted to yell and crack jokes. Soups and I teamed second vs. two guys dressed like soldiers. We get done and head back to the dressing room. Now this was no dressing room it was the basement under the bar. The smell was well like a basement under a bar. There was a nasty bathroom with water that would not cut off. And in a room there was a single mattress on the floor. Which lead me to ask two questions. Who is using that bathroom? And Who is sleeping down here?

I get back from ring and can’t find Larry. I ask Roger Anderson where is he? Roger said they took intermission to play volleyball. WHAT? I look out and there is drunk Larry with a beer in one had playing volleyball with the other. I send word out to him Soups and I want our money so we can leave. He never comes back there.

After taking a rubbing alcohol and spray bottle bath I head up to get food. I find Soups up there and he is entertained by these mountain men and the 3 women having this party. To me it was as low as I could go on a 4th of July. To them it was the highlight of their summer.

I’m making me a sandwich and questioning should I eat anything from this places. I start to get a glass of lemonade and realize it’s lemonade moonshine.I was not above drinking moonshine but I would want to know who made it. Its hard to tell what kind of still it was made in. I could end up blind or dead from one drink. I pass on to get a bottle of water. I look around and realize I’m the only one with out an adult beverage in my hand. When this lady comes busting out of the kitchen with a plate of fish. She yells as loud as she can “Do you want some fish you P#%!&*. That was it for me I tossed the food down and grabbed a beer. If I was going to have to deal with these drunks I figured I better be one.

A fight breaks out in the volleyball game and that comes to an end. Time for wrestling again. As Larry heads to the dressing room I do to. I want to get our money. I go and tell him to pay us so we can go. He sends his wife to get the money. Roger Anderson says “don’t leave just yet watch our match.”

Larry’s wife comes back to give us our money. I get our cash and go looking for Soups. I head back up to where I last saw him I can’t find him. I asked the fish lady if she had seen him and she says “you mean your little fat Mexican friend?”. He is Italian but how would you expect her to know. I say “yes” she says “he ov’r thar” I look and he is sitting on the hill watching the matches with the locals. I go over to tell him we can leave when all the sudden I hear some man say he is trying to kill him. I look up and Roger Anderson is beating on Larry like he ruined his 4th of July of something.

Roger is a tough guy and has a wrestling back ground he can hurt a man fast. But this day he chose to hurt a man slow and over and over. When Roger figured Larry had enough he throw him out of the ring. Then went and got him and throw him over the fence and Roger left.

The highlight of my day had arrived. For the next several minutes I watch Larry try to get back across that 4 foot fence. It shocked him sober. He was screaming in pain and everyone was laughing at him. I had no pity on the guy. He deserved it. And he got it. It went on so long even the drunks were not amused any longer. The next match started and he was still on the other side.

Soups and I left and he was still on the other side. For all I know he is there now. We made the trip back to Princeton I had my Dad come and pick me up and went back to Tennessee with two days off before we head out again. On the way home I was trying to tell my Dad on what a horrible day I had. He just looked at me funny like there is no way that can be true.