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Thunderbolt Jones

CHARLES F. SMITH

I have to laugh at that nigger. Here I been runnm.g this Ii ttle
store in Fairmount for sixteen years, and if I told him oncehmy

name is Tom Smith, I guess I told that hard-hea d ed J..lga boo a tf ou-t
sand times. I remember when I was painting the sign on the r~n;

of my store-nice, big letters I put up-"General Store"-and t ~s

dumb nigger has been calling me General ever since. He says 't

Daddy had a store and put his name on the front, an.d h e Jiust won
believe for nothing my name is Tom Smith. . ou

I can see him now, shuffling in the store here just as bIg. as y is
please, baring those purple-stained choppers of his. That mgger 1

gonna drop dead one of these days from drinking that snea ky pdete.I
I've told him about that grape wine, but he just says, "Yes Law id-

knows yo is right, General, but I is jest cel-e-bratin', I is a gran

daddy now." F ir

Well, you don't have to be no expert on the hi'story of b abI-y

mount to know Thunderbolt Jones' daughter, Roxie, had ~ w~en

about three years ago. The other day old Peg asked Thunderbo d id

he was gonna stop celebrating. Thunderbolt just come b ac k an . sal
he guess'd he would directly when his ship came in. Ship com~ m . ur

now ain't that just about the dangdest answer you ever heard m yo

life? I never known such a nigger. .ce

I remember last Saturday afternoon-Just . about as co ld a.s anth1at
Icone on an Eskimo's nose, when the door bangs open, settmg rn
·Itt Ie b eII on top a-rI"n.gmg Iike you never hear d .., I didn't turId

round to e~en see who it Was. There's only one person 1in the howto on
hthisat taiblu. sts mto my store like a rabbit with ten hound dogs

"Morning, Thunderbolt," I says. ced-

"Yes, Lawd, mornin' to ya General" Thunderbolt announ in
When I sai.d Thund"bolt, all "the niggers t.o the hot:"O~\_creawImed
the back of the store broke out in smiles, and held up their pm P That

hands as their favorite son shuffled over to the stove to get warm. like

Thunderbolt had the most peculiar walk-I ain't never seen one was

it. Alway, "minded me of a person that walks like ,"meo~e reps
right behind him, sorta poking him in the fanny ever couple 0 'boy,

Watching him walk reminds me of the time he told them those
back there about his cousin, Fertilizer Pinkett, and the foot race

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