by Joe Stout
Bro. Cooper was the pastor of the First Baptist Church for several years in the 1930’s and 40’s.
In the short block that was between the old hotel and the church there lived a man named Rachels that was widowed and had a son about my age in the mid to late 1930’s. His name is Leon. Even though times were hard for most of us then it was exceptionally hard for this family. The father was in poor health and their circumstances were about as bad as they get. Prior to living there, they had been living in the country with nothing but a brush arbor type structure with old linoleum as the roof.
The Grooms boys, myself and others of our group played with Leon in those days and have remained friends for our entire lives. I have no idea where the name originated but Leon was called Peanut in those days when we were kids. Those that know Leon well have not called him by that name in many years because he seemed to dislike it.
Bro. Cooper had taken Leon under his wing and was helpful in determining his future. He arranged for Leon to be sent to Nashville at a facility that was the only type that could be of help in those days. Leon was not what we now call retarded, but he just never had the chance to be brought up in the normal way most all other children were.
After a period of time in Nashville being cleaned up and having his health taken care of along with having glasses fitted because of his extremely poor eyesight, Leon returned to Greenfield and he began helping out at the Brasfield Drug Store, stocking up and doing odd jobs for Mr. Gent Belew and Mr. Bert Adcock. He had living quarters upstairs over the drugstore.
Even though Leon’s reading skills were very limited he had a knack for keeping track of the drug store inventory by memory. Many times Gent and later Maurice Belew, and Ronnie Bachelor would think they were out of an item but Leon could find the item in stock. He knew the inventory without even having to look. There are many of us he has known all his life, that he has never ridden in a car with. Why this is so I do not know. He had his own room built in the later locations of the Drug Store that had become Belew Drugs.
Basically Leon was his own boss and worked at his own pace and time. Because of this it turned out to be a very frustrating experience for a “gummint” bureaucrat with the wage and hour department of the Federal Department of Labor. It seems this “gummint agent” was trying, as they usually do, to catch his employers with not paying him for enough hours. This was not from any complaint but from the usual government “meddlin.” You would have to personally know Leon to appreciate what this bureaucrat had to go through. Leon’s general answer to many questions is, “sometimes it is and sometimes it’s not.” or “sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. Needless to say the “gummint man went away empty handed.
In recent years you could set your watch for the time Leon would show up for breakfast at Allison’s Restaurant — 9:05 a.m. It was also the custom for many retired and other folks that worked and could take off for a coffee break to be there between 9 and 10:30 in the morning and from about 2:30 til 4 in the afternoon. Leon had taken it upon himself to wait on tables pouring second cups of coffee.
Leon was one of those people that either liked you or he didn’t and he made no bones about letting you know it. One of these that he disliked was a most influential and prominent man in town. As he was pouring the refills around the coffee table one day he skipped this man. The man then asked Leon to pour him a cup. Leon’s answer was “sorry I can’t do that” and walked away.
For many years Leon sat within earshot of the coffee table but never at the table. He never joined in the conversation but most of us were always aware that he was listening to everything that was said.
At one time there was a period of several days that we were trying to think of a person’s name that was involved in an event that had happened in Greenfield. You know how it is when you know something and cannot remember the name, it bugs you to death, and you cannot drop the subject until you find the answer. On about the third day of all of us asking newcomers that had not been there on the other conversations someone asked Leon who it was as he was pouring coffee. He immediately informed all of us who the person was. Someone asked him why he had not told us before that day. Leon’s reply was “You didn’t ask me.”
For the most of his life he was introverted and mostly kept to himself. Just in the last few years has he become more outgoing and shaking hands and speaking to everyone he likes. One day at the coffee table Jimmy Grooms had been doing the talking for several minutes and as we were breaking up he shook hands and spoke to Jimmy, who was one of his lifelong friends, and said “What do you know Jim.” Jimmy’s reply was “I don’t know nuthin.” Leon then remarked “Sounded like you knew it all awhile ago.”
Leon is now in a rest home in Martin.
I’ve known a few Ph.D’s but never one that had the intelligence of life as Leon.
I’m happy to have had Leon call me his friend all these years.
**Since the original writing of this Leon has now passed on to be with his Lord.