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Show Volume X Issue IV THE OGDEN VALLEY NEWS Page 9 June 1, 2004 Valley Memories-Whiskey Joe By Sherman LeMoyne Hislop We were blessed to have been born and raised amidst so many characters. To adequately describe all characters is beyond the author’s descriptive ability. However, the author owes it to posterity to record some of the characters that there may be some appreciation of the Valley and those who were raised here. One such character was Whiskey Joe. We record here how and why he received some of his titles. He was a different individual among those born and raised here. Whiskey Joe was not always known as such: his given name was Vern, and he had a propensity for getting into difficulties or creating problems. An early difficulty happened when he and a friend broke into the Huntsville post office. The original Huntsville post office was a small building, and it still stands on Center Street in Huntsville where it is used by an artist to display some of his art. The post office was then run by Albert Spencer. The building was no bigger that about fifteen by fifteen feet, and was divided in the center with about 100 mail boxes in front. Mr. Spencer distributed the mail which was delivered once a day around 10:00 a.m., and by 11:00 a.m. he had the mail distributed. You could then use you mail box key and extract the mail from your box. For Valley residents of today, it needs to be recognized that there was no such thing as bulk mail. There were no newspapers, magazines, or other “junk” mail sent ‘to whom it may concern.’. Vern and a friend broke into the post office and then into the back room where the mail was sorted. They assumed there must be money and/or something of value there. There was neither. After Vern and his friend had ransacked the back room to no avail, they left the post office in a mess for Mr. Spencer to find the next morning. As it was a federal building the FBI was called in to do an investigation. Damage to the building was very slight, if any, other than breaking the lock. The FBI finally determined who the culprits were, namely Vern and his friend. Sterling Wood was the individual who established monikers for various people in the town. When the two boys were caught the FBI scolded and threatened them, but they did not have to go to jail. Sterling Wood then nick-named them “Sing-Sing” and “Leavenworth”. Vern was known as Sing-Sing up until 1942, when he was either drafted or enlisted. Sing–Sing was probably drafted: he would not have been smart enough to enlist. Sing-Sing spent over four years in the military, and after four years of service he was discharged with the rank Private First Class. In today’s military, you get a PFC after eight weeks of basic training. At the end of WWII the government was trying to entice those who were being discharged to enlist in the reserves. One of the incentives for doing such was that if another war came and you were in the reserve, you would get to keep the rank you had earned while you were in the military and progress from there. Vern listened to their pitch and decided he would sign up for the reserves, and would be able to keep his rank of PFC in case of another war. In the years before WWII Vern poached game, primarily catching trout illegally in the streams around the Valley. Catching trout illegally was defined by handling them underneath the banks where a trout could be caught by a skilled person; Vern would catch his limit of trout, eight or ten, in fifteen or twenty minutes of the first opening of the season. One day Vern observed a family woman who was washing her clothes in a small irrigation ditch that had little minnows in it. She was using Clorox at the time, and when she poured the Clorox water into the small stream, little minnows went belly-up. After observing this several times, Vern came to the conclusion that an easy way to catch fish was to put a small amount of Clorox in the stream at the head of a riffle. Trout would be in the two or three foot depth under the willow banks, and with the addition of Clorox in the water would turn belly-up. You could catch many trout by using Clorox. It was later determined the Clorox took the air out of the water, and so it was illegal to use it or anything similar that could be mixed in the water and would turn the trout belly-up. However, despite the illegality, Vern discovered that he could catch several trout out of each little hole along the river bank by putting a small amount of Clorox upstream from the hole, and then get seven or eight trout from ten to fifteen inches long with hardly any effort. He would then trade them for access to funds. Buck Anderson was the local game warden, and knew or believed that Sing-Sing was catching trout illegally, but could never catch him. In addition, Vern would go trapping for skunk. The Valley had many such black and white critters in the river bottoms and around the outlying farms. Vern would catch two or three skunks a year, and when he had one he would ride on his bicycle through the center of Huntsville with the skunk, thereby smelling up the whole town. It wasn’t difficult to know when Vern had caught a skunk! He then would skin the skunk underwater, and by soaking the pelt in soap and water could eliminate most of the smell. After cleaning he would sell them to a buyer for a dollar and a half each. How Sing-Sing could go through town with a smelly skunk, which seemingly did not bother him, is beyond comprehension. Vern’s four years in the military while only making PFC was not his only achievement. He also decided he wanted to be a LOCATED IN THE VALLEY IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE Discount commissions as low as 4%. Call for det ails. 2 0 0 3 C LOSED S ALES V OLU M E U P 1 1 1 % OV ER 2 0 0 2 We need homes & land to sale call 745-6000. paratrooper. Now, Whiskey Joe, for those who remember him, was so thin that with the sun to his back he couldn’t even cast a strong shadow. It was claimed his belly button got sore rubbing against his back bone. To summarize in one word, Whiskey Joe was skinny. When he joined the paratroopers at Camp Campbell Kentucky, they fitted him with a parachute, and the sergeant said, “You better put a fifty pound weight on him so when the parachute opens he will come down.” In actuality, they never put a weight on him. On one of those hot sultry days at Camp Campbell Sing-Sing made his first jump, and was caught in a big updraft again. They alerted pilots from North Carolina and sent up some P-51’s and shot holes in the parachute. Sing-Sing finally came down to earth. The army never again would allow Sing-Sing in an airplane. After the war, Sing-Sing became a regular customer at the “Shooting Star Saloon.” There were those who claimed he lived the rest of his life on a liquid diet. He became one of the more well known characters of the Valley. He became known as Whiskey Joe. In the 1990’s, he was made the Grand Marshall of the Fourth of July Parade in Huntsville. Perhaps his most famous feat was that he Historical Photo Neighborhood friends about 1931. Keith Burnett, Bill Robins, Donna Burnett and Kay Robins. I remember Bill didn't want to share the candy in the sack. Photo courtesy of Donna McKay and Lorin Jenkins. caused by a sudden cold front. According to lore, when his parachute opened, instead of going down, Vern got caught in wind currents moving from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Coast, and was carried aloft to the east. There was concern that with the strong currents he would blow out over the Atlantic and they would never see him participated in the longest fight ever documented. “Whiskey Joe” and “One Tooth” fought ninety-nine rounds over who could drink the most beer. Or maybe it was over who could tell the most stories. No one is sure why, but they had the longest fight ever seen. WHISKEY JOE cont. on page 10 801-745-4000 2555 WOLF CREEK DR. EDEN STORE HOURS: MON. - SAT. 7 AM - 10 PM SUNDAY 7 AM - 9 PM Dreyers Grand Ice Cream 1.75 rounds 2 for $5.00 with coupon Limit 4 per coupon Expires 6/15/04 Large Eggs 18 pack 98 c with coupon Limit 2 per coupon Expires 6/15/04 Twizzlers Bonus Bag Licorice 17.6 oz. 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