Seventyfive Plus 78

Let`s talk about my user name, buckmcbride. He wasn`t a hometown hero, but a home town character. I told Cheri some of the story while they were here. At one time Buck was a relative of ours by marriage. He married Mom`s first cousin, Laura Avery and they had three children: Mickey, Virginia (Gibby) and Frances. Mickey was in AS`s class, Virginia and Francis were a year ahead of me and AR.
Buck never had a steady job that I know of. He and Laura were divorced long before I knew why a man wanted a woman.

Buck worked for Pop on and off through the years. He was a good worker but not very reliable. He liked to drink, and long before we knew people to be alcoholics we called them drunks. I worked quite often with Buck when it was time to take in hay, and Pop and I couldn`t get it all done. Now there were three sisters and a younger brother at home, all able bodied except Dorothy. But two were wimpy, hay fever and all that, and the third, well she would drive the tractor or the truck.

After divorcing Laura, Buck took no wife but enjoyed romancing available females. And this led to his downfall. He was having an affair with a single lady who had a nice home. They lived together for a while, but she got tired of him and threw him out. Well, I guess he agreed to reform, and she took him back and told him, "I will eat with you and drink with you, but you will leave my skirts alone". I guess y`all understand that. But Buck`s ladyfriend was taking in borders and she found a new romance, and once again Buck went out on his ear. This treatment enraged Buck, so he loads up his double barrel shotgun, shoots his lady friend in the back killing her, and likewise treats her suitor to lead poisoning. Not wanting to spend time in the crowbar hotel, where he had frequently been a guest in the past, he turned the shotgun on himself and that was the end of Emerson "Buck" McBride. I`ll tell you another time about his brother, Ezra "Skeet" McBride.