A Story

Yesterday afternoon I took my grandson, Lachlan, out for a stroll. We stopped by to visit Nathaniel Jackson. He is 77 years old and he entertained us for several hours (actually Lachlan fell asleep, but that allowed me to enjoy Nathaniel's stories uninterrupted). Here is one of the stories he shared:

Years ago, when Ocracoke was a "dry" township, an O'cocker was sitting on one of the benches on Jack Willis' dock. Earlier in the day he'd gotten into a fresh batch of homemade meal wine. He could barely hold his head up. A stranger ambled down the dock and the O'cocker raised his eyes to check him out.

Recognizing a potential source of valuable information, the stranger immediately asked, "Do you know where I can get some beer?"

"Certainly I do," replied the O'cocker, and lowered his head to his knees.

"Where, where?' the stranger inquired, hoping to extract the information before it was too late.

The O'ccoker raised his head one more time, looked the fellow in the eye, and said one word -- "Millwaukee."

[Our current monthly Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of the Old Toothbrush Man, published August 01, 2005. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news080105.htm.]