My friends Billie Williams and Bobby Craig
It was about 1963 or 64 and after working a 12 hour day at Craig’s Grocery store on Front Street in Walnut Ridge we took a short break to go home for a bite to eat and then back to the store to paint the floors. I along with my friends Billie Williams and Bobby Craig, the boss’ son were trying to make a little extra money so we had volunteered for the all nighter painting job.
I can think of a lot of excuses for having the sillies at 3 o’clock at night , the long hours, the paint fumes but I suspect it was the bottle of Tequila I had found under the seat of my dads car. None of us were drinkers of any consequence but we had seen movies where they had salt, a slice of lime and a bottle of the good stuff. We were in a grocery store so the ingredients were handy so why not. I really don’t remember how the floor turned out but I do remember Billie saying that we missed a spot and when he tried to go back down the aisle he slipped in the wet paint and the whole bucket landed in his lap, after that all I remember is hurting from laughing so much. They did tell some stories about me that night but they were not true.
We were young, we were eager and very much alive, I wish it was still so. We lost Pfc Billie Joe Williams, United States Marine Corp on March 21, 1966 in what the Marine Corp called 'Operation Texas' near the village of Phuong Dinh , Quang Ngai Province, South Vietnam.
Bobby Craig died Sept. 22, 2007, a husband, a father and a grand father several times over.
