I first met Wesley in about 1960. He was running around Bell City and ing with a girl by the name of Frankie Jackman. Wesleys first name was John so naturally everyone connected him and Frankie to the song Frankie and Johnny and old tune out in the late 50' early 60's. The first time I met him he had had a few to many, par for the course in old Bell City. Well Frankie was a very good looking girl and all the guys were after her so this little romance didn't last long.
Wesley later started going with a girl by the name of Pat Liggett, they eventually got married and had three kids, two girls and a boy.
I started running around with Wes in my senior year of high school. He was about 4 years older than me. We got along good and became the best of friends. Now Wesley was the town hotrodder. One time he got pretty juiced up and was comming back in to town real fast and lost control of his 1956 Ford. A beautiful two door hardtop I think it was red and black, anyway he wrapped it around a tree at the edge of town. Luckily I wasn't in the car or I would have surely been killed because when it hit the tree it spun around the tree a few times, it hit directly behind the right front tire.
Another time we were out partying and Wes liked to get in the gravel and do a few do-nuts. Well this time he did one to many and ran off in the ditch alongside the road. He walked back up to Square Morse's little country liquor store and got Herb Hoover to pull him out of the ditch. Herb went down and hooked onto Wes's car and pulled him out, unhooked the chain and started to leave. Wes got into his car made a few more do-nuts right off in the ditch on the other side of the road. Well this made Herb mad so he just drove off and left him in the ditch.
Another time Wes was juiced and in town showing off. Squealing his tires and hotrodding all over town. Well Max Bollinger a local business man was up on top of his store rapairing his roof when Wesley drove by his store, Max, already mad threw the wet tar mop on top of Wesleys car. Well this made Wesley mad and he stopped and motioned for Max to come down off the roof. So here came Max and he met Wes's right fist and I think the law locked Wes up at that time.
One time I was out having fun in my first car a 1952 Buick Dyna-Flo 2 door hard-top. A pretty car but not one for a teenager and the transmission didn't last long. I got stuck between two hills west of Bell City and had to walk home. So the next day I asked Wes to go out and pull me into town. We get out there and hooked the chain to the cars and he started to pull me. Now Wes had a 1962 Ford 390, 4 speed so naturally he had to show out. He would get over in the loose gravel and floor his car and throw rocks all over my car. When we got to Bell City all the lights and the windshield were broke. Wes didn't give a damn we just loaded in his car and went to Perkins and started partying.
One Saturday Wesley, big Red Cody and myself left Bell City and went over to Sikeston to see Wes's cousin Frank Wright. We stopped at a very fancy tavery called Wagon Wheel. We had a few and Wes and myself decieded to go to Franks house. Cody said he would stay there. We got in Wes's car and started to back out of the tavern and into the side of a big black fellows car. Well this other guy got scared and took off one direction and we took off the other. Now the city of Sikeston had been doing some sewer work and had dug a trench across one of the streets we were going down. We hit this trench and the beer bottles broke the windshield and the front tires each went in a different direction. So we had to walk back up to the tavern where we left Cody who gave us one of the worse cussings a man could give, I got my brother in law to take us back to Bell City.
Later I moved to St Louis and had an appartment and a job there. Well Wes and Pat had a falling out and he came to St Louis and stayed with me for a while. Then another friend Gary Bright came and stayed with us and got a job with Western Electric. We would work in the day and party at night. One day Wes got off work early and was already drunk by the time Gary and me got home. He was passsed out on the couch. Now there was an old small gas stove pretty close to the couch so Gary and me decieded to light the thing and warm Wesley up. So we lit the stove and left to eat supper and do our daily rounds. This was in the middle of the summer. When we came home Wesley gave us the damndest talking to I ever had.
One other thing about Wesley, he could eat more chicken than anyone I have ever seen. He would have chicken noodle soup for breakfast, chicken pot pie for lunch and fried chicken for supper. He loved his chicken.
Sadly, we lost Gary many years ago and just this past year Wes died. So I am the only one left to tell this story. We sure had a good time one summer in the mid 60's. So guys if it is possible for you to know about this story I hope I have told it right. Miss you guys. Curt
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