JAKE FISHER

Jake Fisher, an old man that lived just outside of Bell City with his brother George. Just two old batchlors.
I first met Jake when I was in grade school, he had a little building you could not walk into that he called a store. He had cigaretts, some old canned goods, candy and the bread truck would stop at his place everyday as he would get a loaf of bread for some of the people around his store. His store was about 100 feet from my grandpa's house and he would get him a loaf of bread when he needed one. I must have been in the 5th-6th grade of school at the time I met him. We still lived out on the farm.
I remember that Jake was very superstitious and if a black cat crossed his path he would walk a mile around his normal route or would turn his cap around backwards. Now this would ward off all evil, he believed. So if he saw a black cat he would stop and ponder what to do. Then he would choose his route.
We moved to Bell City in 1958 and Mom and Dad bought a house across the street from my grandpa which made us about 100 feet from his store. As kids we would buy candy from Jake when we could muster up a nickel. As time went on us boys started to buy tobacco from him and go up in the rocks and smoke. Now some of this tobacco was years old and very strong and would make us light headed and sick but it didn't stop us. About this time we started to agrivate Jake. We would smoke and then we would start to throw rocks down on top of his building. We were mean little bastards.
Jake would also skin coons for some of the coon hunters in the area. I can remember walking by Jakes and seeing 20 or more coons laid out on the ground for him to skin. One of the hunters was a guy by the name of Charles Drew. Him and Jake really became good friends. One time Charles told Jake to get him a loaf of bread off the truck that day and he would come by and pick it up that afternoon. Well this made Jake happy for he knew he would make a nickel that day. So when Charles came to pick up his loaf of bread he thought he would have some fun with Jake so he handed him a $20.00 bill for the 10 cent loaf of bread. Jake looked at him and said SHI? yu ain't pulling that crap on me. He told Charles to go over in town and get some change and bring him his 10 cents. Charles said I'll take the bread and bring you your money back, well Jake said Hell No you go get the change then come back. Finally they agreed on something and Jake got his 10 cents and Charles got his bread.
Jake would ease over into town some days for a cup of coffee. He would always order the coffee black and tell whoever was waiting on him to fill the cup up because he didn't use cream.
In the 50's and 60's before they took out the railroad depot Jake would stay downtown on Saturday night and sometimes he would have a beer. On some occasions he would walk up to the depot and lay down on the bench they had for the passengers to sit on while waiting on the next train. Now Jake always carried his money in a tobacco sack in his bib overalls. Jake knew if he laid down on the bench on his back someone would rob him so he laid down on his stomach and went to sleep. Enter another young thug-a-bout by the name of Bill Bollinger. Bill knew Jake was at the depot sleeping and went to check him out, sure enough there was Jake all stretched out on the depot bench only face down in a deep sleep. So Bill went and got some razor blades and eased back up to the depot and crawled under the bench where Jake was sleeping. He took a razor blade and very gently sliced Jakes overall pocket and got all of Jakes money and went to Crowder partying. When Jake woke up and realized what had happened he knew exactly who got his money and a few days later him and Bill met face to face and Jake let him know he knew what had happened. So a little later Bill got up in the rocks and was throwing rocks down on Jakes store and snorting at him, which he hated. So Jake reached in the old store building and out came his 12 gauge shotgun. He peppered the hell out of Bill. After that Bill pretty much left Jake alone.
Jake died when I was in the Army. We as kids really aggraviated him but as we grew older we got to see a side of Jake that made us regret the things we did to him.
Now Jake was a very poor man, he didn't have any money other than a few coins to his name. I have been told that after Jake died his old friend Charles Drew knowing Jake was more or less a pauper went and bought a real nice grave monument for Jakes grave.
Yes Jake was one of a kind and one of Bell City's best old timers. There aren't any of those old timers left. Just memories of a day gone by.