Wanda Bullard (3:51)

Let me tell you a story about my dad. His name is George Woolford. He was born in a rural area right up in the northeast corner of Mississippi that most folks call Prentice county and they just call Paradise. He grew up with eight other siblings on a farm. He married when he was 20, had two daughters and his wife died. So he raised those two daughters and after they had grown, he married my mother, who was about 20 years younger, and they had another family. So I'm the last of the last. My dad was about 50 years old when I was born, but I was very fortunate to be raised by him. He raised and trained bird dogs all of his life, and that's how he made a living. If the bird dog business got a little slow, he'd paint a house or two, things like that. But after he got up in his 60s, way in his 60s, someone convinced him to get into politics and he ran for board of alderman, which is like the city city council, and he was elected by a landslide. Everybody loved him, and his assignment was the fire commissioner. Now, all the previous fire commissioners did would go to meetings and make political decisions, but my father liked to get involved. So he went to the telephone company and said, can't y'all hook my telephone up with one at the fire department? So they did. And every time the fire department telephone rang, our phone rang one long continuous rain until you picked it up and then you didn't talk. You just listened to see where the fire was so he could go. And he went to all the fires, day or night. He knew absolutely nothing about firefighting, but he knew how to encourage young men. So he encouraged him. Well, I got involved because my father had almost stopped driving at night because of his age. And as a teenager I had a driver's license, so I had to keep jeans and tennis shoes right there. And I had to drive him at all the 3 o'clock in the morning fires. Well, after a few terms as board of aldermen, several people, myself included, convinced him not to do that anymore. But we found out that he missed the camaraderie he had formed with all the firemen. And because the firemen and the police department were in the same building, he missed all the policemen too. So he would just go down there to visit every now and then. And this being a small town, they worked out something which might not have been real legal, but they taught him how to operate the police radio. And anytime anybody wanted a day off or was sick, he'd go in and work an eight hour shift. Somehow they managed to pay one half. But one day he got to his job down at the police department, if you could call it a job. And he discovered to his amazement, they had a prisoner. I did say it was a small town, it was most unusual. And all during the morning he really didn't have much to do. He'd wander back and talk to this young man and when he went out for lunch, he brought a couple of hamburgers back for him. Well, about 1 or 2 o'clock he had made a decision about this young man and he always trusted his instincts about people. He had decided that he was, in spite of being long haired, way down here, which my father hated, that he was a dishonor young man. So he'd see if he could help him. And he started to inquire of him, why are you still here? You seem like such a nice young man. Won't anybody come get you out of jail? Why are you here? And the young man told him, he said, well, I had a little too much to drink last night and they arrested me for drunk and disorderly and impounded my car and here I am. My dad said, well, what would it take to get you out? He said, well, I have to pay a $200 fine. My father said, well, why can't some of your family pay you $200 fine? He said, well, I think if I could talk to my father face to face, I might could get the $200 from him. But I don't know how he's gonna react to a collect call from the Boonville jail. Well, my dad mulls this over a little while. He said, well, do you think if I turned you loose, you could go find your father and get $200 and come back? I would remind you that my father's only duties were operating the radio that talked back and forth. So the young man said, well, see, I'm from Corinth, Mississippi. Now, that's a town about 20 miles north of London. And he said, you know, they impounded my car. I think I could get the money from my dad, but I got no way to get up there. It's 20 miles. My dad said, well, what did you say they did with your car? He said, they impounded. He said, well, is it a blue Chevrolet? And Ed said, yes, or niece. He said, always parked out in the parking lot. I could probably find the keys. So he scrounges around in desk, all the drawers, and he finds the keys. So he not only releases a prisoner over which he has no authority, he gives him a getaway car. Well, as the kid leaves, my father says to him, that son, I believe if I could borrow $200 from my daddy, I'd borrow another $5 to give me a dirt haircut. Now that was his own advice. Young man was quite happy to be gone. And about 4:00, the police officer started coming back to change shifts. And as they came in, they went to check back from the prison. And they discovered to their dismay they didn't have one. And they said, Mr. George, what happened to the prisoner? My daddy was busy doing his little closing up. He got off at five doing his little paperwork. He said, oh, yeah, I turned him loose. And the police officer nearest him said, you did what? I turned him loose. Mr. George, why did you do that? He said, well, he just seemed like a nice young man and he'll be back in a little while with his $200. And the police officer was kind of taken aback. He'd known my father all his life, and my father's like a grandfather to most of those guys. He said, okay, well, we'll take care of this. So he goes back over to other policemen. They're trying to figure out how they're going to get out of this without my father losing his unofficial job. And one of them says, well, we'll remind the chief that George Muller helped get him elected. But one of them said, oh, I got a better idea. Let's just tear up the paperwork and we'll just pretend we never arrested that boy. Well, my father wouldn't hear of it. He said, oh, no, I know that boy's coming back. I know he is. And the police officer said, how can you be so sure? You don't even know him. And my father's answer was simple. He told me that he would. Well, they didn't know what to say to that, so they just didn't say anything. They waited around and 4:30 came 5:00. Of course, no young man turned. And about 5:15, they're trying to get my dad to go home because he shifted at 5. He's kind of stubborn. He said, no, I'm gonna wait around till he comes back. One of them kind of observed, might be kind of long wait. But no, my dad didn't get the story. He didn't get the story. So he tells him, I'm just hanging around with her. I'll decide what, you know, what are we gonna do? And all of a sudden, door opens and a young man walks in, clean cut, shaven, short hair, walks up to the counter. And they don't even acknowledge him because they're still mulling over what they gonna do to save my dad. And finally the young man said, excuse me, I'd like to pay my fine. And that kind of got their attention. They still didn't recognize him. And one of them walked us down, said, what fine is that you're talking? He said, well, you guys arrested me last night, locked me up. I owe $200 and I'm here to pay it. Started counting out $20 bills. When he got to 200, policeman still hadn't been able to say a word. Got out to receipt, but wrote him out of receipt. He thanked him. Boy started the door when he got to the door and opened it to go out. He turned around and almost as if he knew what the situation were like there in that office with my dad, said, oh, by the way, Mr. Bullard, I'm sorry I was late getting back, but I had to wait in line at the barbershop.

Dan Kennedy (13:29)

Wanda Bullard is a veteran teacher who works with emotionally disordered students in Georgia. Most Sunday afternoons, she hosts a cookout for anybody that shows up. And the stories actually shared on her porch were the stories that inspired our founder, George George Dawes Green. To start them off. This podcast is brought to you by Audible.com, the Internet's leading provider of audiobooks with more than 75,000 downloadable titles across all types of literature, including fiction, non fiction and periodicals. To try Audible Free today and get a free audiobook of your choice, go to audible.com themoth I'm Jay Allison, back.

Jay Allison (14:09)

As part promised to tell you that we're looking for you to pitch us your stories for the Moth Radio Hour. The new season has lots of your pitches embedded right in the radio show and they're great. We're gonna have a vote and invite the winner to tell a story on stage. You can find out all about it@themost.org and you can find out when your public radio station is airing the show by asking them. The radio series is produced by the Moth and me, Jay Allison at Atlantic Public Media up here on Cape Cod and distributed by the public radio exchange.

Dan Kennedy (14:40)

Prx.Org the mothball is Tuesday, November 16th and we still have tickets available and tables available to this gala event. Find out more by visiting themoth.org and if you can't make it to the Mothball here in New York City, you can enjoy our online auction where you can bid to see Sip Tea with Neil Gaiman appear in the onion or win two round trip tickets on JetBlue Airways and much more. Actually, this auction Online ends at 11:59pm on November 18, so that means it goes for a couple days after our event. For more information visit themoth.org ball and here's the thing. If you are at the mothball November 16, you can bid at this that auction in the room on a little service that I'm offering thanks to the folks at the Moth office. They came up with the idea for me to be an online dating optimization service for you and that's all going to be explained, but it basically involves me closing the deal for you in any online dating venture you might have. Check that out. That's going to be November 16th right here in New York at the Mothball.

TurboTax Sponsor (15:52)

Our podcast host Dan Kennedy is the.

Wanda Bullard (15:54)

Author of the book Rock An Office Power Ballad.

TurboTax Sponsor (15:57)

Learn more@rockonthebook.com thanks to all of you.

Dan Kennedy (16:01)

For listening and we hope you have a story worthy week. Podcast Audio production by Paul Ruest at the Argo Studios in New York Podcast hosting by PRX Public Radio Exchange helping make public radio more public@prx.org.