Being a social center, a country store attracts a lot of people. Where people frequent, the politician is sure to appear around election time, more commonly called voting day back then. Some country stores, like Humphries grocery, even served as polling places.

We don't seem to have many real politicians these days. Real politicians are entertainers. The antics of today's politicians are concealed or shrouded by lawyers, or other official spokespersons-----spin doctors. By the time we hear of something a politician did, it has been filtered and synthesized to the point there is no entertainment value whatsoever. Let me tell you about a real politician that I knew-----Sheriff was "The Man" in our county that took care of trouble. He is the only sheriff that I ever knew until I was grown. I was 15 years old before I knew that his real name was Mr. Earl. I thought his name was Sheriff, because that's all I had ever heard. My grandfather called him Sheriff. My Daddy called him Sheriff. Everybody called him Sheriff. When I was little, I didn't know that he had anything to do with law enforcement because he never wore a uniform, never carried a pistol, never drove a special marked car with lights on top. He was just a big man that everybody called Sheriff. I knew that he was an important man.

Sheriff was a big man, not fat with a big belly, just a big man. He always walked, spoke, and looked like somebody important. My Daddy ran a country store where everyone in the community traded. This was the community store that sold everything from medicine to hog feed. It was a gathering place and especially in the winter. There were always 3 or 4 people warming around the old barrel kerosene heater. When Sheriff walked in, the whole attitude around the heater changed. Sheriff always walked in with something to say------usually funny, I guess, 'cause everybody laughed. He always shook hands with everybody. He'd tussle a bit with one off the fellows at the heater and make like he had come to arrest him. Then everybody would laugh. When Sheriff was in the store only Sheriff talked. Everybody else listened. I knew he must be important.

Sheriff always bought everybody in the store a dope. They cost five-cents each. Understand now. This was no illegal substance. It was a Coca-Cola, also called coke and before that called a dope. I've asked a lot of old timers and have never gotten a completely satisfactory answer as to why coke was originally called dope. The best explanation seems to be that the first coke formula, made at a drug store, may have contained a small amount of cocaine. It could have been high in caffeine, which gave the drinker a lift; I don't know. But, cokes were first called dope around Myrick's Mill. They were written that way in the charge books (customer credit book): 2 dopes-10 cents! Usually people argued over who was going to pay for everybody's dope. When Sheriff was in the store nobody argued. Sheriff paid the bill. That's another reason that I knew Sheriff was important.

Humphries Grocery at Myrick's Mill was also the place where everybody came to vote. It was the community polling place for the McDonald District. Tables would be set up and several of the ladies in the community would work around the tables on voting day. Sheriff always came by the store on voting day and left some money with my Daddy. He said this was to pay for cokes. Everybody that came in the door, walked straight to the drink box lifted the lid and pulled a drink out of the cold circulating water and pried the cap off with the bottle opener on the side of the drink box. On voting day, Daddy would never let anyone pay for his or her drink. "The Sheriff paid for your drink today", he would tell everybody. The man would then walk over to the table, pick up a ballot and vote. Ballots were folded and put in big tin boxes with a padlock securing to top closed until the official time came to count the ballots.

People in the county usually gathered at the courthouse on the night of voting day to get all the news firsthand about who had won and who had lost. After the ballots were counted and it was announced that Sheriff had won, everybody went to Rock's Grill to eat ham & eggs and celebrate--------usually about midnight. Sheriff always led the auto caravan to Rock's Grill. That's another reason I knew he was important------------he led the parade.

As I got bit older, I learned a lot more. One of my best friends, Jimmy, lived at the jail. His mother was the jailer and cooked for the prisoners. The jail has a two story brick building. The top floor was the jail part and Jimmy and his family lived in the bottom floor. Of course, they were good friends with Sheriff. Jimmy told me the night after vote day when everybody was real worried that Sheriff might not get most of the votes.

As you remember, all the tin boxes were carried to the Courthouse on the night at the end of voting day. My Daddy would usually go to the Courthouse on voting night. On this night as the votes were being counted, it appeared that the other fellow was getting more votes than Sheriff. There were a lot of people around and in the Courthouse and all of a sudden the lights went out. There was a lot of noise as people stumbled over the tin boxes to get to the light switch. Finally the lights came back on. When the vote counting started again, sheriff began to get more votes. When the vote counting finished, Sheriff had the most votes. So they went to Rock's Grill for ham and scrambled eggs. The Sheriff always got the most votes. That's another reason that I knew he was important.

Sheriff was real famous and a lot of people who ran in an election would talk to him about how to get the most votes. One of the ways to get votes was to get people to like you. Sheriff, in several ways, got people to like him. One, he always paid for their Coke if they were in a store together. Another was, he always tried to find out who voted against him so that he could find something nice to do for that person. I always thought that you left somebody alone if they didn't like you. But sheriff always did things for people who didn't like him. I later learned that it takes an important person to do nice things for people who don't like you.

Another thing that my friend Jimmy overheard Sheriff tell somebody who was running in an election. This man asked the Sheriff how far ahead of voting day do you start working so that you can get the most votes. Sheriff reportedly said, "Son, start working the day after the election." Timing is everything. The Sheriff knew a lot about timing. Sheriff also told this man that "the biggest 'possum always walks just before daylight." The Sheriff served for 48 consecutive years, receiving a citation from the National Sheriff's Association as the only Sheriff to attain this distinction in America. Sheriff was an important man.

©2003 - William C. Humphries, Jr.