My best friend was my Grandaddy, I spent all my time with him, I was his shadow. He taught me everything that ever mattered in life and all before I was 10 years old. When I wasn't underfoot with him, I remember playing with sewing thread spools made of wood that Grandma gave me, left over from her quilting. Stacking them up like Pyramids, making fence rows with them, twirling them on the end of tobacco twine. Corn cobs with three chicken feathers stuck in the end...curved side pointed toward center, with a small wood screw threaded in the other end that twirled back down like a Helicopter when you threw it skyward. I made fighter jets out of notebook paper, and if I was lucky on occasion got one of the Balsa Wood flyers that came with a rubber band attached to the propeller that cost you a dime at Ben Franklin. I often bought and continuously lost the Japanese Handcuffs as they were called at the time. A woven tube that only tightened when you stuck a finger from each hand in it and pulled outward. I could work a Yo Yo with the best of them, and 'Walk the Dog" do the "Sleeper," "Around the World," "Rock the Baby," "Skin the Cat." I had a diamond shaped "Spinning Top" with the pointed metal end, but our rooms were too small....I almost broke the screen out of the TV when it bounced once, and Grandaddy had told me if I used it inside again I would get "The Razor Strap." There were three methods of punishment, "a whupping" which usually meant an open palm on the backside or thigh, "a switch" which was a skint Sweet Gum Branch usually, except for just the tip that was used against bare legs and sometimes against the bare butt, but the worst by far was "The Razor Strap." It was exactly what it sounded like, a worn out razor strap off a Barber Chair that the Barber used to whet or sharpen his straight razor. It was a punishment made infamous by legend...my Daddy, and all my Uncles always warned me "you better hope he never whips you with that "Razor Strap". Looking back I can't honestly say if "The Razor Strap" was ever used. In my later years when I asked about it....the legend was relived....but no one could truly remember, having it used on them or even seeing it used. Just the threat of "The Razor Strap" would instantly bring a halt to anything! "Jimmy, you stop that now, or your Grandaddy will get "The Razor Strap" when he comes home". It froze me in my tracks, centered me back in reality and guided me to manhood.....maybe it was the threat, maybe it was because I respected and loved him so much....If only it were that simple today.....