March 4, 2021
Volume 51 - No. 09
By Starla Sloan
I grew up in a small town on the Kentucky-Tennessee border where elections were determined by which politician passed out the most halfpints of liquor. When we were kids we got paid 50 cents a piece to pass out Seagram’s Seven and Coronal Lee. When we weren’t doing that, we caught crawdads in the creek and kept lightning bugs in jars. It felt like those honey-suckle summers would last forever, they didn’t. My family made their money from The Paper - 760.747.7119
website:www.thecommunitypaper.com
email: thepaper@cox.net
the moonshine that my Papaw distilled and sold out of his trunk, until he could afford to buy a beer joint. When the next generation took over they would use the same tavern to sell cocaine to the Mafia from New York, until the TBI and FBI shut them down and sent them to the pen. ••••• I come from a small Southern town that left me wanting; a place filled with churches, beer joints, and funeral homes, so there wasn’t a lot to do except get drunk, go to church and die. Like most small towns, we
had a “Boo Radley.” Redbird had all the hallmarks of a town eccentric, a strange name, haunted appearance, and emotional damage. There were many urban legends that floated around as to how he got that way. He had functioned normally in school, and he and my brother were once friends. After his mysterious metamorphosis, he would aimlessly wander the sidewalks, sometimes skipping but always mumbling to himself. Coming upon him gave you an awkward feeling like you had interrupted a private conversation, and
Redbird Burning See Page 2
there was desperation about him, as though he had an urgent need.
The ritual most kids followed when passing him was to ask, “Who is the devil, Redbird?” He would always reply, “Gary S. is the devil.” Then, the kids would run away back-slapping each other with approval and roaring with laughter. Gary S. was my uncle, and his stunts, like riding a horse into the police station and shooting the ceiling, had made him a local legend. Most people in town thought Redbird’s transformation