Correspondence: October 30, 2007

… That reminds me of my summers in Tennessee in the ’70s. Old “Bear” Hackett lived about six miles outside of town and used to walk it. He wasn’t quite right in the head. He also rolled his own cigarettes. And I seem to recall that the year James Earl Ray escaped from prison, Bear Hackett was one of the folks sitting around an old country store who said that if Ray turned up on their doorstep, they’d take him in. That was less than a decade after MLK was killed, so maybe they’ve all seen the light by now. I know Bear Hackett has seen the light. He’s dead.