Life Lessons

Gather around, my friends, and let me tell you a tale my father used to tell me. It’s a story about redemption, a cautionary tale warning against judging a person by their appearance. An old story, with quaint phrasing…I hope you won’t mind if I tell it in the same way it was told to me.

You see, back in the mountains of Appalachia, there’s a spot way up in Appaloosa County, a place called Ko-ko Ridge. It sets right on the bend on the Etowah River, where the water washed away the bridge. It’s not very hospitable, most folks called it Cotton Mouth Country, and the river rats got up to knee-high.

Way up around the back border lived a man that the river folks talked about. They said you better stay away from Ko-ko Joe, cause he’s crazy no account. Ah, Ko-ko Joe. One of those people even the already-crazy Appalachian folk are afraid of, someone who lived off the land in a way they hadn’t dreamed of in years, someone who kept to himself way back up in the swamp.

Ya see, Ko-ko Joe ate monkey meat and mashed potatoes, and he drank a brew called the Mojo Claw that he beat out of roots from old dead stumps on the banks of the Etowah. Where did the monkeys come from, in the middle of Appalachia, you ask? Shut up, don’t bring logic into this. This is a story, so just accept that maybe Joe raised monkeys for meat and leave it at that.

Anyway, the Mojo Claw was a helluva drink, moonshine stronger than anything my Grandpappy made in his still that was located in the middle of what is now a man-made lake. It made him walk a little funny, and made his breath smell funky.

Now, Ko-ko Joe never came across the river cause the folks didn’t like him in town. They said his hair was long, his clothes were dirty, and they didn’t want him hanging around. They called him the Etowah River Swamp Rat, and folks despised him. Admittedly, he was an awfully peculiar man, and the river was his only friend. The folks just didn’t understand the man, Ko-ko Joe.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. It happened about a year ago Sunday, and they still talk about it today. How the dam broke loose on the Etowah River, nearly washed everybody away. The river was a’risin….washing up on the bushes…..

Later, the headlines read how a mother said, “My son would have lost his life. But he was pulled from the mud in the Etowah River by the man y’all all despise.”

And the moral of the story is: be careful what you say, my friend, about folks you don’t understand. Some day you might need a man like Ko-ko Joe.
Now, what have we learned here?