There are many different characters in and around Hope. I’m sure there are strange folks everywhere but some of these guys take the cake.

Like the time John got a scooter. Now he enjoyed riding that scooter all day and when it started to get late, he headed home. He got there and hollered for his wife. She came out on the porch and he told her he was going to park his scooter in the house. “So them boys won’t take off with it.” Was his reasoning, he had a couple of sons that would have loved to get a hold of it. Now his wife wasn’t too worried about the scooter being in the house seeing as how the porch was six feet off the ground. But John wasn’t deterred. He came around the house toting a large board. “Now you hold this right here, I’m going to go around the house on the scooter to get up some speed. Then I’ll run up this here board and right up in the house.”

His wife never said a word, but I bet she was sure thinking a lot. John started up that scooter and headed around the house. By the time he got back around to the board, he had his speed up but he missed the board. The bottom of the porch caught him right in the middle of his forehead. He woke up about two hours later and his precious scooter was under the porch. I don’t think he ever rode it much after that.

Another one of the locals, Timmy, went to the store and came back with a set of boxing gloves. For some reason, he thought this would be a good idea. So he went from house to house in Hope, trying to find someone to spar with him. No one would take him up on the offer until he got to Mumbles. Now Mumbles got tired of being aggravated, so he agreed. They drew off a square in the hallway of the barn. Timmy got his gloves on first while Mumbles was still struggling with his. Timmy snuck up to him and punched him square in the nose. Well, that set Mumbles off. He dropped the gloves and lit in on Timmy. About beat him senseless, if he’d had any. The last they saw of Timmy and the boxing gloves was as he stalked out of the barn, throwing the gloves over his shoulder. “F- it. I quit!” He never asked anyone to box again.