Laughin' Man

One of my favorite sections of the Reader's Digest used to be "My Most Unforgettable Character". I never could pick a favorite from the many characters I have collected over the years, but one of them had to be Laughin' Man.

I first saw him in Hamilton, Georgia where I worked at "The Store". Hamilton is the county seat of Harris County and sprang up as a major gathering point for farmers to bring their baled cotton for shipment during the "King Cotton" era. Southern Railroad was the major line and went almost due north and south through Hamilton, which was exactly halfway between Columbus and LaGrange (25 miles to either from Hamilton).

The railroad, in those days, hired men to "walk the rails" to look for loose spikes, rotten timbers or other problems with the rails. Laughin' Man was one of those men. You could hear him coming almost as far away as you could hear the train whistle. He had one of those infectious belly laughs that made people laugh with him, even if they didn't know what they were laughing at. It had a musical pattern to it and went something like, "Ha haaa, ha haaa, ha haaa, ha ha ha ha hAAAaaaaaaaa", the last descending as if there was no more breath to push it out. Then he repeated it - over and over.

We kids would run out and walk a ways with him every time we heard him and talk to him. I sometimes took him a glass of water or a Coke, and asked him many times, "What's so funny?"

He would just get this twinkle in his eyes and make a sweeping motion with his outstretched arms and say, "Ha haaa, ha haaa, ha haaa, ha ha ha ha hAAAaaaaaaaa".

I never did learn what he was laughing at. Reckon he was trying to tell us it was simply the joy of living?

Phil (Friends call me Brew)
http://www.philwhitley.com