The other day I met a friend of mine, Sidney Jambois, at the post office. Sidney asked me why I didn’t write more about my experiences with Tarville Davis.
I knew that my brother, Baby, and I and Tarville used to go to all the football games that Berwick played and also to LSU’s. Also, we three traveled all over the country together, including Europe.
I have already written about Tarville several times, but I’ll just reminisce a little more. Tarville was always a “barrel of fun.” One of the things I will never forget is when we stopped at a restaurant somewhere in Tennessee on the way home from a football game.
We were eating lunch and sitting next to us was a fellow drinking a pitcher of beer. He took one drink and had to go to the john.
So I looked over at this man’s table and saw that he left his pitcher of beer. I told Tarville that I saw the man leave the restaurant and there was still a full pitcher of beer left. I told Tarville that we shouldn’t let the beer go to waste, that he should drink it, which he did. The man came rushing back from the john to find that his beer was all gone. He looked at me, and I had my head down chewing on a piece of meat. My brother, Baby, was doing the same thing.
He asked us who drank his beer. We both answered that we didn’t know, and he looked at us like we were lying. Then he looked over at Tarville, who had a large, beer foam ring around his mouth. Tarville looked sheepish and said, “I’m going to be like George Washington – I cannot tell a lie. I drank your beer, but I will buy you another pitcher of beer.”
He reached into his pocket and had exactly 42 cents. My brother and I finally paid for the beer.
Another time we were in a cafe in Mississippi eating lunch and there was a lady eating a piece of lemon meringue pie. She took one bite and had to go to the powder room.
Tarville said, “Look, that lady left a large piece of pie!” So Tarville eased over to the table and ate the lady’s pie.
The lady came back to the table and was “fit to be tied.” You could hear her a block away! She shouted out loud, “Who ate my pie?” She looked at me. I was quietly eating a sandwich. She looked over at my brother, who was also eating. She looked at Tarville, who had egg-yoke pie filling all over his nose and mouth. Tarville again told the lady he was like George Washington and could not tell a lie – that he had eaten her pie. He said that he would pay for another slice of pie.
But we had to pay again because Tarville never had any money.
Well, I’ll tell you one thing about Tarville, he was always a lot of fun to travel with. He was always so jolly and could always keep you laughing. This was especially the case when he was trying to tell you a joke. About half way through the joke, Tarville would start laughing. He would say one word and then start laughing again. He never could finish a joke. He laughed so much that his face would get as red as fire. He would hold in his stomach and sometimes he would laugh so much he would fall on the floor still laughing. He could never finish a joke.
He kept us laughing at him, not at the joke.
* The End *