This is where “Goose” Chatam lived back in the forties. He was the meanest man I ever knew. He was a big man. Probably close to seven feet tall. And maybe 300 pounds. Or maybe that is my kid memory remembered through the tap of an adult. But I do know that he was mean.

Johnny Chatam was his son and he was a friend of mine. We would hang out at school and Johnny would come to my house on occasion. Johnny would tell me stories of the beatings he would take. His dad would take him to a building behind the house and whip him with a belt. He would beat him with that belt until Johnny would tell him to stop but not before he had drawn blood. Johnny was out of school for a week one time because he wouldn’t tell his dad to stop. When he came back to school he could hardly move his left arm.

One time a teacher went to the house to talk with “Goose”. That was a mistake. He came to school the next day with a broken arm. Everyone was afraid of “Goose”. Even the police. It was rumored that “Goose” had killed two men and his wife had left one day never to be found again. Before she left “Goose” had battered her unmercifully. He had blinded her in one eye and broken several bones.

Everyone always said it was the war that made him that way. That before he left for the war he was a very peaceful man. He would do anything for anyone. The summer before he left, he had saved the life of two of his neighbors. He had rescued them from a house fire. He had received some serious burns in the rescue and was honored by the church his heroic deeds. Everyone just knew he would come back from the war as a hero.

But something happened in the war. Something that “Goose” never talked about. He was a completely different man. Many called him no even human. They tolerated him for years when he came back because of his actions before the war.

The property where he lives was lost by his parents just before he left for the war. When he came back he took the property from the people who had bought it. They said he just walked up to the house, opened the door and started carrying out everything in the house. The man who had bought the place, John Tolliver, grabbed “Goose’s” arm and “Goose” threw him across the room where he hit the wall and was knocked unconscious for several hours. The house was emptied of all the furniture and Mrs. Tolliver called her brother who came and loaded their possessions and they were never heard from again.

One day Johnny came home from school and found his dad dead. No one knew how he died and no one cared. They felt it was best. Johnny went to live with an aunt in Ohio. I never saw Johnny again but we did write to each other from time to time for a few years. I think we broke it off at about age 16 or 18.