Memories of Bill

Memories of Bill Thompson
by
his Brother, Leroy

1. When Bill was around six or seven years old he had a fondness for beans that was well known in the family. Once when Mom served green beans he protested strongly by saying, “Why do we have to eat those old bean hulls?” Someone said, “Bill, why do you like beans so well?” His reply was, “Because they taste Tangy.” Through the years I have teased children in the family while they were eating by asking them: “Does that taste “Tangy?”

2. The most humorous thing that I remember was when Bill, a little older, set off a Roman Candle he had gotten for Christmas in the house. It was a farmhouse with doors between living room, dining room, kitchen and pantry all in a row. Dad was fearful Bill was going to burn down the house with the Roman Candle. However, Bill had the common sense to line the shots from the candle through all those doorways until it burned itself out. Needless to say, it was scary to Dad but funny to the rest of us.

3. In that same farm house, something happened to Bill that makes me cringe to think about it. He was a teen and rode his bike to what was called, “Hoovers Landing,” on Black River. A man lived in a house boat in that area. Though he was strange we never thought him dangerous until that day. We looked toward the landing and saw him throw Bill’s bike into the river. Our worst fear was that he had already thrown Bill into the river. While we were watching we heard a shot from the rifle hit our house. A little later, we looked to the left toward a Levee a little distance from our house. It was the greatest sense of relief one could feel
when we saw it was Bill somewhat casually walking home toward us. Our relief soon turned to great concern when we realized that Bill had been hit in the shoulder area by one bullet from the strange man’s rifle. We got him to a doctor as soon as possible but at that time a decision was made to treat the wound and leave the bullet in the collar bone area of his body. (The strange man was taken to jail and later to an Institution for mental treatment).

The point in telling this story is to show how Providential it was that Bill’s life was spared that day. We can only imagine our loss had God not spared this
good man’s life to bless us in so many, many ways.

Love always, Leroy