Little Joe

By Imogene Turman © 1988Joseph Asa Thompson, about 11 years old, and his best dog, "Drive", a family pet and a red hound.

Issue: January–February, 1988

Joe was the 12th child of Barney and Martha Thompson. When Barney was loading his wagon of produce to take to Mount Airy, North Carolina to exchange for winter supplies, Joe went up to him with pleading eyes and said, "Pa, if you have anything coming to you, will you buy me an air rifle?"

Barney thought of this wish all the way to Mount Airy and decided that even if something had to be left out, he would bring the air rifle home.

Joe was so tickled he slept with the gun the first night. The next morning he went out to try the gun out. He came back crying and holding up a dead bird. "I didn't mean to kill it," he said.

Joe's sister Nancy tried out the air rifle on her Uncle Jim Lewis Thompson's night chamber pot which was hanging upside down on the yard post. She hit it, making a big shattered hole in the porcelain enamel.

It seemed as if the gun could not only hit a target but could also get kids in trouble without even aiming. Joe grew up to be a clerk with the C & O Railroad Company in Staunton, Virginia.