Oh, this is one of my favorites.
It's called "Prohibition and Country Dances,"
and it occurred over by Cloverdale.
And it was another one that Wilder told me about.
And it was about Lee Howard, and Lee Howard
was the guy who was in the other poem about Rex McDonald.
Lee was-- God.
I went down there, and Lee had just shot
a hole in a surveyor's window in his car
because he passed Lee's house, and he didn't stop
to ask permission to go by.
Anyway, so--
"Well, one time there was a dance
over the hill at Cloverdale.
it was out under the blackjack oak limbs.
It was between the arroyo and the fork in the road.
It was where they'd been a-stealin'
old Lee Howard's whiskey.
Every time there was a Cloverdale dance,
they'd let Lee have a few drinks,
and after he was good and liquored up,
they'd get his bottle.
Then, it was kind of hard for old Lee to remember just
where he'd hid his bottle."
Now, there probably are some of you
in this room who have had that situation occur.
"But finally, Lee figured out what they was a-doin'.
So he poured some of his whiskey into a bottle.
Then, he filled the rest of that bottle with croton oil.
You know, that's that damn laxative
that they give to cattle and horses.
After he filled it, he shook it and took that bottle,
and he hit it out in the oak brush.
He hid it, but not too good.
[LAUGHTER]
Well, one of them boys was pretty proud of hisself.
He'd found Lee's bottle, and he stole it,
and he was a-dancin' with the prettiest girl there.
They was a-sparkin', just a-whirlin' across that old
Cloverdale dance floor.
They was a-do-si-doin' to beat all hell till that boy began
to feel that croton oil hittin' him.
I'll tell you, any bottle of old Lee's
that they found after that, they sure sniffed around
that bottle quite a bit.
And they were damn sure careful about drinking it.
I'll tell you that old boy with that croton oil--
he left his pretty girl, and he lit out for the far oaks.
And when he ran, he ran a-dancin', but he was
a-dancin' to a different kind of a tune."