Not sure how many of ya'll remember the character Earnest T on Mayberry but Donnie was as close to Earnest T as one will ever find... Yup, all 4'10" of him... He lived at the very back of our holler and spent his entire life drunk and stoned but...
...he had a big heart, was a purdy decent framing carpenter and stone mason's laborer...
I met Donnie the very first day we moved here some 5 1/2 years ago... It was a Sunday mornin' and he walked the 1/2 mile up our driveway and had the remnants of a six pack danglin' from the plastic holder and introduced himself like this, "Hi, my name is Donnie and I worked on this farm all my life... I don't mind tellin' you that I'm a drunk but if you need anything done I can do it..."
That was beginning of our relationshiip and he worked for me off and on on all kinds of projects until last year when I purdy much ran outta work for him...
Now Donnie would go to bed around 7 at night and be up watching cartoons and smokin' pot and drinkin' by 4 in the morning and would show up for work at whatever time you wanted him there and would work purdy well until around noon when he would be too drunk to work any more...
But before noon he would outwork everyone around him...
He was also very entertaining and everyone loved him back here in the holler...
I told him one time that if he continued his life style it was gonna kill him and he said that he didn't much care 'cause he was living the way he wanted to...
Well, he didn't get up this mornin'... His brother, who has been a saint all these years, found him dead in his bed...
RIP, Donnie...
Bobert and the P-Vine (Mommy and Daddy what he called us)