Wham: Life in the Rump River Valley

Wham Wooster, tells his wife, Red, “The grounds wore out and I’s wore out and I ain’t gots a thin ta show for it.” Wham is stuck in the past and can no longer see the good. Red loves her husband. She may have breast cancer. Willie Wooster, Wham’s son, has high aspirations and hates the valley and tells Wham that he will give the high school Valedictorian speech in two years and then head to college to be an astrophysicist. Willis Wooster, Wham’s daughter, is the artist with talent but has never been challenged. Jeb and Sludge, with nary a care, fish and hunt and sponge off other folks offer Wham advise, “You’uns workin too hard.” Happy, their dog nods his head in agreement. Johanness and his dog, Elliott, get lost in the fog and the RV ends up stopping on Wham’s property. Miss Chatty, up in age, vows to build a library before she dies. And she runs the Giant Possum Hotline. Pastor Momar drives an Escalade and he and Elizabeth live in a mountain chalet “parsonage.” The Giant Possum, who lives in the Big Bog, does what giant possums do; stays mostly hidden. Johanness asks Wham, “Where the hell are we?” “This here’s the Rump River Valley. It ain’t much but we like it. And we gots some a the best folks that ever was.”

Jim Brouwer lives in Myrtle Beach, SC where he writes and metal detects the beach for treasure. His first published book, "Gold Beneath the Waves" is 4-1/2 stars on Amazon. The inspiration for "Wham" and "Jeb and Sludge" was living among the good people in very rural western North Carolina.