E-Beer Man John Wells in Little Criminals

John Wells
Mug Shot
About You Magazine

John Wells -- whom some readers here would know as the E-Beer Man -- turns out to have a literary side. He loves liters and liters of beer! Well, we knew that already, you say? Okay, let me re-phrase: He's not only bent elbows with liters of brews, he's also got a literary bent with prose. You might also already have realized that fact, based on excerpts from his weekly beer email, a few of which I've commented upon in blog posts. But even stronger evidence of John's literary talent has recently emerged, an essay for About You Magazine in which he describes the early onset of his criminal career:

I'll always remember the first time I was arrested. The year was 1963, and the place was 12th Street and University Avenue in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was then and there that a very large policeman took my best friend and me into custody. He put us in the back of his patrol car and took us downtown. I was in the third grade. My co-defendant was in the first.

Excellent literary hook! Why were these two young citizens of eight and six years arrested, you naturally ask? Sorry, no spoilers this time. But a few hints. Recall that this was the Sixties. A time of youthful rebellion. Of rock and roll. Of drugs. Of sex. Of helter-skelter in a fallout shelter. Of the Manson family. With respect to John's arrest, ALL of these and worse were fully irrelevant.

But I won't spoil John's story any more than that, and if you want to know more, go to his article, "Tales From The South: A First Time For Everything" (June 2013), and read the entire story from the perspective of an older and wiser individual:

An Older and Wiser Mr. Wells
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About You Magazine