Luther Gang

20 May 2000 - Let Me Tell You A Little Story About The Luther Gang (to be sung to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies theme song LOL)
I don’t know a lot about my bio-dad’s family. Almost all of the information I do have comes from my mother’s side of the family. My mother’s family, the Reeds, is from the NC Mountains as are my bio-dad’s family, the Luthers. The Reeds were a funny bunch. Always playing practical jokes on people and just very humorous people. And the Luthers, who lived in the same town, were the town loons. If you are from a small town or have ever spent time in one you know that there is always a family that is odd. They were a little backward and happened to be the butt of most of the Reed’s jokes. Don’t get me wrong the two families got along even intermarried. But I grew up having no contact with the Luthers because my bio-dad (Bobby) left us. So my impression of them is solely based on what I heard.
Anyway, the story I am thinking about happened during World War II. School children all over the country were encouraged to gather up scrap metal and turn it in for the war effort. At Bobby’s school they were going to have a contest to see who could bring in the most. He was determined he would win. He spent all his free time scouting out scrap metal and gathering it up to take to school. It was almost an obsession with him. HE HAD TO WIN! Near the end of the scrap metal drive it appeared that this other little boy was going to beat Bobby. That sent Bobby into a panic. So he went home that day and talked his mother into giving him the family car for the scrap metal drive. LOL. He won, but the family was out of a car.
Another funny story I remember hearing about the Luthers is about Grandpa Luther, Bobby’s daddy. He loved pretty women. And the pretty women in the area knew that. It got to be a common thing for women to ask him to co-sign loans for them. He would do it. And then the women would never pay back the loans so Grandpa Luther had to pay. This happened over and over again. Grandma Luther got pretty tired of that. (I don’t blame her.) She warned him not to do it again. But the next pretty woman that asked for him to co-sign got the same help all the other’s did. When Grandma Luther heard about it she calmly went to Grandpa Luther’s barn and burned it down. Guess she showed him. LOL. I guess the moral to that one is ~ don’t rile a Luther woman~.
Y’all have a great day. Jami (Luther) Sinclair