The tale of Harry McMillan...true or false

 The tale of Harry McMillan...true or false



                                                            sash weights


    Sometimes we youngsters would take a story and run with it using our own imaginations. We loved to hear John Sheehy tell stories of his youth before he begged Grace Kenmir to make an honest man of him. We hung on every word as he told us about considering taking up his further education at Cumnock College or how Ben Creason stole an entire truck full of coca colas and drove out to a sweltering Indianapolis where they sold the sodas a buck a pop to the rubes who were swarming the old brickyared for the Indy 500. In this case he spoke of a rambunctious young swell who liked to drink too much and seek attention by attempting dare-devil stunts. The boozing and risk-taking caught up with Harry McMillan one night as he would swerve his car close to the curb, inches from pedestrians and jerk the steering wheel just in time to avoid avoid hitting the terrified victim of the foolish prank. The amount of liquor may have been larger than normal and Harry's reactions were not as quick but one fateful night the fender of his car clipped a poor man on the street and busted him up pretty bad, eventually causing his death. For his stupid stunt Harry was convicted of manslaughter and was sent to prison. The accident put an end to Harry's automotive recklessness and his young life of tomfoolery, including thumbing his nose at the law. Jack and I embellished the saga of McMillan after watching many a movie on TV with the themes of crime and regret. There were the stereotypical tough guys behind bars and their prison slang we loved.  Greg joined in when we swore up and down that Harry McMillan died in stir. We liked the sound of it and the embellished version of the bad boy of the old neighborhood morphed into George Raft in "Each Dawn I Die" that was full of great dialogue. We kept this up for years, retelling the cautionary tale of the hard life of Harry McMillan. One time as we repeated the tale for the umpteenth time John heard us and chuckled "what the hell are you talking about?" "Harry McMillan dropped dead in a sash and door joint...a few years back" Seems Harry got out of the pen after doing his time and became a citizen who worked for a living, even marrying a woman named Catherine and dropping dead in a Sash and Door shop. 








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