Many family trees have at least one branch labeled as “colorful” and that certainly applies to the Richardsons. Sometimes people who don't conform to social norms get labeled with terms like "eccentric" or "character." Though I never met him, I feel colorful is the right descriptor for my Grandpa Joe.
Joseph Leonard Richardson was born near Oakland City, Indiana in 1892 and lived there all his life. He married Minnie Upton and they had one child, John. Joe had success as a farmer but was probably best known for his small construction business that did a lot of work in the agricultural community building ponds and cleaning out ditches. He was good enough at that to own two small draglines and keep them busy during the challenging economic times of the 20’s through the 40’s. When my dad was old enough, he joined the family business as a dragline operator. The sign on Joe’s pickup read, “Richardson & Son Contracting – We Move The Earth.”
I can only speculate on how successful Joe could have been if he had been more focused on work and less on his other interests. Those interests were gambling, liquor, and women in no particular order. Joe also liked nice clothes and I've seen a couple of photos where he's wearing a straw boater and spats.
He found policies quite constraining and had no use for regulations that might interfere with what he wanted to do at the time. Joe’s mantra might as well have been, “Rules are for fools.”
This was particularly true when it came to hunting and fishing licenses. Joe viewed those as a huge overreach by the government to keep him from the pursuit of happiness. In the local game warden’s eyes, Joe was Public Enemy #1. Opportunity came his way one summer day when he spotted Joe fishing at a local lake. The game warden attempted to sneak up on Joe but was spotted and a foot race ensued. Joe jumped in his car, took off slinging gravel, and was able to get about a quarter mile ahead of the game warden as they sped along the rock roads over the rolling hills of Gibson county. At some point in the chase, Joe crested a hill, noticed an open garage door ahead, whipped off the road, slid into the garage, and closed the door. As soon as the game warden’s car roared by, Joe threw open the garage door and headed for home. I think he and the game warden might have been the inspiration for the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote cartoons.
Despite clashes with the game warden, Joe likely saw himself as a law-abiding citizen. He just happened to be particular about which laws he would abide. When Joe became too impaired to drive, he would pay local high school boys to chauffeur him to his next misadventure. Joe found the bonds of matrimony too restrictive and opted for companionship with women of easy virtue, enticing them with new shoes. That and his other vices accelerated the fracture of his marriage to Minnie. Though never divorced, they lived separately for years. While there may have been some happy years in the marriage, Minnie got wise to his ways and knew Joe was too self-absorbed and compulsion-driven to ever change.
Joe would bet on anything. If there were two birds on a power line, he would wager on which would fly off first. He kept a silver dollar in his pocket and would often challenge his customers to bet him “double or nothing” on the flip of that coin after the completion of a job. Sometimes Joe came home flush with money and other times he had worked a week or two for free. Joe would tell you he never had a losing streak but admitted there were periods where it was quite a while between wins. By the time Dad married Mom in 1948, Joe’s gambling and drinking were so out of control Dad paid Joe to stay home rather than come to any job they were working on.
Joe’s response to that was to catch a bus for Hot Springs, Arkansas and gamble his way back to happiness. One day while at the bank, Dad was talking to the president who commented, “Well, Joe sure is living it up in Hot Springs! He’s having us wire him money every few days.” Dad nearly fainted. He told the banker, “Send him enough for bus fare and tell him he can use it any way he wants, but there isn’t any more coming after that.” Joe returned to Oakland City shortly after.
Joe was known and liked by almost everyone in and around Oakland City. He had a pirate’s smile and a good sense of humor. He passed out candy to the kids he met on the street. Dad and Mom told me that he was really looking forward to my birth but died two days before. I arrived on the day of his funeral, so Minnie and Dad were running between the funeral home, cemetery, and the hospital.
I’m sure my upbringing would have been different with Grandpa Joe in it. Subconsciously, I have probably used his life as a cautionary tale. Though some of the stories about him are sidesplittingly funny, the price of being colorful was awfully high and everyone in the family ended up paying Joe’s tab.
