Many many years ago, my family moved to a small town in northern Virginia. And they even took me with them!

Anyway, the rural mail deliverer was a fellow named Elmer Maley. He punctuated every sentence with the word "bolly", and it was several years before I got up the nerve to ask someone what bolly meant. It was Elmer's shortening of the phrase "by golly." I've never forgotten it, and someday Elmer, thinly disguised, will appear as a character in my novel about the Tarleton Tavern. May never get it published, but writing it sure is fun.


TEd