Robert's Memoirs Page 4 (1936)
When I was in shipping at Charles H. Stone, Inc.,
there was a small trucking company that was owned by the Reid family, Charles, Leonard and
their Uncle. They had a driver that could throw his voice who fooled me several times. He
would throw his voice across the plant and it sounded like someone calling me to the
operating part of the plant.This happened several times before I realized that Haskel
Deaton was throwing his voice.
In those days we used mostly wooden barrels to
ship textile chemicals. One day I walked up to the shipping platform and one of the black
workers, Charlie, had cooper tools and was taking the head out of a barrel of textile
finishing chemicals. I asked Charlie what he was doing and he told me that there was
someone in the barrel. I saw Haskel when he turned his head and made his voice sound as
though it was coming from barrel on the platform. I told Charlie that Haskel was throwing
his voice but he didn't believe me. Haskel threw his voice away from the shipping area
saying "I am OK now. I have gotten out and everything is OK". Charlie still did
not believe that there was not someone in the barrel. I had to get Haskel to demonstrate
that he was throwing his voice. If I had not caught Haskel in the act, I never would have
believed that a person could throw their voice as well as Haskel could.
I remember another occasion when a car had run off
the road and turned over in a ditch off Remount Rd. between Wilkinson Blvd. and the
Southern Railroad tracks. The driver must have been drinking because he left the scene
before anyone or the police arrived. A friend of mine, Tommy Lyles, lived near the site of
the accident and was present at the scene. Haskel Deaton showed up and started throwing
his voice like it was someone buried in the dirt under the car begging someone to
"please dig me out of this ditch". Tommy and the police tried to push the car
over but they couldn't. Haskel threw his voice again and told them to "get shovels
and dig me out". Tommy Lyles ran home, got a shovel and Tommy and the police started
digging. After some time the police and Tommy figured out what was going on. The police
gave Haskel a dressing down that would embarrass an old salty sailor. This was the same
man that taught me to fly several years later.
When Haskel was teaching me to fly we had a Boston
bull dog named Toby that I carried with me when we made one flight. I talked Haskel into
climbing to 3000 or 4000 feet and doing some loops and stalls. Haskel was piloting from
the front seat and Toby and I were in the rear seat that also had controls. The first
stunt he did was a stall and when it fell off he put it in a spin. There was a small
compartment at the rear of the back seat. I was holding Toby when the lid on the
compartment came open and a quart of Gulf oil was flying through the cockpit. Toby was
barking and Haskel was as scared as I was. He pulled it out of the spin and we replaced
the can of oil and fastened the lid on the compartment. After Toby got quiet we made a few
loops and called it a day. I didn't carry Toby out to fly after that.
Haskel Deaton was named the Man of the Year and
was the pilot for Ed McCoy, owner of McCoy Oil Company. Ed owned a DC 3 he had purchased
surplus from the government and had converted it as an executive plane. Haskel piloted for
Ed until Ed passed away at a very early age.
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