A young boy reared in Texas understands the concepts of bad & good. Bad guys are evil, never get the girl & usually end up in jail or dead. The bad guy's attire is always black. Good guys are polite, always win the fair maiden's hand & ride off into the sunset. Good guys wear white hats. John Wayne's swagger was good. The Lone Ranger may have worn a black mask that hid his identity. But he was still good. The songs of Gene Autry, Roy Rogers & Ernest Tubb, may have sounded corny to a boy who listened to the Monkees, the Beach Boys & the Beatles. But their country twang was good. Even Marshall Dillon flirting with Miss Kitty was good. Yuk! To this group of "good guys," I'd like to add the name of James Burton Peters. He was the 4th generation of my surname to reside in Raleigh County. But he also lived in Greenbrier & Boone Counties of WV. It is in the latter that I remember my grandfather. We would often visit him & Grandma Sadie Alice Stover Peters on Toneys Branch in Bloomingrose, Boone County. I would bring Grandpa a can of Prince Albert & he'd make me some of his banana pudding, you know the kind with the vanilla wafers & bananas in it. Or he might make me some of his rich, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth, never-can-get-enough, peanut butter fudge. And don't forget the apple sauce cake. Whatever he fixed, I made out like Clyde Barrow or John Dillinger in the deal. Grandpa Burton was a coal miner, not a very unique characteristic in depression era Raleigh County. His father & father-in-law were miners as were his brothers & brothers-in-law. But yet, there was something different & very special about this man. I never heard Grandpa utter a bad word about anyone. How many of us can say that? If he had a problem with someone, I guess he went down to his local Church of Christ & prayed -- for himself & the other person. You see we were all brothers & sisters & members of the same flock! We have to get along. After my Grandma Sadie died in February of 1963, Grandpa Burton came to live with us for a while. I remember waiting at Love Field in Dallas, Texas for his plane to arrive. He departed the plane wearing a hat that I had seen worn by the local Texas Rangers & talking to a man that none of us knew. My father wondered aloud, "Where did Dad get that hat?" We were introduced to a man who had sat next to Grandpa on the plane. The man said hello, asked how we were doing, made some small talk & then excused himself. He was late for a business meeting. We understood. The gentleman that had occupied the seat next to Grandpa Burton was a high ranking executive of the Levi Strauss Company. He was so taken by my Grandpa that he gave him a brand new Stetson. Grandpa wore that hat everywhere. It was the same hat that covered his heart in a shopping mall in November of that year when he bowed his head & prayed for a fallen leader. Grandpa Burton knew no strangers, was quick to make friends and was not overwhelmed by status. One leg at a time, my boy! Retired coal miners & high ranking executives put their pants on the same way. There's a photo that sits on a file cabinet in my office. Three generations are pictured in the 5 x 7 black and white. There is a wide-eyed boy in a crew cut, a father in his military outfit & a grandfather dressed casually & wearing a light colored Stetson. They are all standing in a driveway outside an Abilene, Texas home located on Bowie Drive. It is a road named for Jim Bowie, the man of "big knife" fame & one of the defenders of "The Alamo." History tells us that Bowie fought there alongside other heroes like Col. Travis & Davy Crockett. I'd say that's an appropriate setting for a "good guy." But while some may chose to "Remember the Alamo," I instead remember a religious, friendly man & moral role model who was partial to Prince Albert Tobacco and who fed his grandson banana pudding, peanut butter fudge and apple sauce cake. I remember a man in a white hat. Sincerely, Mike Peters npeters102@aol.com