Liars' Bench at Councilman Grocery in Bonlee

Alvis Dunn shared these memories about Bonlee in response to the photo shown here of men on a bench outside of the Councilman Grocery store.

Bonlee, where I grew and learned for the first 18 years of my life, made Mayberry look like a city. There were three gas stations, a lumber yard, and five storefronts, one of which was my father and mother’s Hardware Store (inside of it was the US Post Office). There were a couple of feed mills that supplied the broiler ‘industry’ (many, many families had long chicken houses where they raised birds for meat), a Southern Baptist and a Methodist Church, and an elementary school.

Those five storefronts shared a sidewalk and an awning and under that shelter there were three benches. And on those benches Tall Tales were told by men like these. Two of the benches had come from churches and were actually pews, but the one shown here was hand hewn and knotty but rubbed smooth by countless bib overalls over the decades. As a little boy I played barefoot in the spring and summer along that sidewalk. I remember both avoiding cracks (break your mother’s back) and dodging tobacco juice spit by the Liars Benchers (as my mother called them - affectionately most of the time - she did have to be somewhat prudent with that label because her Father-In-Law was often enough in that number). I heard a lot of Lore playing within earshot of that bunch. Bears and 15-foot snakes and blood rains for example. Moonshiners and Big Fish too.

Randy White identified the men on the bench as Leonard Burns, Martine Watson, Coley Beavers, and ?? Willett??

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