In this photo, Charlie Bundrum "...is dressed in his Sunday-go-to-meetin' clothes, not his overalls, but his big wrists and scarred, tar-stained, gnarled hands tell on him. The face staring out from under a misshapen straw slouch hat looks tense and hard edged, as if it can't wait for this foolishness to be over, and the eyes bore into you, challenge you. It is a studio photo, taken on Noble Street in Anniston, AL, in front of a painted-on palm.

"A poor man, posing.

"'That ain't Daddy,' my aunt Jo said."

 

--from AVA'S MAN