The Last Duke Of Kentucky(pg.2)

     I never knew until years later that Joey Hilton Sr. was Joey Hilton Junior's father, I worked for Joey Sr. for a few years when jobs were not to be found, very hard exhausting job of caring bricks and mortar all day in 90 degrees weather wasn't ideal work for any young man, and Joey Hilton was a bad drunk, they(his other bricklayer) worked for about three weeks and would stay drunk for a month, I can't believe I stayed in this cycle for a couple of years, I became a drunk like them. I was an exceptional card player, many times would clean these drunks out and I missed work because I had my rent money from my winnings, they always came for me though and pressed me to play, because they wanted their money back, but I wiped them out and stole their girlfriends too, sad existence it was, but I managed to stay focus on being young and free. 
     I finally moved away from Bardstown in the mid-1980s, because jobs were not to be found that suited my style, I moved to Danville and met my wife, we lived together in her dainty apartment with her son, I really had the time of my life with her in this era of mediocrity, we survived on love and joy, drank rum daiquiris all summer long and made sweet love each night all night long, one of the happiest times of my life, but reality hit, we were out of money, so we loaded up my Subaru Station wagon and headed toward the south in sunny Florida. We got married there in Orlando's courthouse and stayed with my dearest friend Paul, who was my best man, and we drank a case of wine that night, yes I bought a case of wine and me, my wife, Paul and Paul's girlfriend were hammered until sunset. 
     I loved Paul, but he was a bit of a drug addict and not too motivated as far as jobs go, I ventured on without him, and I and my wife Bunny moved up the road from them, into a room adjacent to a little ole lady who was from Kentucky too for whom we rented from, a sweet lady, not nosy and I helped her all I could, and she would cut my rent in half with my renovations too, but somehow this didn't please my wife, so after about a year in Florida my wife longed for Kentucky, she missed her son, who was an 18 year old stripling, but still needed mommy's hands and money. So, back to Kentucky, we went. We arrived in Danville in March of 1987, and things started to go south for me and Bunny, she wanted her son to live with us, which was fine with me, but the kid refused to work, always borrowing money and staying out late playing music and doing drugs, now trust me, I'm no hypocrite, I too did some stuff I was never proud of, but I always worked, never borrowed a dime from no one, I never was a smoocher.

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