Bill McKenzie is an interesting man....

Bill McKenzie thought he was Scottish, descended from people from the “ould country”. Until someone pointed out that since his name was spelled Mc instead of Mac, it meant that he was not at all a Scot, but an Irishman. Bill McKenzie doesn’t mind, though.
When one meets Bill McKenzie, a 59 year old resident of Michigan City, Mississippi, and he extends his hand for a handshake, you can’t help but notice the thumb that juts out at an angle not at all natural or the way it was when he was born. It is a severe case of rheumatoid arthritis, caused by years of working in frozen food for several grocery store chains, notably Krogers, and Big Star, a PIggly Wiggly subsidiary, according to Bill. As with everything else in his life though, Bill McKenzie takes it all with a large spoonful of good humor.
I recently had the good fortune to make his acquaintance, and I won’t soon forget him. Such a font of hunor, information and wisdom is a rare find indeed, and while I am only writing a small piece about Mr McKenzie, he deserves a longer forum for his humor and insight. A modern day Gabby Hayes, he.
For instance, when asked if he was married, Bill replied, “ Yes, I was married for two years and they were the two worst years of my wife’s life.”
BIll holds court at a nameless gas station on Rt 72, some 59 miles east of Memphins TN. He shows up early in the morning, gets a cup of 50 cent coffee, and drinks it, and he talks. And talks. Sometimes befor e he arrives he text messages the woman, Anne, who is the cook at the station. His purpose? He likes to tell her horoscope for the day. An attractive young lady named Chrissy is going to mortician school, and she called Bill on his cell phone for something, and I heard him tell her to do well at school because people were just dying to meet her.
On his way to the restroom the other day he said he had to powder his nose. When told that “if that is where your nose is, you’re in a lot of trouble” Bill shot back, “Well, I am a brown noser—the chairman of the board in the sucking up department.”
He is also a master of non sequiters. We exchanged cell phone numbers, and today, out of nowhere the following appeared on my phone: “Texting my pals is the most fun I have with my clothes on!”
Seriously, though, Bill is a sweet and kind man who loves people, and interacting with them. He brings his own collapsible camping chair to the gas station and sets it up outside, where people cant help but interact with Bill. When I told the owner of the station, an Israeli man named Sam, about my walk, he told me jokingly that when I left to take Bill with me. If I only had a side car…..