Grover Cleveland Walborn knew nothing about wrestling. But he knew a lot about rasslin’. He would tell you he could rassle a mountain lion right down to the ground and cut the lion’s claws off. He kept the claws in a wooden matchbox that he carried in the pocket of his tattered old coat.
On cold winter evenings, everyone in Michaelville, young and old, would gather around the old, wood-fired stove that sat in the middle of A. J. Tull & Son General Store and U.S. Post Office, to play checkers, listen to the radio and listen to the old-timers tell stories. There was no TV in those days, so the stories, the radio, and checkers provided the only entertainment in town. Sooner or later, Grover Cleveland Walborn would bring out his matchbox of lion claws. Then he would, again, tell us how on the way from his house to the store, about two blocks, he had tracked a mountain lion, rassled him to the ground and cut off his claws. Some of the claws had blood on them. Mountain lion claws? Mountain lion blood? Naw! We all knew that Grover Cleveland Walborn worked at Rager's Turkey Farm and his job was to cut the burrs off the turkeys. But all of us, even our neighbor, Jack Lyle, were afraid to walk home anyway. Did Grover Cleveland Walborn really rassle a mountain lion this time?
Grover Cleveland Walborn lived alone in the old Walborn house on Trout Street in Michaelville. Some people said he never married. Others said he had married during the time he worked out West, but his young wife and baby son died during the flu epidemic of 1918. No one knew for sure. But in 1918, Grover Cleveland Walborn returned to Michaelville and his boyhood home on Trout Street. There was no doubt he was a unique character. Except for his work at Rager's Turkey Farm, he was pretty much a loner. He seemed to enjoy being with others, though. Many of his encounters with the citizens of Michaelville were memorable events.
