Several months after "The watermelon Bomb" incident, me and my friend Doyle Howell were once again sitting on the bench in front of my uncle Carl Heatherly's store.  My mom used to refer to that bench as the "Local Spit and whittle" bench,  we were again sitting across from the Cardin "Beer Joint", hoping that some "Good Samaritan" would bring us over a cold beer, since we were not old enough to join the festivities going on inside.  The place was full as usual.  Orville Perry, who married my father's cousin, Lucille Heatherly, was the owner of the bar at that time.  As usual, on Saturday night, the place was full, with cars parked on each side of the highway from the corner of Stringtown Road up to the parking lot of the Assembly of God Church.
    During that time, Ottawa County was completely dry and no hard liquor was legally sold in any of the Bars.  Only 3.2 beer was allowed.  Of course, many of the "Beer Joints" illegally sold shots of whiskey.  The Cardin "Night-Spot" was no exception,  whiskey could be bought by the shot.

     All of a sudden, me and my friend Doyle noted that about five County Sheriff cars pulled up about a block west on the parking lot of the Assembly of God Church. We watched with much interest as they stood in a group and motioned down toward the Cardin "Beer Joint".  I knew immediately what was about to happen.  There was a house next to the Bar where the Yost family used to live.  I ran across the street and went through the gate and made my way quickly to the back door of the Bar.  I ran inside.  Orville Perry saw me and was about to tell me to get out, when I yelled, "Orville, come here quick", "I have something very important to tell you".  I told him what was happening, and said "If you have any whiskey in the house, get rid of it immediately".

     He started running up toward the bar, and I went out the back door and crossed the highway in the dark and me and Doyle watched the group of the County Sheriff and his deputies advance on the Bar.  They split up in two groups.  Half of them went around to the back door and the other half went directly into the front door.  They were inside for quite awhile,  we sat on the Bench on the front porch of the Store, anxiously awaiting the outcome.  After a while,  all the officers came out the front door.  Orville Perry was with them.  They exchanged some conversation.  The County Sheriff and his deputies walked back to the parking lot of the Assembly of God Church and got into their cars and left town.

     Orville Perry came out of the bar and looked across the highway and yelled, "Are you guys over there??"  we told him we were.  He came over to the Store and said "You guys really saved my bacon".  He said "I barely got the stuff out of the building and hid just as they came in".  He told us to come over and come in the back door.  He said "I will see you inside the bar",  we crossed the street and went around to the back door and entered inside.  He came back and told us to sit down in a booth near the back door.  He thanked us over and over and told us that the beer was on him.

     As my friend Doyle and I sat there having a cold beer inside for a change, we discussed the incident of "The watermelon Bomb" which had taken place several months earlier,  we mutually agreed that perhaps this good deed which we had just done, somehow would ease our feelings of "Guilt" for "The watermelon Bomb" incident.

     Orville Perry came back and sat in the booth with us and asked us what we saw that caused us to come over and warn him.  He wanted to know just how we knew that he was about to be raided,  we related what we had seen.  I said to Orville "I am curious, what did you do with the whiskey you had in the Bar??"  "HOW did you get rid of it so quickly??".  Orville laughed and said, we took the bottles through the back door and out into the Chicken house and hid them under the straw in the hen's nests.

Elmer Heatherly