Use Rule #5 from Cloutierville to find Texas or anywhere

"Hey Granny, can you tell me where to turn to get to Texas" and I get ready to tell that feller, and I hear an old man's voice in the back seat say, "Son, I told you--and the driver says, "Shut up old man," then I know that feller didn't follow the rules, so that's why he got lost around here.

Rule #5 on this rock containing 10 - Wikimedia Commons

So I says to the feller that's drivin' and needin directions from Cloutierville to Texas, "You can't get anywhere from here unless you follow Rule #5.. An honorable man learns Rule #5 cause that's what you need for the trip."

Well the feller he looks real confused, so I tells him, "Now Rule #5 is about your Dad there and your Mama too, bless her heart.  If you don't follow that rule you can't get  to Texas from Cloutierville.  In fact, you can't find your way anywhere.  That's the truth, son, you just gotta know."

"I followed this map," the feller said, holding up with one of those foldouts that doesn't give the back roads and such so nothing you can depend on like Rule#5 can be.

"Here's the Rule son," I tells him,"It has to do with your old Dad there, but it really means much more than that.  The Rule says you show respect for your elders, your Mom and your Dad, then you treat them real good all the time."

"But this old man, he's always been worthless.  He ain't been no good for me."  The feller Granny is talkin' to don't know nothin' bout Rule #5 or he'd have figured out those things make no difference when you need to learn rules of the road.

"Rule #5 says how you behave toward that Daddy," I explains while that feller's just scratchin' his head.  "Loving folks who might not love you. Taking care of folks who don't care for you and  learning.   Giving respect for those you may think don't deserve it, as a way of showing you care just like your kids need to do.  Cause that love we all need to get anywhere comes from the heart where the seed is first planted, in the place with our moms and our dads.  That's the Rule so we never get lost."

I watched that feller a moment, then he looked once again at me, and smiled back there at his daddy and said, "Old man, I'm sorry, now what were you going to say?"  And I knew right then that old man and his son would get on the right road to Texas from this town of Cloutierville or to anywhere else they might go.