DAVID PANNELL When I was a kid, I spent blissful hours in the company of my maternal grandfather, who lived in Randolph County, in northeastern Alabama. He took it as his calling to introduce my brother and me to a rustic cast of characters with names like Kison and Clytee. Some were family, some were my grandfather’s drinking buddies, some were both. One of these characters was a man we’ll call Rafe.