The front page of this week's Tri-County Journal caught my eye as I picked it up.  There was a story with large color photos of St. EOM and his eclectic home, named by him as Pasaquan.  St. EOM has become world known since his death in 1986, but folks around here still remember him as just Eddie Martin, a local, born and raised on a small farm just outside of town.  But to look at Eddie and his home you would not believe he was a local, or from anywhere around near here.  Eddie heard melodies in his head that only he could hear and he danced to his on rhythms.

I have childhood memories of Eddie from as far back as I can recall.  He was a friend of my father and he would come to visit with us for supper from time to time.  Eddie had no phone at his home and he would come and use our phone and pay my daddy for the call.  It was always a long distance call, usually to New York where he would be calling someone to pass on ?numbers' that came to him in dreams.  These numbers would be played by bookies in New York or usually bought from Eddie by the other person on the phone to be used for the same purpose.  There must have been something to those dreamed up numbers, because Eddie won the Irish Sweepstakes, not once but TWICE.

Eddie used to make a good living by being a fortune teller.  People would come from everywhere and pay the price for a ?reading' from Eddie.  You could go by his house on a Sunday afternoon and see cars with license plates from any state you can name.  People swore by his ?seeing' ability, but in private Eddie would casually admit that it was just a keen ability to read ?people' and tell them what they wanted to hear.  Still, I know many people personally that can relate stories of how Eddie predicted things that came true in their lives.  I am one myself, and I still don't believe in that hooey.

When my mother was young and had her two sons in school Eddie did a reading of her just for fun.  He asked mother if she had ever had any children that died.  No, she hadn't.  "Well", he said, "I see another child in your life.  And I see a time of dire struggle when others will loose hope in your own life, but don't fear, I see it all ending well." Mother just laughed it off and told Eddie that he had missed that one by a long shot.  That was 10 years before I was born.  I was born premature and mother went into preeclampsia and nearly died in childbirth.  The doctors nearly lost her, but during all this she remained calm because she could remember Eddie telling her that all would end well, and it did, she lived another 45 years.

Anyway, it is good to see that Eddie is getting this exposure and I applaud those that work to this end.  Yall visit the Tri-County Journal and read the story and then visit the official Pasaquan website.