TOM SAWYER STYLE

 

#1211

 

    If a person does something a little unusual you may wonder about them. Then as you think about it more you have to admire their toughness and determination. Cousin Dan Peters visited recently and brought two of his kids, John and Savannah. They stayed overnight at our cabin on the river and the temperature got down to about freezing. Before bed time, ninth grader John told his dad that he was going deer hunting the next morning Tom Sawyer style. Dan didn’t pay much attention to the idea but at first light next morning found John already gone to the deer stand. Two hours later here came John back, barefooted, pants rolled up, and no shirt. A few days later Jean hollered for me to get up and shoot a coyote very near our house. After being barefooted only a couple of minutes on the frozen leaves my feet felt like they were about to fall off. That’s when I really admired John’s determination.

     People are not the only ones having problems with the prolonged drought. Some of you may remember the concrete bridge across Doctors Creek at Liberty Grove. Zack and I walked down to the bridge a few days ago and I saw the carcass of an animal. Walking closer I saw it was the remains of a beaver. Nothing left except the bones and paddle shaped tail. The story was imprinted in the mud. Three places fifty yards apart showed where the battle raged. Coyote tracks were thick where the beaver had been surrounded. The beavers’ dens are scattered along the now dry creek but there is no food for them such as tree bark from a live tree. No green weeds either. Each night the beavers must walk over a quarter of a mile across open beach type land to get to any suitable vegetation. Many faced with the problem will probably be killed.

     Each year Scott Larkin from near Picayune, Mississippi comes to hunt ducks in our area. This year he brought his sixth grade son, Cade, and a friend, John Landry from Baton Rouge. Golfers yearn for a hole in one and deer hunters want a ten pointer, but duck hunters want to kill a duck with a metal band on its leg. Cade was very excited this year as he killed a banded mallard. We sat right on the pool bank and called the toll free number on the band to get some information. The green head was banded in 2009 at the J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge in Bottineau County, North Dakota. I looked on a map and this refuge is only ten miles from the Canadian line. Cade has already killed another banded duck a year or so ago. Good hunting to John, Scott, and Cade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

     Louisiana love potions from long ago as recorded in the Old Nachitoches Magazine: A woman can carry a piece of meat under her arm for two days, squeeze the juice out of it into some alcohol, then sprinkle it on the shirt of the man she wants.

     If a girl doesn’t love a man back he can obtain a piece of her hair and feed it to a hog. Soon, she (not the hog) will fall in love with you.

     Two guys were discussing the economy and mentioned how a lot of people borrow more than they can pay back. One of them gave an example: “I never did like to wash more than I can hang out.”

     More old sayings: Referring to a man that gets up very early. He pries up the sun with a crowbar.

Referring to a field worker wishing the day would soon be over. Looking for sundown and salt pork.

Fog so thick you couldn’t spit. Cold enough to freeze two dry rags together. Referring to somebody plowing a crooked row. It would break a snake’s back to follow that furrow. About a good salesman. He could sell a fiddle to a one armed deaf and dummer. That meat is so tough you can’t stick a fork in its gravy. He was the last one on the last row when faces were handed out.

     While on the subject of ducks, here’s two waterfowl jokes. How do you get down from an elephant? You don’t. You get down from a duck.

     When you see a flock of geese flying, why is one side of the V longer than the other? Are you sure you are ready for this? It has more geese in it.

     Congratulations to nephew Clint Hocutt who just graduated with honors from Texas A&M Commerce.

     Happy New Year to all!!!!

                                              etra327@live.com

 

 

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