Chapter 1
HEADING BACK EAST
B: The first settlers come into that country. D: The Hamricks? B: Mm-hmm D: ‘N the Hammonses? B:Yessir, ‘n they was some uh them Robertses come there too, Grandpa Roberts ‘n them; and now that’s about the first settlers come in this country. It was just a wilderness, all this whole country, and that ‘uz my great grandpa, they moved over here next to Webster Springs. Well, now you know whether it wasn’t scarce or not, the powder and the lead wasn’t scarce. When they’d kill, they’d shoot...
read moreA HORSE, CAT AND DOG STORY
B: Andtheyhada,theyhadamareandcolt… D: Yes ma’am. B: And, uh, my great grandfather, he’d went to the store. It uz a long way, but . . . and she said, direckly, they had a dog, and she said direckly, she said she heared the old mare, she said, a comin down through the bottom, she said, jus’ the awfullest noise that ever she heared and she said she looked and there was a big panther on, on the old mare, and she said that she jus’ jumped out and sicced the dog, and the panther jus’ jumped out, jus’...
read moreADOPTING A KITTEN?
Kay or Lee: Tell him about the man and his pet panther. Maggie: A man and his pet panther? Maybe he wouldn’t want to hear that, BH: Sure. Is it a good story? M: Yes it’s a good’n BH: Tell it. M: It’s a true’n BH: I’d like to hear it. M: Well. There’s a man once who had, he’a catched a little kitten panther, just when it’uz a small kitten. Well, he said, he, they’d somebody I reckon they’d killed the old’un and he caught this small’un. They said it was just a little kitten. When he got it he told him he was a’gonna save it. Gonna keep it and...
read moreTHEIR TIME TO HOLLAR
D: S‘it frosted out here? M: Frost? D: Yeah. M: No, they wasn’???. Night b’fore last they said they was plenty of frost. D: But when did it frost out here the firs’ time? M: I don’ know. Now y’ see I wasn’ here. I don’ know, but they, they been frost here a right smart while, b’cause you can see wher’ it bit the, the tops of the weeds ‘n’ the punkin vines. D: Hmmm M: Yessir. Was any frost out where you wuz at? D: No’am. M: No. They wasn’ none up at Burl’s. They’uz...
read moreA BALL OF FIRE
M: But now we got scared one night a’coon huntin’ at a ball of far. It uz as big as that stove. Us young’uns now, by gosh, we’s a’ went to Tea Creek a’coon huntin’ D: Yeah? M: They was two of, two of our nieces with us, two boys they ‘s yet small, my sister’s boys, an’ they was me an’ Sherman an’ Bessie, me an’ Sherman an’ Bessie I reckon, and them two, them two little boys, they wa’n’t very big, Bruce and Guy wa’n’t, so we went...
read moreBIG COARSE NOISE
B: Turkeys? D: Huh? B: After the turkeys? D: Yeah. B: Well, I had a bunch of turkeys over there on . . .well, I lived up there on the hill where Sherman owns now. I lived.. So I thought it was gettin’ about time of tha year y’know to gather m’ turkeys in t’ sell ’em y’ know. Put ’em up, and uh I saw one, well, kinda in the moonlight. I saw them go around, saw them turkeys. It was about a mile from the house. And . . . I went around, I didn’ take no gun with me, I dunno how come I didn’...
read moreWHAT IN THE NAME OF SENSE
B: Now boys, I heared things, I dunno what it was, I was blamed if I didn’t, one thing, if I know what that was, and I never . . . D: What was that? B: . . . ghosts, that’s one thing I never did, wasn’t never afraid of, and that’s . . . Well, we lived down on Williams River and we bought some [railroad] shanty cars and he got unloadin’ and he bought his shanty car and so we moved up on the hill, and, well we lived there seven years. SoIslep’inaroom,wellituzinahall,notaroombuttheyuza hall went there and I...
read moreUNCLE BILL FAY’S CRIPPLEFOOT
M: They came after awhile… Problem that bear went to catchin’ his sheep, bear went to catchin’ his sheep and hit went all ever’where and catched ’em. And they’d set a trap, and they catched that bear in a trap one time another and cut one of its toes off, and he done got out. Well, he said that thing just uh hit it comin’ down to the spring along in the Spring and killed the sheep and then back along maybe through the last of the Summer. [finish the tea] Well, he said they’d run that bear, dogs, and...
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