Chapter 2
A BLACK BARE FOOT
D: Burl? B: What? D: What’s ‘at, what about that guy that went barefooted all the time, what was that, what uz his name? B: Ol’ George Davis D: Yeah. B: Ol’ George Davis . . . D: An’ that little feist he had with him. . . B: He’d tell what all hit’d do? D: Yeah. B: And the snow was about there, now I started did you ever see the snow about that . . . and we seen somebody comin’, his britches rolled up ya know, and I said ta Clyde, I looked down, we started up, up the railroad . . . no, we uz...
read morePERT NEAR CRIED
B: John said, “It looks to me like a man’s feet ‘d get cold. . . no shoes on, boys. He said, “hell, that’s the way I go all the time,” he said. And boy, John Roberts laughed till he cried over that. He met him one day in the snow yuh know, it’uz snowin’, an’ him barefooted yuh know. D: Yeah. B: He said, “I thought by god,” he said, “I thought there was one a them, I thought, boys, that was one uh them yay-hoes,” he said, “when I seen him a comin’,”...
read moreEVOLUTION AT ITS QUICKEST
And he told us about killing a big rattlesnake in the snow about that deep, told us about killing a big rattlesnake, that durn dog he said he heared and looked and there was a big rattlesnake and hit, the snow, that deep. Harlan, said, “I didn’t know the rattlesnakes stirred out in the snow.” “Oh yes, Hell”, he said, “they turn” and we started on, on up the road, and Clyde’d get behind and pinch the dog’s tail ahead and it’d get all you know, kind’a fetch a whine, you know. “The darn dog,” he said, “now hit’s here somewhere.”...
read moreFATHER AND SON
D: D’your father ever tell you any, ’bout any spirits er anything like ‘at? People . . B: Uh, he didn’ b’lieve in that stuff. D: He didn’? B: Nosir, he didn’ b’lieve in that stuff. Yeah, he said he seen his dad one time, just as plain, he said. Now he wouldn’ b’lieve in that stuff. You couldn’ get him tuh b’lieve in all, none uh that stuff. He didn’ pay no ‘ttention tuh that stuff. They’d tell him that stuff, an’ he’d say that ‘uz...
read moreHOLLER LIKE A WOMAN
B: Well now they was panthers, boys, back in them, back in them days, now but you hardly ever seen one, now I’m tellin’ yuh, you didn’t see ’em, just ever’ time you went out. But they’d foller after yuh now D: They would? B: Yessir, they’d follow yuh all day long ‘n’ prob’ly you’d never know maybe if, if it wasn’t no snow you would never know they was a follow’n’ you ’cause you’d never hear one ‘nothin’ maybe slip just like a cat,...
read moreWHEN THE DAYS WERE YOUNG IN THE BIG TIMBER WOODS
MONEY WAS EASY; TIMES WAS BETTER R: And you’d hear ’em comin’ just like a gang of geese for Burl to set ’em across the river B: Imademoremoney… R: We had a boat, half of ’em worked across the river and then some on th’ other side, them Tallies. You know they fetched their grain, and they, and Burl’d set ’em across the river, in the boat. It’d be a day for pert nigh a half hour to get across backwards and forwards a sendin’ ’em. He’d fill the boat full and take a...
read moreUNCLE BILL FAY’S FIGHT
B: And some of ’em, oh they told ’em they ‘as a’gonna whup ol’ Bill Fay fer somethin he’d done, I dunno what it was. And they walked, they said he walked pigeon-toed kindly, ol’ Bill Fay did, kindly like that ya know. Now he was a sort ah low heavy-set feller ya know. Now, an’, an’, they tol’ that they was a’gonna whup th’ ol’ man Bill Fay fer somethin’ he’d done, I dunno what, they’d done some kind’a little . . . sump’n’ I dunno...
read moreUNCLE BILL FAY’S ROPEY MILK
M: Well, you see, he claimed that he could do any kind of witchery work, yessir he said he could do any kind of witchery work, and by jim he had a lot of people fooled. They claimed if you b’lieved in him, why he could do it, if you b’lieved it now, really b’lieved it. But they ‘uz some of ’em wouldn’t b’lieve it you see and he couldn’t do a thing about it, the ones that wouldn’t b’lieve. So, it come on, he says afterwhile his cows is witched, they commenced giving ropey milk, his...
read moreSTEALTH AND CUNNING
B: Fred was a kind of a game warden–Fred Galford — those Lesters, that old man Ab Lester, he was out there, he had as fine a time with these trouts you know, and by gosh he could just kill all the trouts you wanted. You’d take a gun, you didn’t need no hook, ’cause they’d git with their backs a’stickin’ out. And them big’n’s, they’d be big’n’s. And Fred comin’ along and he heared somebody a’shootin’ out there in the river, and he slipped out and here, here was ol’...
read moreCHICKENS
CHICKIN’ KILLIN So, uh, she had the, had one hen, and she, uh you couldn’t break her, ‘n’ Ery claimed her, that ‘as the man, and she was a big red hen. “Well, now,” Phoebe says, “I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” that ‘as her name, the woman. I said “what?” says “I’ll take,” says “we’ll kill the chicken and have it cooked for supper.” “Now” I said “I won’t kill a chicken.” And, “now,” she...
read moreWE WERE WAY BACK IN ON CHEAT THAT TIME
B: …Cheat Mountain to ‘sang? D: You hear ‘bout that, Roy? B: He knowed there was ‘sang there and he knowed that country but Neal [Roberts] had never been there and he had told him it was just as thick and it was . . D: He told him what? B: He told him it was just thick there. “Now you’re a’foolin’ around, why don’t you go with me sometime” he said, “I’ll take you where the ‘sang’s thick, where you can dig all you want.” “If you’ll just take me that’s all I want. If you’ll just take me with you.” “I’ll take you”. And Shorty come in one...
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