Latest / Single Tree Nation Show / 100 Episodes of Family, Faith & BBQ | The Legend Chuck Eblen aka "Pappi" Joins Single Tree Nation

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100 Episodes of Family, Faith & BBQ | The Legend Chuck Eblen aka "Pappi" Joins Single Tree Nation · Single Tree Nation Show

0:00
That's my boy now.
0:01
I mean, you start talking schnauzers,
0:02
you're talking about Landon.
0:08
You ain't seen some dogs like he's had.
0:10
I had one named George.
0:12
All right,
0:12
we'll get into that in a minute.
0:14
Oh, what a dog.
0:15
I named him after his granddaddy.
0:18
They both had the same personality.
0:20
Let's go.
0:21
Let it run.
0:21
Absolutely.
0:24
That's the truth.
0:27
I do not speak with forked tongue.
0:29
I'm telling you the absolute truth.
0:34
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
0:36
I'm your man, Charlie Ebelin,
0:38
and as always,
0:38
we have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
0:40
Derry Wells, with us today.
0:41
What is up, everybody?
0:43
Look, y'all,
0:44
this is episode one hundred one zero zero
0:47
one hundred episodes.
0:50
We have shared that with a few people
0:52
and trying to get them as excited as
0:54
I am.
0:55
like most podcasts don't get this far and
0:57
they're like oh really i'm like all right
1:00
next person like i just they don't get
1:02
it so the uh i thought it would
1:05
be a good idea to have a very
1:08
special guest this evening on our show and
1:13
uh i don't think he thinks it's a
1:15
great idea to be a guest on our
1:16
show but it is
1:22
For those of you wondering who our special
1:24
guest is.
1:26
You're about to find out.
1:27
I'm a seventy-eight year old fat boy.
1:30
Nobody listens to what I say.
1:34
For those of you who haven't figured it
1:35
out yet, this is my father, the man,
1:42
the myth, the legend, Chuck Eblen.
1:47
The one and only.
1:48
That's it.
1:49
I'm glad I wore shorts.
1:52
It's getting deep in here.
1:54
Getting deep in here.
1:57
I'm just glad it rained so he doesn't
1:59
have to feel bad about missing the golf
2:00
course.
2:01
That's the first nice thing he said about
2:03
me in twenty-five years.
2:06
I can do the math.
2:07
You're still living at home then.
2:10
He had to be nice.
2:11
Yeah.
2:14
Walk softly, carry a big stick.
2:16
That's exactly right.
2:17
That's exactly right.
2:18
Well, Pop,
2:19
we are very happy that you decided to
2:21
come join us today.
2:22
Look, I'm very flattered you care,
2:25
or whoever's interested.
2:27
I'm not going to up your ratings,
2:28
I can tell you that.
2:29
But I'm glad to be here with you
2:31
guys.
2:31
I told him the other day, I said,
2:32
you know,
2:33
I think this is probably going to be
2:34
one of our most watched episodes.
2:35
That's it.
2:36
Well,
2:37
who's ever watching this is bored to
2:38
tears.
2:41
we are international we've got folks uh
2:44
all the way to buckhead or something yeah
2:46
no wasn't there bell buckle maybe you got
2:48
that we have uh uruguay or something weird
2:51
over on the other side uh we have
2:53
people in russia yeah yeah um there's an
2:55
african one uh south somewhere a couple in
2:58
south africa okay yeah um
3:01
got a little international flair so yeah
3:03
there's ireland uh top shelf i think we're
3:11
in twenty that's right exactly i think
3:14
it's i think it was twenty something
3:16
countries yeah i knew we were like it
3:18
was or no it was twenty twenty seven
3:20
states
3:21
Twenty-seven states now.
3:22
Eight or ten countries.
3:24
I thought we broke double digits.
3:26
Yeah, maybe ten.
3:27
Still weird, though.
3:27
Ten countries.
3:28
It's an awkward – not awkward.
3:30
It's just – it's a thought of that
3:33
somebody there is just stumbling.
3:35
In my mind, they hit play,
3:36
and it was just the next thing it
3:37
popped up.
3:38
Like, you know what I'm saying?
3:39
Which may have been, but still,
3:41
it played somewhere.
3:42
Probably.
3:43
Probably.
3:45
I fell asleep studying.
3:46
It's nice to think that anyway.
3:49
Right, exactly.
3:52
Whether it is or isn't, doesn't matter.
3:53
As long as you think it,
3:54
that's all good.
3:55
They had their podcast on auto next.
3:59
It shuffles.
4:01
How do you tune into this thing?
4:02
I hate to be ignorant about this,
4:04
but I know nothing about podcasting.
4:05
You tune in on Saturday mornings on
4:07
ninety-four point one.
4:09
The fan in Nashville.
4:10
Ninety-four point nine.
4:11
Sorry, ninety-four point nine.
4:12
He told you that.
4:13
nine four point nine the fan or you
4:14
can go to any streaming platform uh
4:17
spotify apple music um i'm probably
4:20
missing another one or our youtube channel
4:22
i don't have wi-fi so i can't stream
4:24
well you can do it off your phone
4:26
you can't all right i promise so yes
4:29
you're all set turn my computer on so
4:30
i'm gaining on it now oh you you
4:32
making tracks look this man is the person
4:35
that was a traveling sales rep
4:39
for a living when the internet was
4:41
invented.
4:42
Okay.
4:44
So he,
4:45
he talks a lot of smack about not
4:47
knowing how to operate technology stuff
4:49
when he was part of the people that
4:52
put it all together.
4:52
Right.
4:53
Right.
4:54
but I can't remember that far back.
4:57
And when you get in my age,
4:58
you lose memory.
4:58
It's got to go hand in hand.
4:59
He's got a great memory.
5:00
It just don't last very long.
5:02
Okay.
5:03
He's heard that before.
5:06
He beats you to the quote.
5:07
That's exactly right.
5:10
I'm slowing down in my old age.
5:11
That's all right.
5:12
It is all right.
5:13
I'm not old and I'm slowing down.
5:14
So anyway, so, uh,
5:19
i thought it would be pretty cool for
5:22
us to record um kind of a live
5:28
playback of how we got to where we're
5:33
at today
5:35
oh geez that could it could cause me
5:37
nightmares yeah maybe so but um i thought
5:42
it would be really cool for us to
5:45
to kind of go back to the late
5:47
eighties when i moved to tennessee to live
5:49
with you and we can hop skip and
5:52
and bounce through because we'll we only
5:54
have about fifty five more minutes of
5:56
being able to talk we can go down
5:58
up there to hang out with me i
6:01
like that i appreciate it
6:02
we can go down memory lane and talk
6:04
about all kinds of different things, but,
6:06
um, you know,
6:07
I just thought it would be fun to
6:09
kind of explain to the world, um,
6:13
how not only Singletree Nation,
6:16
the podcast came around, but, and,
6:19
and why it means so much to us,
6:21
but you know, how,
6:23
what Singletree was and what it meant to
6:26
you and what it means to, uh,
6:29
to see how we're continuing that and
6:33
letting it grow.
6:34
What I think he's getting at is the
6:35
old farm.
6:36
Sure.
6:36
That's where all this came from,
6:37
this single tree stuff.
6:39
And that was his granddaddy.
6:42
And we had this old farm out there,
6:43
and he had one tree,
6:48
and it was way up on a ridge
6:50
out in Bell Buckle area.
6:51
Okay.
6:52
You drove into the driveway.
6:53
It looked nice.
6:54
Everything nice.
6:54
This one tree stuck up right in front
6:56
of everything.
6:57
He wound up calling the place.
6:58
Single tree farm.
6:59
There you go.
7:00
So from that point on,
7:02
I guess that's where he got single tree
7:03
bar.
7:04
Sure.
7:04
Sure.
7:04
Took it after his granddad.
7:07
is that farm still in the family no
7:10
no okay no it's not we um at
7:13
my age i can't weed eat and so
7:15
you had to care for it i just
7:16
didn't know yeah somebody still had a deed
7:18
well what you also have to understand
7:21
about pappy is that he went to school
7:25
uh for agronomy which is the uh art
7:30
of watching grass grow
7:34
Well, he's not too far off.
7:35
That's exactly what I did for you.
7:37
Plant pathology.
7:39
You know, like who,
7:41
who wakes up and goes,
7:43
let's see how I can watch grass grow.
7:45
Enough folks that there's a whole degree
7:47
in it.
7:47
A whole degree.
7:49
And a master's degree in plant pathology.
7:51
Yeah.
7:52
And that's plant diseases.
7:54
Right.
7:54
And if you're going to look,
7:55
when I graduated from college,
7:57
I graduated from middle and then in
7:59
agronomy.
7:59
And back then it was a bit of
8:01
a novel thing.
8:02
But it went hand in hand with the
8:04
golf profession.
8:05
I wanted to play golf.
8:06
He got a scholarship to play at UT.
8:11
No, at Middle.
8:12
And then I transferred up to UT and
8:14
they took me on the golf team up
8:16
there.
8:16
So I started playing at UT as well.
8:19
Not very successful,
8:20
but I played at both back in the
8:23
old days.
8:23
But when I was at
8:25
middle Tennessee,
8:26
the agronomy degree was perfect because
8:28
when I got out of college,
8:30
I want to go to a golf course.
8:31
I could automatically, um, you know,
8:34
start out as an assistant pro somewhere,
8:37
but they don't pay them anything,
8:39
but now they'll pay me big bucks for
8:41
a guy.
8:41
That's got a BS degree in agronomy and
8:42
can take care of the whole golf course.
8:44
Okay.
8:45
So I took, that was my first job,
8:47
was Marietta Country Club right out of
8:49
college.
8:50
I zoomed out there and went down there
8:51
and went, oh boys, here I am,
8:52
let's go.
8:53
Marietta, Georgia?
8:53
Yeah, in Georgia.
8:54
Marietta Country Club.
8:55
In fact, I rebuilt two of their holes.
8:59
And for...
9:00
hell how long was i there nine years
9:02
eight nine years something like that
9:04
anyway and the interim period in there my
9:08
mother my mother was a server in the
9:10
restaurant okay gotcha that's how i came
9:13
about so every time so what you're saying
9:15
is agronomy got us to you yes all
9:17
right
9:19
Watching grass grow.
9:21
Right.
9:22
So you start fooling around with dirt and
9:23
you go to Charlie.
9:23
Here you go.
9:24
Because there ain't much to do in
9:27
Marietta.
9:27
I bet there was even less to do
9:29
back then.
9:29
No, you know, surprisingly enough.
9:31
In the seventies?
9:32
In the seventies, buddy,
9:33
that was disco dandy down there.
9:36
Oh, okay.
9:36
That was rock and roll city.
9:37
I mean,
9:38
you guys might not know anything about
9:40
that.
9:40
Look,
9:40
I got a picture of him in the
9:42
late seventies.
9:43
He's wearing this brown leather jacket.
9:47
there's one button right here and a lapel
9:51
that's like twelve feet wide i love it
9:54
the best part about all of it is
9:56
he is the only white man in america
9:58
that had a true afro that is awesome
10:06
Like,
10:06
I'm hoping I can find that picture and
10:08
send it to Trent so he can flash
10:09
it up on the screen right now.
10:10
You left out my Mr. T starter set.
10:12
I used to have several.
10:13
Oh, yes.
10:13
Oh, yeah.
10:14
The starter set.
10:15
Lots of bling, baby.
10:16
Had to have a lot of bling.
10:18
You know what I'm saying?
10:19
The shirt was unbuttoned to the belly
10:21
button.
10:21
That's what I'm saying.
10:21
There's one button that's folded all
10:23
together right here.
10:23
Had to have chest hair.
10:24
Yeah.
10:24
Oh, yeah.
10:25
But not white chest hair like I got
10:27
now.
10:27
Just let it flow in the wind.
10:29
That's it, man.
10:30
That's it.
10:31
Anyway,
10:32
his mom kept serving up such really good
10:34
lunches.
10:34
I thought maybe there might be more there.
10:36
There you go.
10:37
Next thing you know, here we go.
10:38
We got Charlie.
10:40
One thing led to another.
10:42
All because of agronomy.
10:43
I got very disinterested in grass.
10:45
I bet you did.
10:49
Yeah.
10:49
Golf course went to hell.
10:50
I thought it.
10:51
I thought it.
10:51
Didn't know if we could go there,
10:52
but I thought it.
10:54
What did he say?
10:55
He got a different kind of grass.
10:56
I was like, yeah.
10:56
I was like, yeah.
11:00
This was the seventies.
11:02
I mean, no harm, no foul.
11:05
So that's very neat.
11:07
Very trimmed.
11:07
I'm talking about the golf course.
11:11
What's wrong with you guys?
11:14
You guys are.
11:16
I thought you was talking about the
11:17
seventh green.
11:18
I was fine.
11:18
So there's some things that I don't need
11:21
to hear.
11:27
Well, there you go.
11:28
All right.
11:28
So we're in Marietta.
11:30
We're in Marietta.
11:32
Agronomy, man.
11:34
I'll never think of agronomy.
11:35
I don't care what anybody tells me from
11:37
now on.
11:37
I got a story on that.
11:38
I know something a little bit about
11:41
Washington.
11:41
Doesn't involve me, but that's awesome.
11:45
Watching the grass grow into a Charlie.
11:46
And then I started playing a little golf.
11:49
you know nationally if you're working on a
11:50
golf course and then i got more interested
11:51
in playing than i was trying to grow
11:53
grass trying to work right yeah do all
11:55
that so in fact i won the georgia
11:57
assistant championship down there one year
11:59
wow so started playing pretty sporty okay
12:02
and um the next thing i knew had
12:04
a my favorite gynecologist buddy not to
12:07
mention oh sure any relationship there but
12:10
anyway he uh he was uh i wanted
12:13
to you know put up a little money
12:14
and let me go play on the mini
12:16
tours
12:17
And there was a golfer back years ago
12:18
named JC goosey.
12:19
They had a tour down in Orlando.
12:22
So I left married and kind of club
12:23
and went down there and played golf for
12:25
a while and found out I was a
12:26
whole lot better selling the equipment
12:28
than I was with play.
12:28
There you go.
12:30
So I wound up as a factory rep
12:32
for a golf company,
12:33
time armor teardrop and Ram for.
12:35
Man, that is,
12:39
I liked the way he just condensed it
12:40
all down about four sentences here, here,
12:43
here, done.
12:43
Yeah.
12:43
All right.
12:44
So how'd you get to Murfreesboro though?
12:46
With a car.
12:50
You asked a question.
12:51
I did.
12:54
What caused your return to Murfreesboro
12:57
after departing?
13:00
Sorry, I misunderstood.
13:01
I'm a little slow.
13:02
You're fine.
13:02
You can be as slow as you need
13:06
to.
13:07
You know, I'm old.
13:08
I got an excuse now.
13:08
You can't use it.
13:09
I didn't try.
13:10
I'm here.
13:12
I asked you if you were ready.
13:13
I did.
13:17
Well, you know, shoot,
13:19
I started playing a little bit,
13:20
and then I was all in down there,
13:22
and then I thought, wow, you know,
13:24
I'm winning a little,
13:25
and it was just so much –
13:28
insecurity and all that kind of stuff you
13:30
know you win i was like a flush
13:33
had all the money i could spend and
13:35
then i'm broke and it was like being
13:37
a yo-yo if you're hot you have a
13:39
good round couple of good rounds you got
13:40
a great check at the end of the
13:41
week right you know you got three four
13:43
five grand you go do what you want
13:45
to right and back then i didn't relish
13:48
money as much as i do now right
13:52
you know i uh it was uh
13:55
One of those things.
13:55
I mean,
13:56
a lot of times in the bar,
13:57
and athletes are playing golf today.
13:59
Sure.
13:59
These guys are in good shape.
14:00
Right.
14:02
Well, they're working out,
14:03
and they're going out and hitting the gym
14:04
at four a.m.
14:05
I did a lot of curls this way.
14:06
I got you.
14:07
Right, right.
14:07
The local bar is where I tilt two
14:10
or three in the morning,
14:10
and that will really mess up your second
14:13
round.
14:14
Yeah.
14:16
You're not supposed to do it between
14:17
rounds.
14:18
I'm a quick learner.
14:19
It only took me two years to figure
14:21
it out.
14:21
Okay.
14:21
Well, yeah, you smart.
14:23
Yeah.
14:23
So I'm on top of that.
14:25
So anyway, that's,
14:27
I kind of gave that idea up and
14:29
then I moved back up into Atlanta and
14:31
hooked up a little Korean guy who had
14:34
all the money and knew nothing about golf.
14:35
He liked to play.
14:37
And I said, okay,
14:38
give me a bunch of money and we'll
14:39
open up a big
14:42
And we did opened up a great big
14:44
store there in Atlanta.
14:46
And it was, that's started the dawn.
14:48
It was Edwin Watts was,
14:50
you may have heard of Edwin Watts years
14:51
ago.
14:51
It's still around, I think.
14:53
Um, and then there was, uh,
14:55
Nevada Bob's and all those big,
14:57
big box stores.
14:58
Now you've got Dick's, you know,
15:00
that kind of thing.
15:01
So we were one of the beginning guys,
15:03
twelve thousand square foot store.
15:04
So I, I loved it.
15:05
I mean,
15:05
I pedal a lot of golf clubs.
15:08
And one day I was, uh, you know,
15:10
just doing my thing and what was the
15:12
name of that shop?
15:13
I can't golf warehouse sales.
15:15
That's right.
15:15
Yeah.
15:16
And, uh, in Duluth, right?
15:17
Uh, yeah.
15:19
Yeah.
15:20
Out in Duluth.
15:21
Exactly.
15:21
And, uh,
15:23
one day I'm in there hustling up a
15:25
set of clubs and stuff and, and, um,
15:27
some members of river bend country club in
15:30
Shelbyville.
15:32
Oh, okay.
15:33
They came rolling in and next thing we
15:35
know we're shooting shit.
15:36
Everybody's happy to have an old home
15:38
weekend.
15:39
They didn't have a pro over there at
15:41
Riverbend.
15:41
They said,
15:41
would I be interested in coming up there?
15:44
And I said, yeah,
15:44
but I don't think you can afford me.
15:47
And I wouldn't be arrogant about it
15:49
because I was making pretty good money
15:50
there.
15:51
In a small country club,
15:52
you're not going to make a whole lot
15:53
of money.
15:53
Right.
15:55
And I didn't really know if that's what
15:56
I wanted to do, but they convinced me.
15:57
So I came up and I stayed there
15:58
for awhile and, and I almost, well,
16:01
I did a little too well.
16:03
Um,
16:03
I was making pretty good money and driving
16:06
a Porsche and
16:07
you know,
16:08
by the time his mother and I had
16:10
kind of split up a little bit and
16:12
I'm single guy doing my thing.
16:14
All right.
16:15
And they get some B that rubs conservative
16:17
members the wrong way.
16:18
Sure.
16:19
Sure.
16:19
My lifestyle, say the least was not,
16:23
you know, it was very active.
16:24
Didn't pass the muster at the front door.
16:26
Did it?
16:27
No, no, not it.
16:28
It wasn't like it should have been for,
16:31
you know,
16:31
a guy at my age or something.
16:33
I thought it was good.
16:35
But I seem to know I was the
16:36
only one that liked it.
16:37
That's exactly right.
16:39
So anyway,
16:40
the board of members came to me.
16:45
started laying down some ground rules.
16:47
I was making pretty good money out of
16:48
the shop because I had a connection in
16:50
Atlanta and was buying a lot of equipment,
16:53
tons of stuff below wholesale.
16:55
And most average golf pros can't afford to
16:57
spend that kind of money because the shops
16:59
aren't much bigger than this room.
17:01
So you had to go to twelve thousand
17:02
square feet shops to get those big deals
17:04
from Spalding and Titleist and buying golf
17:07
balls for, you know,
17:08
much less than you would normal wholesale.
17:12
Well,
17:13
I was buying golf balls out of my
17:15
store down there in Atlanta,
17:16
and they were sending them to me,
17:17
and it was equipment and stuff.
17:20
I made the mistake of running my –
17:25
business stuff through the club.
17:27
I should have done it separate.
17:29
And you got lawyers coming into the club
17:31
and some of the guys in there making
17:33
less money than I was.
17:34
And I'm in there drinking coffee and
17:36
putting around on the putting green and,
17:39
you know, living the life of Riley,
17:40
they thought.
17:41
It's a lot of work doing both things,
17:43
being the superintendent of the golf
17:44
course,
17:45
but that ain't the way you see it.
17:46
They just see me certain times of the
17:47
day.
17:48
Anyway,
17:48
we came to impasse and I decided I
17:51
got an offer from Tommy armor and back
17:53
then it was Tommy armor teardrop and Ram
17:56
They made me an offer.
17:57
I couldn't refuse So I thought well,
18:00
I'm just better going to the sales rep
18:02
business So I did had a pretty good
18:05
territory and did it for a fifteen twenty
18:07
year man Let's take a let's take a
18:10
quick break.
18:11
Yeah, and well,
18:12
we'll we'll come back to continue about
18:16
My father's active lifestyle.
18:19
Or inactive lifestyle.
18:24
Welcome back to Singletree Nation, guys.
18:26
I'm your man, Charlie Ebelin.
18:28
We have our illustrious co-host, Mr.
18:30
Derry Wells.
18:31
It is not lost on me that this
18:34
is our hundredth episode.
18:35
That was by far the fastest fifteen
18:37
minutes we've ever done.
18:39
I'm talking about that was lightning fast.
18:42
Yeah, that was quick.
18:43
For what it's worth, that was fast.
18:48
You have a pretty impressive storyteller
18:50
sitting next to you if you hadn't figured
18:52
that out yet.
18:54
I didn't know if that's a good or
18:55
bad thing.
18:56
No, it's a fantastic thing.
18:57
It leads into a guest we have coming
18:59
up who, without spilling the beans,
19:02
has actually won awards for his
19:04
storytelling capabilities.
19:07
We've got a little trend going right here.
19:09
It's going to be a good day.
19:11
It's going to be a good day.
19:12
One hundredth episode.
19:15
One hundredth.
19:16
It's kind of crazy that we've made it
19:19
this far when most podcasts don't make it
19:21
past three.
19:23
And we're on a hundred.
19:24
That's pretty sporty, boys.
19:26
Yeah, it's real sporty.
19:27
Yeah, I got the wave of flag there.
19:32
A lot of Wednesday nights.
19:34
Yes.
19:34
I don't know if we've ever actually said
19:36
that we record on Wednesday when we post
19:38
on other days,
19:39
but when you go back and look at
19:40
a calendar,
19:41
I'll run across notes from previous shows,
19:44
and it's either a show I've forgotten
19:46
about or maybe I was like, oh.
19:48
man that was that's a really good episode
19:49
you know and i'll or i critique the
19:51
heck out of myself or you send me
19:54
a clip hey uh you need to do
19:55
better here and i'm like oh yeah thanks
19:57
appreciate it so which is in the game
20:00
of learning i guarantee if i went back
20:02
and listened to episode two versus this i
20:06
hopefully we're a long way from where we
20:08
were smidge better i believe yeah yeah um
20:14
So we, growing up,
20:16
we spent a lot of time at my
20:19
grandfather's house.
20:20
Okay.
20:22
Great place.
20:24
And beautiful farm.
20:29
It was pretty fun to be able to
20:33
go out there.
20:36
So I thought it would be cool if
20:39
we could tell some stories about being out
20:42
there.
20:44
If you went back and thought,
20:50
obviously there's a lot of memories,
20:53
but what is one of your top,
20:58
and it doesn't have to be the number
21:01
one,
21:01
but what is one of your top memories
21:03
of the two of us being out there?
21:08
Oh, man, there was so many.
21:11
They're all good.
21:11
I mean...
21:13
Yeah, just pick one that comes to mind.
21:15
Like,
21:16
what's a funny one that you can pull
21:19
off the top of your head?
21:23
Put him on the spot.
21:24
Yeah.
21:25
You know,
21:26
that takes some time to think about.
21:27
I mean,
21:27
when you're hanging out like that and time
21:29
goes by.
21:31
We did, you know, fishing stuff,
21:32
going back to the pond.
21:34
We used to have fun doing that.
21:35
Deer hunting.
21:36
One time we had...
21:41
I'll tell you what was funny is one
21:43
time,
21:44
not necessarily so much with your
21:46
grandfather,
21:47
but when we had an ex-brother-in-law of
21:50
mine brought his two sons out there,
21:53
and we had a perfect place to deer
21:54
hunt.
21:55
Okay.
21:55
Are you talking about World War III?
21:57
Yeah.
21:59
he knew exactly where i was going with
22:00
it i've got i got an ex-brother-in-law
22:04
this hell of a guy yeah i just
22:06
love him to death guy he is philip
22:08
farrah he's he's a peach and i used
22:11
to call him peach okay that's his nickname
22:13
because he never had any whiskers okay
22:15
he's still done he's still done he's
22:19
seventy years old he still can't grow he's
22:21
seventy five years old and he still can't
22:22
grow a beard anyway
22:24
He's a hell of a guy.
22:30
He's just an all American guy.
22:34
And I love his kids.
22:35
His kids are tremendous.
22:35
They've always meant a lot to me.
22:37
And, uh, Charlie and I,
22:39
we've always wanted them to come out.
22:41
We used to go deer hunting and stuff.
22:43
And so we decided we'd go deer hunt
22:44
one morning, real bright and early.
22:45
They showed up and Charlie's all geared
22:48
up.
22:48
I'm geared up and we.
22:50
start walking back to get to our deer
22:52
stands.
22:53
And we're walking along,
22:54
all of a sudden we come up,
22:54
we've got a pond in the back,
22:56
back there, a big pond,
22:56
and we're lined up.
22:57
To give you some reference,
22:59
from the house to the barn is probably
23:04
fifty yards.
23:05
Okay.
23:05
Okay.
23:06
From the barn to this pond is probably
23:12
four hundred yards.
23:13
Okay.
23:14
At least.
23:14
Okay.
23:15
Maybe longer.
23:16
If you're on the back side of that
23:18
pond,
23:19
it's it's five hundred yards from from the
23:21
barn okay okay now there's a tree line
23:25
that goes straight up from the house all
23:28
the way
23:30
to where this pond is,
23:32
and the pond is off to the right-hand
23:33
side.
23:34
And then it goes up to a ridge.
23:37
We are walking along that tree line,
23:39
on the right-hand side of that tree line,
23:40
walking towards this pond.
23:43
And we might be,
23:46
fifty to a hundred yards into the trek
23:50
up to where we're going to go hunting.
23:59
So we're walking in a row and we're
24:01
talking loud and, you know,
24:02
BS and back and forth.
24:03
Just glad to see each other.
24:05
All that kind of stuff.
24:06
All of a sudden this little sprout or
24:09
two pointer thing comes out of the woods
24:11
over there,
24:11
just walks out and walks right up in
24:13
front of us,
24:14
just stands there and stares at us.
24:15
Well, Tyler, one of the other boys,
24:20
I said, okay, take a shot.
24:22
So he gets his gun, bang, nothing.
24:24
Okay, then Peach unloads his gun, bang,
24:27
bang, bang, bang.
24:28
And that cute Charlie, Charlie's bang,
24:31
bang, bang, bang.
24:34
I unloaded mine, bang, bang, bang, bang.
24:36
And the deer just stand there looking at
24:38
us.
24:41
So let me give you some clarity real
24:43
quick because he's leaving out a couple of
24:45
things.
24:47
Number one,
24:48
it was like a seven point deer.
24:50
Okay.
24:51
That his body was,
24:54
his body was way bigger than a seven
24:57
point deer.
24:57
Right.
24:58
Number two,
25:00
he's in the tree line behind the pond.
25:04
Okay.
25:05
So this is like a three hundred and
25:07
fifty yard shot.
25:11
He's the only one with a rifle that
25:14
will go that far without dropping.
25:17
And the only one that doesn't have iron
25:19
sites, the rest of us,
25:23
my uncle peaches has a two, two.
25:25
This is his son.
25:37
We're all shooting pea shooters.
25:39
Pappy is over here with a three hundred
25:42
win mag.
25:43
Yes, he is.
25:44
There was a difference in the tone of
25:45
the rifle.
25:46
I bet there was.
25:48
Semi automatic.
25:50
I think that's what scared him and the
25:51
deer just fell over.
25:52
I mean,
25:56
we unloaded and not only did we unload.
25:59
Everyone with us.
26:00
Okay.
26:01
There's four of us.
26:02
Emptied our rifles.
26:03
We emptied our rifles.
26:04
And reloaded.
26:05
Reloaded.
26:06
emptied our rifles reloaded and emptied
26:10
our rifles no it wasn't that many times
26:12
he's exaggerating i don't know it wasn't
26:14
over five times i know i know at
26:17
one point in time that that me and
26:21
thurston were reloading our rifles and my
26:24
dad and peaches were still shooting
26:29
And I look up at one point in
26:30
time and I see the deer jumps straight
26:32
up in the air and spin.
26:34
I think I shot him in the foot.
26:36
It sounds like it.
26:38
When we,
26:40
when we actually get to the deer,
26:42
he's got, he bled out in place.
26:49
He did bolt.
26:51
Okay.
26:51
He jumped up in there and spun because
26:54
one of us.
26:56
We don't know who,
26:57
but Pappy says it was him.
26:59
Okay.
27:00
Shot him in the butt.
27:01
Oh, geez.
27:02
But not a direct hit in the butt.
27:05
A grazing shot.
27:06
Yeah, it just messed his fur up.
27:08
It just burned his fur off his butt.
27:09
That's awful.
27:11
He was going, these guys are buffoons,
27:13
man.
27:14
I've got this made.
27:15
Why would I need to run?
27:16
I'm going to fuck one of them and
27:18
take the gun from him.
27:20
He goes, shoot back at four.
27:21
It's all over.
27:22
Yeah, absolutely.
27:23
So at this point in time,
27:24
we're probably two hundred yards away from
27:26
the deer because we're all walking or
27:28
running towards right here as we're
27:30
shooting.
27:32
Oh, and and.
27:35
My cheeks are hurting from smiling and
27:37
laughing so hard.
27:37
After he jumped up and spun,
27:39
he bolted into the other field.
27:41
And when he bolted into the other field,
27:45
we believe it was Pappy's gun that
27:49
delivered the final blow.
27:50
Okay.
27:51
I knew it would.
27:53
But it could have been.
27:54
He's the only one that could have seen
27:55
it.
27:55
Well, you all doubt it.
27:56
He's busy trying to load it down right
27:58
from there, looking at his feet.
28:02
This just puts into perspective my deer
28:04
hunting story with Jonah last year.
28:06
Me and my son, two deer, two shots.
28:09
Like that was it.
28:09
I mean, like, yeah.
28:11
And one of them was,
28:13
so we were hunting with technology.
28:15
We had cell phones and I'm already
28:17
cleaning my deer and I'm on a tree
28:20
line on the far right hand of the
28:21
field.
28:22
And where he told me he was heading,
28:24
there's a small grove right in the middle
28:26
of the field.
28:27
And we knew that they had been working
28:28
out of there.
28:29
So I thought he went into the east
28:32
side of the grove.
28:33
I'm thinking he's got a direct eye line
28:36
on me and there's this four or five
28:39
point, whatever, uh, walking at me.
28:42
And I thought can't be more than four
28:44
yards in front of him.
28:45
And I'm texting him, take the shot.
28:48
Like, I mean, what are you waiting on?
28:49
He's right in front of you.
28:50
And he texted back, are you sure?
28:52
And I'm like, yeah.
28:53
Like, what are you waiting on?
28:56
I hear a boom deer pops up.
28:58
He bolts.
28:59
I see right where he goes into the
29:00
tree line.
29:01
And I see Jonah stand up.
29:04
He's on the far back tree line.
29:06
Nowhere near where I thought it was every
29:08
bit of two hundred, say five,
29:09
three hundred yard shot.
29:10
And he dropped and well, he took off.
29:12
Yeah.
29:12
And, and we get in there and,
29:14
and we, uh,
29:16
I've got a picture somewhere on my phone.
29:17
The,
29:18
the property line is about where Charlie's
29:20
foot is sticking up and that deer fell
29:22
over right there.
29:23
and just right before he was about to
29:24
go over there yeah so we had to
29:26
haul him all the way out that's when
29:28
i realized how out of shape i was
29:29
when you carry deer out of the woods
29:30
for about three quarters of a mile so
29:32
yeah but yeah it was two shots two
29:35
deer it was nice so that makes me
29:38
really
29:39
Y'all have World War III out there.
29:43
I went back a couple of days or
29:45
a couple of weeks after that and there
29:46
were six trees fell over.
29:47
I just mowed them down.
29:49
Cut all the bark off them.
29:50
Gone.
29:50
One of them was a three-year-old hickory.
29:56
Of course it was.
30:00
So since we're talking about deer hunting,
30:06
My father started taking me deer hunting
30:10
at a pretty young age.
30:11
I think I was probably nine,
30:12
ten years old the first time I ever
30:14
went.
30:17
And for the first probably year or two,
30:19
I wasn't allowed to have a rifle.
30:22
I was too young.
30:23
Yeah, he just like me.
30:25
Yeah.
30:27
Well,
30:27
apparently he would have missed anyway.
30:28
That's true.
30:30
I don't know what I was worried about.
30:33
So we are into the age,
30:37
I think I was twelve,
30:39
the first time he let me take a
30:40
rifle and go hunting.
30:42
okay and i had been begging him to
30:46
go and begging him to go and and
30:48
he traveled for a living so he was
30:50
always out of town during the week and
30:52
you know so now i understand what that
30:55
means on a weekend to be able to
30:57
get up at three o'clock in the morning
30:58
and go hunting right so you know back
31:00
then it was come on dad let's go
31:02
right you know what's wrong with you get
31:04
up
31:05
you were sacrificing cartoons saturday
31:07
morning right it was a little bit more
31:08
he was sacrificing sanity so we get up
31:14
one morning and it's it's probably four
31:16
a.m and it's in the winter and it's
31:18
cold yeah you know he's making sure i
31:20
got my socks and all my stuff on
31:22
i'm not gonna freeze to death out there
31:25
and uh we stop at the we stop
31:26
at the gas station and and and we
31:29
always stopped and he either got a
31:32
coca-cola and put peanuts in it
31:35
Or we get stuff champions or we'd get
31:37
a Coca-Cola and a payday.
31:39
That's got Georgia written all over it.
31:41
So yeah, rubs off on you.
31:42
And I bet.
31:44
So we, um, we,
31:45
we hop in the car and the van
31:48
back then,
31:49
and we rolled out to Papa George's house
31:53
and it's still dark and we're walking down
31:56
the tree line.
31:59
He wants to go down below the pond
32:02
and sit.
32:04
In this little creek bed.
32:05
It's a dried up creek bed.
32:08
Okay.
32:09
All right.
32:10
Cool.
32:10
We can see both sides of the field,
32:11
all everything.
32:13
Sounds like a good idea to me.
32:14
I'm twelve.
32:14
I don't know anyway.
32:15
It's a good vantage point.
32:16
You don't have to be up in the
32:17
tree stand and fall out and bust your
32:19
ass.
32:19
That's it.
32:19
Yeah.
32:21
Especially with a rookie like him.
32:23
So, you know, I'm twelve years old.
32:26
I got a .
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:26
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:27
.
32:29
.
32:29
.
32:29
.
32:29
.
32:30
.
32:30
.
32:30
.
32:30
.
32:31
.
32:31
.
32:31
.
32:31
.
32:32
.
32:32
.
32:32
.
32:32
.
32:32
.
32:34
.
32:34
.
32:34
.
32:34
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
.
32:37
. .
32:49
We get out there.
32:51
He wouldn't let me put one in the
32:52
chamber until we get to where we sat.
32:54
Right.
32:55
So that's fine.
32:56
Get it.
32:58
We get there, we sit down.
33:00
I don't put one in the chamber because
33:03
daddy didn't say I could do it.
33:05
So I'm, I'm sitting there like this,
33:07
making sure that gun is just right here,
33:10
straight up in the air.
33:11
It's not going anywhere.
33:14
We're sitting there and we hadn't been
33:16
sitting there for ten minutes.
33:20
He's asleep, leaned up against the tree,
33:26
right?
33:29
Mouth open, just enjoying life.
33:32
That's right.
33:35
Loving every second of it.
33:38
So I mind my own business.
33:41
Cause that's what a good boy does.
33:44
I'm watching the field.
33:44
I'm waiting for the deer to come out.
33:49
Nothing.
33:52
I wait.
33:53
Nothing.
33:56
About the time I'm going to tap him
33:58
on his leg and tell him, hey,
34:00
you know,
34:00
maybe we should move to another spot.
34:03
All of a sudden I hear.
34:07
Now I know what you're going with.
34:09
Okay.
34:10
What is this?
34:14
You can hear him tapping in the wood.
34:17
Right.
34:17
You can't hear deer.
34:18
Right.
34:19
Okay.
34:20
What is that?
34:23
A couple more seconds go by and it's
34:25
just nothing.
34:33
And it stops.
34:35
Nothing.
34:37
What felt like three, four minutes.
34:41
You'd hear a pin drop.
34:43
And then all of a sudden,
34:46
and it stops directly from me to you.
34:49
I mean, ten feet from me.
34:52
And it's a coyote.
34:54
Oh,
34:54
it looks like it's the size of a
34:56
German shepherd.
34:56
I bet he did right in front of
34:58
you.
34:58
I don't mean to interrupt your story.
35:01
Cause you, but they,
35:03
they bred with dogs out there in the
35:06
bell bunker area for a long time.
35:07
And the coyotes, Oh shoot.
35:09
They look like miniature German shepherds.
35:11
Oh gosh.
35:12
They're huge.
35:13
They're big dogs.
35:13
They're big dogs.
35:14
And when they do this and smile at
35:16
you, it'll tighten you up.
35:19
Keep in mind, I am twelve.
35:23
also keep in mind that you have an
35:26
unloaded fire i don't have a bullet in
35:28
the chamber yeah also keep in mind that
35:32
this is a long rifle it's not exactly
35:37
easy to get around in a chamber that's
35:40
hysterical so as this beautiful animal is
35:45
sitting in front of me smiling at me
35:48
So happy to see me.
35:53
I am sitting there holding my rifle.
36:02
I couldn't speak.
36:04
I'm trying my hardest to say daddy.
36:06
And as I'm trying to say daddy,
36:08
but I'm also trying to get around in
36:13
the chamber and
36:15
Because this thing wants to eat me.
36:18
Oh, yeah.
36:18
So here's what I've learned.
36:20
If I'm ever with the two of y'all
36:22
together and there's wildlife involved,
36:23
I'm the protector.
36:27
Things have changed a lot since I was
36:28
twelve.
36:28
Or don't let me go to sleep.
36:30
Okay, yeah, right.
36:31
I'm a sound sleeper.
36:32
Okay, well done.
36:34
So I finally guess I get his attention
36:38
from going...
36:42
And he looks up, looks at me,
36:44
looks in the field and goes, well,
36:46
shoot him.
36:47
Dummy.
36:48
Oh no.
36:48
Yeah, I know.
36:48
Well, but they, you know,
36:53
to cap that off, they surrounded us.
36:56
Oh, more, more that time.
36:57
Okay.
36:57
That time they didn't surround us that
36:59
time he jumped up and started charging at
37:01
this dog that wanted to eat me and
37:04
it ran off.
37:06
A month or so later,
37:08
probably not even that long ago.
37:09
When we went up and you were on
37:10
one side of the tree and me on
37:11
the other.
37:12
Yeah.
37:13
Well, no, that was longer than that.
37:15
That might have been a year or two
37:16
later.
37:16
That's what I thought you were talking
37:17
about.
37:18
Yeah,
37:18
I was older then because at that point
37:19
in time I had the .
37:21
yeah but that that's the thing we had
37:24
them and and we heard them going by
37:26
and then i shot and wounded one of
37:29
them he chirped and went flying into the
37:31
woods we went we went up on the
37:33
hillside and and and it was a few
37:36
few years after that and he sat on
37:39
the back side of a tree and i
37:40
sat on the front side of a tree
37:42
and same thing we started hearing through
37:44
the through the brush
37:46
Is that a simple way that they move?
37:48
I don't recall having ever heard a coyote
37:50
move through the woods.
37:52
It's just the stuff moving.
37:55
They're not trying to be cautious and
37:57
quiet.
37:57
They just roll.
38:00
But that time,
38:01
was it four of them or five of
38:02
them?
38:03
at least five they surrounded the whole
38:05
tree they came i mean he he saw
38:07
him first he shot and and that one
38:10
took off running flipped and yes like i
38:12
got him i don't think i killed him
38:13
but he ran up i know i got
38:15
blood because he went up the hill and
38:17
at that time they came out of the
38:19
woodwork at us
38:22
Oh, yeah.
38:22
And I had a pistol.
38:23
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
38:24
I'm unloading on them,
38:25
and they're jumping all over the place and
38:27
took off.
38:28
But, buddy,
38:29
that would make you heartthrob.
38:31
Oh, I bet.
38:31
Because they were pissed off,
38:33
to put it mildly.
38:34
I mean, they were not.
38:36
People don't realize how much, like,
38:40
there's a reason that the canine type is
38:44
near the top of the food chain in
38:45
the wild.
38:46
I mean, cause they,
38:47
they work well in packs.
38:48
They know how to operate.
38:49
They are aggressive.
38:50
I'm like, they know what they're doing.
38:52
And those, those, those boys weren't,
38:54
weren't there to drink tea.
38:56
They weren't making friends.
38:58
When I built a house out there and
39:00
we,
39:00
at night you could go to sleep and
39:02
it sounded like a range war.
39:04
I mean,
39:05
just the damnedest dog fights you've ever
39:07
heard in your life.
39:07
Wow.
39:08
I mean, and it would just be,
39:09
bunches of them going at it wow it
39:12
was uh it's intimidating and especially
39:14
when it's cold stone dark right and all
39:17
you see is those you know yellow eyes
39:18
looking at you oh it'll it'll make the
39:21
hair on the back your neck curl it's
39:22
a different yeah we i used to have
39:24
some neighbors we lived close to in town
39:26
and i knew there were coyotes there and
39:28
i never thought much of it because i
39:30
was just aware of them i'd watch them
39:31
you know where they're out doing their
39:32
thing
39:33
Yeah, they're normally armed.
39:34
Right.
39:35
But we had this lady move in down
39:37
the street,
39:38
and she had a little poodle that was
39:40
about that big, and it was white.
39:42
And I kept telling her, I was like,
39:43
your dog's going to disappear one night.
39:45
You've got to quit leaving this thing out
39:47
at night.
39:47
A hundred percent.
39:48
they won't come in our your heart and
39:49
i'm like you keep saying this i don't
39:51
think you understand and they wound up
39:53
moving thankfully and and kept the dog but
39:56
i was like lady you're playing with fire
39:58
here like nature will kick in like you
39:59
can't well you know the funny thing about
40:02
coyotes is show you how smart they are
40:03
they'll they'll have a female coyote get
40:06
in heat
40:07
and then they'll send the female in and
40:09
the male dog will sense the coyote and
40:12
heat and follow the female out and then
40:16
the pack comes in kills the dog wow
40:19
so it's pretty intense i mean and i
40:21
i've i've always thought you know they're
40:23
harmless they don't do anything much
40:24
except maybe you know you got to worry
40:26
if you got sheep and you've got cat
40:28
stuff you got to keep them cleaned up
40:29
right
40:30
And nine times out of ten, that's right.
40:32
That's exactly what it is.
40:33
But nature will take over.
40:35
You back them in a corner,
40:36
you get one of them hurt,
40:37
and you're around it, you get in trouble.
40:39
Yeah.
40:41
There's something else.
40:43
That's just one of them.
40:45
Life was like that out there.
40:46
It's kind of fun out in the country.
40:47
Oh, it is.
40:48
It is.
40:48
I remember I was in,
40:51
when he moved out there after Papa George
40:53
had passed,
40:58
he did a lot of cleaning up.
41:00
You better believe that.
41:01
I'll break out in hives just thinking
41:05
about it now.
41:07
But he told me that he was out
41:11
drinking his coffee one morning.
41:14
Oh, geez.
41:16
You've heard me talk about this fireplace
41:18
on the back porch where we sat all
41:19
the time.
41:20
Well,
41:21
we always kept a big pile of wood
41:23
right there.
41:24
You want me to tell that story?
41:25
I'll tell it.
41:26
You've struck a nerve there.
41:28
This is absolutely the damnedest thing
41:29
that's ever happened to me.
41:30
The good Lord is looking over my ass.
41:32
I'm telling you, because it's just,
41:35
I don't know how this happened.
41:36
Anyway, I had an old dog, giant schnauzer,
41:39
we were talking about it a while ago.
41:40
Goofiest dog you ever saw.
41:42
Funny thing,
41:43
and it had a squirrel out there.
41:45
Big as this dog down there.
41:46
It was that long.
41:48
Big old red fox squirrel, you know,
41:50
with a ring around it.
41:51
Yeah.
41:52
Got the dog attention.
41:53
Anyway.
41:54
We were,
41:56
the old dog I had hated that squirrel
41:59
with a passion.
42:00
Oh, God, he'd just go into hives.
42:02
He'd foam up at the mouth every time
42:03
he saw that squirrel,
42:05
and he'd be inside the house.
42:06
So I'd have to let him out,
42:08
and he'd bolt out, and this morning,
42:10
it was about six in the morning,
42:11
he bolted out of that damn door and
42:13
chased that damn squirrel,
42:14
and I was laughing my ass off.
42:16
I'm in my underwear.
42:17
I'd just gotten up.
42:19
And I'm drinking a cup of coffee.
42:20
You know,
42:21
I'm having a nice quiet morning in the
42:23
country and my dog is ruining my morning.
42:26
So I go out there and this fox,
42:28
this big old red fox squirrel had run
42:31
up this big old packberry tree.
42:33
That damn thing is that big around.
42:35
He'd run up on the bark,
42:36
turn upside down and
42:39
back at the dog.
42:40
Right.
42:40
Oh, driving him crazy.
42:41
And the dog was trying to climb the
42:43
tree.
42:43
He's trying to get his back feet to
42:45
hook into the bark and climb the tree
42:47
to get that squirrel.
42:48
And I'm standing there laughing my ass
42:49
off.
42:49
Well,
42:52
Um,
42:52
you walk out of my back porch and
42:53
you go under an awning and like Charlie
42:55
said, I'll never do this again.
42:56
And don't ever put your wood in,
42:59
in close to your house.
43:00
Okay.
43:01
Uh,
43:02
and all the firewood was stacked in a
43:03
big round metal rack that I had underneath
43:06
the awning to keep stay dry.
43:08
Well,
43:08
I'm standing there drinking my coffee and
43:09
got my hand up on the metal railing
43:12
there next to the wood pile.
43:14
And I kept hearing this.
43:17
Oh,
43:18
Like a damn bumblebee, you know,
43:22
border bee, you know,
43:23
going into a tree or something like that.
43:25
What the heck is a bumblebee doing?
43:28
What is it tearing up my damn thing
43:30
here?
43:30
Something like,
43:31
hear this zzzz thing going on.
43:33
Anyway, I got the dog finally lost,
43:34
the squirrel lost my attention.
43:36
You know how you can pick up things,
43:37
movement in your peripheral vision?
43:40
Uh-huh.
43:41
I'm laying like, I'm like this.
43:43
I look out of the corner of my
43:44
eye.
43:45
There's a rattlesnake called up on top of
43:47
this wood pile and is beaming on my
43:50
hand.
43:51
I mean,
43:51
he's got his tongue and he's that far
43:54
from my hand.
43:54
So you're in striking distance.
43:57
He's a foot away.
43:58
He could have,
43:59
he could have got me on my right
44:01
side and it was my left side.
44:04
My hand wasn't a foot and a half,
44:06
two feet from this mouth.
44:07
And he's up like this going back and
44:09
forth.
44:11
That makes me tense.
44:12
Just thinking about what that was.
44:13
It gets worse.
44:14
Just a second.
44:15
I'll tell you anyway.
44:17
Uh,
44:17
so I got the coffee and when I
44:19
finally got it out of the peripheral,
44:20
saw what it was, I threw it.
44:22
It scared me so damn bad.
44:23
I threw the coffee cup straight up in
44:24
the air,
44:25
hit the top of the thing up there
44:27
and crashed down behind.
44:29
There was a picnic table behind there.
44:31
So I turned around, panicked,
44:33
turned around,
44:34
ran right into the picnic table,
44:35
hit myself in the balls,
44:36
knocked myself on the ground.
44:38
I'm rolling on the ground like that,
44:40
holding myself, excuse my French,
44:42
but my privates, let's say.
44:43
Yeah, yeah, I got you.
44:44
It rearranged them.
44:45
Right, right.
44:46
In a harsh manner.
44:48
And so I'm going, good gobbly wobblies.
44:51
And I'm crawling myself,
44:52
trying to get myself back up.
44:55
And that damn snake is coming off the
44:57
woodpile.
44:58
No way.
44:59
Yes, yes.
45:00
And so I'm going, oh, my God.
45:03
Lord, give me strength to get up.
45:05
So I got up and ran in the
45:06
house and got a pistol.
45:07
By that time, the snake, listen to this.
45:10
This woodpile is probably what, Charlie?
45:11
It was at least shoulder high.
45:14
Anyway.
45:15
The snake's head was on the ground.
45:17
His tail was still coming off the top
45:18
of the wood pile.
45:20
He was that big around.
45:22
Well, he killed me in a heartbeat.
45:24
Yeah, he was.
45:25
Oh, man, he'd eat me for lunch.
45:26
Oh, man.
45:27
I mean,
45:28
it was the worst I've ever seen.
45:29
Anyway, I'd gotten a pistol,
45:31
and I came back out, and I said,
45:33
boys, this is it,
45:34
and I nailed his ass.
45:36
But I could hardly lift that snake on
45:38
the end of a shovel.
45:39
Oh, gosh.
45:41
He's a real pretty set of boots.
45:43
uh oh yeah yeah pretty set of what
45:46
boots oh well i wish uh that's a
45:50
that's the closest i've ever come to
45:52
getting uh hammered i i've never heard
45:55
that sound in the wild and and i
45:57
almost say i don't want to you'll never
46:00
forget it because everybody who does like
46:02
you said everybody that you hear it right
46:04
now you know exactly that morning you're
46:06
right there again yeah
46:07
everybody i've ever talked to says that
46:09
like they know that sound right then yeah
46:11
it's not like you hear on wild kingdom
46:13
there's texas rattlesnakes and shit like
46:15
that no it's nothing like that it's a
46:17
buzz it's a bumblebee yeah yeah and and
46:20
buddy and when you look one right in
46:22
the eye and he's looking back at you
46:23
throwing his tongue up it'll it'll tighten
46:26
you up see my first thought would have
46:27
been there's not bumblebees at six a.m i'm
46:30
wandering around what happened you um
46:33
Yeah.
46:33
You would know.
46:34
Yeah.
46:35
You would know real quick.
46:36
You got a Mac and beans for us
46:37
today, man.
46:39
This was, this was your show.
46:40
I thought you used to come locked and
46:42
loaded.
46:42
I'd not bring a back of beans.
46:44
So I figured I knew, I knew,
46:47
you know, so Mac and beans is our,
46:49
this and that segment.
46:51
Yeah.
46:51
Okay.
46:51
So you either, you pick this or that.
46:54
So when you go,
46:55
when you come to my restaurant and, and,
46:58
and eat,
46:58
would you get the Mac and cheese or
47:00
the beans?
47:03
talking to me yeah you yeah they know
47:06
my answer yeah we've already answered this
47:09
question yes sir i like them both that's
47:15
an answer which one would i like the
47:17
best yeah sure beans okay there you go
47:24
all right so well i had to give
47:25
some serious thoughts oh i'm not
47:28
I just never knew we were going to
47:29
stump somebody with that question.
47:30
I wasn't really stumped.
47:32
I was giving it a serious thought.
47:33
I wasn't giving it a serious answer.
47:36
Yeah.
47:36
Not just flippantly throwing it out there,
47:37
right?
47:38
That's it.
47:38
Along with that same line of thinking,
47:43
would you rather have a nice,
47:46
good glass of scotch or the perfectly made
47:52
martini?
47:55
Now, that's hard to choose.
47:58
I've never had either.
47:59
Well, it depends on what kind of,
48:00
you know.
48:01
If it's Glenmorang, an eighteen-year-old.
48:03
Yep.
48:04
Glenmorang, eighteen or above.
48:07
Or literally the perfect,
48:10
perfectly made martini.
48:12
Glenmorang, eighteen-year-old.
48:14
Because I can make a perfect martini,
48:15
but I can't brew.
48:17
I can't do anything.
48:19
I can't get that eighteen-year-old Scotch.
48:23
There's wisdom in that.
48:27
I've never had scotch or martini,
48:29
so I don't have... What an empty life.
48:33
What?
48:38
What's wrong with you?
48:38
Put me on the spot.
48:41
I disappointed him.
48:42
I've never had a margarita either.
48:43
You don't know what you're missing,
48:45
my man.
48:46
But in fairness,
48:47
I have had some extremely good and very
48:53
well sought after bourbons that I have
48:56
truly enjoyed.
48:57
Oh, you're a bourbon guy.
48:58
so yes only because i've well i assume
49:01
so i've never had scotch i don't have
49:02
anything to compare it to given that
49:04
scotch is a whiskey versus a martini i
49:07
would lean towards the scotch just for
49:09
what it is so well i like basil
49:11
hayden now i'm a good bourbon guy too
49:13
hey man that's an easy sip and drink
49:15
right now it's easy on the pocketbook and
49:18
i almost i almost brought us some scotch
49:20
tonight for the episode because i knew
49:22
what his answer would be okay but
49:25
I had the opportunity one day.
49:27
I'm glad you didn't.
49:28
I got to drive home.
49:30
About about a year ago.
49:32
I got to enjoy an old Forrester, uh,
49:36
two thousand eighteen birthday, uh,
49:38
bottle.
49:40
And it was, I was just joking around.
49:42
Somebody was like, yeah, let's have that.
49:44
And I was like, cool, let's do it.
49:46
And I took my little Glencairn and had
49:48
it, you know, did all the right.
49:49
And I was like, man, this like,
49:51
it just smelled like smooth caramel.
49:53
And I was like, okay, cool.
49:55
took the sip and i was like this
49:56
may be the best bourbon i've ever had
49:58
like i and i'm not saying there's not
50:00
better out there i'm just saying for me
50:02
where i was i googled where it was
50:04
at or looked it up that's a twelve
50:06
hundred dollar bottle of bourbon and the
50:09
guy that we were with just happened to
50:10
be like yeah i got two or three
50:12
of those and i was like oh like
50:14
I'm in a different stratosphere here.
50:16
So anyhow,
50:17
that's the only thing I have compared to
50:19
when you start talking about something
50:21
like an eighteen year old Scotch.
50:22
And so I don't I don't have anything
50:24
to look at.
50:25
It's subjective.
50:25
It's your taste.
50:26
But it is.
50:27
You know what?
50:28
What blows your skirt up?
50:30
Do me the same way.
50:32
I'm not a I'm not a.
50:35
not a huge scotch drinker okay no that's
50:39
true he's not i i don't like a
50:42
lot of scotch okay i just don't it's
50:44
too it's not as sweet as bourbon it's
50:47
true it's too peaty okay right well some
50:50
of them now um the glimmer orange eighteen
50:54
that he's talking about and then glenn
50:57
levitt has a twenty one um both of
51:01
those
51:03
Oh, buddy.
51:04
There's no P too much.
51:06
It is.
51:06
It is.
51:08
I mean, just smooth.
51:12
I like the way he said it.
51:16
That's the best description.
51:17
Right.
51:17
Like, I mean, it's, I love it.
51:20
I love it.
51:21
Right there.
51:22
It goes perfectly with an Artofuente
51:25
cigar.
51:25
Oh, geez.
51:27
Classic.
51:27
That's...
51:29
Look,
51:29
the only way to make those two things
51:31
better is put them together and have a
51:32
fire.
51:33
That's it.
51:34
Yeah, the fire is good.
51:35
That's it.
51:35
That's all you need.
51:36
And you will have the perfect evening.
51:41
From the number of stories that you've
51:42
shared, what you've shared tonight,
51:43
I know what my mental image of what
51:46
y'all's back porch at the farm was like.
51:48
And I don't need anybody to ever disturb
51:50
that for me because it's a perfect
51:52
setting.
51:53
and i don't want y'all to ever come
51:54
correct it and and if i could draw
51:56
it up i know what i've got the
51:59
highlight of my life is that he could
52:00
enjoy that yeah and be raised around that
52:02
yeah i mean the fireplace this fireplace
52:04
we had out back was built the house
52:07
was two hundred years old okay it was
52:09
an old i think it was an old
52:10
confederate hospital or something at one
52:12
time years ago okay and the chimney out
52:14
back was where they cooked it had the
52:16
thing that yeah yeah you know put your
52:18
pot on it yeah and the and the
52:20
fireplace
52:21
uh itself was as tall as that green
52:24
thing there and that big that opening was
52:26
that big you could burn railroad right
52:28
right and you'd sit out there and it
52:30
was we got there all the time it
52:32
was easily for a while yeah the opening
52:34
right right listen to the hoot owls and
52:36
listen to the farm i mean all the
52:39
animals and just the critters yeah the
52:41
critters look when i was a young kid
52:42
we'd sit out by that fire and him
52:44
and my grandfather tell stories yeah and
52:46
you want to talk about being scared
52:51
You get over the years, you get into,
52:53
you know, you get in situations,
52:54
you don't know how you get there.
52:55
You're getting there and just glad you got
52:57
out.
52:57
That snake thing to me has left a
52:59
scar on me.
53:00
You can mention the word snake and I'll
53:02
draw up a little bit.
53:03
I hate those damn things.
53:07
Oh man.
53:08
Like when you were, when you were doing,
53:10
what were you doing underneath the house
53:11
in the crawl space?
53:12
Oh God, that's just, that's even worse.
53:15
Uh,
53:16
the house was old and before my dad
53:18
had died or Papa George had passed away
53:21
and the house was vacant for a while.
53:22
Cause I was living here in Murfreesboro.
53:24
Okay.
53:24
So we went,
53:25
I went out and walked out one day
53:27
and shit,
53:28
the whole yard was full of water.
53:30
what the hell could that be?
53:31
It hadn't rained in a week.
53:33
So I went out and I kept hearing
53:34
this, went around the back of the house.
53:37
The house was so old,
53:38
had those old copper pipings.
53:39
Oh no.
53:40
And it had frozen.
53:42
It would have been cold and then frozen.
53:43
It was like, Oh,
53:44
I guess it was like March.
53:45
Maybe what we'd had a cold snap.
53:47
Right.
53:48
And so I had to, and it,
53:49
there was no crawl space under the house.
53:51
It's one of those things just had a
53:53
open area.
53:53
It was about like that.
53:54
Right.
53:55
So I had to crawl in under there
53:57
on my back and the floor is right
53:58
here.
53:59
I mean, there's no moving.
54:00
You had to go like this.
54:01
Right.
54:02
You shimmy it on your back.
54:03
Yeah.
54:04
Eighteen inches maybe.
54:05
Right.
54:05
To get in under there.
54:07
And then I'm taking a soldering iron and
54:09
trying to solder this pipe back together
54:10
and finally get it back together,
54:12
get it all done.
54:13
And it's cold and chilly and all that.
54:15
And I reached back there and I felt
54:16
like an old scaly inner tube or something.
54:19
No.
54:19
What the heck could that possibly be?
54:22
And I'm feeling, and it dawned on me,
54:25
the damn thing moved in my hands.
54:28
And you talk about getting out,
54:29
I had a ball cap on.
54:31
That ball cap's still there.
54:35
It's embedded in the floor.
54:36
That's fantastic.
54:38
I mean,
54:39
you talk about going out on your elbows.
54:41
I mean, I came out of there.
54:42
I came out from under there.
54:43
It's a good thing.
54:43
I started to go up right through.
54:46
But I came out from underneath that thing.
54:48
and then i took it i went back
54:50
after i got out it took me ten
54:51
minutes to calm down and then i got
54:53
a shovel reached in there and pulled it
54:54
out there's a chicken snake it was six
54:56
and a half almost seven feet long gosh
54:57
and we're just laying under there warming
55:00
up and probably felt your warmth and you
55:03
were just enough to draw its attention
55:05
thank god it wasn't a rattlesnake or
55:06
something like that but it's just a big
55:08
old man look when you're face to face
55:09
with georgia you already done it doesn't
55:11
matter what it was so i guarantee you
55:13
i'll tell you it was uh that was
55:16
tense yeah gosh
55:20
you got any you got any favorite stories
55:22
of my childhood that you want to bring
55:24
up oh it's just there's too many we
55:27
used to go fishing a lot i mean
55:30
i can't nothing any any good embarrassing
55:33
stories i won't do that to you this
55:35
time all right it's all right i have
55:36
those but i won't i'll save them i'll
55:38
keep that in the vault of treasure music
55:42
what's the one treasure music correct i
55:45
don't know the whole story you came home
55:47
late and the dog greeted you at the
55:49
door was that right or you had steak
55:52
or something and brought it home and you
55:54
know what i'm talking about oh i want
55:56
to hear his perspective on this story so
55:58
oh i know what you're talking about so
56:01
yeah you remember when you gave the dog
56:03
the deer and you told me to go
56:04
outside and check on it
56:07
And see that giggles when I need it,
56:09
because that's why I wanted his
56:10
perspective on this story.
56:11
Let's get this cleared up real quick.
56:14
I didn't think about it,
56:15
but after it happened, I went,
56:16
that wasn't real smart.
56:17
That was one of my worst moves.
56:22
I could have got the
56:23
boy, we had three dogs growing up.
56:26
All right.
56:26
Okay.
56:27
The first one was a great Dane named
56:30
Alfie who I rode like a horse.
56:33
Sure.
56:33
Huge.
56:34
Okay.
56:34
Okay.
56:35
Just a mammoth of an animal.
56:37
Yeah.
56:38
Good dog.
56:39
The next one was Chester.
56:44
Most ill-tempered son I bet you ever saw
56:45
in your life.
56:46
That's the only way I can describe that
56:48
dog.
56:49
Ill-tempered.
56:50
Yes.
56:51
Jester was the sweetest thing you had ever
56:54
seen until he wasn't.
56:57
And he'd turn on a dime.
57:01
Oh, man.
57:01
And you didn't know when it was going
57:02
to happen.
57:03
Right.
57:03
Yeah, he could be just wagging his tail.
57:05
The wind blew just right.
57:07
Yeah,
57:08
and then the next minute you touch him,
57:09
you're in trouble.
57:10
Oh, he bit the UPS man's nose off.
57:15
he bit me yeah and i was trying
57:18
to keep he bit me thinking he was
57:20
going to bite another guy that was that
57:22
was towards the end of his years he
57:24
was he was older then but and and
57:26
he was in a confined space this dog
57:28
so let me tell you a funny story
57:29
about this dog real quick and then we're
57:31
going to talk about the the deer meat
57:33
that he gave the dog and wanted me
57:34
to go play with him don't ever give
57:36
a dog
57:37
raw deer meat and send your
57:41
fourteen-year-old son out there to go play
57:43
with the dog.
57:45
Go take it away from him.
57:46
It'd be fine.
57:46
This is a good setup.
57:51
So my dad goes out of town.
57:53
I'm, I'm fourteen or fifteen years old,
57:56
maybe.
57:56
okay and he goes out of town and
58:00
a friend of ours was staying with us
58:02
who was an adult he was you know
58:04
twenty something years old and he kind of
58:08
watched the house for for my dad while
58:10
he was gone because i was too young
58:12
to really be there to trust that's what
58:14
you're saying yes yeah uh and had to
58:17
go to school etc the whole nine yards
58:18
so
58:21
One of us had the great idea that
58:22
we were going to take this hundred and
58:24
twenty pound giant schnauzer that had the
58:29
personality of a schizophrenic and thought
58:35
it was a good idea to put this
58:37
dog in the back seat of a hatchback
58:40
Ford Escort.
58:41
Oh, man.
58:41
No,
58:41
it was in the back of a Jeep,
58:43
wasn't it?
58:44
No, this was his Ford Escort.
58:46
Oh, was it?
58:46
Okay.
58:46
Yeah.
58:48
And I told you not to do it.
58:51
Don't put him in any tight spots.
58:54
Well, he's bringing,
58:55
I'm going to tell the whole story.
58:57
Don't put anything tight.
59:00
I'm in the house.
59:02
And the guy that is with us is
59:04
trying to get the dog out of the
59:06
car and can't.
59:07
Who was it?
59:08
JC.
59:08
Oh, JC.
59:11
Well, he's nuts.
59:12
so jc or chester so long story short
59:22
not a hard question there we can't get
59:23
him out of the car i'm putting food
59:26
and putting his bowl of food out by
59:28
you know got the door the hatchback
59:30
everything open can't get him out he
59:32
finally came out on his own but he
59:34
wouldn't come out of the car like he's
59:35
growling and wanting to bite me i'm like
59:38
dude i'm your buddy what are you doing
59:41
I took him to the groomers one time.
59:43
It was down the street from where it
59:45
was used to groom him.
59:46
And I told the lady right up front,
59:49
I said,
59:50
don't put him in one of those cages.
59:51
You know,
59:52
a lot of times they put dogs in
59:53
those little crate, you know,
59:55
wait until it's come pick them up.
59:56
I said,
59:56
do not put him in one of those.
59:59
I said, I'm telling you upfront now,
1:00:00
don't do it.
1:00:01
Oh, no problem.
1:00:02
Mr. Evelyn,
1:00:02
we will take care of it for you.
1:00:05
Anyway, so they,
1:00:06
they did the whole thing and they,
1:00:07
then they call me about an hour later.
1:00:10
Come get that dog before you kill
1:00:11
somebody.
1:00:12
You put them in a crate, didn't you?
1:00:15
And I had to go in there.
1:00:17
A dog's in a fever pitch.
1:00:18
He's pissed.
1:00:19
And I go in there and I say,
1:00:21
Chester chill, baby, you know?
1:00:23
And so I finally,
1:00:24
he finally recognizes me,
1:00:26
but he's real happy about the situation.
1:00:28
So I walked up to him.
1:00:30
You're there, so be it.
1:00:31
Drop me off here.
1:00:31
I don't know what you're going to do.
1:00:34
He said,
1:00:34
if you ever drop me off again,
1:00:35
I'm going to bite your ass.
1:00:36
So anyway,
1:00:38
I went up and finally got him out.
1:00:39
But he ran everybody out of the place.
1:00:42
They had to shut the door behind him.
1:00:44
And he cleaned out the whole place.
1:00:47
They were standing out in the hall.
1:00:49
That's the funniest thing I ever saw in
1:00:50
my life.
1:00:50
What the hell's going on?
1:00:51
That damn dog of yours,
1:00:52
don't bring him back.
1:00:53
I said you put him in a crate,
1:00:55
didn't you?
1:00:56
Well, maybe.
1:00:58
Maybe.
1:00:58
Strong on the maybe.
1:00:59
That's what happens.
1:01:02
Darryl,
1:01:02
you got a Friday to feel good for
1:01:03
us?
1:01:03
I do.
1:01:04
And...
1:01:06
I've been working through some Friday
1:01:08
field goods that I've kind of had loaded
1:01:09
and I wrote a couple down and,
1:01:11
but y'all story about being around the
1:01:13
campfire,
1:01:14
being able to share that with him and
1:01:16
your father and just those memories, uh,
1:01:18
delight in the little things,
1:01:21
morning walks, handwritten notes,
1:01:22
fresh flowers, dessert before dinner.
1:01:25
talks around the fire.
1:01:26
We often stress about the big things and
1:01:29
we let them drown out the beautiful parts
1:01:31
of life that are the small moments.
1:01:33
So good words.
1:01:34
Y'all know what to do.
1:01:35
Find somebody, you know,
1:01:35
tell them you love them.
1:01:37
Good words, man.
1:01:38
Give me some of that.
1:01:38
Yeah.
1:01:38
I like their bit of that.
1:01:41
Pappy,
1:01:41
thank you for coming to hang out with
1:01:42
us for a little while.
1:01:43
Pleasure's been all mine, boys.
1:01:45
I've enjoyed it.
1:01:45
We appreciate it.
1:01:46
I don't know why anybody won't listen to
1:01:48
me, but thank you for having me.
1:01:50
Storytelling's a great part of life.
1:01:52
It is.
1:01:54
He does need his own show.
1:01:57
Thoughts with Pappy.
1:02:02
That would be great.
1:02:06
Thoughts.
1:02:08
Look, guys, you know what to do.
1:02:09
If you want to get involved,
1:02:10
please feel free to reach out to me.
1:02:11
Call me at six one five three zero
1:02:13
seven zero one two zero.
1:02:14
You can email me at Charlie at Singletree
1:02:17
BBQ dot com and make sure you like
1:02:20
share, subscribe to the channel.
1:02:21
And until then, we'll see you next time.
1:02:23
Y'all be good.
1:02:25
Well, enjoyed it, Dad.