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Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trotlining and just in general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives from the store More Studio on Meat

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Speaker 1: Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that

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Speaker 1: airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair

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Speaker 1: or drop that tailgate. I've got some stores to share.

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Speaker 1: It's all about the Christmas Tree. It's that time of

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Speaker 1: year when lots of friends and families start gathering to

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Speaker 1: celebrate Christmas. Regardless of gifts and activities, the one central

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Speaker 1: item or gathering spot usually has a tree of some

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Speaker 1: kind and close proximity. Christmas trees are the theme this week,

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Speaker 1: and I'm sharing a new story and one that I've

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Speaker 1: told before that's so good it'll probably be in the

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Speaker 1: Christmas rotation from now on. Before I tell you that one,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you this one. This first story

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Speaker 1: was handed to me by the man who wrote it,

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Speaker 1: Jeremy Slum. Jeremy and his son Jacob had driven two

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Speaker 1: hours from their home near Joplin, Missouri, to meet me

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Speaker 1: at the Shepherd Hills Celebration of the Ozarks event I

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Speaker 1: spoke at last September. We visited for not nearly long enough,

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Speaker 1: and I could tell right away listening to them talk,

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Speaker 1: that these two were my kind of folks. Before they left,

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Speaker 1: Jeremy had to me an envelope and said, here's something

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Speaker 1: for you to read sometime. I handed it to my

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Speaker 1: wife Alexis, and she stuck it in my backpack. Thank

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Speaker 1: me for the stories I tell on here, and said

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Speaker 1: he hoped I enjoyed the one that he'd given me.

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Speaker 1: I opened it that night after we got back to

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Speaker 1: the hotel, and inside I found a handwritten letter. Was

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Speaker 1: well thought out and neatly written. I knew it would

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Speaker 1: be one to share when the time was right. Now

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Speaker 1: it is so, without further delay, here's the Christmas Tree,

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Speaker 1: with my voice using the words of Jeremy Sloan. When

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Speaker 1: I was growing up, I loved spending time with my

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Speaker 1: great uncle. His name was James Wooten. He was born

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Speaker 1: and raised in Arkansas, and later in life he moved

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Speaker 1: to Oklahoma. My uncle had a love for God and

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Speaker 1: the outdoors, and James loved grow in a garden, grafting

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Speaker 1: for coand trees, camping, fishing, and just enjoying nature. Now,

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Speaker 1: we would always get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and

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Speaker 1: I left two hours away in Missouri, so we didn't

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Speaker 1: get to see each other as often as we wanted.

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Speaker 1: I always cherished the time I got to spend with him.

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Speaker 1: Growing up. I'd spend a week with him in the

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Speaker 1: summer and we'd ride horses, we'd work in his garden.

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Speaker 1: We'd go camping and fishing, and always eat good food.

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Speaker 1: After I grew up, my uncle retired, we started a

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Speaker 1: yearly camping trip. We would meet down on the river,

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Speaker 1: and that trip became our new tradition. We always caught

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Speaker 1: plenty of fish. Sometimes we'd eat fresh caught trout for breakfast, dinner,

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Speaker 1: and supper. We spoke the same language, even though I

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Speaker 1: was grown and he was old enough to be my grandpa.

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Speaker 1: When we were together, we acted like a couple of kids.

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Speaker 1: On one trip, late in the fall, as we were

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Speaker 1: fishing our honey hole, we noticed a big cottonwood tree. Now,

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Speaker 1: there were many cottonwoods lining the banks by river, but

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Speaker 1: this one was full of fishing lures. It reminded me

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Speaker 1: of a Christmas tree. The way all the jigs and

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Speaker 1: the spinners hung down from the limbs. Those limbs stretched

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Speaker 1: out like fingers, grabbing every fly and lure it could

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Speaker 1: get its greedy hands on. Years of lures hung there,

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Speaker 1: shining in the sun and swaying in the breeze, free

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Speaker 1: for anyone adventurous enough to attempt to get them. For

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Speaker 1: two days, we joked about trying to recover all the

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Speaker 1: lost and abandoned tackle, but the water was way too cold,

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Speaker 1: weight and the limbs were way too high to reach.

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Speaker 1: What I didn't know was that my uncle was coming

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Speaker 1: up with a plan. On the last day of our trip,

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Speaker 1: he showed me a long stick that he had whittled

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Speaker 1: the notch into to act as a hook. It'd be

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Speaker 1: my job to use it to pull the limbs down

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Speaker 1: to where he could reach Bates as he waded out

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Speaker 1: into the frigid water to retrieve them. We waited for

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Speaker 1: the sun to go down, and after all the fishermen

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Speaker 1: had left before we began. My uncle waded out into

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Speaker 1: the freezing river and started collecting the lures from the

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Speaker 1: limbs I pulled down to within his reach. He gathered

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Speaker 1: the treasure that hung from the tree and made several

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Speaker 1: trips back and forth, each time working up enough courage

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Speaker 1: to go back out a little further and deeper from

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Speaker 1: the bank, returning from each trip with all the lures

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Speaker 1: in tackle he could hold, and we started laughing at

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Speaker 1: our success and couldn't stop. We'd hit the fisherman's jackpot.

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Speaker 1: After getting all we could, we hiked back to the camper.

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Speaker 1: My uncle changed in some dry clothes while I made

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Speaker 1: a pot hot coffee. We separated all the lures onto

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Speaker 1: several paper plates in the camper. We set around the

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Speaker 1: table admiring the flies, the jigs, the spinners, the hooks,

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Speaker 1: and the bobbers. We might not ever have to buy

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Speaker 1: tackle again. We took turns, choosing our favorites, one at

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Speaker 1: a time, back and forth until it was all evenly

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Speaker 1: divided between us. I will never forget that night. Many

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Speaker 1: years have passed and my uncle is no longer on

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Speaker 1: this earth, and I know that he's in the big

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Speaker 1: campground in the sky. He was my outdoor hero, and

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Speaker 1: I think about my uncle James often, like when my

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Speaker 1: kids and I go fishing or I'm just out working

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Speaker 1: in the garden. I think about him the most during

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Speaker 1: Christmas and the time we found the Christmas Tree of

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Speaker 1: every fisherman's dreams. Well, Jeremy, my friend, I can't thank

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Speaker 1: you enough for sharing that wonderful memory of you and

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Speaker 1: your uncle James. Stories like Jeremys aren't uniquely American, that

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Speaker 1: they are, without a doubt, the very definition of American.

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Speaker 1: Thank you, buddy. Now, I don't want y'all to think

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Speaker 1: I'm lazy or running out of stuff to talk about, because,

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Speaker 1: like I said, the story I'm about to tell you

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Speaker 1: I've told before. As a matter of fact, I told

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Speaker 1: you all this yarn about a year ago, and for

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Speaker 1: those that are interested, it was an absolute chary to

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Speaker 1: record because I couldn't stop laughing. My gal, Paul Rivera

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Speaker 1: Hansen made either sound engineer extreme. The lady who struggles

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Speaker 1: to make me sound like I know what I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about every week said it was the most start and

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Speaker 1: stops and do overs of any recording I'd ever sent her.

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Speaker 1: I love to be able to tell y'all that what

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Speaker 1: you hear every week is exactly what I send Reva,

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Speaker 1: but that would be a bald face lie. I may

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Speaker 1: read a paragraph I wrote three times in a row,

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Speaker 1: or mispronounce a name, or confused myself with my own writing,

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Speaker 1: to the point I have to edit the script myself

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Speaker 1: right on the spot. Then I send that whole recording,

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Speaker 1: including all the redos, the do overs, and the corrections,

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Speaker 1: for her to sort out in her office way up

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Speaker 1: in the frozen tundra of Bozeman, Montana. She takes all

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Speaker 1: the calamity out of that amalgamated word jumble of nonsense,

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Speaker 1: adds some music, and publishes what you good folks have

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Speaker 1: allowed me to job in your ear holes every week.

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Speaker 1: This story was a classic from the first time I

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Speaker 1: read it when this Country Life listener Damee Fuller sent

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Speaker 1: it to me last December. Dame is a storyteller, and

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Speaker 1: as far as I'm concerned, he should be known as

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Speaker 1: the Bard of Oklahoma. Timeless classics for the ule Tide

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Speaker 1: season include stories from generations before us that are still

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Speaker 1: relevant and being told today. This is one of those

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Speaker 1: that I will go to my graves saying ranks right

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Speaker 1: up there with the best of them. In eighteen forty three,

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Speaker 1: Charles Dickens penned a Christmas care In nineteen sixty six,

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Speaker 1: Jeene Shepherd wrote in God We Trust All Others paid

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Speaker 1: cash that was turned into a screenplay that we all

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Speaker 1: know as the movie A Christmas Store, And in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four, Dame Fuller emailed me the Christmas Trees. It

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Speaker 1: will be made into a movie one day, and when

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Speaker 1: it is I'm going to make a fortune selling paper

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Speaker 1: towels and depends on the theater lobby. Here it is again,

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Speaker 1: just as Dane sent it to me, and his words

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Speaker 1: and my voice. This is what might very well be

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Speaker 1: the best Christmas story ever. Even though it took place

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Speaker 1: roughly fifty years ago. Most of my cousins and I

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Speaker 1: will attest that this is a mostly factual account. Growing up.

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Speaker 1: Christmas even meant one thing, ma'am all and Papa's house.

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Speaker 1: It was a tradition of the Fullers dating back to

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Speaker 1: I believe three days after dirt was invented. R. C.

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Speaker 1: Peck and Edith Gert Fuller had a pretty big family,

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Speaker 1: five boys and a girl. Eventually, as kids back then did,

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Speaker 1: they all left home to start families of their own,

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Speaker 1: and soon they began bringing them back for the holidays.

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Speaker 1: Not only kids and grandkids were there, but there were

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Speaker 1: great aunts, uncles, second cousins, and so forth. By the

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventies there was approximately five hundred and ninety seven men,

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Speaker 1: women and children crammed that old house out in the

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Speaker 1: sticks of Muskogee County in northeastern Oklahoma every Christmas Eve.

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Speaker 1: Not really, not many, but man, it sure seemed like

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Speaker 1: it now. One particular December twenty fourth, the house was

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Speaker 1: filled to capacity. We had all eaten supper, and everyone

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Speaker 1: was gathered in the front room. All of us grandkids

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Speaker 1: were excited because Pap had finally said we could open presents.

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Speaker 1: Our grandparents weren't rich, In fact, they had very little. Somehow,

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Speaker 1: though every year they managed to get us all something.

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Speaker 1: This year, times must have been a little tougher than normal.

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Speaker 1: Instead of buying a tree, Pap had gone up the

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Speaker 1: hill with his double bitted axe and chopped down a

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Speaker 1: cedar tree a few weeks earlier. By the time the

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Speaker 1: festivities rolled around, that cedar tree had turned the color

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Speaker 1: of brown paper bag. Keep in mind, the Christmas lights

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Speaker 1: back in the seventies were of the variety that could

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Speaker 1: rival the temperature of the sun. Twinkle lights weren't anywhere

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Speaker 1: close to happening. Seeing as how that tree had morphed

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Speaker 1: into something akin to napalm. The adults in the room

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Speaker 1: had decided that no string of Christmas lights would be

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Speaker 1: plugged in. The grandkids tried their cow eyed best, their

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Speaker 1: angelic faces to convince Papa into plugging the men, but

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Speaker 1: he wouldn't budge. All of us tried, except for one,

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Speaker 1: Scott cousin. Scott was born into the middle third of

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Speaker 1: the order as far as the grandkid's ages went. However,

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Speaker 1: he was lead off on the kind of kid that

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Speaker 1: when his dad said not to do something or he'd

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Speaker 1: get a whooping, Scott would ask how much of one?

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Speaker 1: It was awesome being Scott's cousin back then, I could

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Speaker 1: tear the bar down, and if he was there, I'd

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Speaker 1: never get so much as looked at. Everybody just knew

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Speaker 1: Scott did it anyway. He was seated next to me

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Speaker 1: that night, and next to him was the television. Behind

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Speaker 1: it was the outlet that would have held the plugs

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Speaker 1: that were lying on the floor going to the lights

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Speaker 1: that were still draped onto the Christmas tree. The duty

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Speaker 1: of passing our presence that night had fallen on Ain't

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Speaker 1: Judy the lone girl of the Fuller kids, and being

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Speaker 1: a girl with five brothers, Judy had put up with

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Speaker 1: a lot in her day. Not enough, though, to have

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Speaker 1: obtained a calm demeanor capable of taking on anything. To

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Speaker 1: say that she is easily frazzled is an understatement. After

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Speaker 1: the first twenty or so kids had gotten their presence,

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Speaker 1: Judy was nearing the end of her rope. The sound

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Speaker 1: of shredding paper and squeals of delight and parents yelling

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Speaker 1: at their kids to await their turn had taken its

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Speaker 1: toll on Judy. It was at that precise moment that

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Speaker 1: Scott made his move, without tapping my knee or giving

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Speaker 1: me so much as hey, watch this. I observed him

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Speaker 1: as he slithered behind the TV and picked up the

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Speaker 1: light stream plug, eager to see the lights and maybe

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Speaker 1: watch him get the butt busting of his life. I

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Speaker 1: didn't say a word. He gave me a looking with

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Speaker 1: that crooked smile. He plugged in the lights. Oh what

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Speaker 1: a glorious sight. The red, blue, green, and orange bulbs

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Speaker 1: sprang into light. Nobody noticed except for me, Scott's sister Charmon,

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Speaker 1: and my sister Karen. The adults were too busy breaking

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Speaker 1: up fights over cap pistols and baby dolls. They had

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Speaker 1: no idea of the coup that Scott had pulled off

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Speaker 1: for about two seconds, Almost as suddenly as the lights

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Speaker 1: had appeared, they were being put to shape by the

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Speaker 1: flame shooting out from under that long dead cedar tree.

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Speaker 1: Now everyone had noticed. Uncle pee Wee grabbed the cord

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Speaker 1: and tried to yank it out of the socket and

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Speaker 1: then do it so he knocked over the inferno that

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Speaker 1: was once considered a Christmas tree. Things sort of got

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Speaker 1: blurry after that. The house was full of smoke. Dads

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Speaker 1: grabbed kids and started literally throwing them toward the back door.

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Speaker 1: Moms had run from the kitchen to catch them before

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Speaker 1: any bones were broken. Uncle Rudy waded through the sea

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Speaker 1: of kids, the wrapping paper, and the toys and made

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Speaker 1: it to the tree. He began trying to stomp out

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Speaker 1: the fire. Somebody no one knows who got the front

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Speaker 1: door open, the very door that hadn't been opened for

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Speaker 1: years because Mamma didn't want to tear a hole in

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Speaker 1: her carpet. Terrified me. Because I sat next to the

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Speaker 1: door and had been threatened with a switch or even

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Speaker 1: acting like I might have open, I knew, without a

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Speaker 1: doubt I would get whooped for sagging the carpet. No

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Speaker 1: matter the black hole that had just been burned into it.

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Speaker 1: Uncle Tuffy, Scott's dad, grabbed the still burning torch of

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Speaker 1: a tree, knocked me out of the way, and threw

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Speaker 1: it out into the front yard. Amidst the chaos, the screams,

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Speaker 1: and the smoke, still in the center of the room

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Speaker 1: was Judy running for her life with her hands clasping

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Speaker 1: her face. She was screaming, oh my gosh, over and over,

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Speaker 1: trying desperately to get herself and her kids out of live.

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Speaker 1: She had never made it one inch farther from the

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Speaker 1: tree than she was at the moment of combustion. She

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Speaker 1: was literally running in circles. Happened. Never made it out

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Speaker 1: of the recliner, Dad had never made it off the couch,

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Speaker 1: and both were laughing as hard as I had ever

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Speaker 1: seen anyone laugh. By now, Scott had made it out

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Speaker 1: from behind the rc He probably knew that he should

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Speaker 1: run while he was still able, but he was too

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Speaker 1: busy enjoying the fruits of his labor, enamored by the

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Speaker 1: sight of all the carnage. He never noticed his dad

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Speaker 1: reaching for him, and no one knows exactly what happened

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Speaker 1: to Scott once his dad pulled him away, but when

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Speaker 1: he came back and the tears dried up, he was

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Speaker 1: as quiet as a church mouse for the rest of

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Speaker 1: the night, Christ has averted. It wasn't long until all

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Speaker 1: the windows and doors in the house were opened to

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Speaker 1: let the smoke out, and everyone had resumed their positions,

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Speaker 1: though all were now wearing their coats. What was left

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Speaker 1: of the presence was handed out, and Scott never sat

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Speaker 1: next to that old TV again. And according to Dane Fuller,

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Speaker 1: Native Oklahoma, now spying on the Texans down and Childers,

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Speaker 1: that's just how that happened. A Dane. Once again, I

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Speaker 1: thank you from the bottom of my heart for sending

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Speaker 1: that treasure that I enjoyed telling as much as I

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Speaker 1: do hearing it myself. That whole thing plays like an

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Speaker 1: old timehole movie, complete with big haired ladies and corduroy

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Speaker 1: breeches and flat top haircuts. I can smell the cedar

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Speaker 1: burning as if I was right there when Uncle Tuffy

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Speaker 1: save the day. I absolutely loved this story. Thank you, buddy. Now,

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Speaker 1: still on the subject of trees, many moons ago, when

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Speaker 1: the alexis and I wears broke as Job's turkey, a

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Speaker 1: phrase my sainted grandmother Mama Slye used to describe poor folks.

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Speaker 1: It was all we could do to afford to pay attention,

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Speaker 1: much less by a bunch of Christmas decorations. It was

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Speaker 1: our first Christmas, and while we had a tree, we

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Speaker 1: needed a star for the top, and I bought one

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Speaker 1: at Walmart. It was cheap, kind of gaudy looking, but

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Speaker 1: it was a star, and outside of re presenting the

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Speaker 1: Star of Bethlehem, its signified our first Christmas together as

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Speaker 1: a family. For years now, me and my ball on

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Speaker 1: a budget star. Having weathered yearly attempts to be replaced

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Speaker 1: by something of a more cosmetically appealing nature, I have

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Speaker 1: stood my ground and told them that they can decorate

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Speaker 1: the tree every year with whatever they want. I don't

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Speaker 1: care what they hang on the limbs. They can string popcorn,

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Speaker 1: they can throw tensil, they can release possums, they can

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Speaker 1: hire Martha Stewart herself to come over and decorate it,

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Speaker 1: and I'll pay for it. But the first time someone

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Speaker 1: replaces that star, We're gonna have problems. I get it,

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Speaker 1: there's prettier things out there. One could argue that it

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Speaker 1: was designed and put together in the dark, and from

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Speaker 1: the looks of it. I couldn't prove it wasn't. But

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Speaker 1: that heavy, old, ugly silver star that sheds glitter like

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Speaker 1: a shaggy dog is more than just a tree topper.

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Speaker 1: Is the where we were at a time when getting

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Speaker 1: by was a struggle and extras for few and far between.

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Speaker 1: After everyone else has gone to bed and it's just

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Speaker 1: me and Whalen, I see that star sitting up there,

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Speaker 1: and I can hear the laughter echoing in a small

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Speaker 1: apartment of a new family, the beginnings of what would

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Speaker 1: evolve into our well of life as we walk together

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Speaker 1: into what has become our existence. It is a symbol

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Speaker 1: of a time when we didn't see that star is

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Speaker 1: settling for less, but rather looking at it as being

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Speaker 1: grateful for what we could afford. Alexis is gonna hear this, maybe,

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Speaker 1: and if she does, she's gonna roll her eyes most assuredly.

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Speaker 1: Her idea of keeping something around after it starts to

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Speaker 1: look beat up ends with me for now anyway. But regardless,

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Speaker 1: I don't ask for anything for Christmas. I have everything

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Speaker 1: I've ever wanted, and then so I love to give,

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Speaker 1: and I can't keep a present longer than a week

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Speaker 1: or so before I break down and give it to

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Speaker 1: whomever I bought it for, just because I can't wait

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Speaker 1: to see the expression on their face when they get it.

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Speaker 1: So my gift to me every year is a clunky

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Speaker 1: metal star that's as appealing on the tree as the

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Speaker 1: starter off an eight in Ford tractor. Would they both

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Speaker 1: in appearance and gross weight, or as the rest of

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Speaker 1: the Reeds crew would suggest, gross weight and gross appearance?

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Speaker 1: Who cares the star stays another year? They ain't really

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Speaker 1: mad about it. If they were, they wouldn't be here

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Speaker 1: with me right now to tell you all this For

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Speaker 1: me Alexis and wailing to wonder how Mary Christmas. Y'all

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Speaker 1: be careful