WEBVTT - Ep. 214: Gillett Coon Supper 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:07.400 What are the things you have in your life that 0:00:07.480 --> 0:00:10.640 are really valuable but you don't pay for and you 0:00:10.640 --> 0:00:12.080 couldn't quite sell them. 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:17.360 In January of twenty twenty four, the Gillette Coonsupper celebrated 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:22.320 its eightieth annual dinner. This bizarre wild game tradition has 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:24.840 made a name for itself as one of the premier 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:29.120 political events in Arkansas. But it's more than that. It's 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:33.800 holding a struggling but strong community together. This is one 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:36.960 of the most unique Beargrea stories we've ever told. It's 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:40.640 a deep dive into small town America and what makes 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:44.080 us what we are. We'll go to the Coon Supper 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:46.680 and hear from the cooks, the coon hunters, and some 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:51.280 hungry people. We'll interview best selling author Tim P. Carney 0:00:51.360 --> 0:00:54.600 about why traditions like this matter and believe it or not. 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.440 We'll also hear from former President Bill Clinton about his 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:03.120 interaction with the Coon Supper. This episode will surprise and 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.640 impact you, and we'll teach you something about yourself and 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:11.560 about society. Eating barbecue raccoon has never been so good. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:14.240 I really doubt you're gonna want to miss this one. 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.240 What would you say? There's a prime cut on a Coon. 0:01:18.640 --> 0:01:19.319 Absolutely not. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:25.000 It's all it's all prime. It's all prime, all prime, 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:37.600 all right. My name is Klay Nukem, and this is 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:42.600 the Bear Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:46.640 search for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:50.480 the story of Americans who live their lives close to 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:56.400 the land. Presented by f HF Gear, American made purpose 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:59.840 built hunting and fishing gear as designed to be as 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.280 rugged as the places we explored. 0:02:10.720 --> 0:02:14.200 My name is Scott Place. I'm from Gillette, Arkansas. I 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:19.160 live on Main Street and I've been associated with the 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:24.680 Coon Supper all my life. My dad was a master 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:28.760 of ceremonies for it from the beginning up until nineteen 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:33.120 eighty nine or ninety. So I had to go to 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:35.240 the Coon Supper one night I was even a little 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.440 guy because there was nowhere else to be. You couldn't 0:02:39.480 --> 0:02:43.280 hire a babysitter or anything like that because everybody was 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:44.240 at the Coon Supper. 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:51.320 The first recorded coons Supper took place in nineteen thirty three. 0:02:51.360 --> 0:02:54.640 Scott was born in nineteen fifty four. He's seventy years 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.480 old and he was born in the house he's sitting 0:02:57.520 --> 0:03:01.680 in right now. In downtown Gillette. It's a handsome, well 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.799 taken care of brick home with white modern sighting. It 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:09.000 was his parents before it was his. Scott is a 0:03:09.040 --> 0:03:10.840 second generation rice farmer. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:15.680 My dad was at the first coon Supper. He was 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.440 a people person, and he sang and danced on the 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:24.840 stage when he couldn't sing and dance. And it started 0:03:24.880 --> 0:03:29.840 as just a stag gathering from coon hunters around the area. 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:33.600 Well then you can imagine that got a little rough, 0:03:34.120 --> 0:03:37.200 and so the next year or two they decided to 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.480 invite the women, and then it took off from there. 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:45.880 Gillette is a small farming town in the Delta of 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:50.800 southeast Arkansas. Their Coon Supper is more than a citywide tradition. 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:55.040 It's an event that brings an entire region together, really 0:03:55.200 --> 0:03:59.560 an entire state. Today. Scott place, like his father, is 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:02.800 kind of the grand marshal of this event, not officially, 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:04.760 and he wouldn't want me to say that, but that's 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:10.160 my perception. The Coonsuper's importance to anyone who's been to 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:13.760 it is clear, but it's hard to nail down. Amid 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:17.800 the complexity of economic challenges and the loss of population, 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.800 people are leaving places like this and not coming back. 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:26.200 These are real problems for many small towns in America. 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.719 Existential time is moving forward without you, kind of stuff 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:36.320 that seems to hover over the delta like a biblical plague. 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:40.880 Just down the street from Scott's house lives Gillette's top politician, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.719 the mayor, Randy Womack. He lives on the corner of 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:48.839 Main Street. He and Scott were college roommates. We're gonna 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:51.480 need some info on Gillette. 0:04:51.720 --> 0:04:52.320 Back when we. 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:56.640 Moved here in the sixties. At that time there was 0:04:56.680 --> 0:04:59.200 close to nine hundred people the best I can remember, 0:05:00.880 --> 0:05:05.200 say since last census, best I can remember around five 0:05:05.279 --> 0:05:10.760 hundred and twenty five. But it's changed, like a lot 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:15.520 of delta towns have changed as the tractor's got bigger 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:19.800 and eliminated a lot of a lot of the workers, 0:05:20.680 --> 0:05:24.040 so it's gradually gotten smaller. 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.799 This is a row crop farming community where soybeans, rice, wheat, 0:05:32.839 --> 0:05:37.279 and corn grow in alluvial soils. They call buckshot, which 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.360 is fertile clay that holds water, sticks to your boots 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.880 and they say it holds the world together. She Lett 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.279 is four miles north of the Arkansas River and forty 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:52.400 river miles southeast or twenty eight point two seven crow 0:05:52.480 --> 0:05:56.800 flying miles to where the Arkansas River flows into the 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.400 Mighty Mississippi River. The bigger name for this bigger region 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.279 is the Delta. You've heard us talk about it a lot, 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:08.719 but more specifically, Gillette is in the Grand Prairie. These 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.640 soils have been built by ten thousand years of flooding. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:16.520 The Quapalls farmed here from time immemorial into the early 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:21.160 eighteen hundreds, and modern farming commercial operations have only been 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:24.479 practiced here for roughly one hundred years. But one thing 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.880 is certain, if you live here, you're invested. Something about 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.920 the flat, muddy ground of the Delta evokes that in people. 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:38.200 There's a word for a person's relationship with their community. 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:42.599 It's called social capital. Just file that away for a minute, 0:06:43.160 --> 0:06:45.599 and we're about to go to the Coon Supper. But 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.640 there's still one important piece of the story that we 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:53.719 haven't talked about yet. The Gillette school system. Something happened 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:54.159 to their. 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:59.600 School football games. Doesn't matter what the record was. Stadium 0:06:59.680 --> 0:07:04.599 was going on be full basketball game, kind of the 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:09.240 center part of the town when the consolidation had all 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:13.360 come and I understand what it was cased in the 0:07:13.440 --> 0:07:16.800 state in as many school district as the were, or 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.360 so they went about and you know, putting limit on 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:23.480 what the tennis was once you got to blow that number. 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:28.600 You may have heard Randy grunt right there at the 0:07:28.760 --> 0:07:31.680 end when he did. He was shaking his head as 0:07:31.680 --> 0:07:34.600 if something died and he didn't want to speak it 0:07:34.640 --> 0:07:38.400 out loud. The school was central to the town. It 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:42.120 was the social glue. Do you let schools consolidated with 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.400 the bigger school system in two thousand and four. I 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:47.680 wonder what Scott thought about the school closing. 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:54.760 It's awful, but one thing led to another, the suspense 0:07:54.880 --> 0:07:57.600 of whether the school was going to shut down after 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:02.360 it was officially consolidated, know the district, how long was 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.480 it going to stay open? So nobody moves into town 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:10.920 and your slow death. It's agonizing. But the way farming 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.960 farm economy has changed, and the land that we farm 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:21.600 in the fifties supported twenty families and now the three 0:08:21.720 --> 0:08:25.520 or four and everybody has two kids instead of nine. 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.720 There's not enough kids support us a school in this 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:33.080 area anymore. And so this is just inevitable. 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:40.079 Inevitable is a powerful and intimidating word for rural America. 0:08:40.760 --> 0:08:43.160 Two thousand and four was the beginning of the end 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.679 for Gillette schools. They kept them open for five years, 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:49.200 but in two thousand and nine they completely closed the 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:52.160 high school in junior high, but the grade school K 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:56.080 through five stayed open until twenty twenty one, when the 0:08:56.200 --> 0:09:00.199 last of the Gillette schools were completely closed. Today the 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.719 kids bus fourteen miles to de Witt or d Wit 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.120 as some would say. But it's not all bad. It's 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:12.079 just a matter of perspective. This is seth place. Scott's son, 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:15.960 he's in his early forties, lives in Gillette, but his 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:19.000 kids go to DeWitt schools. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.680 It got heated there for a while with the school 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:27.320 consolidation and all that stuff. And it was no big 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:30.000 secret about some hard feelings here and there or whatever. 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.760 But when I think about Gillette and how it used 0:09:32.760 --> 0:09:35.360 to be, that's how I feel when I go where 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.120 my kids go to school up here at d WIT. 0:09:37.320 --> 0:09:42.079 Though it's basically from my perspective, the community has grown. 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:50.079 That's an optimistic perspective, and Gillette does have a history 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:55.360 of expanding its reach. On January thirteenth, twenty twenty four, 0:09:55.480 --> 0:10:00.440 Gillette held its eightieth annual Coon Supper. Despite the child olenges, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:03.280 this event is a bright spot on the calendar that 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.560 brings this community together. It gives it identity and is 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:11.520 one of the only anchors that is held. Myself, my 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.520 wife Misty, along with Brent and his wife drove to 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.680 the Grand Prairie to see it for ourselves. This is 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:22.000 about to get wild, folks, but let's not jump the gun. 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.840 The first stop that we made was not at the 0:10:24.880 --> 0:10:29.640 Coon Supper, but at the Gillette Pre Coon Supper. That's right, 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.400 the pre Coon Supper, which starts about two hours before 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:38.720 the Coon Supper. We've driven a couple of miles down 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.959 a gravel road in park by a large metal building. 0:10:42.679 --> 0:10:46.640 This is the late Congressman Mary and Barry's farm shed. 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:51.320 What is this? I hear music? I've never been here before. 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:54.800 Name is Clay Clay Leslie. 0:10:54.960 --> 0:10:59.400 Nice to see a guy in dark framed glasses wearing 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.120 a man dadish kind of barbecue and apron greets me. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.400 He carries himself like a guy in charge. I bet 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.280 he knows what's up with this pre coonsupper stuff. Hey, 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:14.400 how's it going? Hey doing kway? Newcomer? Give me like 0:11:14.679 --> 0:11:17.080 a little overview of the Coon Supper or and maybe 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:17.880 even this event. 0:11:18.320 --> 0:11:22.520 So uh so, yeah, we're we're here at the at 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.080 the very farm shop. So this is uh the pre 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:27.560 coonsupper reception. 0:11:27.800 --> 0:11:29.079 So this, this. 0:11:28.960 --> 0:11:33.360 Event, you know, really goes back fifty years. Uh So 0:11:33.520 --> 0:11:36.880 former Congressman Marrion Barry, he used to live right across 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.800 the street from the Gillette High School and uh when 0:11:40.920 --> 0:11:44.600 people and elected officials and Canadas would come down and 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:47.280 come to the Coon Supper, they'd stopped at his house 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:49.920 to have a cocktail before going over the coon Supper. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:54.640 That was Gabe Holstrom, and he just told us a 0:11:54.760 --> 0:11:58.840 very important component of the tradition that has become the 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:02.880 political event of Arkansas. Let's see who else is here. 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.319 My name is Jeremiah Moore. I'm from Clarenon, Arkansas. Currently 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.079 serve as a state representative for House District sixty one 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:15.440 in the Arkansas State Legislature. My district runs from Amigon 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.680 in Jackson County all the way down to Gillette in 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.120 Arkansas County. And I would be remiss if I did 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.840 not say that District sixty one has the best duck 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:24.679 hunting in. 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:26.959 All the world. 0:12:27.080 --> 0:12:29.920 You know, we're here right now at the Gillette pre 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:30.760 Coon Supper. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:33.480 We're about to be confused with the coon souber. This 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:34.559 is a pre coon safer. 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.800 We're about to head on to the actual coon Supper 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.520 in a few minutes. And I always say that this 0:12:38.640 --> 0:12:42.720 is the foremost political event in the entire state of Arkansas. 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:46.160 Now you tell me any state east or west of 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:51.360 the Mississippi where the foremost political event revolves around eating 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:52.760 a raccoon, and. 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.480 Now it'll be right here in Jillette. 0:12:56.559 --> 0:13:02.240 So now, this pre he Coonsupper became a must attend 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.880 event in part because of Arkansas's most famous son, a 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.600 young man who became Arkansas's governor in nineteen seventy eight. 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:13.120 This is the guy that Gary Believer Nukan went to 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.920 high school with, and you may recognize his voice. We'll 0:13:16.960 --> 0:13:19.360 step out of the pre coon Supper for a minute 0:13:19.440 --> 0:13:23.920 to a speech this former governor made in twenty twenty three. 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:28.480 So when I started to run for office, the lad 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:33.000 had about eight hundred people and they were about as 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.400 I recall, a minimum of fifteen hundred people that showed 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:37.280 up at the Coon Sufferer. 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.120 This is former President Bill Clinton. Turns out he's a 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:43.920 long time coon supper guy. 0:13:44.280 --> 0:13:46.880 And someone I said, you know, you've got to do this, 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:48.600 and you've got to call Marion Barry and you got 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.439 to go down there and see him make all over 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:55.040 the deal and act like you think coon is better 0:13:55.080 --> 0:14:04.440 than Philet Mignon. So I show up and it was 0:14:04.480 --> 0:14:09.360 already kind of required appearance to go to Marion's house first, 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:12.080 and all the paul for there and other people, and 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:13.760 then we'd mody over to the dinner. 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:16.720 He's talking about the pre coon supper, and. 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.720 So I said, Marrying, do I actually have to eat 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:25.320 his coon? He said no, He said not if you 0:14:25.320 --> 0:14:30.520 don't want to carry this place ever again, you don't 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:31.400 have to eat it at all. 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:36.560 And I said, well, okay. 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.360 How do I eat it? He said, what do you mean? 0:14:40.440 --> 0:14:42.880 I said, I've seen it prepared for eating, and I said, 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.280 there's a lot of gristlin fat right near the bone. 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:50.720 How do I eat it without getting sick? He said, well, 0:14:50.760 --> 0:14:53.000 most people think they're eat coon meat with a little 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:56.640 barbecue sauce. You should think of it in reverse, thinking 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:00.840 you're eating barbecue sauce with a little coon. Mea, there's 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:03.400 no such thing as too much barbecue sauce. 0:15:05.960 --> 0:15:09.120 Ironically, This is the second time Bill Clinton's voice has 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.840 been on the Bear Grease podcast, and he was once 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.120 involved in a plane crash on the way to the 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.800 coon Supper, but that's another story. But Clinton helped put 0:15:17.800 --> 0:15:23.000 this tradition on the legendary column of Arkansas events. But 0:15:23.560 --> 0:15:26.160 it's now time for us to go to the supper. 0:15:26.640 --> 0:15:29.520 We're really about to eat some coon. This isn't a joke. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:35.200 So we just left the pre coon supper party. Brent, 0:15:35.720 --> 0:15:36.480 what are your thoughts? 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:39.640 Oh, well, there was no coon served, but lots of conversation. 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:43.640 But the food was good. There was duck poppers that's 0:15:43.840 --> 0:15:47.840 duck wrapped with bacon and jalapenos, and there was ribs 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:48.520 and sausage. 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:52.600 And so we're driving on a gravel road in the 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:57.120 Grand Prairie of Arkansas. It's dark, the sun has set 0:15:57.360 --> 0:15:59.880 and there's a light glow on the horizon on the 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.520 western horizon, and we're now headed to the Gillette Coon Souper. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.960 As we get into the Gillette city limits, the streets 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:13.480 are filled with parked cars and people walking towards the school. 0:16:13.880 --> 0:16:17.800 We get out of our car. It looks like we're 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:22.720 walking up to an old gymnasium it's dark outside, stars 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:27.280 are out a beautiful uh waning GiB us moon above us. 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.280 This is the old Gillette High School gym. It looks 0:16:31.280 --> 0:16:33.440 like the movie Hoosiers could have been filmed here. 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:34.440 Here. 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.120 We are awesome. We just got our tickets and the 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:43.200 tickets are numbered. We gotive. Oh wow, we're gonna have 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:47.000 to split up sorrow. All right, it's on we go. 0:16:47.320 --> 0:16:50.160 This year they had eight hundred tickets and they sold out. 0:16:50.600 --> 0:16:54.440 The gym is lined with tables with white tablecloths. At 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.520 each place setting is the annual glass cup with the 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:02.200 coonsupper emblem. In the year, people collect these. But each 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:08.000 table has an aluminum foil trade of barbecue raccoon. I 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.200 see a guy, I want to talk to you. Tell 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:10.800 me your name of. 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:11.120 Who you work. 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.359 Zach Hartman, chief policy officer for Ducks On Limited. 0:17:14.800 --> 0:17:17.320 Why the heck are you at the coon suburb? Man 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:18.879 at the coons eat duck eggs? 0:17:20.400 --> 0:17:25.240 Well, the most important thing for net success is habitat. 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:27.600 But I'm not opposed to eating a few coon. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.119 But I am not opposed to eat a few coons. 0:17:30.160 --> 0:17:32.919 But the really reason that we're here is because this 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:35.200 is a great event for a great cause. We're here 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:40.280 to raise money for Arkansas State's Foundation and the scholarships 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:42.760 that they provide to students that want to get involved 0:17:42.800 --> 0:17:45.920 in ag policy, and they have an opportunity to learn 0:17:45.960 --> 0:17:51.479 about agriculture conservation, which is an increasingly important component of 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:53.879 our working lands these days. 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.280 Okay, enough all that, man, what do you think of 0:17:57.320 --> 0:17:57.840 eating coon? 0:17:57.920 --> 0:18:00.879 How my man had Penny over here, who you know. 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.840 I brought him here for his first time, and I 0:18:04.840 --> 0:18:06.879 took him to the coon supper and I gave him 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:08.919 I sat him down and I said, you know, you 0:18:08.920 --> 0:18:10.600 gotta eat some coon. And he ate a piece of 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.400 coon and then he grabbed another piece and I said 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.800 it or are you going back for seconds? And he 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:19.720 said yeah, it's good, and I said really, and I 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:22.600 tasted it and it was and it like ruined. 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:22.840 The whole joke. 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:27.399 Bret and I both grab a leg of coon and 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:31.159 have a bite, and he's right, it ain't bad. But 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.600 we've both had it before. We're old coon hunters. 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:33.840 You know. 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.720 Brent's wife won't even try it. But Misty took a 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.960 nibble and the report wasn't great, though she was a 0:18:40.000 --> 0:18:44.240 little embarrassed to show her displeasure. Anyway, I see somebody 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.639 else I want to talk with. This is awesome Booth, 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.239 the director of the Arkansas Game and Fish. Why are 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:51.320 you at the coon supper? 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:51.600 Sir? 0:18:52.119 --> 0:18:55.639 Well, it's an Arkansas radition for us Flatlanders. It's a 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:58.679 good way to point out the nexus between public service 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.520 and young Arkansas and also a great way to see 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:05.040 the Grand Prairie in his most beautiful time of the year. 0:19:05.359 --> 0:19:08.520 Shoot some ducks and eat some coon. Now? Are we 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.520 also not trying to reduce the coon population in the 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:12.440 state of Arkansas? 0:19:12.760 --> 0:19:15.200 Sir, always and proudly. 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:18.760 This is a good way to do it right as popularize. 0:19:18.840 --> 0:19:21.120 You know, there's a strategy you can If we can 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:25.919 popularize eating coon meat to the level that every child 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:28.800 in America, every man, woman, and child, wants to go 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.040 kill a coon and eat it, then we might we 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:32.919 might be winning. Do you agree with this? 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:37.119 I think coon Wellington would be an American tradition forever. 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:42.639 Austin Booth is a former marine, a lawyer, and native 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.040 our cans and and our youngest Game and Fish director ever. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:51.359 For my angle, he's exemplifying some legit leadership while navigating 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:55.120 the very complex wildlife issues of our state. Hat tip 0:19:55.160 --> 0:19:59.280 to Austin. Oh look, here's somebody else i'd like to 0:19:59.320 --> 0:19:59.639 talk with. 0:20:00.640 --> 0:20:03.320 I'm leslie right Ledge, the Lieutenant governor of Arkansas for 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:06.040 the past year. I was the attorney general for eight 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:09.399 years prior to that. I grew up on a cattle farm. 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.640 I'm married to a rogrot farmer. So I love being 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:17.160 here in Arkansas farm lamb, you know, celebrating our way 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:21.280 of life, our heritage, and then doing something really awkward. 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:22.440 Which is eat raccoon. 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.800 Pardon me, madame, Lieutenant governor, but is it really awkward 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:31.080 to eat raccoon? Is that the right word? And by 0:20:31.119 --> 0:20:34.760 the way, when i'm governor, Brent will be my lieutenant governor. 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:39.440 You know, we're doing this odd thing of eating barbecued raccoon. 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:42.720 But it's really to talk about what the needs are 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:45.600 here in Arkansas County, what the needs are for the 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:48.120 farmers in this area. 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.600 Okay, so here's a real question after all that, how 0:20:51.600 --> 0:20:52.520 do you like coon? 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:57.159 Well, it's best not eating. But if you have to 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.440 eat it, I certainly suggest getting like one of the yeah, 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:04.240 the banks or something where it looks big but it's 0:21:04.320 --> 0:21:05.120 very little meat. 0:21:05.440 --> 0:21:07.879 Oh, you got a strategy to get a big beecet, 0:21:07.920 --> 0:21:12.280 but not getting much. That's right, you know, strategy, it's 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:13.560 all about strategy. 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:14.240 That was good. 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:17.400 I want to get into the nitty gritty of how 0:21:17.440 --> 0:21:21.159 they're coming up with all this raccoon meat. This is 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:26.679 their main supplier, Tommy Cantrell. And how long have you 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:30.040 been supplying the coons over with coons? 0:21:30.040 --> 0:21:33.119 Probably six or seven years probably now. 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:33.960 Uh huh? 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:36.120 So how many you usually catch for them? 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:37.400 I put it this way. 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.719 Last year I carried him like six d and fifty pounds, right, 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:45.040 and they're probably average seven pounds six to seven pounds 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.240 per coon. So you can figure that I trap them. 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.040 And also we hunt them with my dog. I got 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:52.560 old dog. 0:21:52.960 --> 0:21:54.320 Got a coon dog? What kind of coon dog? 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:57.440 You well, she's not actually a coon dog coon dog. 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:03.120 She's about half German shepherd and have something new. But anyway, 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:05.840 if we find one, you know, and she'll run him 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.760 up a tree or something. But if we shoot him, 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:09.760 if you ain't got a dog, he gonna get away, 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:12.360 but she will ketch him. She will catch him. 0:22:12.480 --> 0:22:12.960 Get there. 0:22:14.000 --> 0:22:16.119 So I did the math, and that's about one hundred 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.640 dressed raccoons. But that's just what mister Tommy brought in 0:22:19.880 --> 0:22:23.000 they had a few other suppliers. Now I want to 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.639 know how they cook it. Guess who the head cook is? 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.879 Yep Scott Place, the guy whose dad was the first 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:33.600 master of ceremonies. So are you you're the main coon 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:34.360 cook around here? 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:36.679 Well, I guess I'm the oldest cook. 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:41.920 Okay, So tell tell me about the process of how 0:22:41.960 --> 0:22:42.480 you're cooking this. 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:46.400 My son Saith buys the coon and we got freezers 0:22:46.480 --> 0:22:48.919 in the old field house and we'll keep it in 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.720 and then on Thursday we'll come get it out and 0:22:51.840 --> 0:22:54.440 let it fall for a day. And then on Friday 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.359 morning we got a pan saw and we cut it 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:01.480 up in the pieces and in the salt water brine 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:08.320 and soak it twenty four hours. And then today is 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:12.320 our longest day, and we boil it in the big 0:23:12.359 --> 0:23:16.280 pots with a special recipe of stuff that we put 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:18.280 in the boil of water, almost like a. 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:20.200 Fish. 0:23:20.680 --> 0:23:24.640 Yeah, and we boil it and then we immediately put 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:25.800 it on these smokers. 0:23:26.400 --> 0:23:28.879 How many coons did y'all You think y'all cooke today? 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:30.600 Coons? 0:23:30.640 --> 0:23:33.040 I don't know, but it's right. It's just under eight 0:23:33.200 --> 0:23:35.240 hundred pounds. 0:23:35.400 --> 0:23:37.439 Now. At one time it was a lot bigger than that. 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:39.320 Y'all cooked like two thousand pounds. 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:43.040