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Speaker 1: On this New Year's Eve, I'd like to go back

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Speaker 1: into the Bear Grease archives to a unique standalone episode

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Speaker 1: about Southern comedian Jerry Clower. Something about the holidays can

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Speaker 1: make us nostalgic, and I've been thinking about this one,

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Speaker 1: which originally aired a March twenty third, twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: That seems like so long ago. Man, the years just

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Speaker 1: kind of roll by. I vividly remember that I drove

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Speaker 1: eight hours just a few days before this episode aired

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Speaker 1: to meet with Jerry Klower's former neighbor in a Mitt County, Mississippi.

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Speaker 1: After we called the town hall and asked if they

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Speaker 1: knew anybody that knew Jerry, and sure enough, they gave

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Speaker 1: us this fella's name. Even on that trip, stopped by

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Speaker 1: to talk with old Brent Reeves, who was on this

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Speaker 1: episode who you met Jerry Klower, and had a great description.

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Speaker 2: Of meeting the man.

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Speaker 1: I really think you're going to enjoy this one, and

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Speaker 1: I just want to take him in and just thank

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Speaker 1: you all so much for the support of Bear Grease

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Speaker 1: in this country life and Backwoods University in twenty twenty five. Truly,

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Speaker 1: it's the honor of my life to be able to

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Speaker 1: bring this podcast to you every week, and I want

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Speaker 1: to wish you a happy new year, and I look

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Speaker 1: forward with eager expectation for twenty twenty six, and I

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Speaker 1: know that we are going to continue to uncover great

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Speaker 1: American stories. So happy new Year to everyone, and I

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Speaker 1: know that you're going to enjoy this episode about Jerry Klower,

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Speaker 1: a true Southern legend.

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Speaker 2: What did it look like?

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Speaker 3: It was red red suit. It had on the lapels

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Speaker 3: like a lapel. The stitching was white, so it stood

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Speaker 3: out against that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, white boots, Yeah.

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Speaker 3: And red pants. Had a big white belt with a

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Speaker 3: belt bucal size of a Studebaker hubcap. And he had

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Speaker 3: an embroidered coon on the on the left lapel. Really, yep,

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Speaker 3: coon face right there.

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Speaker 1: On this episode of the Bear Grease podcast, we're diving

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Speaker 1: deep into Southern culture and identity to get a view

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Speaker 1: from the captain's chair of Jerry Klower's mind. Does that

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Speaker 1: name ring a bell? Jerry was thrust into national fame

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Speaker 1: in the nineteen seventies when a story he told about

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Speaker 1: coon hunting topped the country music charts. I'm interested in

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Speaker 1: those odd places where rural culture, and specifically hunting, touches

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Speaker 1: the main stream. Old Wilson raws bridge the gap with

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Speaker 1: this book where the Red Fern Grows, and Jerry did

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Speaker 1: it with comedy about hunting varmints. He's been gone for

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Speaker 1: a long time, but I was able to go meet

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Speaker 1: up with his old neighbor in East Fork, Mississippi and

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Speaker 1: a Mitt County, and he'll give us a behind the

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Speaker 1: scenes looking to who Jerry was, and some of it

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Speaker 1: will surprise you, and believe it or not, Old Brent

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Speaker 1: Reeves met Jerry Klower and saw his famed gold Cadillac

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Speaker 1: that Brent swears was as long as the battleship. Trust me, boys,

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Speaker 1: you're not gonna want to miss this one.

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Speaker 3: It was beyond my comprehension that somebody in my family

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Speaker 3: didn't know him, because the stories that he told were

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Speaker 3: stories that I could identify with as far as how

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Speaker 3: he grew up.

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Speaker 1: My name is Clay Knukem and this is the Bear

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Speaker 1: Grease Podcast where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search

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Speaker 1: for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the

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Speaker 1: story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land.

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Speaker 1: Presented by FHF gear, American made purpose built hunting and

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Speaker 1: fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as the

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Speaker 1: places we explored.

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Speaker 4: First of all, I want you to know that I

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Speaker 4: come from Route four Liberty, Mississippi. Now that's twelve miles

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Speaker 4: west of McComb, Mississippi, sixty five miles due northeast of

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Speaker 4: Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one hundred and sixteen miles due

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Speaker 4: north of New Orleans, Louisiana. It was there that I

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Speaker 4: first saw the light of day out of a Mitt

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Speaker 4: County September the twenty eighth, nineteen hundred and twenty six.

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Speaker 2: I was born there.

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Speaker 1: If you recognize that voice, many assumptions could be made about.

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Speaker 2: You and your history.

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Speaker 1: You're likely over the age of thirty, have tie to

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Speaker 1: the Southern United States, are a fan of old country music,

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Speaker 1: and I could likely guess your political leanings. Throughout any

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Speaker 1: culture in the world, there are insiders who represent a

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Speaker 1: sector of the population.

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Speaker 2: These people are significant and.

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Speaker 1: Carry the values of their people, but their interpretation of

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Speaker 1: those values is amplified through time. My friend Steve Brunella

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Speaker 1: recently said that if you can ice fish in your state,

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Speaker 1: that state isn't in the South, and I completely agree

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Speaker 1: with that. From a geopolitical boundary standpoint. But I'd like

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Speaker 1: to add a second layer of analysis. If your family

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Speaker 1: listened to Jerry Klower, you're likely culturally Southern, and I'll

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Speaker 1: make a definitive statement. If you don't know who Jerry

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Speaker 1: Klower is, you aren't Southern. I'm sorry, or you've been

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Speaker 1: locked out of Chicken Cooper your whole life. We've been

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Speaker 1: talking about hunting raccoon with hounds and exploring the cultural

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Speaker 1: impact of the book Where the Red Fern Grows. We've

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Speaker 1: pontificated on that time coon hunting did a tomahawk dunk

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Speaker 1: on mainstream culture and they loved it. I'm looking for

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Speaker 1: patterns on how to positively portray rural life to a

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Speaker 1: sector of the population that may not understand it. Wilson

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Speaker 1: Rawls did it with his book, and we'll see that

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Speaker 1: the brilliant humorist Jerry Klower did it by telling a

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Speaker 1: human story.

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Speaker 2: You see, Jerry was.

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Speaker 1: Catapulted into the national spotlight in nineteen seventy one because

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Speaker 1: of a short tale he told about a coon hunt

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Speaker 1: in Mississippi. The story was so intriguing producers from New

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Speaker 1: York City traveled to meet him with, in Jerry's words,

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Speaker 1: a pocket full of money in the following contract launched

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Speaker 1: the forty five year old fertilizer salesman into immediate stardom.

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Speaker 1: Jerry wasn't a musician, but recorded twenty seventh full length

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Speaker 1: recordings through MCA Records, producing two gold albums and a

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Speaker 1: platinum record, and he became a member of the Grand

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Speaker 1: Old Opry, wrote four books and hosted multiple television shows.

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Speaker 1: Jerry's first album made more than ten million dollars in

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Speaker 1: the first ten months and stayed in country's top twenty.

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Speaker 2: On the chart for thirty weeks.

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Speaker 1: Author Willie Morris said Klower's comic art demonstrates the richness

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Speaker 1: of the spoken language in the South in all its

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Speaker 1: inwardness nu once in Sweep, he described it as extravagant

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Speaker 1: Southern talk.

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Speaker 2: Jerry would become known.

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Speaker 1: As the Mouth of the South, and in a time

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Speaker 1: of racial upheaval, he was outspoken in his support of

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Speaker 1: racial integration and support of African Americans. Jerry has been

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Speaker 1: gone since nineteen ninety eight, but I traveled to East Fort,

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Speaker 1: Mississippi in a Mitt County to meet with Jerry's longtime

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Speaker 1: neighbor and fellow East Fort Baptist Church member, mister John Newman,

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Speaker 1: who will help us under rivaled Jerry's life and comedy.

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Speaker 1: Mister John is a clean shaven, handsome feller in his

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Speaker 1: early seventies, with a headful of white hair, midleinked sideburns,

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Speaker 1: and a worn pair.

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Speaker 2: Of leather boots.

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Speaker 1: But most importantly, he knew Jerry well and loved him

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Speaker 1: like a brother. So Jerry he was born in nineteen

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Speaker 1: twenty six. He passed away in nineteen ninety eight at

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Speaker 1: the age of seventy one.

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Speaker 2: What do we know.

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Speaker 1: About his early life that probably had some impact on

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Speaker 1: just who he was?

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Speaker 2: Tell me about his early history just as a kid.

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Speaker 5: Jerry was born during some real hard times in the

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Speaker 5: history of the country. Depressions were pretty common. We went

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Speaker 5: through two of them, went through a couple of World wars.

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Speaker 5: Jerry and his brother Sonny, both served in World War Two,

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Speaker 5: and his mother told me that one of the saddest

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Speaker 5: stories that she could relate to in regard to her

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Speaker 5: children in that at one time both of them boys

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Speaker 5: were missing. They didn't know where they were. She prayed

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Speaker 5: that God would look out for him bring him back

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Speaker 5: home safely, and he did. But Jerry was brought up

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Speaker 5: in some pretty tough times. His mother was the sole provider.

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Speaker 5: They didn't have a lot of the luxuries of life,

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Speaker 5: just like a lot of people, a lot of us

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Speaker 5: that were lived in this part of the country that

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Speaker 5: grew up in the south, then some pretty tough times.

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Speaker 1: Jerry said that his county was so poor people couldn't

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Speaker 1: afford to sin, and that he ate so much slick,

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Speaker 1: shiny boiled ocre that when he was a boy he

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Speaker 1: couldn't keep his socks up. Once, when asked if he

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Speaker 1: hadn't been poor, if he would have achieved what he did,

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Speaker 1: he said, quote no, because I probably would have been arrogant,

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Speaker 1: and I wouldn't have had a coon dog.

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Speaker 5: He was a joy to be around. He loved everybody.

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Speaker 5: He never let his fame or his fortune go to

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Speaker 5: his head. Many times, different occasions he would call me

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Speaker 5: up ask me what I was doing. This was after

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Speaker 5: he had moved back into the East Folk commune to you

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Speaker 5: then said John, come on over, we're gonna put on

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Speaker 5: some coffee. I want to tell you about where I

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Speaker 5: be and who I saw. But everywhere he went, anybody

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Speaker 5: that he had in contact with, and Jed and you,

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Speaker 5: a lot of people he knew people all over the country, politicians, athletes,

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Speaker 5: people from every walk of life, business characters, so many

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Speaker 5: people that he knew he had an influence on.

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Speaker 2: Now tell me how you knew Jerry.

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Speaker 5: I knew Jerry when I was just a small child.

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Speaker 5: Jerry was a few years older than me at the time.

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Speaker 5: He lived in Yazoo City and became a fertilizer salesman

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Speaker 5: there for Mississippi Chemical Corporation. And it was just by coincidence,

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Speaker 5: an accident, as Jerry has told me before and has

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Speaker 5: he related in some of his stories, he kind of

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Speaker 5: backed into show business. But he was always a big talker.

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Speaker 5: He was a good salesman. He had a lovable style character.

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Speaker 5: If you met him, you never forgot him. And I

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Speaker 5: think he was on a sales pitch over in Texas

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Speaker 5: and somebody asked him, said, Jerry, with the talent that

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Speaker 5: you've got, you need to use that you owe to

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Speaker 5: Michael Record.

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Speaker 2: So Jerry was selling fertilizer.

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Speaker 1: He started using just some stories just to kind of

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Speaker 1: loosen people up.

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Speaker 5: That's right, I mean, just like he actually would as

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Speaker 5: a sales peach.

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Speaker 1: And somebody heard it and said, you are so funny,

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Speaker 1: and the guy. The guy said, Hey, I want to

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Speaker 1: record you tell one of these stories, and he did.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy one, at the unlikely age of forty five,

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Speaker 1: the fertilizer salesman recorded his first comedy album titled Jerry

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Speaker 1: Klower from Yazoo City, Mississippi Talking with Lemon Label out

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Speaker 1: of Texas. The album was a series of stories of

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Speaker 1: Jerry just talking. Each was titled like a song on

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Speaker 1: an album, and they sold over eight thousand records for

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Speaker 1: five dollars each, and some radio stations started playing it,

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Speaker 1: and then he got the attention he needed.

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Speaker 4: The next day, I got a telephone call from New

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Speaker 4: York City, said, mister cly why, I'm vice president of

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Speaker 4: a major record company. You have some talents, and the

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Speaker 4: next time you're in this vicinity, eh, would you drop by.

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Speaker 4: We'd like to talk to you. I said, I ain't

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Speaker 4: never gonna be in that vicinity. I said, man, you

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Speaker 4: don't leave, yes, Zoo said in Misssippi, and just drop

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Speaker 4: by New York. If y'all want to see me, you

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Speaker 4: gonna have to send for me. Two days later the

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Speaker 4: phone rang.

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Speaker 1: The Decca label would sign Jerry to a recording contract.

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Speaker 1: The album would later become one of his two gold

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Speaker 1: record albums, selling over five hundred thousand copies in just

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Speaker 1: one month. A gold record is one that sells over

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Speaker 1: a half million albums. If you remember Robert Morgan's quote

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Speaker 1: from our Boon series about how most great artists, explorers

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Speaker 1: and writers do the best work of their life in

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Speaker 1: their thirties, you'll see that that must not apply to

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Speaker 1: fertilizer salesman. Well, that's what's so interesting is that he

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Speaker 1: he didn't get into it until you know, he wasn't

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Speaker 1: born into it. I mean he was, it was later

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Speaker 1: in his life. But that's very rare, I would say

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Speaker 1: it is. Usually people have show business in their targets

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Speaker 1: from a young kid. That's something they pursue. That was, Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he backed into it. It wasn't what he was trying.

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Speaker 5: To he did. He backed into it.

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Speaker 1: And then so he this guy recorded this record or

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Speaker 1: recorded him telling some country story. Do you know what

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Speaker 1: story it was, by chance that he told Originally?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it was Knock him Out, John, Oh,

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Speaker 5: really it was the cooner story.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 1: Here in lies the reason we're talking about Jerry Klower.

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Speaker 1: His all time most popular story was about raccoon, honey

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Speaker 1: with hounds. Very interesting. We'll hear more about this story later.

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Speaker 1: I've heard it said that he was he was a humorist,

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Speaker 1: not necessarily a comedian, which you know, to me, you know,

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Speaker 1: just to say to say someone's a comedian just means

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Speaker 1: that they're funny, which I think he would, you know,

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Speaker 1: qualify for that. But the way he described himself, as

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Speaker 1: he said, I don't tell funny stories.

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Speaker 2: I tell stories funny.

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Speaker 1: And that's what I'm so struck by as I've listened

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Speaker 1: to so much of his stuff, is that the stories

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Speaker 1: are often just kind of it's it's the normal life

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Speaker 1: of it that sometimes is what's so interesting.

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Speaker 2: But he has this cast of characters that he always

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Speaker 2: goes through.

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Speaker 1: So almost all his stories, all his all his routines,

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Speaker 1: have this cast of characters.

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Speaker 2: Can you name most of them?

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Speaker 5: Well, that was mysell. There's Eugene R. Dale, rayn Nell Burn,

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Speaker 5: Ale m Al new Gene, Eugene, Uncle Verceey, Ain't pet

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Speaker 5: old man Zysh. That was my great grandpa, mister Versy.

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Speaker 5: Quite a few of those characters.

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Speaker 2: And so were those real people.

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Speaker 5: Some of them were that I know of, and he

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Speaker 5: used their real names or not. In some instances he

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Speaker 5: did tell me what.

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Speaker 1: You know about some of those characters and some of

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Speaker 1: the some of the things that he talked.

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Speaker 5: About, well, one in particular to my great grandfather.

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Speaker 1: The story mister John is about to tell is the

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Speaker 1: real story that Jerry titled The New Chandelier, and you

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Speaker 1: can listen to it on any streaming platform. It was

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Speaker 1: included on Jerry Klower's greatest hit album.

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Speaker 5: The Magno Electric Association had just begun to establish rural

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Speaker 5: electric service here in our county, was back in the

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Speaker 5: late forties. All you had to do was sign up,

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Speaker 5: be willing to pay for the poll to be put up,

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Speaker 5: and electricity run from that pole to your house and

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Speaker 5: they took care of everything else. So they had notified

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Speaker 5: our church that while they were in the community, they

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Speaker 5: would be glad to provide our church with electrical service.

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Speaker 5: So the church had a business meeting monthly business meeting,

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Speaker 5: and it was brought up said, hey man, look at here,

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Speaker 5: here's a golden opportunity for us to have electricity lights

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Speaker 5: at our church, and we need to think about this.

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Speaker 5: It was brought up and voted on that we go

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Speaker 5: ahead and let them put up the power polls and

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Speaker 5: have electricity. And the moderator, which was a pastor, said,

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Speaker 5: is there any amendments or is there any discussion before

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Speaker 5: we vote? And my great grandpa said yeah, he had

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Speaker 5: something he would like to share. But before that, one

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Speaker 5: of the ladies in the church said she thought it

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Speaker 5: would be a marvelous idea for the church to go

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Speaker 5: ahead and get a chandelier since we was gonna have electricity.

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Speaker 5: As the amendment was brought up, my great grandpa stood

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Speaker 5: up and said he was against that.

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Speaker 4: The moderator said, is there any discussion? And Uncle Versy

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Speaker 4: that better, said, sir, I'd like to speak. I want

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Speaker 4: all of you to know that if we gonna buy

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Speaker 4: a shandelier, there ain't nobody in our church got enough

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Speaker 4: education that when we order it from Seis and Roebucket,

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Speaker 4: they could spell it.

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Speaker 2: Then if we ordered.

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Speaker 4: The chandelier and it got here, there's nobody in our

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Speaker 4: church it knows how to play it. And what I'm

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Speaker 4: concerned about is we don't need to spend this money

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Speaker 4: on no schandelier as bad as we need lights in

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Speaker 4: the church.

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Speaker 2: So that actually happened, happened. I'll be there.

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Speaker 5: But then technology wasn't like it is today. Most people

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Speaker 5: had never been no further than fifty or sixty miles now.

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Speaker 5: They weren't exposed to education like we are today, didn't

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Speaker 5: have access to advancements in technology, and he didn't know

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Speaker 5: right he was speaking his heartfelt convictions where he honestly

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Speaker 5: did not know.

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Speaker 1: In this story, Jerry told it almost exactly as it happened,

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Speaker 1: but he told it funny. And because many of the

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Speaker 1: stories were true or almost true, they were relatable and

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Speaker 1: showed the character of the people, all the while poking.

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Speaker 2: A little fun at the stereotypes.

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Speaker 1: But because Jerry was at the wheel, because he was

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Speaker 1: one of us, it was okay. It made us feel

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Speaker 1: okay about being Southern and strangely, maybe even a little

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Speaker 1: bit proud of our quirks. You know, the South seems

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Speaker 1: to be known for these big characters like storytelling, and

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Speaker 1: maybe if you're deeply embedded, and it's hard to see

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Speaker 1: that maybe in other places it's not as it's not

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Speaker 1: as prominent. But was Jerry surrounded by people that were

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Speaker 1: like him? And I know nobody else made it in

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Speaker 1: show business, but was he impacted probably by people that

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Speaker 1: taught him how to tell stories and be funny.

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Speaker 5: I think a lot of that just came to him naturally.

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Speaker 5: He associated with a lot of people that were of

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Speaker 5: the same character make up that he was. I guess

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Speaker 5: in regard to that, they just did not have the

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Speaker 5: people orientation to be able to express themselves and connect

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Speaker 5: with people the way he did. Yeah, but I don't

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Speaker 5: think that Jerry ever realized until he got into show

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Speaker 5: business the impact that he did have on people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think there are three components to Jerry Klower. Number One,

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Speaker 1: he was undoubtedly gifted at collecting stories and delivering them

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Speaker 1: in unreplicatable, funny and compelling ways. However, number two, no

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Speaker 1: man is an island, and I believe he would have

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Speaker 1: learned components of his storytelling when he was a boy

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Speaker 1: by listening to others in rural Mississippi. I'm sure he

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Speaker 1: collected dialects and picked up on where to put the emphasis.

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Speaker 1: He learned how to use sound effects and put it

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Speaker 1: all together to create this unique style. And that brings

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Speaker 1: up number three. Jerry Klower's style well affected the way

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Speaker 1: the South would and still does tell stories. Up until

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Speaker 1: researching this podcast, it had been a while since I

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Speaker 1: listened to Jerry years. Actually in some of his stuff

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Speaker 1: I had never heard. Coming back into his comedy, I

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Speaker 1: clearly saw his cadence style, dialect, mannerisms echo through the

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Speaker 1: way that people now tell stories. He helped interpret for

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Speaker 1: us what was funny. You know a lot of people

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Speaker 1: that our comedians are extremely intelligent number one, and are

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Speaker 1: extremely socially aware. For him to be able to find

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Speaker 1: the nuance of funny stuff inside of his everyday culture,

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Speaker 1: the stuff that other people were like walking right past,

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Speaker 1: I mean, just shows what an alert, aware, intelligent guy

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Speaker 1: he was.

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Speaker 2: Would you agree with that?

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Speaker 5: I would, Jerry. He had a way of relating to people.

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Speaker 5: He was a very comical person, but to me, knowing

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Speaker 5: him as well as I did, he appeared to me

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Speaker 5: to be a lot more ease in a private climate.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: We've been to his house on numerous occasions, and he

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Speaker 5: was a lot more comical because I think he was

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Speaker 5: a lot more at ease with people that he knew

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Speaker 5: and in a setting that he was familiar with you.

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Speaker 2: Or his church, So he was more funny when he

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Speaker 2: was with people.

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Speaker 5: Oh yes, definitely, definitely. One thing that I've always been

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Speaker 5: quite proud of. My wife had got a master's degree

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Speaker 5: over William Carey Cottage, and Jerry gave her this plaque

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Speaker 5: in recognition of it, and it's from the Knock Him

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Speaker 5: Out John Foundation. He gave this to my wife. When

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Speaker 5: he gave this to her, he told her how proud

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Speaker 5: he was of her. And he looked at me and

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Speaker 5: he said, you know, it's a miracle that you were

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Speaker 5: able to accomplish, make the Deanes list, these honors that

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Speaker 5: you have received. It was a miracle. And with what

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Speaker 5: you have to put up with at home, I knew

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Speaker 5: he was making reference to me. I said, Jerry, let

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Speaker 5: me tell you what a miracle is. I said, I

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Speaker 5: can't sing, and I know that. And I said I

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Speaker 5: know you can't either, because I done sit with you

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Speaker 5: before in church and other services. And you can't sing.

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Speaker 5: I said, you couldn't carry a tune in the bucket.

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Speaker 5: And I doubt if you know the difference between a

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Speaker 5: guitar and a piano. Yet you had been inducted into

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Speaker 5: the Grand Old Opry. That's what you call a miracle.

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Speaker 5: And he grabbed me around the neck with his right

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Speaker 5: hand and with his Bible cleanched in his left hand,

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Speaker 5: and he looked up in the heavens and tears run

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Speaker 5: down his face and he said, John, ain't God good.

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Speaker 5: Ain't God good?

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Speaker 2: So it was a real moment for him.

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Speaker 1: It was just while you were trying to be funny

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Speaker 1: and just and said, you know, making a joke about

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Speaker 1: him not being able to sing, but being in that

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Speaker 1: Grand Old Opry. It impacted him just in that moment.

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Speaker 1: He was just grateful. It's moments like this with no

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Speaker 1: cameras or recorders that you can see inside of someone.

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Speaker 2: Jerry grew up dirt poor.

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Speaker 1: He didn't hit the big time until he was in

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Speaker 1: his mid forties.

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Speaker 2: He truly appreciated what had happened in his life.

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Speaker 1: I think it hit him hard on October twenty seventh,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three, when he was inducted into the.

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Speaker 2: Grand Old Opry.

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Speaker 1: Now, if you're familiar with country music, there's no need

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Speaker 1: to qualify that statement, But if you're not, this is

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Speaker 1: a big deal.

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Speaker 2: The Grand Old Opry.

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Speaker 1: Is a weekly country music concert show held in Nashville, Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: that started in nineteen twenty five and has played almost

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Speaker 1: every Saturday night for the last one hundred years. It's

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Speaker 1: the longest running broadcast in US history. It's been called

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Speaker 1: the home of American music and country's most famous stage.

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Speaker 1: The Opry inducts certain people as members who are people

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Speaker 1: of influence in country music, but usually they're musicians, but

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Speaker 1: Jerry was one of the rare inductees that wasn't. Members

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Speaker 1: are required to perform at the Opry a certain amount

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Speaker 1: of times each year, and in its history, the Opry

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Speaker 1: has inducted over two hundred and twenty five members. You

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Speaker 1: guys know Old Brent Reeves. He is Bear Greece's goodwill

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Speaker 1: ambassador of the South and our chief cornbread concoisseur. He

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Speaker 1: grew up in the heyday of Jerry Klower's career, when

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Speaker 1: listening to the Grand Old Opry was one of the

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Speaker 1: highlights of the week, and wildly Brent got to meet Jerry.

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Speaker 1: Can you imagine a young Brent Reeves meeting Jerry Klower?

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Speaker 1: And I had to laugh when I heard what Jerry

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Speaker 1: called him.

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Speaker 3: We had what was known. I'm not even sure if

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Speaker 3: it's still there, but there was an event center and

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Speaker 3: it was called the Bradley County Cultural Center, cultural hub

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Speaker 3: of the Universe as far as far as I.

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Speaker 2: Know, cultural Hub of Bradley County exactly.

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Speaker 3: And this is in Warnhart at Warren High School and

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00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:54,480
Speaker 3: it was on the campus of the high school there,

440
00:24:55,480 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 3: and it was an auditorium And for our junior year fundraiser,

441
00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:04,359
Speaker 3: we got Jerry Klower that booked him to come and

442
00:25:04,400 --> 00:25:05,160
Speaker 3: put on a show.

443
00:25:05,600 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 1: So nineteen eighty three, that had been eighty three, that

444
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,560
Speaker 1: would have been about the peak of his I mean,

445
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:13,280
Speaker 1: inside the peak of his career.

446
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I have no clue what it cost us

447
00:25:16,880 --> 00:25:19,560
Speaker 3: to get him. But when he left, he handed the

448
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:21,920
Speaker 3: check back and said give it back to the school.

449
00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,879
Speaker 3: No what he came from his home. He drove up

450
00:25:24,920 --> 00:25:28,440
Speaker 3: there himself and the biggest, longest cadillac I ever saw

451
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:30,320
Speaker 3: by himself.

452
00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:31,280
Speaker 4: He had.

453
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,960
Speaker 3: All he wanted was the place to change, to change

454
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 3: into his that suit that he wore, that signature, what.

455
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:37,679
Speaker 2: Did it look like?

456
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:41,440
Speaker 3: It was red red suit it had on the lapels

457
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:44,359
Speaker 3: like on lapel the stitching was white so it stood

458
00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:46,960
Speaker 3: out against that. Yeah, and he had an embroidered coon

459
00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:50,119
Speaker 3: on the on the left lapel. Really yep, coon face

460
00:25:50,200 --> 00:25:52,320
Speaker 3: right there. And I got to meet him and he.

461
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 2: Was so nice. Now, how did you meet him?

462
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 3: Since I it was our class and there was like

463
00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:00,119
Speaker 3: ten or twelve of us that were selected to go

464
00:26:00,119 --> 00:26:02,160
Speaker 3: over and help set everything up and to be there

465
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:05,320
Speaker 3: to help them since it was our project, our fundraiser.

466
00:26:05,600 --> 00:26:08,000
Speaker 3: So I got out of class early that day to

467
00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:09,960
Speaker 3: go over there and help him. Plus I wanted to

468
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,320
Speaker 3: meet him. I mean, this is somebody who I had

469
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:16,000
Speaker 3: seen on television and heard these stories. We had the.

470
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:17,680
Speaker 2: Records remember of the Grand Old Opera.

471
00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,640
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, the whole the big It was a big deal. Yeah,

472
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,520
Speaker 3: And I heard him on the Grand Old Oppry. My well,

473
00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 3: my dad and I and I've told you this before.

474
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:27,879
Speaker 3: My dad and I would go hunting at night. Of

475
00:26:27,960 --> 00:26:31,000
Speaker 3: course we were running, he was chasing codies then with

476
00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:35,320
Speaker 3: the pack dogs. But when until the race got going,

477
00:26:35,640 --> 00:26:37,960
Speaker 3: we listened to the Grand Old Opery on AM radio

478
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,400
Speaker 3: in his truck and lots sometimes you know.

479
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:41,440
Speaker 2: On Saturday nights.

480
00:26:41,480 --> 00:26:43,840
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jerry Clark to be there. And so I've been

481
00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:46,320
Speaker 3: listening to those stories my whole life. And this was,

482
00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:48,600
Speaker 3: you know, a guy that was in my radio. It

483
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,240
Speaker 3: was in he was in our community, you know, the

484
00:26:51,280 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 3: community that the culture I guess that I grew up in.

485
00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 3: So it was it was a big deal him him

486
00:26:56,840 --> 00:26:59,359
Speaker 3: coming there, and I remember it being packed full of folks.

487
00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,040
Speaker 2: Now, so was it open to the public.

488
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:03,240
Speaker 3: Yeah, they sold tickets, sold.

489
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,400
Speaker 1: Tickets sponsored by your class, sponsored raised.

490
00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:09,440
Speaker 2: Money, got you and that's what it was. So you you.

491
00:27:09,400 --> 00:27:11,320
Speaker 1: Said he pulled up in a Cadillac. I mean you

492
00:27:11,359 --> 00:27:13,560
Speaker 1: saw his cadillac. Oh yeah, what color was it?

493
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:18,720
Speaker 3: Gold? I'm telling you it as long as a battleship.

494
00:27:19,640 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 3: It was huge.

495
00:27:21,119 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 2: I heard that he had a gold Cadillac, so I'm.

496
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,080
Speaker 3: Just yeah, yeah, well that's what he was driving. And

497
00:27:27,280 --> 00:27:30,120
Speaker 3: like I said, he came by himself. He had a

498
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:32,560
Speaker 3: a dressing room. They brought him some, you know, some

499
00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:36,240
Speaker 3: cold drinks to drink, and I think somebody brought flowers

500
00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,960
Speaker 3: and stuff. But he took time to talk to anybody

501
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,320
Speaker 3: that wanted to talk to. When I shook his hand

502
00:27:41,359 --> 00:27:43,520
Speaker 3: and I was a junior in high school, he said, boy,

503
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:44,680
Speaker 3: that's a man's handshake.

504
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:45,480
Speaker 2: That's nice.

505
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:48,880
Speaker 3: He said, you are pretty boy, and uh, that's.

506
00:27:48,760 --> 00:27:51,640
Speaker 2: What he said. Are you serious? Absolutely?

507
00:27:51,800 --> 00:27:52,480
Speaker 3: And we talked.

508
00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 2: Forget that one. We were a pretty boy.

509
00:27:55,040 --> 00:27:58,000
Speaker 3: He said you were a pretty boy, and uh, of course,

510
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:01,560
Speaker 3: you know manners, yes or no, sir, He remarked about that.

511
00:28:01,680 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 3: And we just talked and you know, I tried to

512
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,240
Speaker 3: talk about. I just assumed he had a pen full

513
00:28:06,240 --> 00:28:08,639
Speaker 3: of coon dogs at home. I mean, yeah, but you

514
00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 3: know obviously he didn't.

515
00:28:10,200 --> 00:28:12,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, and uh, he just had one embroidered.

516
00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:15,920
Speaker 1: He had little pal of his red sports coach, sure,

517
00:28:16,040 --> 00:28:17,919
Speaker 1: which every man probably should have.

518
00:28:18,040 --> 00:28:21,919
Speaker 3: You had on white cowboy boots. Yeah, and red pants.

519
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:24,399
Speaker 3: Had a big white belt with a belt buckle size

520
00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,560
Speaker 3: of a Studie Baker hubcap, big fancy shirt, you know,

521
00:28:28,760 --> 00:28:31,439
Speaker 3: pearl snaps on it in that in that red signal

522
00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:32,159
Speaker 3: so jacket.

523
00:28:32,480 --> 00:28:34,640
Speaker 1: Do you remember the thing? What did he do when

524
00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:36,480
Speaker 1: he stood up? Was he the only act of the night?

525
00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:37,399
Speaker 2: He was the act?

526
00:28:37,600 --> 00:28:38,080
Speaker 3: He was it?

527
00:28:38,160 --> 00:28:39,720
Speaker 2: He was so how long did he speak?

528
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:41,160
Speaker 3: I would imagine about an hour.

529
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,240
Speaker 2: Jerry Klower has famous stories, and he kind of.

530
00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:48,600
Speaker 3: The greatest hits, I would assume is what he talked about.

531
00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,480
Speaker 3: Of course, he did the one about knock him Out John,

532
00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:54,720
Speaker 3: you know about you know, shoot up in here, monks.

533
00:28:54,760 --> 00:28:56,600
Speaker 3: This one of us has got to have some relief,

534
00:28:56,760 --> 00:28:59,240
Speaker 3: you know when when he got up there with the Wildcat.

535
00:29:00,600 --> 00:29:04,440
Speaker 1: Of Jerry's entire career, his story called knock Him Out

536
00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: John is his most famous. As always, the story starts

537
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,760
Speaker 1: out at Route four, Liberty, Mississippi, and then he begins

538
00:29:12,800 --> 00:29:16,720
Speaker 1: to give very specific geographic detail of where this town

539
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:21,680
Speaker 1: is twelve miles west of McComb, Mississippi, sixty five miles

540
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,479
Speaker 1: due northeast of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and one hundred and

541
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:29,800
Speaker 1: sixteen miles due north of New Orleans, Louisiana. It's so

542
00:29:30,080 --> 00:29:34,080
Speaker 1: detailed you're drawn in with great curiosity of why this

543
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:39,680
Speaker 1: matters and place did matter to Jerry, just like it

544
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 1: mattered to Wilson Ross. Then he proceeds to tell what

545
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,720
Speaker 1: they'd done during the day before they went coon hunting

546
00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:47,800
Speaker 1: that night.

547
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:52,640
Speaker 4: This particular day, we wasn't too busy. All we had

548
00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:55,920
Speaker 4: done is just cut down a few fence rolls, shutting

549
00:29:55,960 --> 00:29:58,640
Speaker 4: shells from corn and went to mill, drew up some

550
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:03,160
Speaker 4: water because that was wash day, helped get the side

551
00:30:03,200 --> 00:30:05,719
Speaker 4: back what rooted out from under the net wire fence

552
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,840
Speaker 4: sharp and two sticks of stove would real sharp and

553
00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 4: pegged them down over the bottom wire of the fence

554
00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:16,720
Speaker 4: where the hog couldn't root out no more, and had

555
00:30:16,720 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 4: a rat killing.

556
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:23,000
Speaker 1: If I'm lying, I'm dying. Jerry had a knack for

557
00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: using intricate detail of obscure activities to peak the interest

558
00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: of the listeners.

559
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,080
Speaker 4: He went on, Well, this particular day, after we got

560
00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:34,040
Speaker 4: through the rat killing, I walked out on the front

561
00:30:34,080 --> 00:30:37,640
Speaker 4: porch and I hollered, and them dogs come out of

562
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:40,600
Speaker 4: mother's house barking. They knew he was going coon hunt,

563
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:43,640
Speaker 4: and I hollered again. In my neighbor way across the

564
00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:48,120
Speaker 4: sage patch, hollered back, and that meant I'll meet you halfway.

565
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:49,440
Speaker 2: We met in the middle of.

566
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:51,800
Speaker 4: That sage patch, and he had his dogs over brumming

567
00:30:51,840 --> 00:30:54,800
Speaker 4: and Queen and spotting. I had Tory and Little Red

568
00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 4: and old Trailer, and we went out into the swamps

569
00:30:58,840 --> 00:31:01,719
Speaker 4: and we started hunting. Oh, we was having such a

570
00:31:01,760 --> 00:31:04,360
Speaker 4: fine time. Caught four great biggots.

571
00:31:05,320 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: He and the neighbors then run into the landowner, mister Baron,

572
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,080
Speaker 1: who had gotten rich by selling cotton for a dollar

573
00:31:12,120 --> 00:31:12,720
Speaker 1: a bell.

574
00:31:12,640 --> 00:31:14,560
Speaker 2: During the First World Wars.

575
00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:18,640
Speaker 1: Incredible detail, and with those riches he bought some good

576
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 1: coon dogs. Along with him was John Eubanks, who was

577
00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:27,080
Speaker 1: known for being a professional tree climber and loved knocking

578
00:31:27,240 --> 00:31:30,880
Speaker 1: coons out of trees. Both of these guys were real

579
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: people in Jerry's life.

580
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:36,640
Speaker 4: He had some world renowned dogs, and we hollered three

581
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,360
Speaker 4: or four times, and they started hunting, and we listened

582
00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 4: and directly old brummy, Old Brummy didn't bark it nothing

583
00:31:43,200 --> 00:31:45,840
Speaker 4: but a coon. He had a deep boys bade and

584
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:47,960
Speaker 4: when he cut out on him, it was a coon.

585
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:51,120
Speaker 4: Don't worry about no ploshum on, no bobcat. Brummy was

586
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:53,880
Speaker 4: running a coon. And then old Trailer and o'high ball

587
00:31:53,920 --> 00:31:56,200
Speaker 4: and them famous dogs, and mister Baron's got in there

588
00:31:56,240 --> 00:32:00,240
Speaker 4: with them, and Old John U Banks holler, hey speak too,

589
00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:04,840
Speaker 4: and my brother son and ha hoo, look ferd and

590
00:32:04,920 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 4: oh it was beautiful.

591
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,640
Speaker 1: Shortly the dogs fall in tree on I quote, the

592
00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,160
Speaker 1: biggest sweet gum tree in the a Min River swamps,

593
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:19,360
Speaker 1: and the group goes to the barking dog. John Eubanks

594
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:21,880
Speaker 1: didn't like shooting a coon out, and he only liked

595
00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:24,000
Speaker 1: to knock him out of the tree for the dogs

596
00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,120
Speaker 1: to sort out. So John proceeds to climb the tree

597
00:32:27,480 --> 00:32:29,120
Speaker 1: with a sharp stick in his hand.

598
00:32:30,120 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 4: Knock him out, John, It won't be long. And John

599
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:36,520
Speaker 4: worked his way on up to the top of the tree,

600
00:32:36,560 --> 00:32:40,840
Speaker 4: and who what a big one. And he reached around

601
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,920
Speaker 4: in his overhauls and got that sharp stick and he

602
00:32:44,040 --> 00:32:45,800
Speaker 4: drawed back and he punched the coon.

603
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:48,120
Speaker 2: But it wasn't a coon.

604
00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:54,400
Speaker 4: It was a lynx. We call him souped up wild cats.

605
00:32:54,440 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: And and then Jerry says, that thing attacked John up

606
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:05,520
Speaker 1: in the top of that tree. Jerry often purposely mispronounced words,

607
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:08,719
Speaker 1: as was the custom of the people in this region.

608
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:10,040
Speaker 2: Away, what's the.

609
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:12,800
Speaker 4: Matter with John? Knock him out, John.

610
00:33:13,840 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 2: This thing's killing me. And John knew that.

611
00:33:17,240 --> 00:33:19,720
Speaker 4: Mister Baron told the pistol in his belt to shoot

612
00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:26,440
Speaker 4: snakes with and he kept howling, shoot this thing, have mercy,

613
00:33:26,560 --> 00:33:27,920
Speaker 4: this thing killing me.

614
00:33:28,520 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 1: Shoot this thing.

615
00:33:30,120 --> 00:33:34,400
Speaker 4: And mister Baron said, John, I can't shoot up in there.

616
00:33:35,480 --> 00:33:36,600
Speaker 5: I might hit you.

617
00:33:37,600 --> 00:33:41,719
Speaker 4: John said, well, just shoot up in here. Amongst us,

618
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:42,960
Speaker 4: one of us got.

619
00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:43,640
Speaker 3: To have some relief.

620
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,680
Speaker 1: Jerry's colorful sound effects, the details about the dogs, the

621
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:57,520
Speaker 1: surprise of the wild cat and the tree, and the

622
00:33:57,600 --> 00:34:03,720
Speaker 1: absolute distress of John fighting that lynx created an unforgettable story. Now,

623
00:34:03,840 --> 00:34:06,960
Speaker 1: something I don't have the answer to is why Jerry

624
00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,040
Speaker 1: called it a lynx, which is a northern cat that

625
00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:14,560
Speaker 1: never ranged into the American South ever, kind of like

626
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:18,279
Speaker 1: the black panther. Anyway, you got to listen to the

627
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: whole story. You can search for it online and it's

628
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:24,040
Speaker 1: called a coon Hunting story.

629
00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:31,160
Speaker 2: And Jerry's comedy skits.

630
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:35,959
Speaker 1: He he had multiple, multiple skits that talked about coon

631
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:40,160
Speaker 1: hunting and multiple skits that talked about quail hunting. Was

632
00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:42,759
Speaker 1: he a big hunter or was he was that just

633
00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: kind of a part of his background that he was

634
00:34:46,120 --> 00:34:46,440
Speaker 1: part of.

635
00:34:46,840 --> 00:34:48,839
Speaker 5: It was part of his background. He was a big

636
00:34:48,920 --> 00:34:51,600
Speaker 5: quail hunter, big coon hunter, big fisherman.

637
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:52,160
Speaker 2: Yeah.

638
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 5: I had headed to Macomb one day and I passed

639
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:58,160
Speaker 5: by his house and he was standing at his mailbox

640
00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:00,680
Speaker 5: and I turned and went back. He said, Jerry, what

641
00:35:00,760 --> 00:35:02,799
Speaker 5: in the world you doing standing out you in this heat?

642
00:35:02,880 --> 00:35:05,480
Speaker 5: He was wiping his forehead with a handkerchifere of sweating

643
00:35:05,560 --> 00:35:07,840
Speaker 5: and I said, Man, it's hot out here. What you

644
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:09,799
Speaker 5: do in this heat? He said, well, John, I'm going

645
00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,680
Speaker 5: to tell you the truth. He said, Bass pro shopping

646
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:15,359
Speaker 5: Jacksonssissippi call me and wanted me to come up there

647
00:35:15,400 --> 00:35:18,279
Speaker 5: and pick out something on the showroom floor. Said there

648
00:35:18,320 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 5: was one stipulation. I said, what was that, Jerry? He

649
00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 5: said it had to be a bass boat. So he said,

650
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,440
Speaker 5: I went up picked me out a bass boat and

651
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,960
Speaker 5: they own their way down here now to deliver it.

652
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 5: And I was afraid that if they missed my driveway

653
00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 5: and wound up over at your house, I'd have trouble

654
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:34,480
Speaker 5: getting my boat back.

655
00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 2: I'll be daring.

656
00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:41,600
Speaker 1: Were the coon dogs that Jerry talked about, were they

657
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:43,680
Speaker 1: real coondogs that he had?

658
00:35:44,160 --> 00:35:45,720
Speaker 2: Brummy and high Ball?

659
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:49,279
Speaker 5: Yeah? And now the man that actually owned high Ball

660
00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:52,799
Speaker 5: lived about a mile across his pasture, is that right? Yeah,

661
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 5: he owned high Ball and he was a dog was

662
00:35:57,040 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 5: known all over the country. Back when that dog was living,

663
00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:03,080
Speaker 5: most folks might not could have told you who the

664
00:36:03,120 --> 00:36:05,680
Speaker 5: sheriff of the county was. They might not have knew

665
00:36:05,680 --> 00:36:08,760
Speaker 5: who the tax successor was, but they knew about high Ball.

666
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,160
Speaker 2: Now what kind of dog was Highball?

667
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:14,640
Speaker 5: I think high Ball was a redbone hound, I believe.

668
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:18,400
Speaker 5: But there were several other dogs that had some notoriety too.

669
00:36:18,640 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 5: One of them was Rowty that was owned by my uncle.

670
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 5: But old Spot and Brummy. But back then, in that

671
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,560
Speaker 5: particular time of history in our community, that was a

672
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:30,760
Speaker 5: big source of recreation.

673
00:36:31,239 --> 00:36:31,600
Speaker 2: Yeah.

674
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:36,480
Speaker 5: And they coon honeed and money for hides, right right,

675
00:36:36,600 --> 00:36:40,080
Speaker 5: selling possum hides. And you probably heard DearS talk about

676
00:36:40,480 --> 00:36:43,839
Speaker 5: flagging the conductor down on the train. He asked him,

677
00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:45,560
Speaker 5: did he want to buy some possum.

678
00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,160
Speaker 1: Hides, possum meat? That's what he asked, If he wanted

679
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 1: to buy possum to eat? Yeah, yeah, he flagged. He

680
00:36:51,719 --> 00:36:54,920
Speaker 1: flags down. The conductor of the train stops the train.

681
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: The conductor gets out and says, what kind of catastrophe

682
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: has happened that you've stopped the train? And the guy says, well,

683
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: I just wondered if you wanted to buy a possum

684
00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,400
Speaker 1: from us? And the conductor said, are you crazy? You

685
00:37:09,400 --> 00:37:11,919
Speaker 1: stopped the train just to ask us if we wanted

686
00:37:11,920 --> 00:37:14,480
Speaker 1: to buy a possum, And the guy said yeah. And

687
00:37:14,520 --> 00:37:18,160
Speaker 1: then the conductor goes, well, it's crazy that you've done this,

688
00:37:18,360 --> 00:37:21,799
Speaker 1: but since you have, I like possum, So how much

689
00:37:21,840 --> 00:37:22,920
Speaker 1: you want for the possum?

690
00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:25,360
Speaker 2: And then and then he said.

691
00:37:25,200 --> 00:37:26,920
Speaker 5: Man said, you idiot.

692
00:37:28,280 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 4: You mean to tell me that you have done stopped

693
00:37:32,360 --> 00:37:37,279
Speaker 4: a hundred car Banana train seeing if we wanted to

694
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:41,520
Speaker 4: buy a possum. You must be an idiot. But I

695
00:37:41,719 --> 00:37:44,400
Speaker 4: like possum. And inasmuch as we have stopped, what do

696
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:46,759
Speaker 4: you want for him? Marcell said, we ain't caught him yet.

697
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:48,200
Speaker 4: I just want to see if you wanted want.

698
00:37:56,200 --> 00:37:59,319
Speaker 1: Jerry's stories were a combination of fact and fiction, but

699
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:03,239
Speaker 1: some of the stories were entirely true. This story is

700
00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:09,000
Speaker 1: titled Marcel's Talking Chainsaw. It's on the Greatest Hits album.

701
00:38:09,320 --> 00:38:11,640
Speaker 1: So this is a this is a story. This is

702
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:14,680
Speaker 1: one of Jerry Klower's bits that he told over and

703
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:17,719
Speaker 1: it was one of his more famous pieces. Yeah, tell

704
00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:20,680
Speaker 1: me where he got that? The real story behind that one.

705
00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,560
Speaker 5: Marshall had been to the pump woodyard and he come

706
00:38:24,640 --> 00:38:26,879
Speaker 5: back by the beer joint and he wanted to get

707
00:38:26,960 --> 00:38:29,319
Speaker 5: him one of them big knee high belly washers and

708
00:38:29,360 --> 00:38:31,920
Speaker 5: the moon pie. And he went to the front door

709
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:34,719
Speaker 5: and knocked on the door, and the man running the

710
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:36,680
Speaker 5: beer joints said, boy, get away from my door. That

711
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,040
Speaker 5: you ain't got no bed to sit here. And Marshall

712
00:38:39,080 --> 00:38:41,279
Speaker 5: told him said, well, I ain't gonna cause no trouble, said,

713
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,000
Speaker 5: I just want a big sadie pipe and a moon pie.

714
00:38:44,080 --> 00:38:46,160
Speaker 2: Now why did he run him off? Because this is

715
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:46,760
Speaker 2: a real story.

716
00:38:46,760 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 5: This is the Rochelle wasn't old enough to go in there.

717
00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,919
Speaker 5: Oh okay, he told him to get away from that door.

718
00:38:52,280 --> 00:38:55,640
Speaker 5: Marshall went back truck pulled out that mc collor chainsaw,

719
00:38:55,880 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 5: fired it up and come back and stuck it snout

720
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 5: of it in that door, and it ripped that brace

721
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,440
Speaker 5: and bracket and the hinges off the door, and that

722
00:39:02,480 --> 00:39:05,000
Speaker 5: screen tangled up through that chain as it went around

723
00:39:05,040 --> 00:39:09,320
Speaker 5: that bar. Folks give marcell to beer joints, and that happened.

724
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:11,000
Speaker 2: That that happened just like that.

725
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:14,040
Speaker 5: That happened just before you crossed the Amitt County line.

726
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:16,000
Speaker 5: That beer joint was right there on the lift.

727
00:39:16,040 --> 00:39:18,479
Speaker 1: So Jerry just told the story pretty much like it happened.

728
00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: That's right, except for the brand of the chainsaw right now.

729
00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:25,280
Speaker 5: Tell me he did not. I don't think he remembered

730
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:28,239
Speaker 5: what the brand of the chainsaw was. But McCullough was

731
00:39:28,280 --> 00:39:30,880
Speaker 5: the first name that came to his mind, and he

732
00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:34,200
Speaker 5: said mccullor. And what he did. It's like he told me, said, man,

733
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 5: folks started buying McCullough chainsaws. Didn't even know how to

734
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:37,279
Speaker 5: crank them.

735
00:39:38,719 --> 00:39:41,239
Speaker 1: You know what's so funny about that is so I

736
00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,359
Speaker 1: was born in nineteen seventy nine. The first chainsaw I

737
00:39:44,360 --> 00:39:46,680
Speaker 1: remember my dad having would have been in the mid eighties,

738
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:48,799
Speaker 1: and it was a McCullough chainsaw, which I don't even

739
00:39:48,800 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 1: think mccallaugh's.

740
00:39:49,520 --> 00:39:50,719
Speaker 2: O don't businessman, I don't think.

741
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:53,720
Speaker 1: Now you told me McCullough's sent because of that skit

742
00:39:53,840 --> 00:39:57,440
Speaker 1: and how big it was, McCullough sent some chainsaws to

743
00:39:57,480 --> 00:39:58,560
Speaker 1: the family and kind of.

744
00:39:58,480 --> 00:40:01,760
Speaker 5: Helped him out some four and go carts. I believe

745
00:40:01,760 --> 00:40:02,040
Speaker 5: it was.

746
00:40:02,120 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: I'll be darned send it to Jerry Klower just to

747
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,680
Speaker 1: Faith thanks for plugging McCulloch chainsaws.

748
00:40:07,719 --> 00:40:11,359
Speaker 5: But Jerry could advertise it. One time he was spokesperson

749
00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:14,120
Speaker 5: for Christ Corporation. I think at one time he was

750
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 5: spokesperson for Lincoln but Man that the promotional items that

751
00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:20,400
Speaker 5: companies would give him.

752
00:40:20,040 --> 00:40:22,320
Speaker 2: Just hoping it would make it into one of his stories.

753
00:40:22,880 --> 00:40:26,160
Speaker 5: He cared a lot of weight. He was influential wherever

754
00:40:26,200 --> 00:40:26,560
Speaker 5: he went.

755
00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,320
Speaker 1: Mister John remembered a funny story about Jerry.

756
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:36,400
Speaker 5: Jerry was always pulling pranks. He was a prankster. But

757
00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:38,719
Speaker 5: he pulled up at church one Sunday morning. He was

758
00:40:38,719 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 5: the first one there and I got there just within

759
00:40:42,040 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 5: a minute or so after he did, and he got

760
00:40:44,680 --> 00:40:47,160
Speaker 5: out of his car and he made a quick dash

761
00:40:47,320 --> 00:40:50,280
Speaker 5: for the church steps. I knew you then knowing Jerry

762
00:40:50,400 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 5: like I did. I knew that he was up to something.

763
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,160
Speaker 5: And he had on his bright red coat and his

764
00:40:56,280 --> 00:40:59,160
Speaker 5: designer jeans, and he ran up to the church steps

765
00:40:59,360 --> 00:41:01,480
Speaker 5: and he put his foot up on next to the

766
00:41:01,520 --> 00:41:05,040
Speaker 5: bottom step, and he pulled his richest leg up above

767
00:41:05,160 --> 00:41:08,120
Speaker 5: his cowboy boot so I would be sure and see

768
00:41:08,200 --> 00:41:11,760
Speaker 5: the new boots that he had on. But I walked

769
00:41:11,840 --> 00:41:14,160
Speaker 5: right by him. I didn't shake hands with him, I

770
00:41:14,160 --> 00:41:17,040
Speaker 5: didn't speak, didn't say good morning, Jerry, how you doing.

771
00:41:17,320 --> 00:41:21,560
Speaker 5: I never acknowledged that he was there, walked right past him.

772
00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:23,600
Speaker 5: And he ran up behind me and grabbed me around

773
00:41:23,640 --> 00:41:25,880
Speaker 5: the nick and he said, John, you know you've seen

774
00:41:25,920 --> 00:41:28,400
Speaker 5: them boots. You're just jealous because you ain't got a

775
00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:31,320
Speaker 5: pair like them.

776
00:41:31,640 --> 00:41:35,560
Speaker 1: I want to discuss with Brent Jerry's impact on the South.

777
00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 1: What do you think that impact of Jerry Klower was

778
00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:44,080
Speaker 1: on the people of the South. You know, because he

779
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:47,760
Speaker 1: kind of rose up from the ashes in a sense

780
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 1: of poverty and unlikely character. I mean, became famous when

781
00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:54,080
Speaker 1: he was in his forties.

782
00:41:54,360 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 2: Yea. He was a fertilizer salesman, correctly.

783
00:41:56,719 --> 00:41:59,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, And he became famous in his forties, which is

784
00:41:59,719 --> 00:42:02,319
Speaker 1: highly unusual. I mean usually by that time people are

785
00:42:02,400 --> 00:42:07,760
Speaker 1: kind of their trajectory is semi set. And he until

786
00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:11,440
Speaker 1: he passes away when he was seventy one, he just

787
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 1: has this incredible career, becomes a member of the Grand

788
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:18,359
Speaker 1: Old Opry, writes multiple books, yeah, records, multiple records, has

789
00:42:18,480 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: number one hits on country radio, which wasn't even music,

790
00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:26,120
Speaker 1: but they were playing his his skits on the radio,

791
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 1: in his his style, his mannerisms. They were very familiar

792
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:34,560
Speaker 1: to people in the South, sure, but very unfamiliar to

793
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:38,440
Speaker 1: Oh is that funny? Could that be? On the national

794
00:42:38,560 --> 00:42:41,719
Speaker 1: stage of comedy? What do you think the impact of

795
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:44,080
Speaker 1: Jerry Klower was on the South?

796
00:42:44,360 --> 00:42:47,720
Speaker 3: I can relate, you know. We talked about Wilson Rawls,

797
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:50,400
Speaker 3: you know, and I told you about I could relate

798
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:54,360
Speaker 3: to Billy in the story. But the tales that Jerry

799
00:42:54,400 --> 00:42:57,960
Speaker 3: Klower put himself in, some of it based on truth,

800
00:42:58,120 --> 00:42:59,719
Speaker 3: some of it just made it because he had a

801
00:42:59,719 --> 00:43:03,080
Speaker 3: great imagination. But I could identify with that. It was

802
00:43:03,239 --> 00:43:05,520
Speaker 3: to the point to where when we saw I saw

803
00:43:05,600 --> 00:43:08,319
Speaker 3: him on television he would host a country music show

804
00:43:08,360 --> 00:43:11,880
Speaker 3: that came out on Sunday afternoons. It was beyond my

805
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,320
Speaker 3: comprehension that somebody in my family didn't know him, because

806
00:43:16,520 --> 00:43:20,600
Speaker 3: the stories that he told were stories that I could

807
00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,920
Speaker 3: identify with, as far as how he grew up or

808
00:43:24,600 --> 00:43:27,640
Speaker 3: bird hunting, you know, having a dog that you know,

809
00:43:27,719 --> 00:43:28,520
Speaker 3: tree and coons.

810
00:43:28,920 --> 00:43:32,400
Speaker 1: He talked about that I had corn and shelling peas

811
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:34,400
Speaker 1: and mules and.

812
00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 3: Going barefooted, and being hot and being so hot that

813
00:43:37,360 --> 00:43:41,360
Speaker 3: in the summertime that you wouldn't button up the sides

814
00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:43,160
Speaker 3: on your overalls.

815
00:43:42,480 --> 00:43:45,040
Speaker 1: And eat eating so much bold ocre that he couldn't

816
00:43:45,080 --> 00:43:45,840
Speaker 1: keep his socks up.

817
00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:47,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly.

818
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,080
Speaker 3: These were all things that he talked about I had

819
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:52,560
Speaker 3: either done or seen done.

820
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:55,359
Speaker 2: I mean, it was just you weren't seeing that anywhere else.

821
00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,919
Speaker 1: So you're this kid being raised in southern Arkansas, which

822
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:02,400
Speaker 1: I will note even for the South, there are different

823
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:06,759
Speaker 1: kind of cultures inside the South. Like I'm from the South, right,

824
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 1: being from Arkansas, but we lived in the highlands, which

825
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:12,080
Speaker 1: is quite different in there. You know, where you grew

826
00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:16,000
Speaker 1: up in southeastern Arkansas where Jerry Clower lived from, you

827
00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 1: would have basically been same agriculture, same influence of the

828
00:44:21,760 --> 00:44:25,000
Speaker 1: river bottoms and Delta, and just a couple hours away.

829
00:44:25,040 --> 00:44:26,759
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, he just lived on the other side of

830
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:27,680
Speaker 3: the Mississippi River.

831
00:44:27,880 --> 00:44:31,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you would have had even probably a stronger

832
00:44:31,440 --> 00:44:33,800
Speaker 1: connection to some of that than a lot of people.

833
00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:35,560
Speaker 3: I would hear stories, you know, we would hear the

834
00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:38,200
Speaker 3: funny stories, and then my dad would tell one and

835
00:44:38,239 --> 00:44:41,400
Speaker 3: it would have the same type. Characters are the same.

836
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:42,120
Speaker 2: Yeah.

837
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 3: He would talk about a wagon, you know, Jerry Clarer

838
00:44:44,480 --> 00:44:47,000
Speaker 3: might tell a story about riding the town in a wagon,

839
00:44:47,239 --> 00:44:49,399
Speaker 3: and then my dad would tell a story about him

840
00:44:49,480 --> 00:44:53,520
Speaker 3: riding in a wagon. So it was easy to transfer,

841
00:44:54,000 --> 00:44:57,160
Speaker 3: you know, my kinship, I guess to the stuff that

842
00:44:57,200 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 3: he was talking about, regardless of the subject, you know,

843
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:01,600
Speaker 3: Like I said, a lot of that stuff he was

844
00:45:01,640 --> 00:45:04,080
Speaker 3: making up, but it all, it all went back to

845
00:45:04,200 --> 00:45:06,920
Speaker 3: the stories I'd heard all my life and the things

846
00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:08,560
Speaker 3: that I had witnessed with my own eyes.

847
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:10,719
Speaker 1: And you know what I think it did is I

848
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:15,000
Speaker 1: think it validated poor, poverty stricken people in the South.

849
00:45:15,760 --> 00:45:19,440
Speaker 1: Because you think about the media of that time, the

850
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:22,360
Speaker 1: country music scene would have been focused in some ways

851
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:25,200
Speaker 1: on the South. I mean not entirely, but there have

852
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:28,400
Speaker 1: been famous people, you know, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn

853
00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:32,880
Speaker 1: and all these people, but the mainstream influencers of the

854
00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:35,640
Speaker 1: time certainly would not have been from, you know, a

855
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:38,280
Speaker 1: guy like Jerry Klower. And so for him to rise

856
00:45:38,360 --> 00:45:41,960
Speaker 1: up and to tell our stories, you know, quote unquote

857
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:45,759
Speaker 1: our stories talking about our people, and him being so

858
00:45:45,960 --> 00:45:48,920
Speaker 1: funny and so likable. You know, you wouldn't listen to

859
00:45:48,960 --> 00:45:52,200
Speaker 1: Jerry Klower and just instinctively say this man is intelligent,

860
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:56,800
Speaker 1: but a highly intelligent man. And that made us that

861
00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:58,080
Speaker 1: that validated us.

862
00:45:58,360 --> 00:46:01,279
Speaker 3: I read I read an article on Time talking about

863
00:46:01,360 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 3: Jerry Klower that when he was on the grand Ole Offry,

864
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:08,480
Speaker 3: he was of all the folks on there wearing overalls

865
00:46:08,520 --> 00:46:11,200
Speaker 3: and playing music and talking about being from the country.

866
00:46:11,680 --> 00:46:13,360
Speaker 3: He was the only guy on there that had a

867
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:16,840
Speaker 3: degree in agriculture out of every member of the grand

868
00:46:16,840 --> 00:46:19,600
Speaker 3: Ole Offry. So he had grown up living. He lived

869
00:46:19,600 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 3: what he portrayed, you know, I mean it was I

870
00:46:22,200 --> 00:46:25,120
Speaker 3: think you can see it's easy to see truth in that,

871
00:46:25,400 --> 00:46:28,839
Speaker 3: and it will connect with somebody, even though you may

872
00:46:28,880 --> 00:46:30,920
Speaker 3: not know his background, but you can tell when someone

873
00:46:31,040 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 3: is genuine. And it all kept it off when I

874
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 3: got to meet him in person. But he was a

875
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:39,319
Speaker 3: genuine person. And what you saw on television and what

876
00:46:39,440 --> 00:46:41,360
Speaker 3: I saw on television. Now what I listened to on

877
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,240
Speaker 3: the radio. It was him.

878
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:46,720
Speaker 2: Speaking of Jerry's college education.

879
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:50,000
Speaker 1: He started off at a community college but ended up

880
00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:51,920
Speaker 1: playing football at Mississippi State.

881
00:46:52,480 --> 00:46:54,400
Speaker 2: Jerry was a pretty big old boy.

882
00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:58,480
Speaker 5: Jerry said. The first college football game he ever went

883
00:46:58,520 --> 00:46:59,680
Speaker 5: to in his life he played in.

884
00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:03,480
Speaker 1: It is that right? So he he played? What school

885
00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:04,640
Speaker 1: did he play for down here?

886
00:47:04,960 --> 00:47:07,319
Speaker 5: I think Jerry went to I don't know if he

887
00:47:07,360 --> 00:47:10,239
Speaker 5: went to Southwest Junior College, but he went to Mississippi State.

888
00:47:10,480 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 2: But but he went to high school.

889
00:47:12,480 --> 00:47:16,319
Speaker 5: Yeah, we had consolidated high school.

890
00:47:16,360 --> 00:47:17,560
Speaker 2: Did they have a football team here?

891
00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:18,799
Speaker 5: I don't think they did?

892
00:47:19,080 --> 00:47:21,280
Speaker 2: So he how did that work? Because that's what I thought.

893
00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:24,200
Speaker 1: I thought he didn't play high school football, but he

894
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:26,759
Speaker 1: ended up in college football. Just he was just that

895
00:47:26,840 --> 00:47:29,359
Speaker 1: good of an athlete that he just went and tried

896
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:32,359
Speaker 1: out for the football team having never played and made it,

897
00:47:32,800 --> 00:47:34,239
Speaker 1: played for Mississippi State.

898
00:47:34,680 --> 00:47:39,040
Speaker 2: I'll be done.

899
00:47:38,960 --> 00:47:43,640
Speaker 1: In Jerry's humor. You'll often hear sports analogies used. I

900
00:47:43,760 --> 00:47:47,239
Speaker 1: want to dig deeper into Jerry's humor and why it

901
00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:50,279
Speaker 1: was funny. First of all, he would start off with

902
00:47:50,320 --> 00:47:53,760
Speaker 1: an intriguing story that you know that had to happened

903
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:56,480
Speaker 1: or been made up or partials of both of those

904
00:47:56,480 --> 00:48:01,920
Speaker 1: things connected, and he would give an ordinate amount of detail,

905
00:48:02,880 --> 00:48:04,680
Speaker 1: usually in the beginning, like he.

906
00:48:04,600 --> 00:48:07,360
Speaker 2: Would say yeah, he would tell he would give.

907
00:48:07,200 --> 00:48:10,719
Speaker 1: His address and say, I'm from east for Mississippi, one

908
00:48:10,800 --> 00:48:13,640
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty five miles from Baton Rouge. I mean,

909
00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 1: just give you all this, and you're you're just intrigued

910
00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:18,920
Speaker 1: because of the tone of his voice and the way.

911
00:48:18,760 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 2: He's describing it. But you're just like, you have.

912
00:48:21,160 --> 00:48:23,280
Speaker 1: No idea why this is relevant, but you're like doing

913
00:48:23,480 --> 00:48:25,600
Speaker 1: geography in your head, you know, like figuring out where

914
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,520
Speaker 1: he's at. And then he starts talking and he you know,

915
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:31,880
Speaker 1: I've heard it said that comedy, the more specific you

916
00:48:31,920 --> 00:48:34,560
Speaker 1: can be inside of comedy, the funnier it is, the

917
00:48:34,560 --> 00:48:36,400
Speaker 1: more you can relate to it. And so he just

918
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:39,799
Speaker 1: gives these random details all over it. And then his

919
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,240
Speaker 1: accent was just I listened to it today and it's

920
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:47,920
Speaker 1: it's almost an artifact. You know, he's been gone about

921
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:51,240
Speaker 1: twenty four years, Jerry Clower has. He died in nineteen

922
00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,239
Speaker 1: ninety eight, and so you know, his accent in the

923
00:48:54,280 --> 00:48:59,040
Speaker 1: way that he structured his sentences very unique and probably

924
00:48:59,200 --> 00:49:02,880
Speaker 1: unique even to that part of Mississippi. When you listen

925
00:49:02,960 --> 00:49:07,959
Speaker 1: back to it, you hear sentence structures and completely improper

926
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:11,560
Speaker 1: usage of words, but that made perfect sense.

927
00:49:11,680 --> 00:49:13,080
Speaker 2: The way them was correct.

928
00:49:13,160 --> 00:49:17,480
Speaker 1: Yeah, And so the accent was intriguing, The details were intriguing,

929
00:49:17,880 --> 00:49:21,319
Speaker 1: the hooks were perfect, the names and the stories and

930
00:49:21,360 --> 00:49:25,280
Speaker 1: the places where he over exaggerated stuff that you knew

931
00:49:25,320 --> 00:49:28,880
Speaker 1: he was over exaggerating would be super funny. But he

932
00:49:29,080 --> 00:49:34,799
Speaker 1: often too pitted country people against city people sometimes, and

933
00:49:34,920 --> 00:49:38,600
Speaker 1: usually the guy from the country would not always end

934
00:49:38,719 --> 00:49:41,680
Speaker 1: up looking to be the smartest, but he was usually right.

935
00:49:42,000 --> 00:49:45,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it was usually the hook in that or

936
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:48,560
Speaker 3: the bringing it home or what however you the phrase

937
00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:52,080
Speaker 3: would be, is that guy used common sense. The country

938
00:49:52,080 --> 00:49:55,600
Speaker 3: guy used common sense above you know, a college degree

939
00:49:55,680 --> 00:49:56,080
Speaker 3: or something.

940
00:49:56,239 --> 00:49:56,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know.

941
00:49:56,840 --> 00:49:59,840
Speaker 3: It was like I've always kind of parried it with

942
00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:03,080
Speaker 3: like the Andy Griffiths show, a show that I have

943
00:50:03,280 --> 00:50:07,120
Speaker 3: seen all of them hundreds of times, and they never

944
00:50:07,160 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 3: get old to me. Those stories. When I hear Jerry Clower's,

945
00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:12,719
Speaker 3: they never even I know, I know the punchlines coming,

946
00:50:12,800 --> 00:50:14,960
Speaker 3: I know what's fixing to happen. I could do his

947
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:18,319
Speaker 3: whole act myself. Just about you know, yeah, but they're

948
00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:22,800
Speaker 3: still funny. And I think it's probably a mixture of

949
00:50:23,600 --> 00:50:26,400
Speaker 3: nostalgia of listening to it and thinking back, you know,

950
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:28,759
Speaker 3: when me and my dad was down on the Potlatch

951
00:50:28,880 --> 00:50:31,839
Speaker 3: road timber company road, waiting for the dogs to track

952
00:50:31,960 --> 00:50:33,960
Speaker 3: the last time I heard that, or one time that

953
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:36,680
Speaker 3: I heard this story. And so there's just a lot

954
00:50:36,680 --> 00:50:38,720
Speaker 3: of meat in it. It's just a lot of good,

955
00:50:38,840 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 3: wholesome storytelling.

956
00:50:40,680 --> 00:50:44,360
Speaker 1: So there's a book written by Jerry Klower called Stories

957
00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:47,640
Speaker 1: from Home, and what it is it's an interview. It's

958
00:50:47,680 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 1: a transcribed interview that they did with Jerry Klower, and

959
00:50:51,520 --> 00:50:55,960
Speaker 1: he talked about a intentional decision that he made when

960
00:50:56,000 --> 00:50:59,440
Speaker 1: he got into comedy to keep it clean. And there

961
00:50:59,440 --> 00:51:03,279
Speaker 1: were people in Hollywood that advised him, like, hey, you're

962
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 1: going to have to be more risk a if you

963
00:51:06,560 --> 00:51:10,080
Speaker 1: want to be successful in this sphere, and he just

964
00:51:10,600 --> 00:51:13,640
Speaker 1: he said he didn't believe him, and he made that

965
00:51:13,760 --> 00:51:16,040
Speaker 1: decision that he was gonna that he was going to

966
00:51:16,120 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: try to keep it in bounds, you know, And he

967
00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:21,040
Speaker 1: teetered on the edge sometimes of you know, jokes that

968
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:24,120
Speaker 1: might not be appropriate for kids. Every now and then

969
00:51:24,440 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: he'd say something.

970
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:27,520
Speaker 2: That would kind of be, you know, on the edge.

971
00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,600
Speaker 1: But it was always like, you know, stuff you would

972
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,560
Speaker 1: let your kids listen to. No. I respected him for

973
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:36,759
Speaker 1: just having a value system that he stuck to his

974
00:51:36,840 --> 00:51:41,880
Speaker 1: whole life. You know, I can't speak enough about Jerry's character.

975
00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:44,880
Speaker 1: I'm impressed by stuff like that. And in the book

976
00:51:45,000 --> 00:51:49,880
Speaker 1: Stories from Home, Jerry said quote, I stayed with MCA

977
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:52,880
Speaker 1: records and got to where I liked it. At first,

978
00:51:52,920 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 1: they said, Jerry, unless you put a little risk a

979
00:51:56,400 --> 00:51:59,720
Speaker 1: or vulgar stuff on your records, you ain't never gonna

980
00:51:59,719 --> 00:52:00,920
Speaker 1: be no own nationally.

981
00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:02,640
Speaker 2: But I defied them.

982
00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:08,080
Speaker 1: I have never used risk a material end of quote.

983
00:52:10,360 --> 00:52:15,080
Speaker 1: I've read about his positions on race relations in the

984
00:52:15,120 --> 00:52:19,400
Speaker 1: South and kind of his story with that. He was

985
00:52:19,440 --> 00:52:22,480
Speaker 1: really ahead of his time. He was in a pretty

986
00:52:22,640 --> 00:52:25,879
Speaker 1: pretty profound way. He was what do you think about that?

987
00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:29,880
Speaker 5: Jerry? As I said, he was a devout Christian. He

988
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:32,680
Speaker 5: read every word of the Bible to be true, and

989
00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:36,719
Speaker 5: he accepted the fact that God accepted everybody, regardless of

990
00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:41,279
Speaker 5: race or anything else. And Jerry was ahead of his

991
00:52:41,480 --> 00:52:44,240
Speaker 5: time back then because a lot of people were pretty

992
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:48,560
Speaker 5: objective to integration, didn't want to mingle with black people

993
00:52:48,840 --> 00:52:52,000
Speaker 5: and for whatever reason, did not associate with them that much.

994
00:52:52,200 --> 00:52:55,799
Speaker 5: But Jerry did, and he respected everybody. And I think

995
00:52:55,840 --> 00:52:58,960
Speaker 5: that's why everybody respected him, because he didn't cut any

996
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:02,759
Speaker 5: ice with any anybody. Race color didn't mean anything to him.

997
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:03,840
Speaker 5: He loved everybody.

998
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:09,680
Speaker 1: Jerry's ideas on race grew over time, which speaks to

999
00:53:09,719 --> 00:53:12,799
Speaker 1: his ability to change. In his book, he said he

1000
00:53:12,840 --> 00:53:15,520
Speaker 1: grew up with some of the stereotypical mind frames at

1001
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:17,879
Speaker 1: the time, but when he came back from the war,

1002
00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 1: he said this quote, after I became a Christian, my

1003
00:53:21,640 --> 00:53:24,719
Speaker 1: convictions got to pricking my conscience. I would have to

1004
00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:28,200
Speaker 1: compromise my Christian convictions if I believed some of the

1005
00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:30,600
Speaker 1: things that I had been taught as a child. End

1006
00:53:30,600 --> 00:53:34,200
Speaker 1: of quote. Here's another story. It's in reference to the

1007
00:53:34,280 --> 00:53:38,279
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church,

1008
00:53:38,600 --> 00:53:43,799
Speaker 1: a black church by the KKK. Jerry said, quote, I

1009
00:53:43,920 --> 00:53:47,800
Speaker 1: was in Birmingham selling fertilizer after they bombed that church.

1010
00:53:48,280 --> 00:53:51,719
Speaker 1: They bombed and killed three precious little black children. The

1011
00:53:51,800 --> 00:53:55,120
Speaker 1: following Monday, I was driving through Birmingham and I had

1012
00:53:55,160 --> 00:53:58,000
Speaker 1: the radio on and this guy was a disc jockey

1013
00:53:58,239 --> 00:54:00,760
Speaker 1: and he was black, and he was t to rally

1014
00:54:00,800 --> 00:54:04,920
Speaker 1: all the black children. He said, just say I'm somebody.

1015
00:54:05,680 --> 00:54:08,000
Speaker 1: I stopped at a red light by a school bus

1016
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:10,640
Speaker 1: and a little black boy was looking out the window

1017
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:13,440
Speaker 1: at me. I let the window down and I said,

1018
00:54:14,040 --> 00:54:17,239
Speaker 1: I know you are somebody's son. And if I could

1019
00:54:17,239 --> 00:54:20,280
Speaker 1: get this scoundrel that bombed you just because you're black,

1020
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:25,240
Speaker 1: I would end of quote. I think this shows Jerry's heart.

1021
00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,640
Speaker 1: He also had a famous quote where he said, it's

1022
00:54:28,680 --> 00:54:31,760
Speaker 1: still a mystery to me how godly people can tie

1023
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:35,040
Speaker 1: their income, give to the poor, read the Bible, pray,

1024
00:54:35,520 --> 00:54:39,040
Speaker 1: love folks, and let God run every fiber of their

1025
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:42,400
Speaker 1: being except how they treat black people.

1026
00:54:42,960 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 2: End of quote.

1027
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:49,440
Speaker 1: That was big stuff coming from a white comedian in

1028
00:54:49,480 --> 00:54:54,440
Speaker 1: the South in the nineteen seventies. It was Jerry's connection

1029
00:54:54,560 --> 00:54:58,160
Speaker 1: to place that made his words carry weight. He grew

1030
00:54:58,280 --> 00:55:01,839
Speaker 1: up in segregation and as I ideas on race relations

1031
00:55:02,040 --> 00:55:05,680
Speaker 1: changed after he was an adult, as we closed down,

1032
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:10,440
Speaker 1: I want to explore the power of place. Well what

1033
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:13,960
Speaker 1: I learned from Where the Red Fern Grows from Sean Tuton,

1034
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:20,600
Speaker 1: literature expert, that connection to place is really intriguing to people,

1035
00:55:20,880 --> 00:55:23,680
Speaker 1: even if they're not connected to that place.

1036
00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:25,759
Speaker 2: So seeing Billy.

1037
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:29,600
Speaker 1: Coleman's connection to the Ozarks in a genuine way was

1038
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:32,680
Speaker 1: intriguing because you could look through his eyes and see

1039
00:55:33,080 --> 00:55:36,200
Speaker 1: that landscape and his life and the shapes of his life,

1040
00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:38,160
Speaker 1: and if even if it was different from you and

1041
00:55:38,160 --> 00:55:39,799
Speaker 1: you'd never been there and never going to go there.

1042
00:55:40,080 --> 00:55:42,440
Speaker 1: I think that's what they did with Jerry Klower too,

1043
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:47,960
Speaker 1: is that they saw the rural, poverty stricken South in

1044
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:49,839
Speaker 1: a lovable, nice way.

1045
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:52,440
Speaker 3: They probably already had that image of it. You know,

1046
00:55:52,480 --> 00:55:55,840
Speaker 3: you look back at cartoons and Heal Billies and they're

1047
00:55:55,920 --> 00:55:58,520
Speaker 3: you know, wearing one strap overalls and they're barefoot, and

1048
00:55:58,600 --> 00:56:01,759
Speaker 3: they got those crazy looking hats, smoking a corn cob

1049
00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:04,879
Speaker 3: pipe and all of that. So they saw that, they

1050
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,759
Speaker 3: saw that part of it and immediately. But then he

1051
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:11,520
Speaker 3: puts those very vivid stories about the characters in there,

1052
00:56:11,520 --> 00:56:13,879
Speaker 3: and they're good people. They may bee dressed that way,

1053
00:56:14,080 --> 00:56:18,439
Speaker 3: but there's there's always a redeeming quality about most of them. Yeah,

1054
00:56:18,440 --> 00:56:21,160
Speaker 3: you know so, and you can identify that with whether

1055
00:56:21,160 --> 00:56:22,839
Speaker 3: you got to be there or get to be there

1056
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:23,080
Speaker 3: or not.

1057
00:56:25,280 --> 00:56:28,080
Speaker 2: Here's John with a couple more stories about Jerry.

1058
00:56:28,760 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 5: I know, one time I went over to Jerry's and

1059
00:56:31,200 --> 00:56:33,040
Speaker 5: I took my coon dog. He followed me over. I

1060
00:56:33,040 --> 00:56:35,400
Speaker 5: went over on a horse. We got in Jerry's yard

1061
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:38,160
Speaker 5: and a rabbit, a big rabbit, run out of one

1062
00:56:38,160 --> 00:56:41,239
Speaker 5: of Miss Homerleine's flower beds, and my dog took off

1063
00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:43,480
Speaker 5: after him, and he had a real deep bow. Oh

1064
00:56:43,560 --> 00:56:49,080
Speaker 5: you could hear him on my way. He was just

1065
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:52,440
Speaker 5: barking trailing that rabbit. They was going in flower beds

1066
00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:54,879
Speaker 5: and out and Jake and I was hollering at the dog,

1067
00:56:54,960 --> 00:56:57,759
Speaker 5: trying to stop him because I knew Miss Hombling didn't

1068
00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:01,279
Speaker 5: want that dog in the yard. And that time Jerry come.

1069
00:57:01,280 --> 00:57:01,759
Speaker 2: To the door.

1070
00:57:02,280 --> 00:57:05,879
Speaker 5: Jerry hollered, what are you doing. I said, I'm trying

1071
00:57:05,920 --> 00:57:08,440
Speaker 5: to catch his dad gumb dog. I said, don't you

1072
00:57:08,520 --> 00:57:10,879
Speaker 5: hear him? He said, yeah, I do. He said, man,

1073
00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:14,160
Speaker 5: leave a dog alone. He said, anything got a voice

1074
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:16,000
Speaker 5: like that ought to be singing in the church choir.

1075
00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:20,720
Speaker 5: Jerry came over one time. I forgot what the occasion was,

1076
00:57:20,760 --> 00:57:23,360
Speaker 5: but he to the time we had a circle driver.

1077
00:57:23,440 --> 00:57:25,919
Speaker 5: He pulled up in his car and he got out

1078
00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:28,360
Speaker 5: and he had on a pair of sandals and he

1079
00:57:28,440 --> 00:57:31,240
Speaker 5: had on a pair of cutoff pants and a real

1080
00:57:32,080 --> 00:57:36,160
Speaker 5: loud color high ware you type shirt. That coon dog

1081
00:57:36,680 --> 00:57:38,720
Speaker 5: of mine looked up and seen Jerry, and he done

1082
00:57:38,760 --> 00:57:39,240
Speaker 5: like a shen.

1083
00:57:40,720 --> 00:57:42,760
Speaker 2: He twisted his hand over the world that.

1084
00:57:42,800 --> 00:57:45,400
Speaker 5: Thing was, and he went and got under my pickup

1085
00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:47,840
Speaker 5: truck and wouldn't come out. And I told Jerry that

1086
00:57:47,920 --> 00:57:49,600
Speaker 5: we was gonna have to go down to Liberty and

1087
00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:52,200
Speaker 5: talk with my attorney because he had runned the best

1088
00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:55,240
Speaker 5: potential young dog that I had ever had, and that

1089
00:57:55,360 --> 00:57:57,720
Speaker 5: if he wanted to settle this out of court, we could.

1090
00:57:57,880 --> 00:57:58,600
Speaker 2: If I couldn't.

1091
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:02,040
Speaker 5: He was gonna you have to promise me some puppies

1092
00:58:02,080 --> 00:58:04,560
Speaker 5: off the next gyp And he knew of it. It was

1093
00:58:04,600 --> 00:58:06,240
Speaker 5: gonna drop a litter of puppies. But I mean, we

1094
00:58:06,400 --> 00:58:07,640
Speaker 5: was all the time pulling stuff like that.

1095
00:58:07,680 --> 00:58:07,840
Speaker 4: One.

1096
00:58:07,880 --> 00:58:10,120
Speaker 1: Well, Jerry say, when he told him about the litigation,

1097
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:15,320
Speaker 1: he laughed, he laughed. Jerry toured right up until his

1098
00:58:15,440 --> 00:58:19,000
Speaker 1: passing in nineteen ninety eight and had plans for more records.

1099
00:58:19,320 --> 00:58:22,200
Speaker 1: He gathered his content from people in this community and

1100
00:58:22,240 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 1: mister John, his neighbor, told him a story that Jerry

1101
00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:28,560
Speaker 1: was very intrigued by. He even told him that he

1102
00:58:28,600 --> 00:58:31,720
Speaker 1: was going to put it on his next record. Unfortunately,

1103
00:58:32,360 --> 00:58:36,520
Speaker 1: Jerry never made that record and will never hear Jerry

1104
00:58:36,560 --> 00:58:39,880
Speaker 1: tell the story, but we can hear it from mister

1105
00:58:40,000 --> 00:58:42,960
Speaker 1: John and if you listen, I think you can hear

1106
00:58:43,520 --> 00:58:45,280
Speaker 1: Jerry's voice telling it.

1107
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:48,280
Speaker 5: One of those was a fellow that lived here in

1108
00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:50,480
Speaker 5: the community. He was a lot older than Jerry. He

1109
00:58:51,040 --> 00:58:53,600
Speaker 5: lived to be I guess on up in his late nineties.

1110
00:58:53,800 --> 00:58:56,640
Speaker 5: But as he began to get older, he reached a

1111
00:58:56,680 --> 00:58:59,080
Speaker 5: poem and laugh where his family encouraged him to go

1112
00:58:59,080 --> 00:59:01,160
Speaker 5: ahead and buy him a car. You know, he'd have

1113
00:59:01,240 --> 00:59:03,720
Speaker 5: his own transportation. He could get out and go. He

1114
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:05,640
Speaker 5: didn't have to get nobody to take him where he

1115
00:59:05,680 --> 00:59:09,000
Speaker 5: wanted to go. He'd have his own wheels. So he

1116
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:12,560
Speaker 5: bought him a sixty two Chevrolet Biscayne, and he got

1117
00:59:12,600 --> 00:59:14,960
Speaker 5: him some driver's license so he could get out and

1118
00:59:14,960 --> 00:59:17,560
Speaker 5: go where he wanted to. But they knew he was

1119
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:19,640
Speaker 5: going to have to have a tag, a car tag,

1120
00:59:19,680 --> 00:59:23,000
Speaker 5: and some insurance. And if they would have trouble getting

1121
00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:26,200
Speaker 5: him to differentiate between the liability and the collision, the

1122
00:59:26,240 --> 00:59:29,600
Speaker 5: comprehension and all that, he just wouldn't understand it and

1123
00:59:29,600 --> 00:59:32,120
Speaker 5: it would create an argument because he felt like it.

1124
00:59:32,400 --> 00:59:34,840
Speaker 5: He didn't need all that junk if it was his car.

1125
00:59:35,080 --> 00:59:38,640
Speaker 5: They just told him said, well, Uncle Tom said, if

1126
00:59:38,680 --> 00:59:41,640
Speaker 5: you've got insurance and you ever involved in an accident,

1127
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:44,120
Speaker 5: the insurance will buy you another car. That was just

1128
00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:47,360
Speaker 5: a simple way to get him to understand and bypass

1129
00:59:47,440 --> 00:59:51,400
Speaker 5: the comprehension the liability collision and everything else under guard

1130
00:59:51,400 --> 00:59:55,440
Speaker 5: automobile insurance. So he went to town every Saturday morning. But

1131
00:59:55,520 --> 00:59:58,720
Speaker 5: a stop sign didn't mean nothing to him because he

1132
00:59:58,760 --> 01:00:01,520
Speaker 5: had always went in that direction, and he felt like

1133
01:00:01,600 --> 01:00:04,959
Speaker 5: people ought to respect him because that was the road

1134
01:00:05,000 --> 01:00:07,800
Speaker 5: he had always traveled and he wasn't gonna stop for nobody.

1135
01:00:08,120 --> 01:00:12,880
Speaker 5: So it happened he ran stop signed one Saturday morning

1136
01:00:12,920 --> 01:00:15,560
Speaker 5: and a fellow from Baton Rouge running to him, hit him,

1137
01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:18,800
Speaker 5: turned his car bottom side up, told Uncle Tom I

1138
01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:21,720
Speaker 5: wanted to didn't kill him, so they called the law.

1139
01:00:21,760 --> 01:00:23,840
Speaker 5: He wouldn't. He wouldn't go to the hospital in the amulets.

1140
01:00:23,960 --> 01:00:27,120
Speaker 5: He just set by his car and the state trooper

1141
01:00:27,200 --> 01:00:30,320
Speaker 5: came out and investigated the accident. Well, he knew Uncle Tom,

1142
01:00:30,720 --> 01:00:32,800
Speaker 5: and he just didn't know how he was gonna get

1143
01:00:32,800 --> 01:00:35,600
Speaker 5: across to him that he was in the fault. So

1144
01:00:35,640 --> 01:00:38,600
Speaker 5: he went up to him and he said. Uncle Tom said, uh,

1145
01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:43,840
Speaker 5: I've investigated the accident, and said it's pretty conclusive as

1146
01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:45,840
Speaker 5: to what happened. And he said, I'd like to have

1147
01:00:45,880 --> 01:00:48,320
Speaker 5: your version of what happened here. Uncle Tom said, well,

1148
01:00:48,360 --> 01:00:50,440
Speaker 5: I said I was headed over to my comb. We're

1149
01:00:50,480 --> 01:00:52,840
Speaker 5: gonna get me a hair cut, gonna get some grocers,

1150
01:00:52,880 --> 01:00:55,280
Speaker 5: and said, I come down this road all time. Everybody knows.

1151
01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:58,040
Speaker 5: Said and then this idiot from Baton Rouge comes flying

1152
01:00:58,120 --> 01:01:00,800
Speaker 5: through him and he hits me, tears my car up,

1153
01:01:01,600 --> 01:01:03,800
Speaker 5: and said that's what happened in the state trooper said

1154
01:01:03,800 --> 01:01:05,400
Speaker 5: he didn't know how he was going to explain next

1155
01:01:05,400 --> 01:01:07,080
Speaker 5: to Uncle Tom, but he said, Uncle Tom said, I'm

1156
01:01:07,080 --> 01:01:08,919
Speaker 5: gonna I'm gonna have to tell you now. I said,

1157
01:01:09,400 --> 01:01:12,560
Speaker 5: I've investigated accident. He said, uh, it's my deedy to

1158
01:01:12,600 --> 01:01:14,400
Speaker 5: inform you. I'm gonna have to give you a citation.

1159
01:01:14,800 --> 01:01:17,200
Speaker 5: And Uncle Tom said, well, son, I appreciate it's mighty

1160
01:01:17,280 --> 01:01:20,360
Speaker 5: nice of you. Know, said I don't know nothing about Afford,

1161
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:23,800
Speaker 5: said I never did like a Chrystler product, and said

1162
01:01:23,800 --> 01:01:27,240
Speaker 5: I ain't never rolled in or drove a citation. And

1163
01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:29,680
Speaker 5: if it's all right with everybody was involved. I'd rather

1164
01:01:29,720 --> 01:01:37,160
Speaker 5: have another chivallet, uh. But Jerry rowled when I told him.

1165
01:01:37,280 --> 01:01:40,280
Speaker 5: He said, that's going in my next man. That's going

1166
01:01:40,360 --> 01:01:43,600
Speaker 5: in my next album. And and that was the last

1167
01:01:43,720 --> 01:01:46,240
Speaker 5: night that he ever was at home. We talked a

1168
01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:47,000
Speaker 5: long time.

1169
01:01:49,960 --> 01:01:53,600
Speaker 1: In the foreword of the book Stories from Home, Willie

1170
01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:59,080
Speaker 1: Morris says, quote, all our distinguished American humorists have been

1171
01:01:59,200 --> 01:02:03,160
Speaker 1: serious people, their hearts as rueful as they are married.

1172
01:02:03,600 --> 01:02:07,280
Speaker 1: I'm funny because I'm sad, It was attributed to Mark Twain,

1173
01:02:07,720 --> 01:02:11,920
Speaker 1: and I'm sad because I'm funny. Jerry Klower is an

1174
01:02:12,000 --> 01:02:16,560
Speaker 1: artist of deep values, values which yet exist in our civilization.

1175
01:02:17,200 --> 01:02:22,680
Speaker 1: Hard work, loyalty, honesty, community, family, friendship, generosity, love, and

1176
01:02:22,720 --> 01:02:27,080
Speaker 1: with all a vibrant aversion to the hypocritical, the bogus,

1177
01:02:27,240 --> 01:02:31,800
Speaker 1: and the unpitying, not to mention an instinctual distaste for

1178
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:37,600
Speaker 1: cynical barbers, dilatory hitchhikers, and all souls of greed. He

1179
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:44,240
Speaker 1: understands the world because he assiduously lived it. End of quote.

1180
01:02:44,360 --> 01:02:48,640
Speaker 1: Jerry Klower was a complex and brilliant man, deeply connected

1181
01:02:48,640 --> 01:02:52,360
Speaker 1: to place, sure in his identity, loyal to his people,

1182
01:02:52,720 --> 01:02:53,600
Speaker 1: but also.

1183
01:02:53,440 --> 01:02:56,560
Speaker 2: Intolerant of its errors. He gave voice to the.

1184
01:02:56,480 --> 01:02:59,200
Speaker 1: South and dignity to a group of people coming out

1185
01:02:59,240 --> 01:03:02,680
Speaker 1: of a rough time, people often misunderstood by the nation.

1186
01:03:03,320 --> 01:03:06,360
Speaker 1: He was deeply connected to the land as a hunter

1187
01:03:06,440 --> 01:03:10,280
Speaker 1: and fisherman, and attributed his time in the Coonwoods to

1188
01:03:10,400 --> 01:03:13,920
Speaker 1: building the fabric of his character, a throwback to the

1189
01:03:13,960 --> 01:03:18,160
Speaker 1: ideology that Daniel Boone's legacy ushered into the American psyche.

1190
01:03:18,800 --> 01:03:20,960
Speaker 1: Like I said from the beginning of our series on

1191
01:03:21,000 --> 01:03:24,680
Speaker 1: Where the Red Fern Grows, I'm fascinated when hunting touches

1192
01:03:24,720 --> 01:03:29,520
Speaker 1: pop culture in positive ways. Just like Wilson Rawls, Jerry

1193
01:03:29,640 --> 01:03:32,080
Speaker 1: wrapped up our way of life and put it in

1194
01:03:32,120 --> 01:03:36,160
Speaker 1: a human story, and people loved it. As we look

1195
01:03:36,200 --> 01:03:39,120
Speaker 1: to the future of hunting and rural life, I think

1196
01:03:39,160 --> 01:03:41,920
Speaker 1: we have a pattern here. We've got to have a

1197
01:03:41,960 --> 01:03:45,520
Speaker 1: deep love of the land, its wildness, and its critters,

1198
01:03:46,040 --> 01:03:49,720
Speaker 1: but we've also got to love the people that live

1199
01:03:49,840 --> 01:03:54,080
Speaker 1: from its bounty. Wildness only makes sense to people that

1200
01:03:54,200 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 1: don't know it firsthand when it's wrapped in.

1201
01:03:57,040 --> 01:03:58,520
Speaker 2: The life of a human.

1202
01:03:59,200 --> 01:04:05,360
Speaker 1: So we like Jerry, have to become better storytellers, storytellers

1203
01:04:05,480 --> 01:04:10,520
Speaker 1: of the human experience because stories carry our culture.

1204
01:04:13,800 --> 01:04:16,360
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening to Bear Grease.

1205
01:04:16,720 --> 01:04:19,520
Speaker 1: You can listen to all Jerry's albums on all the

1206
01:04:19,600 --> 01:04:22,919
Speaker 1: major streaming platforms and you're sure to get a laugh

1207
01:04:23,000 --> 01:04:25,920
Speaker 1: out of it. Please share our podcast with your in

1208
01:04:26,120 --> 01:04:30,040
Speaker 1: laws and your crazy hillbilly neighbors this week. We'll talk

1209
01:04:30,080 --> 01:04:33,080
Speaker 1: to you next time on the Bear Grease Render. Happy

1210
01:04:33,120 --> 01:04:36,160
Speaker 1: New Year, everybody, see you in twenty twenty six.