1 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: This is me eat your podcast coming at you shirtless, 2 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:18,320 Speaker 1: severely bug bitten in my case, underwear listening podcast. You 3 00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: can't predict anything presented by on X. Hunt creators are 4 00:00:22,600 --> 00:00:26,160 Speaker 1: the most comprehensive digital mapping system for hunters. Download the 5 00:00:26,239 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: Hunt app from the iTunes or Google play store. Nor 6 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: where you stand with on X? All right, Thomas mcguen, 7 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: are you okay talking about really old work of yours? Oh? Sure, right, 8 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:42,639 Speaker 1: I don't care what we're talking about. Because when you 9 00:00:43,640 --> 00:00:47,479 Speaker 1: when you look at all the things you've done and written, Um, 10 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:50,920 Speaker 1: where does Rancho Aldi? Where does the movie ranch Aldi Lux? 11 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:54,200 Speaker 1: Where do you stack that into? You know, if you 12 00:00:54,240 --> 00:00:56,040 Speaker 1: were gonna live, if you're gonna have had a tombstone, 13 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,360 Speaker 1: and they were gonna list your accomplishments on your tombstone, 14 00:00:59,480 --> 00:01:02,480 Speaker 1: what I put Rancho Deluxe? Rancho and make the tombstone. 15 00:01:02,720 --> 00:01:05,080 Speaker 1: I've already written the text for the tombstone. It says 16 00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:10,720 Speaker 1: it's been a great life. I wish I understood it well. 17 00:01:10,840 --> 00:01:13,800 Speaker 1: Rancho Deluxe was a happy accident in a way. I mean, 18 00:01:15,760 --> 00:01:18,720 Speaker 1: it's never stopped playing, as I'm sure you're aware, But 19 00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:24,680 Speaker 1: basically what happened was a producer, uh bought nine two 20 00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:27,800 Speaker 1: in the Shade and they couldn't get the they couldn't 21 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:32,959 Speaker 1: get the financing together in a short term, and they 22 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:34,880 Speaker 1: said do you have because they didn't have a script, 23 00:01:35,400 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: I said, They said, do you have anything ready to go? 24 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:41,080 Speaker 1: And I said, yes, I do, I have a screenplay 25 00:01:41,120 --> 00:01:44,880 Speaker 1: ready to go. That wasn't true. I hadn't written anything. 26 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 1: And he said, well, i'll be I'll be back in 27 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,880 Speaker 1: two weeks. Uh, and let's see what you've got. So 28 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:55,080 Speaker 1: I went into my son's bedroom. He was about ten 29 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 1: years old at the time, and in two weeks I 30 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:00,880 Speaker 1: had written Ranch of Deluxe. And he flew in from 31 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:02,320 Speaker 1: l A and I said, here it is. And he 32 00:02:02,320 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: went back to my son's bedroom and he came back 33 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:06,080 Speaker 1: out he said, this is great. We're gonna make it. 34 00:02:07,520 --> 00:02:10,320 Speaker 1: So it was a lucky thing from then on, you know. 35 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:12,360 Speaker 1: And then there were people just were amused by the 36 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:14,880 Speaker 1: idea that Jeff Bridges was early in his career. Sam 37 00:02:14,919 --> 00:02:18,040 Speaker 1: Waterson was early in his career. My brother in law 38 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: did the music. Uh. Other people came up to hang out, 39 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,160 Speaker 1: like Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton and other people. 40 00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:27,280 Speaker 1: We we just had a lot of fun making that movie. 41 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: So I'm glad it have found an audience. Oh. I 42 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,160 Speaker 1: recommend it to people all the time, but I find 43 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,240 Speaker 1: that when I show it to people, they need to 44 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,919 Speaker 1: have they need to have a little bit of pre awareness. 45 00:02:40,240 --> 00:02:46,000 Speaker 1: Yea of the West, Yeah, and some of the conflicts 46 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: and different personality archetypes from the West, well or else there. 47 00:02:50,880 --> 00:02:53,280 Speaker 1: They wind up being a little baffled by it. Well 48 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: that's good. It's a litmus test. Yeah, that's good because 49 00:02:55,960 --> 00:02:58,560 Speaker 1: that was actually that was actually the impulse to write it, 50 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:00,519 Speaker 1: write it, because I mean, we were I was under 51 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:03,320 Speaker 1: when I got here in the sixties. I was aware 52 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: there was this kind of official version of Montana life, 53 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: which was the same as the Chamber of Commerce version. 54 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:14,160 Speaker 1: It was all big sky um uh cowboys and Indian stuff, 55 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: and and everybody I knew was you know, poaching, selling, selling, 56 00:03:20,919 --> 00:03:23,680 Speaker 1: uh the ill gut and gains to buy dope and 57 00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:26,400 Speaker 1: motorcycle parts. You know. I thought, well, this is what 58 00:03:26,720 --> 00:03:30,760 Speaker 1: I know to be going on. Why doesn't anybody talk 59 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:32,600 Speaker 1: about this? So that's what I wanted, That's kind of 60 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:35,000 Speaker 1: what I wanted to do. I haven't quite got over that. Actually, 61 00:03:35,080 --> 00:03:39,240 Speaker 1: I'm still very conscious between of the tension between what 62 00:03:39,320 --> 00:03:42,160 Speaker 1: I know was as a day to day person in 63 00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: Montana for fifty two years with the official version of 64 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: life in Montana, and I've always felt that tension that 65 00:03:48,400 --> 00:03:52,840 Speaker 1: I went and I'd like to use that think of 66 00:03:53,000 --> 00:03:55,680 Speaker 1: things i want to write about. Uh. You mentioned that 67 00:03:55,720 --> 00:03:58,680 Speaker 1: your brother in law does the music. And your brother 68 00:03:58,720 --> 00:04:01,520 Speaker 1: in law's Jimmy Buffett, and he has a cameo by 69 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 1: the way, he sho he would had a concert yesterday 70 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:11,200 Speaker 1: in Michigan. People came wow. By the way, I have 71 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: to interject it. I just came back from a book 72 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:16,760 Speaker 1: festival in France. Do you know how many readers came. 73 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: They were running trains from Paris to sam Melo and 74 00:04:24,120 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 1: Brittany just to carry readers. Could that happen here? That's yeah, 75 00:04:32,440 --> 00:04:34,880 Speaker 1: that's really amazing. And in France, like I know that 76 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:41,000 Speaker 1: your your late friend Jim Harrison would talk about how 77 00:04:41,120 --> 00:04:43,599 Speaker 1: well his books would do in France. Do you have 78 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:45,159 Speaker 1: a lot of reader Do you get a lot of readers? 79 00:04:45,880 --> 00:04:50,039 Speaker 1: He and I both have more French readers and American readers. 80 00:04:50,320 --> 00:04:52,880 Speaker 1: Really yeah. In fact, one of the publishers over there said, 81 00:04:52,880 --> 00:04:56,800 Speaker 1: you literary people would be out of business if it 82 00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:01,360 Speaker 1: weren't for France as semi true. Harry was there like 83 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 1: ten times a year. Yeah, he's already honored over there. Yeah, 84 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:09,800 Speaker 1: and he had a huge following there. Um. It was 85 00:05:09,839 --> 00:05:12,040 Speaker 1: really kind of a rock star over there, Odd who 86 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:14,080 Speaker 1: they settled at him. Not odd in Jim's case, but 87 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:17,080 Speaker 1: like Paul Austro, who's a sort of a not easily 88 00:05:17,320 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: absorbed writer. He's another rock star in France. This I'm 89 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:23,800 Speaker 1: gonna come back to my question. I didn't get to 90 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:29,600 Speaker 1: my thing yet about Ranchodi Lux. But because you know, I, 91 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:31,800 Speaker 1: as I talked about often, I grew up in Michigan 92 00:05:32,360 --> 00:05:36,599 Speaker 1: and we would and you for us like kids that 93 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:43,000 Speaker 1: like to that like to read, um, and like the 94 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:48,240 Speaker 1: fish and hunt like we all idolized you guys, and 95 00:05:48,279 --> 00:05:50,640 Speaker 1: we would think of you as like nuts on a dog. 96 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:55,040 Speaker 1: You and Jim Harrison, um, where people be like, who 97 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: do you like to read? And people would say mcgwain 98 00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:01,479 Speaker 1: and Harrison has that Do you feel that that's just 99 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:04,200 Speaker 1: the thing that comes from like a Michigan perspective where 100 00:06:04,279 --> 00:06:07,760 Speaker 1: you guys are so lumped in because you both I 101 00:06:07,839 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: went to the same school there. Yeah, has that been 102 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:13,640 Speaker 1: your whole life? Have you found that people will roll 103 00:06:13,720 --> 00:06:17,680 Speaker 1: you guys together even though you're writing is so different. Yeah, no, 104 00:06:17,880 --> 00:06:21,080 Speaker 1: that's true. Uh, I mean it's confusing, I think, you know. 105 00:06:21,120 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: I mean, Jim and I were pals from the time 106 00:06:24,400 --> 00:06:26,640 Speaker 1: we were just out of our teams, really, you know, 107 00:06:26,680 --> 00:06:30,400 Speaker 1: I mean we just coulda grew up in some ways together, 108 00:06:30,600 --> 00:06:35,160 Speaker 1: you know, pretty closely. Link. We wrote letters each at 109 00:06:35,240 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: least every week to each other for almost a half century. 110 00:06:39,279 --> 00:06:42,239 Speaker 1: I mean we did only stopped writing letters when he died. 111 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:44,920 Speaker 1: I mean we did that so we were mentally really 112 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:48,919 Speaker 1: involved in each other's consciousness, you know, to the to 113 00:06:49,040 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: the degree that since Jim died, I've got this kind 114 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:54,880 Speaker 1: of uh it's like a blank channel on my phone 115 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:56,560 Speaker 1: or some blank thing, you know. I don't know what 116 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:58,200 Speaker 1: to do with it, you know, because I filled it 117 00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:01,400 Speaker 1: up for two thirds of my life with these dialogue 118 00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:06,040 Speaker 1: that we we had going. Jim was Jim and I 119 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:11,320 Speaker 1: were very interested in the same things, uh, Other than literature. 120 00:07:11,360 --> 00:07:14,000 Speaker 1: We both hunted and fished constantly, or just found some 121 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,000 Speaker 1: reason to be outdoors. He was a bird watcher, and 122 00:07:17,040 --> 00:07:18,720 Speaker 1: we wanted we didn't want to be in the house 123 00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:24,720 Speaker 1: as the bottom line, and he was a terrible terrible 124 00:07:24,800 --> 00:07:28,720 Speaker 1: hunter fisherman. He was all in his head. Really. I 125 00:07:28,760 --> 00:07:31,720 Speaker 1: remember one time we're you know, he couldn't hit He 126 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,680 Speaker 1: couldn't hit up the barn with a bull fiddle, you know. 127 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:37,560 Speaker 1: I mean, but if you ever shot something, he'd run 128 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:40,520 Speaker 1: out and grab it and say it's mine. Oh and 129 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:44,280 Speaker 1: one time, one time I said, now, Jim, I said, 130 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 1: I just shot that grouse. You know it's not yours. 131 00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,320 Speaker 1: He said, I know it is mine. And I said, well, okay, 132 00:07:50,360 --> 00:07:52,880 Speaker 1: but how how could we ever approve this? I said, 133 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:54,720 Speaker 1: you did let off your gun, but I know you 134 00:07:54,760 --> 00:07:57,400 Speaker 1: can't hit anything. He said, We're going to get a 135 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:02,000 Speaker 1: cheese grater and we're gonna shred this bird in count Pellets. 136 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:04,520 Speaker 1: He said, you're what are you shooting? I said, I 137 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:07,240 Speaker 1: don't know. I'm shooting seven a halfs. He said, well, 138 00:08:07,720 --> 00:08:10,840 Speaker 1: I'm shooting eights and we'll be able to tell after 139 00:08:10,880 --> 00:08:18,720 Speaker 1: we shred this bird. Did you ever find out? I 140 00:08:18,760 --> 00:08:22,160 Speaker 1: think it's usual. I just handed the bird over. But 141 00:08:22,280 --> 00:08:28,480 Speaker 1: he had this tremendous responsiveness to anything in the natural world. 142 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:33,640 Speaker 1: I mean, um, he just ignited. You know, in the 143 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:37,240 Speaker 1: presence of any little thing it was going on, you felt, 144 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:38,800 Speaker 1: you felt that in the like he did in a 145 00:08:38,800 --> 00:08:41,439 Speaker 1: genuine way, not just in a literary way. No, it's 146 00:08:41,559 --> 00:08:44,440 Speaker 1: very genuine, Like if he wasn't a writer, he would 147 00:08:44,480 --> 00:08:47,120 Speaker 1: still be doing that same thing. Yeah, right, I think 148 00:08:47,160 --> 00:08:50,520 Speaker 1: that's great. Yeah, that's where it hard a little bit 149 00:08:50,559 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: hard to understand him as I get older and older, 150 00:08:53,200 --> 00:08:59,160 Speaker 1: is it's hard to um he kind of in some 151 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:03,679 Speaker 1: ways like set stage a little bit for uh, kind 152 00:09:03,720 --> 00:09:07,480 Speaker 1: of the literary madman, you know, like he kind of 153 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:10,600 Speaker 1: created in somebodys He kind of created what we expected 154 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:12,960 Speaker 1: to see there, and it was always hard to tell, 155 00:09:12,960 --> 00:09:15,839 Speaker 1: Like as I get older, it's hard to tell to 156 00:09:16,240 --> 00:09:19,400 Speaker 1: what degree that that he did it because he got 157 00:09:19,400 --> 00:09:22,320 Speaker 1: away with it, you know, like he did it because 158 00:09:22,320 --> 00:09:24,599 Speaker 1: that became expected of him. You know. Yeah, there was 159 00:09:24,640 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: a lot of that, the wine and the food and yeah, 160 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 1: the women, you know, yeah, I think that's right. I 161 00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: mean there was a lot of that going on in 162 00:09:31,679 --> 00:09:34,200 Speaker 1: that era. You know, Hunter Thompson was very much like 163 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:38,520 Speaker 1: you know, my son worked as Hunter tons of bodyguard briefly, 164 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:41,400 Speaker 1: and I was around Hunter a lot too, and you 165 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:47,480 Speaker 1: you know, you to spend a a day with Hunter 166 00:09:47,600 --> 00:09:49,880 Speaker 1: doing stuff or being around be very normal. But the 167 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:52,480 Speaker 1: minute there was an audience around everything changed, you know 168 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:58,160 Speaker 1: for the worst. Yeah. Uh, Jim was very audience awear 169 00:09:58,280 --> 00:10:03,360 Speaker 1: two I think right. Yeah, But um he was also 170 00:10:03,559 --> 00:10:07,200 Speaker 1: you know he was he was a very genuine in 171 00:10:07,280 --> 00:10:09,520 Speaker 1: other ways and and the other thing about Harrison he 172 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:16,000 Speaker 1: was not often recognized as he was unbelievably intelligent. Um. 173 00:10:16,120 --> 00:10:21,360 Speaker 1: You could give him a tough European five page novel, 174 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,959 Speaker 1: he read it overnight and remember everything in it. Um. 175 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:31,319 Speaker 1: So that was That was probably the first thing I 176 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:36,480 Speaker 1: would think about with Jim. But he was also pretty 177 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:39,440 Speaker 1: curiously self propelled. I mean he would come out to 178 00:10:39,480 --> 00:10:44,280 Speaker 1: Montana for long, long stretches. Nobody ever knew he had 179 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:46,520 Speaker 1: a wife and children, you know, I mean he just 180 00:10:46,559 --> 00:10:50,440 Speaker 1: did what he felt like doing. He was remarkably uh, 181 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:56,079 Speaker 1: either independent or unilateral. Everyone looks. I want to come 182 00:10:56,080 --> 00:10:59,120 Speaker 1: back to my question about Rancho he Lucks. I was 183 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:05,400 Speaker 1: worked as an arborist right for several years in western Montana, 184 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:08,920 Speaker 1: and I met a guy um the last name of 185 00:11:08,920 --> 00:11:11,520 Speaker 1: what Glenda and he had been brought up on a 186 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:16,559 Speaker 1: ranch in the Bridge Arrange. And he one day I 187 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:22,200 Speaker 1: was telling me he said he was reminiscing about being 188 00:11:22,240 --> 00:11:25,199 Speaker 1: a kid. He talked about how they were filming a 189 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:30,880 Speaker 1: movie once and his dad sold someone. I came here 190 00:11:30,880 --> 00:11:33,560 Speaker 1: if it was a bull or a steer, Oh yeah, 191 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:37,920 Speaker 1: I know that. Yeah, I know that bull and that family. 192 00:11:38,000 --> 00:11:41,680 Speaker 1: Yeah right, there's a big sheryl A. Yeah. It was great, great, 193 00:11:41,760 --> 00:11:47,440 Speaker 1: that was a great actor. You know, we put him 194 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 1: in a motel room. I don't know how we did that. 195 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:52,880 Speaker 1: Oh no, was it that the one? I thought the 196 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,319 Speaker 1: one he was talking about, Yeah, he's talking about the 197 00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:58,520 Speaker 1: one we shot. Maybe it was the one of that. 198 00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:00,559 Speaker 1: I just can't remember. But he had no idea about 199 00:12:00,600 --> 00:12:04,440 Speaker 1: the movie. You just knew a story about some people 200 00:12:04,559 --> 00:12:06,520 Speaker 1: making a movie. Maybe it was the one that went 201 00:12:06,559 --> 00:12:10,760 Speaker 1: into the hotel room. Yeah, and then then, uh, you know, 202 00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:12,880 Speaker 1: we thought, well, we've gotta been the hotel room. What 203 00:12:12,880 --> 00:12:14,600 Speaker 1: are we gonna do with him? And then he then 204 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:17,800 Speaker 1: he charged the TV set and explode. The TV exploded, 205 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,760 Speaker 1: perfect for the film, completely unplanned. Yeah. And then the one, 206 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:26,440 Speaker 1: the one that gets shot with the one gets so obvious, 207 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:30,240 Speaker 1: like if you've seen animals, you know, you know, when 208 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:33,200 Speaker 1: you're seeing something real, it's like apocalypse. Now. I made 209 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:37,320 Speaker 1: the mistake recently of showing my nine year old the 210 00:12:37,559 --> 00:12:43,000 Speaker 1: end sequence of Apocalypse now where they kill water buffalo 211 00:12:43,920 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 1: and I didn't remember it the way that it looked, 212 00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:49,800 Speaker 1: and it traumatized them a little bit bad. But watching 213 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:52,840 Speaker 1: in Rancholdilocks like that was a time like that. Stuff 214 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:55,960 Speaker 1: doesn't wouldn't really happen anymore, that they would take a 215 00:12:56,080 --> 00:13:00,640 Speaker 1: Sharp's buffalo rifle shoot something for the camera. Well, we 216 00:13:00,679 --> 00:13:03,640 Speaker 1: had stuff like that happened. I'm glad it doesn't happen anymore. 217 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 1: I mean we had some catastrophes that we're making Missouri 218 00:13:07,720 --> 00:13:13,480 Speaker 1: Breaks with horses. Um, we wanted horses. We wanted horses 219 00:13:13,520 --> 00:13:15,440 Speaker 1: to swim the big Horn and they got tangled up 220 00:13:15,440 --> 00:13:21,480 Speaker 1: with old barbed wire on the bottom and stuff. Yeah. Yeah, 221 00:13:21,480 --> 00:13:26,600 Speaker 1: and that was your film with Marlon Brando. Did you 222 00:13:27,040 --> 00:13:29,680 Speaker 1: work on that one? Yeah, I lived with Brando for 223 00:13:29,720 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: a while. Uh. That's a huge hit in in Europe, 224 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:38,520 Speaker 1: the Missouri Breaks. Yeah, it's it's widely considered the best 225 00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:43,440 Speaker 1: modern Western. Just mad about it. I love it. Yeah, 226 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:47,520 Speaker 1: it's so off the wall, you know, I mean it was, Uh, 227 00:13:47,679 --> 00:13:50,719 Speaker 1: it was very interesting. I mean Brandon Jack Nicholson's kind 228 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:54,160 Speaker 1: of a prick, but Brando was really a fabulous human being. 229 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:56,360 Speaker 1: I just enjoyed all the time I had with him, 230 00:13:56,360 --> 00:14:02,360 Speaker 1: because he just had almost a Harrison kind of big aura, 231 00:14:02,559 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 1: you know, naturally speaking and uh and very unusual person. 232 00:14:07,280 --> 00:14:08,800 Speaker 1: I mean when I was staying with him, these kids 233 00:14:08,840 --> 00:14:10,360 Speaker 1: would come over to the house to get him to 234 00:14:10,400 --> 00:14:12,840 Speaker 1: repair their bicycles and get a little workshop and he 235 00:14:12,840 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: could do some electronics to fix it, fix their their 236 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:19,680 Speaker 1: walk man. And I mean, he's just a very ordinary guy. 237 00:14:19,960 --> 00:14:23,920 Speaker 1: Never saw The Godfather, never saw the movie. How detached 238 00:14:23,960 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: he was from the industry. What did you not like 239 00:14:27,960 --> 00:14:35,080 Speaker 1: about Jack Nicholson. Oh, it's just a prick, you know, uh, 240 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,600 Speaker 1: I said, It's a great actor. He was very much 241 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:42,560 Speaker 1: overshadowed by Brando. Brando did an interview in which he 242 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:45,760 Speaker 1: said it was he loved watching Jack act. He said, 243 00:14:45,760 --> 00:14:49,160 Speaker 1: because like watching a guy with one finger play a 244 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:57,840 Speaker 1: piano with one key, that that shouldn't bode well. And 245 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:01,520 Speaker 1: then we cast the girl was hot girl, you know, 246 00:15:01,720 --> 00:15:05,920 Speaker 1: for the the love interest thing, and she was just 247 00:15:05,920 --> 00:15:08,640 Speaker 1: as gorgeous girl. But they got to and Nicholson was 248 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:10,520 Speaker 1: trying to be sort of interested in her, you know, 249 00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:12,920 Speaker 1: sort of get into the sort of mood for the movie. 250 00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,360 Speaker 1: When they arrived in mont tennis, she announced that she 251 00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:20,080 Speaker 1: was a lesbian and moved into a tent with her girlfriend. 252 00:15:20,280 --> 00:15:25,880 Speaker 1: So anyway, you had to do it. Adapt man, that 253 00:15:25,960 --> 00:15:30,600 Speaker 1: was such a seems like such an unusual time there 254 00:15:31,920 --> 00:15:34,160 Speaker 1: to be involved in the culture around here, because I 255 00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:37,760 Speaker 1: feel like this area hadn't really been discovered by broader America. 256 00:15:38,400 --> 00:15:40,360 Speaker 1: Now it's true, you know, and I feel some of 257 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:43,760 Speaker 1: that's my fault, but you know, I was I mean, 258 00:15:44,320 --> 00:15:46,160 Speaker 1: I was broke, you know. I was trying to figure 259 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:48,400 Speaker 1: out how to survive here, and you can't. I couldn't 260 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:53,520 Speaker 1: really survive writing literary fiction. I had a teaching gig 261 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:58,560 Speaker 1: at Berkeley when one season and I thought, oh, I 262 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:01,800 Speaker 1: don't want to do this because I loved teaching, but 263 00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 1: I didn't want to write at the end of a 264 00:16:03,360 --> 00:16:07,160 Speaker 1: teaching day. And uh so I had to make some choices. 265 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:08,760 Speaker 1: And so I moved over and go to place for 266 00:16:08,800 --> 00:16:11,280 Speaker 1: twenty eight dollars a month on South Age Street in 267 00:16:11,400 --> 00:16:15,120 Speaker 1: Livingstone and just started scrambling. You know. It's a room 268 00:16:15,160 --> 00:16:18,880 Speaker 1: for Sports Illustrated. I wrote novels, I wrote short stories, 269 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,480 Speaker 1: and then I wrote the movies. You know. Um, I 270 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: heard an interview with you not long ago where you 271 00:16:28,120 --> 00:16:31,120 Speaker 1: were talking about that you like to hunt quail. Yeah, 272 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,600 Speaker 1: I like any kind of bird hunting. Again, and you 273 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:39,120 Speaker 1: had an observation about quail hunting where And I might 274 00:16:39,120 --> 00:16:41,760 Speaker 1: get this wrong, but I think this is basically what 275 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:45,200 Speaker 1: you had said, is that when there's a covey of 276 00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,720 Speaker 1: quail and you kill one of them, you don't have 277 00:16:48,800 --> 00:16:51,880 Speaker 1: the guilt that you might not otherwise have because you 278 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:56,040 Speaker 1: think of the of the being as being the covey, 279 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:00,320 Speaker 1: and the covey lives on. Well, it's true, first of all, 280 00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:02,880 Speaker 1: it's true, but yeah, but it's the same thing could 281 00:17:02,880 --> 00:17:04,800 Speaker 1: be true of any population if you look at it 282 00:17:04,800 --> 00:17:07,840 Speaker 1: at a metal level. Well, let's you kill a human 283 00:17:07,840 --> 00:17:11,520 Speaker 1: and be like, well, but humanity lives on. Well that's 284 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:13,960 Speaker 1: a great point actually, and I'm you're a little jump 285 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:16,240 Speaker 1: ahead of me on that, but I think I think 286 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:19,360 Speaker 1: you're right. You know, Ivan Stradarn once said, he said, 287 00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:22,040 Speaker 1: people are really in the animal world. You know what 288 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: they talk about hunters, They're very worried about the individual 289 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:31,280 Speaker 1: animal and not particularly worried about the species. And uh, 290 00:17:31,359 --> 00:17:34,040 Speaker 1: that's key to what you are You've got guys are doing. 291 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:36,520 Speaker 1: And I agree with that. However, every now and then 292 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:39,280 Speaker 1: I'll be out grouse hunting and two grouse will get up, 293 00:17:39,320 --> 00:17:42,879 Speaker 1: like it's late November. I'll kill one of them and 294 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:47,159 Speaker 1: the other one goes off for a long winter, and 295 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:51,280 Speaker 1: I sort of feel shitty. I can imagine, but for 296 00:17:51,320 --> 00:17:53,320 Speaker 1: some reason, I mean, I I have I have a 297 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:58,240 Speaker 1: covey of huns that I've been shooting into for thirty years. 298 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:03,160 Speaker 1: They're always the same side, you know, it's always twelve 299 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:05,880 Speaker 1: to sixteen birds. I'll kill three or four birds every 300 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:08,919 Speaker 1: year cove. He's always in the same place, always the 301 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:11,880 Speaker 1: same size. If there are grasshoppers for the babies that year. 302 00:18:12,440 --> 00:18:14,920 Speaker 1: Did you used to hunt big game a little bit 303 00:18:16,520 --> 00:18:19,960 Speaker 1: and and not in your interest in that faded? I 304 00:18:19,960 --> 00:18:21,359 Speaker 1: don't know. I mean I was getting to be a 305 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:23,360 Speaker 1: little bit of a trophy hunter, which was a sort 306 00:18:23,359 --> 00:18:27,960 Speaker 1: of against my principles. But we ate a lot of game. 307 00:18:28,440 --> 00:18:32,760 Speaker 1: I remember when my son and I I was for 308 00:18:32,800 --> 00:18:36,040 Speaker 1: a while, I was a single parent, and uh, we 309 00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:40,800 Speaker 1: were eating a lot of game. And I didn't have 310 00:18:40,800 --> 00:18:43,879 Speaker 1: any money, and I said, I said to him one time, oh, 311 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:45,760 Speaker 1: I had a movie sailor something happened. I had a 312 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:48,200 Speaker 1: bunch of money suddenly, And I said to him I'm 313 00:18:48,200 --> 00:18:51,160 Speaker 1: going to town to get some steaks. We're not gonna 314 00:18:51,160 --> 00:18:55,159 Speaker 1: eat this deer meat for a while. And so I 315 00:18:55,160 --> 00:18:57,560 Speaker 1: went and I get these beautiful ribbis, you know. And 316 00:18:57,600 --> 00:18:59,399 Speaker 1: he was out playing in the yard and I cooked 317 00:18:59,440 --> 00:19:01,640 Speaker 1: up these rig ribbies and he came walking in the house. 318 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:04,639 Speaker 1: He said, oh my god, what's stinking up the house. 319 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,080 Speaker 1: I said, it's these steaks. He said, oh God, throw 320 00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:11,480 Speaker 1: them away. The whole house stinks. He ran around opening 321 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:13,960 Speaker 1: the windows to get this beef stink out of the house. 322 00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:21,840 Speaker 1: So that kind of was a watershed moment for me. 323 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:25,560 Speaker 1: I mean, it's just, uh that and the fact, the 324 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:29,240 Speaker 1: overnoticed fact that people don't seem to know where meat 325 00:19:29,280 --> 00:19:33,320 Speaker 1: comes from. And uh, I like, how you say that's overnoticed. 326 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:38,439 Speaker 1: And I remember one time we're down in Florida and 327 00:19:38,480 --> 00:19:41,080 Speaker 1: my wife I like to snook fish and my wife 328 00:19:41,320 --> 00:19:44,320 Speaker 1: loves to eat snook, you know, And she said she 329 00:19:44,440 --> 00:19:46,280 Speaker 1: was going to the movies and a little community center. 330 00:19:46,320 --> 00:19:48,320 Speaker 1: She said, catch a snook tonight. We'll have a snook 331 00:19:48,320 --> 00:19:50,879 Speaker 1: for dinner. So I went out and labored away, and 332 00:19:50,880 --> 00:19:53,959 Speaker 1: I look this big snook and I'm down on the 333 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,520 Speaker 1: dock and I'm getting ready to give him the wood shampoo, 334 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:00,240 Speaker 1: and my wife's car lights come into the dry way 335 00:20:00,240 --> 00:20:02,120 Speaker 1: and she could gets out of the car and I said, 336 00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:03,520 Speaker 1: I got what I'm just gonna bring up to the 337 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:07,879 Speaker 1: house now, and she said, don't hurt him. She had 338 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:12,400 Speaker 1: been a filet. Should have been happy when he said, 339 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:13,960 Speaker 1: you became a trophy hunter for a while. What do 340 00:20:14,040 --> 00:20:16,480 Speaker 1: you mean? Well, I got like interested trying to find 341 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:20,280 Speaker 1: a big like you wanting to find a big mule here? Yeah, 342 00:20:20,440 --> 00:20:23,720 Speaker 1: and uh did you find one? Yeah, a huge one? 343 00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:26,720 Speaker 1: If there's five of them. I killed the big one. 344 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:30,520 Speaker 1: It looked like an alk lying out among the five pointers. 345 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:33,680 Speaker 1: I mean he had an orange crate on his head, 346 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,160 Speaker 1: and uh, I knew I'd never kill a bigger wood. 347 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:40,040 Speaker 1: And also I questioned how good he was going to 348 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:45,399 Speaker 1: be to eat? Uh and uh, But I mean I 349 00:20:45,440 --> 00:20:47,440 Speaker 1: look back on it, I mean I really missed those 350 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: days of really being obsessed, you know, getting up in 351 00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,439 Speaker 1: the morning and thinking which way the wind is and 352 00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:57,600 Speaker 1: how much snow there is. You know, where I think 353 00:20:57,600 --> 00:21:00,240 Speaker 1: they'll be that day, or where I could stay out, 354 00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:02,120 Speaker 1: where they'll come out of the trees, and I mean 355 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:05,120 Speaker 1: where that whole scenario is running in your head. It's 356 00:21:05,200 --> 00:21:06,960 Speaker 1: fun to be obsessed, you know, I mean I like 357 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,520 Speaker 1: being obsessed. Uh, And and I kind of missed that 358 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:14,040 Speaker 1: part of it. And on the strictly the meat level, 359 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:18,520 Speaker 1: I mean probably uh, last year's fawn would be the 360 00:21:18,560 --> 00:21:21,480 Speaker 1: one to shoot you if you wanted to want some meat. 361 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:24,000 Speaker 1: And there's not much of a quest involved there, There's 362 00:21:24,040 --> 00:21:29,840 Speaker 1: no there's the sort of predatory adrenaline. Doesn't necessarily get 363 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:33,680 Speaker 1: engaged over that that sort of thing. But probably one 364 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:35,880 Speaker 1: of the reasons I've drifted towards bird hunting so much 365 00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:38,640 Speaker 1: is I really get obsessed with that. You know, I've 366 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,639 Speaker 1: always I've had bird dogs my entire life and just 367 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:46,040 Speaker 1: watching each one mind developed and how they get, how 368 00:21:46,119 --> 00:21:50,840 Speaker 1: they figure the game out, and how we do this together. Um. 369 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,280 Speaker 1: Uh that that's a similar obsession. And you try you 370 00:21:56,359 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: travel a little bit to hunt, right because I remember 371 00:21:58,240 --> 00:22:00,040 Speaker 1: in an email you mentioned that you were done in 372 00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:03,320 Speaker 1: Texas hunting quail. Yeah. I've got a friend who lives 373 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:09,160 Speaker 1: over by McAllister who had a little quail camp down there. Um, 374 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,360 Speaker 1: a couple of trailers on on a on a lot 375 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: in West Texas and then we find leases or places 376 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:19,239 Speaker 1: we can go. Um, I have a I have a 377 00:22:19,240 --> 00:22:24,879 Speaker 1: friend Burt Jones. Do you remember Burt Jones, quarterback for Indianapolis? 378 00:22:25,280 --> 00:22:32,320 Speaker 1: Great player? Really I know, Yeah, he's a wonder wonderful guy. Anyway, 379 00:22:32,320 --> 00:22:36,200 Speaker 1: he's got a quail least out there and West Texas. 380 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:38,720 Speaker 1: West Texas is a great place to bird hunt because 381 00:22:38,720 --> 00:22:40,720 Speaker 1: it's totally First of all, there's a lot of habitat 382 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:44,480 Speaker 1: left in West Texas for these birds. Uh. And it's 383 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,280 Speaker 1: completely dependent on weather. I mean, you'll go almost to 384 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:51,600 Speaker 1: zero where you couldn't find a quail with a helicopter, 385 00:22:51,680 --> 00:22:53,640 Speaker 1: and a year later they're hitting you on the head, 386 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:56,160 Speaker 1: you know, just depending on the rain and the particular 387 00:22:56,200 --> 00:23:01,960 Speaker 1: distribution of weeds and things like that. Um So, anyway, 388 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:04,080 Speaker 1: I'm gonna hunt with him this year. And then broke 389 00:23:04,280 --> 00:23:08,480 Speaker 1: and I went to a couple of places uh uh 390 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:12,960 Speaker 1: in Georgia and um, North Florida. In fact, my cousins 391 00:23:12,960 --> 00:23:14,680 Speaker 1: were all here and we had a big quail dinner 392 00:23:14,840 --> 00:23:19,160 Speaker 1: night before last. I brought a big lot of them back. Uh. 393 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,479 Speaker 1: But I that whole quest thing that shared things like 394 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:25,680 Speaker 1: for forty years I competed on cutting horses, and there's 395 00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:28,080 Speaker 1: a little similar thing where you're just trying to understand 396 00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:32,480 Speaker 1: what that horses figuring out and you're trying to cooperate 397 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:34,480 Speaker 1: in that quest, you know. And it's the same with 398 00:23:34,560 --> 00:23:37,320 Speaker 1: bird dogs. You know, you see that that moment where 399 00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:39,840 Speaker 1: they're wondering, wondering if you're kind of off track, and 400 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:42,000 Speaker 1: they look up at you and they're a hundred yards out, 401 00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:46,240 Speaker 1: and you go, you go like you know that communications thing, 402 00:23:46,280 --> 00:23:49,879 Speaker 1: and then when boom, when it works, you know, and 403 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:52,800 Speaker 1: they've got them and you know they're out in front 404 00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,240 Speaker 1: and it's your job now, and they kind of they 405 00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:58,480 Speaker 1: kind of look back a little bit like this, and 406 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:04,840 Speaker 1: I mean it's very the heat rises considered. Yeah, what 407 00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:06,960 Speaker 1: is it real quick? What does it mean to compete 408 00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:09,960 Speaker 1: on a cutting horse? Oh that's a long story, but 409 00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,040 Speaker 1: I mean if you don't haven't seen a cutting or something. 410 00:24:12,080 --> 00:24:15,399 Speaker 1: I mean the rule book is ad pages long. So, 411 00:24:15,880 --> 00:24:19,520 Speaker 1: but it's basically, uh, you know, sorting cattle in a 412 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 1: competitive situation with very athletic, speedy, tough thing to figure out. 413 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:27,360 Speaker 1: You never get to the bottom of it. It's very 414 00:24:27,400 --> 00:24:30,159 Speaker 1: tough and sorting just like they throw you in an 415 00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:35,440 Speaker 1: arena with a hundred and you cut out the tube. Yeah, 416 00:24:35,680 --> 00:24:38,520 Speaker 1: you'd have to see it. We'd have to have a 417 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,840 Speaker 1: a video to you could show you what was going on, 418 00:24:40,960 --> 00:24:43,280 Speaker 1: you know, what correctness and what the horses are doing, 419 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:47,600 Speaker 1: what the riders are doing. Um. But the analogy to 420 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,679 Speaker 1: bird hunting is is that it doesn't work unless you 421 00:24:50,760 --> 00:24:54,879 Speaker 1: have a pretty profound and sort of emotional relationship with 422 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:59,120 Speaker 1: that horse or that dog. I mean, I've seen really 423 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:04,280 Speaker 1: good dog handler you know, would if that dog got 424 00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,560 Speaker 1: out three yards and you wanted to stop and turn 425 00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:10,399 Speaker 1: and go someplace else. I know, dog handlers tap on 426 00:25:10,440 --> 00:25:12,959 Speaker 1: the whistle and that dog will freeze. I mean, just 427 00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,880 Speaker 1: chill and go someplace else Whereas if you you can 428 00:25:15,880 --> 00:25:18,000 Speaker 1: blow the whistle all day long, that won't dog won't 429 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:21,600 Speaker 1: even hear you. And all it is the tap, but 430 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:26,160 Speaker 1: the the communication is so intricate at that level that 431 00:25:27,200 --> 00:25:28,720 Speaker 1: and you have to work at it all the time 432 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:34,120 Speaker 1: for it to happen. So um, that's kind of supplanted 433 00:25:34,920 --> 00:25:40,879 Speaker 1: my big game hunting thing. Uh, but I've very you know, 434 00:25:40,920 --> 00:25:43,480 Speaker 1: I really value the impulse to hunt big game. I mean, 435 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:45,320 Speaker 1: we're all talking about this all the time, but they 436 00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:52,399 Speaker 1: need stakeholders, and uh, I had I was fishing in 437 00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:56,520 Speaker 1: the Bahamas with them. Uh, Johnny Morris. You don't guys 438 00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:58,800 Speaker 1: know who Johnny the founder of bass Pro shops. Yeah, 439 00:25:58,880 --> 00:26:02,240 Speaker 1: he's got two hundred billion and loyal customers. He's he 440 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:06,080 Speaker 1: just won the Audubon Award. Very much more of a 441 00:26:06,600 --> 00:26:12,560 Speaker 1: environmentally alert person in the Cabella's group were. But it's 442 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:16,400 Speaker 1: one of the same now. Yeah, but the purchase and 443 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:25,479 Speaker 1: but their data tells them that the gun and hunting 444 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:30,680 Speaker 1: community is declining. And I was talking to my friend 445 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: and Barbara big Timber and his son manageres Cabella's a 446 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:36,720 Speaker 1: Missoul and they're frustrated because they're not getting then the 447 00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:43,479 Speaker 1: volume of weaponry um that they used to get before 448 00:26:43,520 --> 00:26:46,560 Speaker 1: this changeover is because Johnny Morris knows the future really 449 00:26:46,640 --> 00:26:51,480 Speaker 1: is fishing, not hunting um. And you know, we have 450 00:26:51,520 --> 00:26:54,440 Speaker 1: a wonderful shop here in town, sporting and story called 451 00:26:54,440 --> 00:26:56,480 Speaker 1: the Sport. Have you all ever been in the Sport? No, 452 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,480 Speaker 1: I haven't. Anyway, it's been real deepot from sales and 453 00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:03,879 Speaker 1: stuff like that, And until very recently it was just 454 00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,200 Speaker 1: you know, all sporting things, you know, varmint rifles, big 455 00:27:06,200 --> 00:27:09,280 Speaker 1: game rifles and shotguns and all that stuff. Well, it's 456 00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:13,920 Speaker 1: just the great presence of high concealable weapons. Now in 457 00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:19,160 Speaker 1: a K forty seven's completely supplanted. This sort of not completely. 458 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,440 Speaker 1: They still carry a lots, but it's I mean, it's 459 00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: a huge presence in that store in Big Timber, I mean, 460 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:29,400 Speaker 1: you know, so, you know, I know, there's a lot 461 00:27:29,440 --> 00:27:33,960 Speaker 1: of zealotry around the Second Amendment and a lot of 462 00:27:33,960 --> 00:27:37,200 Speaker 1: controversy about that, but all these people who are sort 463 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,040 Speaker 1: of gun nuts. I'm sort of a gun nut, but 464 00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:42,240 Speaker 1: all these people are sort of gun nuts who are 465 00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:47,240 Speaker 1: fanatical about our rights to have every kind of gun 466 00:27:47,280 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 1: and have it in every place, church, at school, every place, 467 00:27:50,080 --> 00:27:53,400 Speaker 1: by the way, except the legislature. In the banks, can't 468 00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 1: take guns there. You take them to kindergarten, but you 469 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,480 Speaker 1: can't take them to a bank. Yeah, I've seen warnings 470 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:04,320 Speaker 1: in entering sporting good stores. Yeah about Yeah, you can't 471 00:28:04,320 --> 00:28:06,200 Speaker 1: take them to the can't take them to the n 472 00:28:06,280 --> 00:28:11,480 Speaker 1: r A convention, yeah, in Las Vegas. Yeah so. But 473 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:13,520 Speaker 1: but my point is not so much that is that 474 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:16,399 Speaker 1: they're more interested in what often flies under the aegis 475 00:28:16,520 --> 00:28:20,560 Speaker 1: of hunting weapons. They're more interested in protecting the rights 476 00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:22,199 Speaker 1: to have as many of those they want. They're not 477 00:28:22,280 --> 00:28:25,040 Speaker 1: very interested in protecting the quarry or the wildlife that 478 00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:31,320 Speaker 1: these are supposedly uh being sold to exploit. So they're 479 00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:34,439 Speaker 1: not they're not they're not. They're not battlers for public 480 00:28:34,560 --> 00:28:38,720 Speaker 1: land access, they're not battlers for well being, wildlife and 481 00:28:38,920 --> 00:28:41,280 Speaker 1: any of that. They just want the guns. And I 482 00:28:41,280 --> 00:28:44,800 Speaker 1: don't get that. A lot of people become pretty segmented 483 00:28:45,240 --> 00:28:48,640 Speaker 1: when it comes to the things that they're giving advocacy for. Yeah, 484 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,840 Speaker 1: you know, like when someone's a crusader for something. Yeah, 485 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 1: they tend to fixate. Well that's that's that's possible. They 486 00:28:55,760 --> 00:28:58,440 Speaker 1: noticed that they're sort of boundaries there. I mean, it's 487 00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,760 Speaker 1: like the smart play there. The smart play is to understand, 488 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,720 Speaker 1: um like play there is to understand and I think 489 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:06,840 Speaker 1: the people that were playing the real long game on 490 00:29:06,960 --> 00:29:11,440 Speaker 1: that do understand that public participation in certain activities depends 491 00:29:11,480 --> 00:29:14,959 Speaker 1: on viable resources and depends on access and then they 492 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,920 Speaker 1: understand that. But some people, um, you know, there's people 493 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:23,440 Speaker 1: like there's elements of the of the gun community that 494 00:29:23,800 --> 00:29:26,520 Speaker 1: they even have a derogatory term for people that focus 495 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:29,760 Speaker 1: too much on hunting, where you become a fund fud 496 00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:35,520 Speaker 1: would be someone who views firearm ownership through the lens 497 00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,880 Speaker 1: of hunting would be a fud if you d like 498 00:29:39,160 --> 00:29:43,760 Speaker 1: I guess, yeah, I'm gathering elmer fud. Oh oh yeah. 499 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,600 Speaker 1: Have you found like you know you can't fix stupid? 500 00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:51,960 Speaker 1: Have you found in your career this is guy. There's 501 00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:55,640 Speaker 1: probably a double edged sword to your involvement and throughout 502 00:29:55,680 --> 00:30:01,520 Speaker 1: your life with hunting, the implicit x bliss at involvement 503 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:05,520 Speaker 1: with firearm ownership and fishing, where it's made up so 504 00:30:05,640 --> 00:30:08,000 Speaker 1: much of what you write about and so much of 505 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:12,360 Speaker 1: your understanding of the world. But then you not out 506 00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:16,520 Speaker 1: of necessity and perhaps personal preference, You've worked with many 507 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:18,560 Speaker 1: people who would be regarded, you know, like people in 508 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,080 Speaker 1: Los Angeles or Hollywood, people in New York who would 509 00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:26,360 Speaker 1: have an innate suspicion of those things. So on one hand, 510 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:32,160 Speaker 1: you're probably uh penalized in some way because of the 511 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: things you've been involved in. But in the other hand, 512 00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:37,240 Speaker 1: you wouldn't be here if it weren't for those things, 513 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:40,320 Speaker 1: because those are the things that make up your work. 514 00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:43,440 Speaker 1: When I hear that, like in my line of work, personally, 515 00:30:43,520 --> 00:30:47,960 Speaker 1: when I heard it, some media enterprise or whatever doesn't 516 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:51,080 Speaker 1: want to work with us because of the hunting thing, 517 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,880 Speaker 1: or because of the gun thing. I'm always like, oh, 518 00:30:55,040 --> 00:30:57,200 Speaker 1: what a bummer, But I'm like, baha on it. If 519 00:30:57,200 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: it wasn't for those things, I wouldn't talk. I wouldn't 520 00:30:59,080 --> 00:31:01,800 Speaker 1: have any reason to be in the conversation anyways. Yeah, 521 00:31:01,840 --> 00:31:04,200 Speaker 1: because this is all I've ever talked about. Yeah, right, 522 00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:07,600 Speaker 1: right right? How have you ever felt that? Uh? Have 523 00:31:07,720 --> 00:31:09,920 Speaker 1: you ever felt that in a way that was painful 524 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:12,480 Speaker 1: to you? Well? You know, you know, I'm in the 525 00:31:12,520 --> 00:31:14,840 Speaker 1: American Academy and I go back there for those meetings, 526 00:31:14,840 --> 00:31:16,960 Speaker 1: and one of my good friends is Joey Williams and 527 00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:20,680 Speaker 1: Joy Williams the most eloquent anti hunting book I ever. 528 00:31:20,920 --> 00:31:23,200 Speaker 1: She's the best anti hunting writer out there. No, She's 529 00:31:23,240 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: fantastically good. And she just feels it very strongly, you know. 530 00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: I mean, I don't I don't quibble at all with 531 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:34,440 Speaker 1: the genuineness of her rage against the idea of killing animals. 532 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,800 Speaker 1: And the old the old head of the uh uh 533 00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,840 Speaker 1: Humane Society once said, you know, why would you want 534 00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:49,440 Speaker 1: to kill something that wished to live? You know, it's 535 00:31:49,440 --> 00:31:53,200 Speaker 1: a big question. How do you get around it? I mean, uh, 536 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:57,120 Speaker 1: you can't skip it, you know. Um, And I'm not 537 00:31:57,160 --> 00:32:01,280 Speaker 1: sure you get by by saying an incremental portion of 538 00:32:01,320 --> 00:32:03,840 Speaker 1: the meat I eat, I killed myself. You know, I mean, 539 00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,920 Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a big McDonald's guy. Was right. Yeah, 540 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,720 Speaker 1: I like junk food. I like good food. I like 541 00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:17,160 Speaker 1: junk food. But um so. But when I'm back in 542 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,760 Speaker 1: the bubble, you know, I know there are things that's 543 00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:21,880 Speaker 1: just gonna be warfare if we want to have to 544 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:24,600 Speaker 1: talk about it. I'm under contract to the New Yorker. 545 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:28,440 Speaker 1: I wouldn't send them a hunting story. I barely would 546 00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,160 Speaker 1: send him a fishing story. You send him a lot 547 00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:35,240 Speaker 1: of story a lot of cattle ranchers. Yeah, oh yeah, Listen, 548 00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:41,280 Speaker 1: I'm aware of the of the uh, the the contradictory 549 00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:43,160 Speaker 1: nature of it. There's no doubt about it. Do you 550 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:45,080 Speaker 1: feel that they wouldn't Do you feel that they would 551 00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:49,120 Speaker 1: not publish a story they had a protagonist or antagonist 552 00:32:49,200 --> 00:32:54,440 Speaker 1: who was a hunter. I don't know, but probably not. 553 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:56,080 Speaker 1: But I mean, one of the things that drives me, 554 00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:59,520 Speaker 1: and one one reason I'm fairly comfortable with a ranching 555 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:03,960 Speaker 1: culture is that some pretty profound studies have indicated that 556 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:07,120 Speaker 1: when a ranch goes out of business for any reason, 557 00:33:07,920 --> 00:33:09,840 Speaker 1: if it goes out of business for any reason. No 558 00:33:09,880 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: matter what other trajectory it goes to, biodiversity drops sharply. Okay, 559 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: So even though you know I most of my friends 560 00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:26,480 Speaker 1: after at this point in my life were our right 561 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:30,760 Speaker 1: wing ranchers, you know, Um, for reasons I could never 562 00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:33,920 Speaker 1: quite understand it. But but my county went, My county 563 00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:38,719 Speaker 1: went for Donald Trump. They're doing. I don't want them 564 00:33:38,760 --> 00:33:44,720 Speaker 1: to go out of business, you know. And also, uh, 565 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:49,640 Speaker 1: also I know that their reasons for voting and thinking 566 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:51,520 Speaker 1: the way they do are a lot more subtle than 567 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,400 Speaker 1: they are ascribed to them. Um. A lot of them 568 00:33:56,400 --> 00:33:59,240 Speaker 1: I know had problems with Obama, not because he was black, 569 00:33:59,280 --> 00:34:02,480 Speaker 1: but because he's an elitist and talked like a Harvard guy. 570 00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:07,120 Speaker 1: They had real issues with his his his way of 571 00:34:07,160 --> 00:34:10,600 Speaker 1: expressing himself. He reminded him of the kind of people 572 00:34:10,680 --> 00:34:13,400 Speaker 1: that are trying to run them out of here. Uh 573 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:17,879 Speaker 1: nadn't care if it's black, I mean anything to him. Uh. 574 00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:22,759 Speaker 1: There is a simplified way I found that, you know, 575 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,319 Speaker 1: time and again where there's a very but people have 576 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:28,319 Speaker 1: people on both sides do it where you try to 577 00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:32,359 Speaker 1: boil people's motivations down to something that you know is unfair. Yeah, 578 00:34:32,640 --> 00:34:36,480 Speaker 1: but it's it helps with the rhetoric. I just got 579 00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:40,680 Speaker 1: a friend of mine just forward forward to a really 580 00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:42,759 Speaker 1: brilliant piece. Actually it was in the Washington Post that 581 00:34:42,840 --> 00:34:48,080 Speaker 1: Rum Emmanuel wrote Rum fishes here, and it was the 582 00:34:48,200 --> 00:34:52,360 Speaker 1: idea that the only way to beat Trump was the 583 00:34:52,360 --> 00:34:54,120 Speaker 1: best way to beat Trump is to not try to 584 00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:01,000 Speaker 1: out trump him. Um, and that the idea, uh, that 585 00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,520 Speaker 1: the squad is going to somehow another destroy at the 586 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:10,440 Speaker 1: election is just craziness because moderates have always dominated presidential elections. 587 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:16,000 Speaker 1: And but it is tempting to fight fire with fire, 588 00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:22,400 Speaker 1: you know. Uh, I mean I find this age culturally 589 00:35:22,520 --> 00:35:27,279 Speaker 1: politically to be unbelievably obnoxious. You know. I was just 590 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:29,920 Speaker 1: I just came back from this book toward Europe, and 591 00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:32,000 Speaker 1: I mean, they wanted to know why we machine gun 592 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:34,440 Speaker 1: our kids and why we do all these awful things. 593 00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:35,960 Speaker 1: And it used to be you go to France, there's 594 00:35:36,040 --> 00:35:38,320 Speaker 1: quite a little bit of hostility between the Americans and 595 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,840 Speaker 1: French people, even among intellectuals and culturally elites. It's not 596 00:35:42,840 --> 00:35:47,160 Speaker 1: true anymore. They just feel sorry for us. Uh. They 597 00:35:47,200 --> 00:35:50,719 Speaker 1: think that we are taking what was the greatest experiment 598 00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:54,719 Speaker 1: democracy in the history of the world and ruining it, 599 00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:58,799 Speaker 1: and they can't figure out why we're doing that. They 600 00:35:58,840 --> 00:36:02,080 Speaker 1: mean that because you think they mean that just because 601 00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:08,440 Speaker 1: of the aesthetics, like the name calling and the divisiveness 602 00:36:08,480 --> 00:36:11,640 Speaker 1: like that aspect of American that level of discourse, of 603 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:16,319 Speaker 1: the kind of wall building, and the and the a 604 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,160 Speaker 1: country that uh build on the idea of free trade 605 00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:22,719 Speaker 1: wanting to launch all these tariffs, I mean, doesn't make 606 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:28,439 Speaker 1: sense to them. Looks like we've flipped out and knowing that, uh, 607 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:34,799 Speaker 1: that approach has tremendous support here. Right, It's real, it's 608 00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:38,640 Speaker 1: it's it's kind of alarming. But if you if you 609 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:42,399 Speaker 1: live in a very conservative community, you know that that's 610 00:36:42,400 --> 00:36:45,520 Speaker 1: just part of what people are. You know, you know, 611 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:48,919 Speaker 1: it's just part of what people are. It's not it's 612 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,759 Speaker 1: not as sweeping an indictment as it looks like it is. 613 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:54,719 Speaker 1: Do you feel it? Do you feel politically? I mean, 614 00:36:54,760 --> 00:36:56,640 Speaker 1: I know politically you probably feel out of place, But 615 00:36:56,680 --> 00:36:58,840 Speaker 1: do you feel out of place being in a I 616 00:36:58,840 --> 00:37:02,520 Speaker 1: mean being you've been involved in ranching, but you but 617 00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: you sit outside of ranchers in general? Just being a 618 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:11,480 Speaker 1: writer's bad enough. I mean, uh, uh no, I I 619 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:14,560 Speaker 1: was I feel pretty comfortable, you know, I spent ten 620 00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,279 Speaker 1: years roping stairs in the Northern Rodeo Association. Yeah no, no, 621 00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:22,600 Speaker 1: it's and uh, you know they think they just view 622 00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:25,719 Speaker 1: my progressive ism is just another quirk. You know, some 623 00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,440 Speaker 1: guy's got a drinking problem. I've got a progressive as 624 00:37:28,480 --> 00:37:33,239 Speaker 1: a problem. What are the Because there's a there's a 625 00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:35,360 Speaker 1: three you sit on the you're in the fly Fishing 626 00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:39,759 Speaker 1: Hall of Fame, the Academy of Arts and Letters, and 627 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:43,239 Speaker 1: then there's a there's a schizophrenic. There's a horse. But 628 00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:46,080 Speaker 1: what's ther You're in some horse hall of fame. Yeah, 629 00:37:46,160 --> 00:37:48,480 Speaker 1: cutting cords, all of fame. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, 630 00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,080 Speaker 1: I just saw this thing. I read this quote. It 631 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:58,200 Speaker 1: was just so great. Dostoevsky visited Charles Dickens, and Charles 632 00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,080 Speaker 1: Dickens said, well, I'm really too people, he said. There, 633 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:03,880 Speaker 1: he said, I'm the person who creates all you know, 634 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:08,359 Speaker 1: all these these are positive characters. I'm also the guy 635 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:13,319 Speaker 1: that creates scool Scrooge, and and he said, there's are 636 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:16,040 Speaker 1: two two of me that does these two things in 637 00:38:16,120 --> 00:38:24,600 Speaker 1: Dosky said only two. So I write an interview with 638 00:38:24,680 --> 00:38:26,520 Speaker 1: you or you're talking to I think some kind of 639 00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:29,200 Speaker 1: He's like a literary reviewer. I can't remember his name, 640 00:38:29,280 --> 00:38:33,480 Speaker 1: like like a literary figure. Um, and you were talking 641 00:38:33,520 --> 00:38:36,880 Speaker 1: about a thing that you like, you were explaining that, 642 00:38:36,960 --> 00:38:39,440 Speaker 1: I thing you liked about horses, and you think they 643 00:38:39,520 --> 00:38:44,160 Speaker 1: liked about fishing because they had ritualistic qualities too. I 644 00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:48,560 Speaker 1: think that's right. Yeah, keep explaining that a little bit. Uh, 645 00:38:48,760 --> 00:38:51,160 Speaker 1: I think it's partly that. And it's something I mean, 646 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:54,120 Speaker 1: my my problem. My father used to accuse me, this 647 00:38:54,200 --> 00:38:56,880 Speaker 1: is I'm just interest interured so many things. You know, 648 00:38:56,960 --> 00:39:01,399 Speaker 1: there's a problem. I can see that. Yeah. And and uh, 649 00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,200 Speaker 1: but those are things that really concentrate me, you know, 650 00:39:04,239 --> 00:39:06,880 Speaker 1: I mean, and pretty quickly too. I mean, it's afternoon, 651 00:39:06,960 --> 00:39:09,160 Speaker 1: I'm gonna string up a fly rod, and the minute 652 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:12,799 Speaker 1: I set foot in the water river, all the kind 653 00:39:12,840 --> 00:39:17,760 Speaker 1: of conflicts and sort of multiplicity of my brain life 654 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:20,560 Speaker 1: are going to go away. I'm just gonna I mean, 655 00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:25,480 Speaker 1: I'm gonna get focused. And and uh, part of the 656 00:39:25,520 --> 00:39:27,320 Speaker 1: things that enables you to focus, you don't have to 657 00:39:27,360 --> 00:39:30,320 Speaker 1: reinvent the wheel every time you go hunting or you 658 00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:35,279 Speaker 1: go fishing. There there is there is there is ritualized 659 00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:43,600 Speaker 1: behavior that has a quasi religious dimension to it. And uh, 660 00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:46,720 Speaker 1: you know, since I don't have any other kind of religion, 661 00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:51,279 Speaker 1: I like to I like to access that thing, that 662 00:39:51,480 --> 00:39:54,480 Speaker 1: pattern of doing things. It's the right way to do things. 663 00:39:55,400 --> 00:40:00,480 Speaker 1: And hunting is full of that, and and so fishing. 664 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:03,960 Speaker 1: Give an example of of an activity that you would find, 665 00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:07,000 Speaker 1: I mean an activity within the activity, an activity within 666 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,840 Speaker 1: fishing or an activity within hunting, that would be the 667 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:12,719 Speaker 1: type of ritualistic behavior you're talking about. Boy, let me 668 00:40:12,760 --> 00:40:19,879 Speaker 1: think I come up without well, I'm not sure I can. 669 00:40:20,280 --> 00:40:21,920 Speaker 1: I'd have to, I'd have to brow down that for 670 00:40:21,920 --> 00:40:24,160 Speaker 1: a while. What you're saying, I think so that I 671 00:40:24,280 --> 00:40:27,240 Speaker 1: understand correctly. It's not so much the rituals that man 672 00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:31,319 Speaker 1: or humans have come up for these activities, but more 673 00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,919 Speaker 1: so the rituals they just come about of doing the activity. Well, 674 00:40:34,960 --> 00:40:37,440 Speaker 1: I think probably that. I mean, it's some of it 675 00:40:37,600 --> 00:40:39,279 Speaker 1: is habit for him. There's some of the things you 676 00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,040 Speaker 1: know that my father, my grandfather were hunters, or right 677 00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,160 Speaker 1: ways to do things. They're right ways. They're right ways 678 00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:48,040 Speaker 1: around guns and dogs and things that you're supposed to do. 679 00:40:48,080 --> 00:40:52,359 Speaker 1: How are you supposed to take care of things? Um? Uh? 680 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:56,520 Speaker 1: And you really feel it when you're around people who 681 00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:59,600 Speaker 1: haven't had that kind of approach to it. They don't. 682 00:40:59,600 --> 00:41:02,759 Speaker 1: They don't have to inherit it genetically, but they have 683 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:05,680 Speaker 1: to honor these kinds of practices about the way the 684 00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:09,839 Speaker 1: way you do things. And I guess that's ritualized. Now 685 00:41:09,880 --> 00:41:13,440 Speaker 1: that's that's a funny observation or not funny. But I 686 00:41:13,480 --> 00:41:15,279 Speaker 1: do notice that I hadn't thought to put it in 687 00:41:15,320 --> 00:41:18,759 Speaker 1: those words. But when you're with someone, I spent a 688 00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:23,280 Speaker 1: lot of time around people who uh have began hunting 689 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:26,520 Speaker 1: later in life. It began fishing later in life, and 690 00:41:26,600 --> 00:41:31,279 Speaker 1: it does that they have in their behavior or in 691 00:41:31,320 --> 00:41:36,440 Speaker 1: the way they do things. You realize there's nothing really wrote, Yeah, 692 00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,360 Speaker 1: there's nothing that they do it because that's how they 693 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,080 Speaker 1: were shown to do it and always did it. And 694 00:41:42,120 --> 00:41:46,560 Speaker 1: I find too, now that I'm a parent, um, I 695 00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:54,000 Speaker 1: oftentimes encounter other parents with young kids who, for whatever reason, 696 00:41:55,600 --> 00:42:01,200 Speaker 1: are parenting with all new strategies that they earned or 697 00:42:01,239 --> 00:42:05,560 Speaker 1: read about or heard about, rather than sort of the 698 00:42:05,680 --> 00:42:09,760 Speaker 1: activities that you would have seen the way your grandparents behaved, 699 00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,080 Speaker 1: and there was a way your parents behaved and the 700 00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:17,960 Speaker 1: expectations of children and these things sort of march on, 701 00:42:18,200 --> 00:42:22,360 Speaker 1: you know, And then I'll meet people who parent totally 702 00:42:22,400 --> 00:42:26,719 Speaker 1: outside of whatever inertia has gathered up, right, Yeah, that's great, 703 00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:30,640 Speaker 1: that's interesting. And they're like, oh no, we're trying, um, 704 00:42:31,280 --> 00:42:34,760 Speaker 1: we're trying a new type of parenting. And it strikes 705 00:42:34,800 --> 00:42:37,120 Speaker 1: me in the same way that you see the same 706 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,799 Speaker 1: thing in certain like just tying a fishing hook on, 707 00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:43,680 Speaker 1: Like there's the person that does it all the time, 708 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,719 Speaker 1: and there's the person that seems to be dabbling, like 709 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:50,640 Speaker 1: the dabbles in there, right. Um, I just have a 710 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:53,439 Speaker 1: thought of a version of that. I have a good friend. 711 00:42:53,440 --> 00:42:55,879 Speaker 1: I won't name him because he's so well known, but oh, 712 00:42:55,960 --> 00:43:01,640 Speaker 1: go ahead, but he you know, I have fished for 713 00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,799 Speaker 1: steelhead for a long time, and there's a lot of 714 00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:08,600 Speaker 1: stuff about fishing through a run and if you catch 715 00:43:08,600 --> 00:43:10,360 Speaker 1: a fish, you know, you need to go all the 716 00:43:10,360 --> 00:43:11,920 Speaker 1: way back to the top of the run letter or 717 00:43:11,920 --> 00:43:16,640 Speaker 1: whoever was the run fish on? Yeah, And I was. 718 00:43:16,880 --> 00:43:19,160 Speaker 1: I was in a Charo del Fuego with this friend 719 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:21,680 Speaker 1: of mine and we hit this really great run on 720 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:24,080 Speaker 1: the Sea Run river and I said, you go ahead 721 00:43:24,080 --> 00:43:26,160 Speaker 1: and fish through it, and I'll fishing behind you and 722 00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:28,400 Speaker 1: you can catch fish. Blah blah blah. So he fished 723 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:29,920 Speaker 1: all the way down and get to the bottom of 724 00:43:29,920 --> 00:43:34,160 Speaker 1: the run, catches a nice fish, like a sixteen pounds 725 00:43:34,200 --> 00:43:37,239 Speaker 1: he run brown trop and he circles all the way 726 00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:38,719 Speaker 1: back and he gets in front of me to do 727 00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:41,440 Speaker 1: it again. And I remember fishing that when I was 728 00:43:41,840 --> 00:43:44,600 Speaker 1: living and going to school and steel that fishing in 729 00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:47,080 Speaker 1: northern California. I mean, they have these lineups, you know 730 00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:49,360 Speaker 1: that there was really strict. You know, everybody in the 731 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:52,480 Speaker 1: lineup was a phenomenal cast. They're all great fisherman. If 732 00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:54,239 Speaker 1: you went down, caught a fish and circled up and 733 00:43:54,239 --> 00:43:58,839 Speaker 1: got in front of him, it'd be time for an obituary. 734 00:43:59,760 --> 00:44:02,640 Speaker 1: He just I looked at I thought, is that rude? 735 00:44:02,880 --> 00:44:07,360 Speaker 1: Or is he stupid or uh, you know, I couldn't 736 00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,480 Speaker 1: or greedy. I mean, I couldn't couldn't figure out. So, 737 00:44:10,560 --> 00:44:12,760 Speaker 1: I mean, I thought, this is I had the moment 738 00:44:12,800 --> 00:44:15,200 Speaker 1: of being this sort of out of body experience. Am 739 00:44:15,239 --> 00:44:19,840 Speaker 1: I with a lunatic? I like reading your short stories 740 00:44:19,880 --> 00:44:22,960 Speaker 1: a lot um. If I had to pick one thing 741 00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:25,880 Speaker 1: of the of the all the kinds of work you do, 742 00:44:26,040 --> 00:44:30,600 Speaker 1: from novels, short stories, nonfiction essays, you know, I like 743 00:44:30,680 --> 00:44:34,920 Speaker 1: your short stories the most personally, I do too. But 744 00:44:35,120 --> 00:44:40,480 Speaker 1: why are the characters, Um, why are your characters in 745 00:44:40,560 --> 00:44:47,919 Speaker 1: your fiction so different and at wits end and kind 746 00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:52,879 Speaker 1: of disheveled and their personal lives? Then when you read 747 00:44:52,920 --> 00:44:56,719 Speaker 1: you about you and your friends in your life, it's 748 00:44:56,760 --> 00:45:00,600 Speaker 1: it's like a completely different worldview. Well I'm suppressing the truth. 749 00:45:01,239 --> 00:45:03,080 Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, I don't know, but I mean 750 00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:06,120 Speaker 1: I think that especially short Fisher depends on a sort 751 00:45:06,120 --> 00:45:10,240 Speaker 1: of a crisis atmosphere. I mean it has. In a 752 00:45:10,480 --> 00:45:12,960 Speaker 1: effective short story, a lot should be at stake, you know, 753 00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:15,640 Speaker 1: it should not be the quotidian day to day lives 754 00:45:15,640 --> 00:45:21,560 Speaker 1: of people, you know, unless unless it's a Ray Carbor story. 755 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:27,600 Speaker 1: Um so, I I mean a narrative. Fictional narrative is 756 00:45:27,640 --> 00:45:32,920 Speaker 1: kind of driven by conflict in a way. Um, and 757 00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:36,040 Speaker 1: you know it's Henry James said, it only has one 758 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,200 Speaker 1: responsibility and that is to be interesting, you know, and 759 00:45:39,200 --> 00:45:41,400 Speaker 1: that's it's not the same level of interest that you 760 00:45:41,480 --> 00:45:45,040 Speaker 1: have and nonfiction, you know, where it's fact driven or 761 00:45:45,080 --> 00:45:47,440 Speaker 1: information driven and stuff like that. It's a very different 762 00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:50,640 Speaker 1: kind of atmosphere. So it calls on different things. I 763 00:45:50,680 --> 00:45:52,960 Speaker 1: think then that sort of stuff you would describe in 764 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:55,600 Speaker 1: your life as a hotter or officierman or all those 765 00:45:55,640 --> 00:45:58,520 Speaker 1: other things, although those could be part of it. I'm 766 00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:03,520 Speaker 1: reading this. Some just got this book UH called um 767 00:46:05,040 --> 00:46:10,040 Speaker 1: uh Fishing in Paradise, SOI going to title something like that. 768 00:46:10,080 --> 00:46:12,800 Speaker 1: But it's about a guy who lived in Sweden during 769 00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:15,960 Speaker 1: the period the fishing. He's a fishing fanatic. It was 770 00:46:16,040 --> 00:46:18,319 Speaker 1: during the period when the Swedish dream of a sort 771 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:22,399 Speaker 1: of utopian society. That's the title fishing in Utopia, when 772 00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:25,840 Speaker 1: the utopia dream and Scandinavia was still intact before the 773 00:46:25,840 --> 00:46:28,440 Speaker 1: big waves of immigration. All the things that have changed 774 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:33,200 Speaker 1: that happened, and he's gone back as a fisherman. But 775 00:46:33,239 --> 00:46:36,799 Speaker 1: he's really an observer of what has happened to this 776 00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:40,800 Speaker 1: utopian fantasy of the Swedish people and how it's changing everything. 777 00:46:41,640 --> 00:46:45,000 Speaker 1: So the idea, I find this a very appealing idea, 778 00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:50,959 Speaker 1: The idea of of UH finding a way these things 779 00:46:51,000 --> 00:46:55,520 Speaker 1: that we do impinge on other things that are less recreational, 780 00:46:55,800 --> 00:47:00,959 Speaker 1: for example, than what we're talking about, or less UH 781 00:47:01,200 --> 00:47:04,719 Speaker 1: focused on solip systemically focused on the things we want 782 00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:09,560 Speaker 1: to provide for ourselves as individualized, individualized characters known as 783 00:47:09,640 --> 00:47:12,000 Speaker 1: the great hunter or the Great fisherman or something like that, 784 00:47:12,120 --> 00:47:14,279 Speaker 1: and there was a little bit broader view of how 785 00:47:14,360 --> 00:47:18,920 Speaker 1: these activities uh illuminate other things. And so I just 786 00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,280 Speaker 1: got this book and I just started reading. It's very interesting, 787 00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:24,160 Speaker 1: kind of kind of way to do it. Uh in 788 00:47:24,360 --> 00:47:30,920 Speaker 1: you your characters also have uh an incredibly dim view 789 00:47:31,960 --> 00:47:35,719 Speaker 1: of marriage. You have a dim view of marriage. And 790 00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,680 Speaker 1: it's funny because the thing that makes it okay, I 791 00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:43,960 Speaker 1: guess yeah, is that you the man is typically at 792 00:47:44,000 --> 00:47:49,440 Speaker 1: the at fault. Well that's interesting. I mean, I like 793 00:47:49,560 --> 00:47:53,239 Speaker 1: the idea of of faulty men. You know, that kind 794 00:47:53,239 --> 00:47:55,879 Speaker 1: of feels to me. I don't know why anybody gets 795 00:47:55,880 --> 00:48:01,120 Speaker 1: married anymore. I mean, it seems like slightly defund institution. 796 00:48:01,520 --> 00:48:04,080 Speaker 1: So well, I mean, what what is it? I mean, 797 00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:10,160 Speaker 1: it's sort of documentation for something you do anyway, you know, uh, 798 00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:13,080 Speaker 1: And I have a checkered married history. I mean my 799 00:48:13,200 --> 00:48:17,640 Speaker 1: history is that I been married three times, but I've 800 00:48:17,680 --> 00:48:20,200 Speaker 1: now been married for forty two years to the same person, 801 00:48:20,360 --> 00:48:23,080 Speaker 1: so it's kind of a little bit of an odd thing. 802 00:48:23,160 --> 00:48:27,480 Speaker 1: And one of the marriages for like eight months, So, um, 803 00:48:27,560 --> 00:48:31,040 Speaker 1: what what goes on in an eight months marriage? Lust? 804 00:48:31,160 --> 00:48:34,680 Speaker 1: I guess yeah, I don't know acts or an accident 805 00:48:34,880 --> 00:48:38,120 Speaker 1: or rebounding or doing all those kinds of things. Uh, 806 00:48:38,280 --> 00:48:41,280 Speaker 1: the background of growing up in an Irish Catholic household, 807 00:48:41,320 --> 00:48:43,200 Speaker 1: which is supposed to do you know. I mean, I 808 00:48:43,200 --> 00:48:46,320 Speaker 1: would never get married a second time under the current 809 00:48:47,120 --> 00:48:51,439 Speaker 1: uh sort of cultural convictions. But on the other hand, 810 00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:54,480 Speaker 1: I've been in this really happy marriage for more than 811 00:48:54,520 --> 00:48:57,000 Speaker 1: half my life and forty two years. That's a long time. 812 00:48:57,920 --> 00:49:01,879 Speaker 1: And uh so I've I'm not I just don't see 813 00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:07,440 Speaker 1: why it needs that kind of impremontor you know, of officialness. Uh. 814 00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:11,160 Speaker 1: Not bad. I mean, if it makes people feel more committed, 815 00:49:11,239 --> 00:49:16,600 Speaker 1: you know, um, then they should do it. And I 816 00:49:16,640 --> 00:49:20,400 Speaker 1: did it, you know um. But I don't think it 817 00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:23,959 Speaker 1: has a lot of meaning anymore. And statistically, almost most 818 00:49:24,000 --> 00:49:27,200 Speaker 1: marriages in the divorce. So what does that say about it? Yeah, 819 00:49:27,560 --> 00:49:30,320 Speaker 1: that in and of itself, what does that say about it? 820 00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:33,360 Speaker 1: It's a non enduring institution. No, I think it was. 821 00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:38,200 Speaker 1: I feel that it's helpful. It's helpful because it makes 822 00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,279 Speaker 1: you take yourself seriously. Yeah, Oh, I see that's what 823 00:49:42,360 --> 00:49:44,680 Speaker 1: I felt. Yeah, I felt like, all of a sudden, 824 00:49:44,680 --> 00:49:47,080 Speaker 1: it makes you take some part of yourself more seriously 825 00:49:47,120 --> 00:49:48,880 Speaker 1: than he might. That well, that's a good reason to 826 00:49:48,880 --> 00:49:50,640 Speaker 1: do it, and I feel like it also, it's like 827 00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:55,600 Speaker 1: you're putting certain things to rest. You know, I had 828 00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:58,800 Speaker 1: chasing girls, right, Yeah, at the time you spend Remember 829 00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:00,960 Speaker 1: buddy my I was talking about. He got married and 830 00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:04,640 Speaker 1: the next day he felt like he needed one of 831 00:50:04,680 --> 00:50:09,040 Speaker 1: those old top hats from the nineteen so he could 832 00:50:09,040 --> 00:50:11,680 Speaker 1: like head out to work, Like he felt like he 833 00:50:11,719 --> 00:50:14,400 Speaker 1: should be grabbing his briefcase and putting his hat on 834 00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:18,840 Speaker 1: and getting onto the business of life now that he's married. 835 00:50:18,880 --> 00:50:20,120 Speaker 1: And he said that was the first time he ever 836 00:50:20,120 --> 00:50:24,840 Speaker 1: felt that way, like there was some other reason. There 837 00:50:24,920 --> 00:50:27,640 Speaker 1: was he had this other reason to go work. Did 838 00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:33,440 Speaker 1: he fall out of his eyechair? Whatever? How could? Why 839 00:50:33,440 --> 00:50:36,520 Speaker 1: are you? Have you ever been married and you're thirty 840 00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:39,640 Speaker 1: five and you're beautiful? What's going wrong here? Because you 841 00:50:39,640 --> 00:50:45,359 Speaker 1: don't believe in the institution. It's you know, I think 842 00:50:45,480 --> 00:50:56,279 Speaker 1: for me. Yeah, and they need to feel healthy. Yeah, Well, 843 00:50:56,320 --> 00:50:59,000 Speaker 1: you can't apply all these criteria. You have to shoot 844 00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:05,359 Speaker 1: from the hip, grant if you're gonna continue, let's put 845 00:51:05,400 --> 00:51:09,400 Speaker 1: your headset on. I gave you one. I think there 846 00:51:09,440 --> 00:51:12,760 Speaker 1: are a couple of situations where I could have almost 847 00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:16,760 Speaker 1: been at that place and then you know things fell apart. Um. 848 00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:19,960 Speaker 1: Has anyone asked you to get married and you said no, no, no, 849 00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:26,759 Speaker 1: that hasn't happened. Um. Yeah, I don't, you know, mm hmm, 850 00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:30,720 Speaker 1: I don't. I don't think that wherever at and arrived 851 00:51:30,719 --> 00:51:33,319 Speaker 1: at place really, you know, if I look back at 852 00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:37,520 Speaker 1: my life past couple of years, the decade before, UM, 853 00:51:37,560 --> 00:51:40,400 Speaker 1: there's always been a core of myself that kind of knows. 854 00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:42,800 Speaker 1: But a lot of other things. Do you wish you 855 00:51:42,840 --> 00:51:47,279 Speaker 1: would ever get married? You look forward to I want 856 00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:51,320 Speaker 1: a family? I do. I do, I would like a family, UM, 857 00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:55,279 Speaker 1: But I think that before that happens, I I do 858 00:51:55,440 --> 00:51:58,759 Speaker 1: want to feel that the person I'm with UM is 859 00:51:58,840 --> 00:52:02,839 Speaker 1: committed to teaming up with me in in doing that. 860 00:52:03,120 --> 00:52:14,879 Speaker 1: Have you ever considered a starter hubby starter? UM? No, No, 861 00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,920 Speaker 1: I'm not sure if I have. UM. I think I 862 00:52:17,920 --> 00:52:21,239 Speaker 1: think I have maybe some feelings similarly to what you 863 00:52:21,280 --> 00:52:25,399 Speaker 1: have around marriage as an institution. And I think that 864 00:52:25,560 --> 00:52:27,719 Speaker 1: or I've come to a place now with the experiences 865 00:52:27,719 --> 00:52:30,880 Speaker 1: that I've had that I think, Uh, to be in 866 00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:35,759 Speaker 1: partnership with someone is a choice that you make every day, UM, 867 00:52:35,800 --> 00:52:39,200 Speaker 1: and that you it is you renew that every day 868 00:52:39,280 --> 00:52:43,200 Speaker 1: for as long as the both of you do no no, 869 00:52:43,480 --> 00:52:47,000 Speaker 1: then you're wasting all kinds of time. Why because that's 870 00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:48,479 Speaker 1: I mean, do you feel like you do you feel 871 00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:50,360 Speaker 1: like you stay in something, I like, force yourself to 872 00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:52,319 Speaker 1: be part part of the beauty of it is. This 873 00:52:53,120 --> 00:52:54,920 Speaker 1: part of the beauty of it is and not the 874 00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:57,120 Speaker 1: whole thing. I'm not I'm not trying to like trivialize marriage, 875 00:52:57,120 --> 00:53:02,000 Speaker 1: but like a nice thing about marriage is that you 876 00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:05,080 Speaker 1: make a set of decisions. You have a lot of 877 00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:07,840 Speaker 1: time to think about those decisions, right, there's a hundred 878 00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:10,840 Speaker 1: ways to get out of it, and you add it 879 00:53:10,880 --> 00:53:13,040 Speaker 1: all up in your head and you decide that this 880 00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:15,799 Speaker 1: is what I'll do. And then at that moment you 881 00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:20,720 Speaker 1: stop pretending that you didn't make that decision. It becomes 882 00:53:20,760 --> 00:53:22,360 Speaker 1: like the thing that you did and the thing that 883 00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:25,000 Speaker 1: you now do, And then you turn yourself to the 884 00:53:25,040 --> 00:53:27,359 Speaker 1: other ship in life, and you don't wake up every 885 00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:29,200 Speaker 1: day being like, am I really committed to this person? 886 00:53:29,280 --> 00:53:33,319 Speaker 1: You just decided that's that that's where you're at, and 887 00:53:33,360 --> 00:53:36,200 Speaker 1: then that part of that question is gone, and all 888 00:53:36,239 --> 00:53:38,640 Speaker 1: the energy you'd apply to that question you apply to 889 00:53:38,680 --> 00:53:41,000 Speaker 1: other stuff. And I don't think that most people go 890 00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:46,680 Speaker 1: through that, um, the precursor that you describe, they all do. Yeah, 891 00:53:46,719 --> 00:53:49,239 Speaker 1: I agree. Okay, I gotta tell I gotta tell you 892 00:53:49,440 --> 00:53:53,160 Speaker 1: my approach to my very successful forty one or forty 893 00:53:53,200 --> 00:53:56,880 Speaker 1: two year marriage. You can all learn from this. Please 894 00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:03,279 Speaker 1: fall completely silent. I want to reverence silence. Ready. I 895 00:54:03,360 --> 00:54:05,520 Speaker 1: was lying on the floor of a bar and Key 896 00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:11,879 Speaker 1: West with a cocktail in my hand, and my soon 897 00:54:11,960 --> 00:54:15,200 Speaker 1: to be wife walked by, and she had this heavy 898 00:54:15,280 --> 00:54:19,520 Speaker 1: Alabama accent and I heard her talking, and I said, 899 00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,960 Speaker 1: raised my glass and I said, will you marry me 900 00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:27,960 Speaker 1: and take me to your southern mansion? And she said, well, 901 00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:31,440 Speaker 1: I don't have a merrit mansion, but sure I'll marry you. 902 00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:34,759 Speaker 1: And we've been together for forty two years. That's how 903 00:54:34,840 --> 00:54:40,239 Speaker 1: much that That's how much forethought went into this. So, 904 00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:47,239 Speaker 1: like I say, I've I've fought them through before they failed. Uh. 905 00:54:48,640 --> 00:54:51,000 Speaker 1: I never meant to move to Montana. Everything that ever 906 00:54:51,040 --> 00:54:56,240 Speaker 1: happened to be had was an accident. So this rashi 907 00:54:56,320 --> 00:55:03,480 Speaker 1: asinutive approach, right, it's gonna it's gonna blow up like 908 00:55:03,520 --> 00:55:08,520 Speaker 1: an exploding cigar. Right. It's like, if you intellectually make 909 00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:13,400 Speaker 1: a decision to be a certain way into the future. 910 00:55:14,160 --> 00:55:18,759 Speaker 1: Then what if a disconnect arises between what you decide 911 00:55:19,000 --> 00:55:24,520 Speaker 1: intellectually you're going to be with who you organically feel 912 00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:29,439 Speaker 1: you become based on your experiences day by day. Yeah, 913 00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:31,640 Speaker 1: well I like to think, Okay, let me put it 914 00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:36,160 Speaker 1: this way. If I got out of it, I like 915 00:55:36,239 --> 00:55:38,799 Speaker 1: to think that I would do it as carefully and 916 00:55:38,880 --> 00:55:43,360 Speaker 1: with as much thought as I got into it. The 917 00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:49,359 Speaker 1: key to the whole thing is comedy. I mean, if 918 00:55:49,360 --> 00:55:51,759 Speaker 1: you if you like to laugh, and I do. My 919 00:55:51,800 --> 00:55:55,600 Speaker 1: wife likes to laugh. We laugh all day long, one 920 00:55:55,600 --> 00:55:58,960 Speaker 1: thing or another. And we could quit going to cuttings. 921 00:55:58,960 --> 00:56:00,440 Speaker 1: We had people say to a because we had a 922 00:56:00,400 --> 00:56:02,960 Speaker 1: little living quarters in our trailer. They said, we don't 923 00:56:02,960 --> 00:56:04,920 Speaker 1: know how to go to these rodeos anymore because we 924 00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:07,640 Speaker 1: could always hear the laughter out of your trailer at 925 00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:12,640 Speaker 1: the first of daylight. And uh so that's really you know, 926 00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:15,279 Speaker 1: because you have inevitably I mean, I don't know how 927 00:56:15,400 --> 00:56:17,480 Speaker 1: early on you are in your marriage, but they're full 928 00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:20,879 Speaker 1: of conflict one way or another. Yeah, man, you feel 929 00:56:20,920 --> 00:56:24,400 Speaker 1: like kids, um, we're a burden or a stress on? 930 00:56:24,520 --> 00:56:26,800 Speaker 1: Like were you able to keep that level of laughter 931 00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:29,319 Speaker 1: or was there a little bit of a low spot 932 00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:31,480 Speaker 1: as you sort of had to do. It adds to 933 00:56:31,520 --> 00:56:34,239 Speaker 1: the potential, it adds to the potential for conflicts. So 934 00:56:34,320 --> 00:56:37,480 Speaker 1: it tests your other resources, you know, I mean, because 935 00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:40,400 Speaker 1: you see you feel differently about what they should do. 936 00:56:40,520 --> 00:56:45,960 Speaker 1: And now that uh um, it's uh, you know, it's 937 00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:49,000 Speaker 1: unusual because my I had children and my wife had children. 938 00:56:49,120 --> 00:56:52,440 Speaker 1: We got married and they became a sort of amalgamated 939 00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:56,000 Speaker 1: family and that worked out great. But Lori's daughter was 940 00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:58,759 Speaker 1: like five years old. She's fifty now, but she was 941 00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:01,240 Speaker 1: five years old and we first got together. And actually 942 00:57:01,320 --> 00:57:05,040 Speaker 1: my stepdaughter is the one I'm the closest to. Um. 943 00:57:05,440 --> 00:57:08,279 Speaker 1: Uh So it's all so unpredictable. I mean, if if 944 00:57:08,440 --> 00:57:11,800 Speaker 1: I've learned anything in life is that it is so unpredictable. 945 00:57:12,200 --> 00:57:15,360 Speaker 1: And it's a great mistake to imagine that it is predictable, 946 00:57:15,920 --> 00:57:20,960 Speaker 1: because then you start imposing this kind of template of 947 00:57:21,040 --> 00:57:24,920 Speaker 1: what you imagine to be your control of over future events, 948 00:57:24,920 --> 00:57:30,840 Speaker 1: which is nonexistent. Um. It's not the same as analyzing 949 00:57:30,840 --> 00:57:34,439 Speaker 1: the stock market. I mean, it's a it's much much 950 00:57:34,680 --> 00:57:39,000 Speaker 1: much more myriad, and it's but you just have to 951 00:57:39,120 --> 00:57:40,960 Speaker 1: you know, you have to you have to be good 952 00:57:40,960 --> 00:57:42,400 Speaker 1: on your feet. You know, you have to have a 953 00:57:42,400 --> 00:57:44,280 Speaker 1: sense of humor and be really good on your feet. 954 00:57:44,320 --> 00:57:51,320 Speaker 1: And you have to have a highly qualified ego. What 955 00:57:51,360 --> 00:57:53,480 Speaker 1: do you mean by that, Well, you don't. You have 956 00:57:53,560 --> 00:57:56,400 Speaker 1: to lose that part of yourself that operates out in 957 00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:58,240 Speaker 1: the world where you really need to win a lot 958 00:57:58,600 --> 00:58:03,400 Speaker 1: oh um. And you have to have for it to 959 00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:05,200 Speaker 1: work over long term. You have to have a really 960 00:58:05,280 --> 00:58:08,520 Speaker 1: highly developed you have to train yourself with this. You 961 00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:12,160 Speaker 1: have to have a highly developed sense of fairness. You 962 00:58:12,240 --> 00:58:14,600 Speaker 1: just have to think about fairness all the time and 963 00:58:14,680 --> 00:58:19,000 Speaker 1: those kinds of things. Have you given up on or 964 00:58:19,000 --> 00:58:26,960 Speaker 1: did you ever tally wins and losses in marriage? I 965 00:58:27,360 --> 00:58:30,200 Speaker 1: do that, yeah, and I try him to quit, but 966 00:58:30,280 --> 00:58:32,680 Speaker 1: I do do it. Yeah. I don't think I've done that. 967 00:58:32,720 --> 00:58:34,960 Speaker 1: I mean, like other people's marriage. No, no, no, no. 968 00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:39,120 Speaker 1: I mean I'll be like, wow, I gave in on 969 00:58:39,480 --> 00:58:42,600 Speaker 1: something that was important to me, and I'm like, okay, 970 00:58:42,680 --> 00:58:47,480 Speaker 1: never mind, and I remember that, and then I'm very 971 00:58:47,520 --> 00:58:51,720 Speaker 1: aware of it the next time. Oh, like your old one. Yeah, 972 00:58:51,720 --> 00:58:54,280 Speaker 1: and I'll be like bank account. I'll be like, well, yeah, 973 00:58:54,320 --> 00:58:58,600 Speaker 1: but I professional help. Yeah, it's not gonna work for you. 974 00:58:58,800 --> 00:59:02,320 Speaker 1: Like I gave up the one thing. But then so 975 00:59:02,400 --> 00:59:04,560 Speaker 1: I feel like I should get this thing because you won. 976 00:59:05,520 --> 00:59:09,080 Speaker 1: Oh I think you do. Do that actually a little bit, Um, 977 00:59:11,440 --> 00:59:16,040 Speaker 1: we'll make formal deals to be like, I'll stop talking 978 00:59:16,080 --> 00:59:19,720 Speaker 1: about this. Yeah if if I get this win, Yeah, 979 00:59:20,360 --> 00:59:24,840 Speaker 1: I seriously bring negotiating. Yeah. You know you know. The 980 00:59:24,880 --> 00:59:26,760 Speaker 1: one I hate is when you say, when you finally 981 00:59:26,840 --> 00:59:30,080 Speaker 1: make a point, you're right about something, and the other 982 00:59:30,120 --> 00:59:36,080 Speaker 1: person says fine, I hate fine, Yeah, you wanted more 983 00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:38,080 Speaker 1: of a like you know what, you're right. It's like 984 00:59:38,480 --> 00:59:40,760 Speaker 1: I was told this woman who was in some kind 985 00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:43,240 Speaker 1: of relationship. I said, you know, when the guy tells 986 00:59:43,280 --> 00:59:50,240 Speaker 1: you that you're amazing, it's over. So are you Are 987 00:59:50,240 --> 00:59:54,520 Speaker 1: you familiar with Jerry Mills and the idea he keep 988 00:59:54,600 --> 00:59:59,840 Speaker 1: popularize this idea that about how to describe Southern literature, Oh, 989 01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:03,480 Speaker 1: the mule theory and the dead mule theory. And he's like, 990 01:00:03,480 --> 01:00:05,640 Speaker 1: how do you tell? Like that was like his defining 991 01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:10,280 Speaker 1: and he broughte this very spirited essay about the test 992 01:00:10,360 --> 01:00:14,120 Speaker 1: the litmus test of Southern literature has a dead mule 993 01:00:14,160 --> 01:00:21,720 Speaker 1: in it. In Um, In reading your work, I find that, uh, 994 01:00:21,840 --> 01:00:31,439 Speaker 1: there's uh quite often there is our activities around irrigation always. Oh, 995 01:00:31,480 --> 01:00:33,800 Speaker 1: there wasn't a lot of that because someone's ears like 996 01:00:33,880 --> 01:00:38,840 Speaker 1: someone's irrigating, carrying irrigating you. I was the irrigator, and 997 01:00:38,880 --> 01:00:43,880 Speaker 1: I hated it. It's really something the degree to which 998 01:00:44,280 --> 01:00:47,560 Speaker 1: when you're describing, like someone driving down a highway, a 999 01:00:47,640 --> 01:00:52,120 Speaker 1: thing that they're likely to notice there's some aspect of irrigation. 1000 01:00:53,480 --> 01:00:58,800 Speaker 1: I've never met anybody that likes that job. Nailed it. 1001 01:00:58,800 --> 01:01:01,919 Speaker 1: It's just the worst job. This is the worst job. 1002 01:01:01,960 --> 01:01:05,600 Speaker 1: In fact, about five years ago I managed to lease 1003 01:01:05,840 --> 01:01:08,960 Speaker 1: the hay fields to somebody who liked to irrigate. I mean, 1004 01:01:08,960 --> 01:01:11,960 Speaker 1: if you have a ranch, if you have a ranch, 1005 01:01:12,360 --> 01:01:15,200 Speaker 1: if you have a ranch, everybody wants the grass and 1006 01:01:15,240 --> 01:01:19,680 Speaker 1: nobody wants the irrigation. And uh so, you know, if 1007 01:01:19,680 --> 01:01:22,120 Speaker 1: you're fathing, if you're phasing out, as I've been for 1008 01:01:22,280 --> 01:01:24,800 Speaker 1: probably ten years, you're always trying to find somebody wants 1009 01:01:24,800 --> 01:01:27,400 Speaker 1: some component of what you've been doing. Oh, I'll take 1010 01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:31,360 Speaker 1: the grass or yeah, and nobody wants to fix the fence. 1011 01:01:31,400 --> 01:01:34,240 Speaker 1: I mean, I have all these little rules get cowboys. 1012 01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:38,920 Speaker 1: I fixed fence, but I don't build fence. Um, you know, 1013 01:01:39,000 --> 01:01:42,880 Speaker 1: I you know, I like working cattle, but I don't 1014 01:01:42,920 --> 01:01:47,400 Speaker 1: want to irrigate, and we did a lot of that 1015 01:01:47,440 --> 01:01:49,680 Speaker 1: ourselves for so long. But the part that I really 1016 01:01:49,720 --> 01:01:53,560 Speaker 1: resented was the irrigation. I mean, we had one point 1017 01:01:53,640 --> 01:01:57,840 Speaker 1: flood of irrigation. Flood of irrigation. Yeah, we had. We 1018 01:01:57,880 --> 01:02:00,520 Speaker 1: had a gated pipe eventually, which help a little bit. 1019 01:02:00,560 --> 01:02:03,160 Speaker 1: But we ran a lot of cattle. At one time, 1020 01:02:03,200 --> 01:02:06,439 Speaker 1: I had a lot of land leased north of round 1021 01:02:06,560 --> 01:02:11,000 Speaker 1: Up and we ran hearing steers out there. Oh you 1022 01:02:11,040 --> 01:02:14,760 Speaker 1: were that heavy into running cattle that you releasing pasture 1023 01:02:14,800 --> 01:02:19,400 Speaker 1: land had thirty thousand acres at least. Were you writing 1024 01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:22,800 Speaker 1: then too much? Not much? Yeah, I was kind of. 1025 01:02:22,880 --> 01:02:25,080 Speaker 1: I mean, there's a very intense for a period of 1026 01:02:25,120 --> 01:02:26,880 Speaker 1: time and then you ship, but then you've a lot 1027 01:02:26,880 --> 01:02:30,080 Speaker 1: of free time. And oh so you like, I didn't 1028 01:02:30,080 --> 01:02:32,920 Speaker 1: know you really really threw down and became that, but 1029 01:02:33,040 --> 01:02:36,080 Speaker 1: you were a rancher. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Well, I 1030 01:02:36,160 --> 01:02:39,760 Speaker 1: you know, I mean I remember I first made some money. 1031 01:02:39,840 --> 01:02:42,840 Speaker 1: I bought a place in uh in uh Paradise Valley 1032 01:02:42,960 --> 01:02:45,440 Speaker 1: wasn't very big, but we had we always kept a 1033 01:02:45,440 --> 01:02:47,920 Speaker 1: lot of roping steers around because we're always rodeoing. And 1034 01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:51,280 Speaker 1: then we then we would lease some ground, and I 1035 01:02:51,280 --> 01:02:53,160 Speaker 1: didn't really know what to do with the ranch. I 1036 01:02:53,160 --> 01:02:55,840 Speaker 1: mean that was in my twenties. I've never had that background. 1037 01:02:55,920 --> 01:03:00,280 Speaker 1: And and uh, and I had a hired man, and uh, 1038 01:03:00,600 --> 01:03:03,720 Speaker 1: I knew this guy, Nevada rancher, old time Nevada ranch. 1039 01:03:03,800 --> 01:03:05,120 Speaker 1: He said, the main thing is to go to bed 1040 01:03:05,160 --> 01:03:07,760 Speaker 1: at eight o'clock, get up at four, and then whoever 1041 01:03:07,800 --> 01:03:09,920 Speaker 1: works for you'll feel guilty all day long. They'll do 1042 01:03:09,960 --> 01:03:14,760 Speaker 1: anything you ask him to do. Then the guy used 1043 01:03:14,760 --> 01:03:16,320 Speaker 1: to live in this ranch to get up at four 1044 01:03:16,360 --> 01:03:18,280 Speaker 1: and go into the kitchen, turned the light on so 1045 01:03:18,320 --> 01:03:20,400 Speaker 1: the neighbors would think that he was at work and 1046 01:03:20,520 --> 01:03:27,160 Speaker 1: go back to bed. About did you enjoy doing being 1047 01:03:27,240 --> 01:03:30,880 Speaker 1: the cattle business? Did I? Did you enjoy? Yeah? I got. 1048 01:03:31,000 --> 01:03:33,120 Speaker 1: I was infatuated with the whole thing because I had 1049 01:03:33,120 --> 01:03:36,240 Speaker 1: a girlfriend in high school who who's uh was from 1050 01:03:36,280 --> 01:03:40,040 Speaker 1: originally from Wyoming, and her dad gave me a summer jobs. 1051 01:03:40,080 --> 01:03:42,080 Speaker 1: So I started going to Wyoming when I was like 1052 01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:48,400 Speaker 1: sixteen years old. Um tried to be a cowboy. So 1053 01:03:48,480 --> 01:03:51,080 Speaker 1: I wanted to, you know, from that point on, any 1054 01:03:51,080 --> 01:03:53,080 Speaker 1: time I was not actually in school, I was out 1055 01:03:53,120 --> 01:03:57,640 Speaker 1: here and uh, I'm well over that, you know, but 1056 01:03:57,920 --> 01:04:01,400 Speaker 1: it was I really joy it, really loved it, you know, 1057 01:04:01,440 --> 01:04:05,360 Speaker 1: I was really caught up in that. Uh. Kept a 1058 01:04:05,360 --> 01:04:10,000 Speaker 1: lot of horses, went to ropings between here in California, 1059 01:04:10,040 --> 01:04:13,240 Speaker 1: and I really love the culture. I still kind of 1060 01:04:13,280 --> 01:04:16,160 Speaker 1: like it. Where I really like it is where it 1061 01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:19,439 Speaker 1: really is intact, you know, in West Texas is where 1062 01:04:19,440 --> 01:04:22,440 Speaker 1: it is. I mean those, uh, the real full time 1063 01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:26,880 Speaker 1: cowboys down there. They'll die poor and they have, but 1064 01:04:27,040 --> 01:04:32,840 Speaker 1: they have incredible skills, um inherited skills, and great reverence 1065 01:04:32,960 --> 01:04:36,840 Speaker 1: for their heritage, you know, and it makes them indifferent 1066 01:04:36,880 --> 01:04:40,840 Speaker 1: to the fact that they'll never own anything, um just 1067 01:04:40,960 --> 01:04:44,240 Speaker 1: what they've got a trailer, stock tailor, a couple of horses, 1068 01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:49,000 Speaker 1: a couple of saddles for ropes, and they're great and 1069 01:04:49,320 --> 01:04:51,560 Speaker 1: they have a kind of a new era. And that 1070 01:04:51,760 --> 01:04:54,200 Speaker 1: ranches down there really can't keep full time help. It's 1071 01:04:54,200 --> 01:04:57,959 Speaker 1: not economical to do that. So once a year they'll 1072 01:04:59,000 --> 01:05:01,200 Speaker 1: hire these guys that come out, come out with the 1073 01:05:01,240 --> 01:05:04,680 Speaker 1: horse trailers, unload all their horses, gather all the rantriable, doctor, 1074 01:05:04,720 --> 01:05:06,920 Speaker 1: all the cattle, brand everybody, and they're going to get 1075 01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:11,280 Speaker 1: a bill. Uh. So that's kept them going for another burst. 1076 01:05:13,200 --> 01:05:14,920 Speaker 1: I think one of the things that makes it that 1077 01:05:16,080 --> 01:05:19,959 Speaker 1: other writers who write about the West and who write 1078 01:05:19,960 --> 01:05:23,720 Speaker 1: about people who work the land, Um, the reason they 1079 01:05:23,760 --> 01:05:25,520 Speaker 1: can't that I don't think they'll ever be able to 1080 01:05:25,560 --> 01:05:32,120 Speaker 1: catch you, is because you have to read your work 1081 01:05:32,120 --> 01:05:33,560 Speaker 1: and read it and read it and read it to 1082 01:05:33,680 --> 01:05:39,000 Speaker 1: find an unbelievable moment. I'm sensitive to the stuff where 1083 01:05:39,040 --> 01:05:44,040 Speaker 1: if I'm reading about someone, um, when I find that 1084 01:05:44,080 --> 01:05:47,160 Speaker 1: they do something or some part of their life or 1085 01:05:47,200 --> 01:05:52,520 Speaker 1: something they're doing at work feels phony. Uh it really, 1086 01:05:52,720 --> 01:05:55,280 Speaker 1: it just puts me off. I was watching the show 1087 01:05:55,280 --> 01:05:57,560 Speaker 1: with my wife. She she was watching the show and 1088 01:05:57,600 --> 01:06:02,520 Speaker 1: there was a guy who is supposedly a carpenter working 1089 01:06:03,440 --> 01:06:05,840 Speaker 1: in this drama, and they had a carpenter in the 1090 01:06:05,880 --> 01:06:11,320 Speaker 1: home doing some carpentry work, and as the cameras on him, 1091 01:06:11,360 --> 01:06:15,560 Speaker 1: it's clear that not only is he not a carpenter, 1092 01:06:16,200 --> 01:06:20,840 Speaker 1: but no one involved on the set, the writer like, 1093 01:06:21,160 --> 01:06:25,720 Speaker 1: no one had any idea what this individual would be 1094 01:06:25,800 --> 01:06:31,160 Speaker 1: doing in a moment of him pretending to be a carpenter. 1095 01:06:32,280 --> 01:06:36,080 Speaker 1: And it's that's like, those glimpses are painful. But in 1096 01:06:36,160 --> 01:06:38,560 Speaker 1: reading your stuff, there's one exception I'll tell you about later. 1097 01:06:38,680 --> 01:06:42,360 Speaker 1: And reading your stuff, um, no one ever does anything 1098 01:06:43,400 --> 01:06:48,320 Speaker 1: that's not just totally believable. Another person who's really good. 1099 01:06:48,800 --> 01:06:52,720 Speaker 1: I feel as Corman McCarthy, but it's so fantastical and 1100 01:06:52,800 --> 01:06:56,560 Speaker 1: it's and it becomes show off where Court McCarthy likes 1101 01:06:56,600 --> 01:07:01,440 Speaker 1: to show you things he learned about in exhaustive research 1102 01:07:01,480 --> 01:07:04,640 Speaker 1: and integrate him in and it's show offie. But your 1103 01:07:04,680 --> 01:07:08,240 Speaker 1: stuff about what people are working or what they're out doing, 1104 01:07:08,960 --> 01:07:12,280 Speaker 1: or what business they're involved in, or how they made money, 1105 01:07:12,720 --> 01:07:17,120 Speaker 1: how they lost money, what they did yesterday. Every time 1106 01:07:17,160 --> 01:07:20,439 Speaker 1: I read it, I'm like, yes, oh, good, well that's great, 1107 01:07:21,520 --> 01:07:23,560 Speaker 1: and I hope it stays true. Oh it is like 1108 01:07:23,840 --> 01:07:26,440 Speaker 1: and I always wonder It's like part of the interests 1109 01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:28,400 Speaker 1: of mine to meet you too, is always wondered, be like, 1110 01:07:29,080 --> 01:07:33,400 Speaker 1: how does he know all that stuff where it's not 1111 01:07:33,560 --> 01:07:36,480 Speaker 1: made up? There's like the story is made up, but no, 1112 01:07:36,760 --> 01:07:40,479 Speaker 1: the parts of the story are all so perfect. That's great. Well, 1113 01:07:40,520 --> 01:07:43,880 Speaker 1: you know, I've always one of the things I feel 1114 01:07:44,200 --> 01:07:47,640 Speaker 1: maybe separates what I want to do are the people 1115 01:07:47,680 --> 01:07:53,240 Speaker 1: that I admire want to do um in writing is 1116 01:07:53,280 --> 01:07:57,160 Speaker 1: that Uh. I always felt that your writing should come 1117 01:07:57,200 --> 01:07:59,720 Speaker 1: from the zeitgeist, you know, the life you lead. I mean, 1118 01:08:00,160 --> 01:08:03,720 Speaker 1: if you think of Fitzgerald or Falkner or having Away, 1119 01:08:03,760 --> 01:08:05,480 Speaker 1: they're kind of writing out of their lives. Well, if 1120 01:08:05,520 --> 01:08:07,440 Speaker 1: I read I read lit Hub all the time, you know, 1121 01:08:07,480 --> 01:08:09,800 Speaker 1: in the morning, and those people are saying, well, I'm 1122 01:08:09,840 --> 01:08:14,800 Speaker 1: researching something about you know, life in the in a 1123 01:08:14,920 --> 01:08:18,280 Speaker 1: isis concentration camp. I've never been there, or I remember 1124 01:08:18,280 --> 01:08:20,439 Speaker 1: this book. I got kind of in trouble over this book. 1125 01:08:20,439 --> 01:08:23,639 Speaker 1: And when the National Book Award was called a Letter 1126 01:08:23,720 --> 01:08:27,920 Speaker 1: from Letters from Ecuador, it was kind of modernist book. 1127 01:08:27,960 --> 01:08:30,559 Speaker 1: It was totally boring, and it was I got into 1128 01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:32,679 Speaker 1: trouble because I did an interview when there were five 1129 01:08:33,439 --> 01:08:36,280 Speaker 1: finalists for the National Book Award and they're all five 1130 01:08:36,479 --> 01:08:39,240 Speaker 1: avant garde women living in New York City. And I said, 1131 01:08:39,280 --> 01:08:41,640 Speaker 1: and I said to somebody in an interview with the 1132 01:08:41,640 --> 01:08:44,080 Speaker 1: New Yorker, I said, it's a big country. Didn't they 1133 01:08:44,080 --> 01:08:48,120 Speaker 1: find somebody who had any had any uh any ability 1134 01:08:48,439 --> 01:08:51,439 Speaker 1: out there the fifties States? Just these five women in 1135 01:08:51,439 --> 01:08:54,200 Speaker 1: the anyway, everybody blew up. It was a night that's 1136 01:08:54,200 --> 01:08:56,360 Speaker 1: on him a bit you need to get anyway, it 1137 01:08:56,439 --> 01:08:58,439 Speaker 1: was horrible. It lasted for a long time as a 1138 01:08:58,520 --> 01:09:01,320 Speaker 1: scandal because there was a gender component to it. That 1139 01:09:01,400 --> 01:09:05,840 Speaker 1: was a gender component to it. And the the woman 1140 01:09:05,880 --> 01:09:09,639 Speaker 1: who wrote the wrote the wrote the award winning book 1141 01:09:09,680 --> 01:09:14,240 Speaker 1: which nobody wants to read. It's unreadable. Her name is 1142 01:09:15,000 --> 01:09:16,280 Speaker 1: thinking of it now, but the name of the book 1143 01:09:16,280 --> 01:09:19,360 Speaker 1: has letter from Ecuador, and she she said that she 1144 01:09:19,400 --> 01:09:21,479 Speaker 1: wrote this book and a lot of it takes place 1145 01:09:21,520 --> 01:09:23,840 Speaker 1: in Ecuador. She's very proud of the fact that she'd 1146 01:09:23,880 --> 01:09:29,639 Speaker 1: never been there. Yeah, and uh so we get kind 1147 01:09:29,640 --> 01:09:32,519 Speaker 1: of right now because I keep track of a lot 1148 01:09:32,560 --> 01:09:35,200 Speaker 1: of new writers, you know, I'd like reading up and 1149 01:09:35,200 --> 01:09:39,400 Speaker 1: coming writers. It persuades me that this game will last, 1150 01:09:39,479 --> 01:09:41,599 Speaker 1: you know, because there's so many good writers coming along, 1151 01:09:43,520 --> 01:09:47,200 Speaker 1: the really good, right young writers. And our women and 1152 01:09:47,880 --> 01:09:51,120 Speaker 1: like Testa most Fager one of my favorites. They're just 1153 01:09:51,200 --> 01:09:56,320 Speaker 1: some wonderful uh uh women writing. The reason is they're 1154 01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:59,519 Speaker 1: not as oppressed by political correctness as the men are. 1155 01:10:00,840 --> 01:10:03,479 Speaker 1: And they're very rare, very they're very i mean, they're 1156 01:10:03,520 --> 01:10:06,639 Speaker 1: just they just lay about themselves with a broad sword. 1157 01:10:06,720 --> 01:10:08,679 Speaker 1: I mean, they do any say anything they want to say. 1158 01:10:09,000 --> 01:10:12,800 Speaker 1: And it was all that's quite it's kind of invasive, 1159 01:10:12,960 --> 01:10:15,799 Speaker 1: kind of and it's really tense and full of interesting stuff. 1160 01:10:16,200 --> 01:10:19,639 Speaker 1: Whereas the men are so afraid of saying something wrong 1161 01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:25,200 Speaker 1: about people who are overweight or uh, you know, unattractive 1162 01:10:25,240 --> 01:10:29,120 Speaker 1: people somebody. They there's a kind of timidity about literary 1163 01:10:29,160 --> 01:10:31,519 Speaker 1: fiction by young men that the women don't have to 1164 01:10:31,560 --> 01:10:33,479 Speaker 1: deal with, and as a result, the men are not 1165 01:10:33,600 --> 01:10:36,120 Speaker 1: very interesting at this point in time. Yeah, you see 1166 01:10:36,160 --> 01:10:39,799 Speaker 1: it in comedy too, Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah, female comics 1167 01:10:39,960 --> 01:10:43,599 Speaker 1: caught loose. Absolutely. You mentioned earlier Key West you met 1168 01:10:43,640 --> 01:10:48,880 Speaker 1: your wife, and Key West you were one of the 1169 01:10:48,920 --> 01:10:51,479 Speaker 1: areas like this kind of fixation we had when I 1170 01:10:51,520 --> 01:10:53,479 Speaker 1: say we that my brother's and nine and guys we 1171 01:10:53,560 --> 01:10:55,960 Speaker 1: hung out with when we were in our kind of 1172 01:10:55,960 --> 01:10:59,640 Speaker 1: in our twenties, like the fish a lot, and we 1173 01:10:59,760 --> 01:11:03,320 Speaker 1: became really aware of um that we had missed the 1174 01:11:03,360 --> 01:11:08,400 Speaker 1: boat on Key West, like something had happened in the 1175 01:11:08,520 --> 01:11:12,879 Speaker 1: culture of fishing, in literature and whatnot. Something had happened 1176 01:11:12,880 --> 01:11:16,960 Speaker 1: in Key West and it had died. Yeah. Can you 1177 01:11:18,040 --> 01:11:20,639 Speaker 1: talk a little bit about your experiences in Key West 1178 01:11:20,680 --> 01:11:22,960 Speaker 1: and what brought you down there and the fishing and 1179 01:11:22,960 --> 01:11:28,200 Speaker 1: what you feel, um, what you feel died? Well, yeah, 1180 01:11:28,240 --> 01:11:30,040 Speaker 1: I can a little bit. I mean I went down there. 1181 01:11:30,040 --> 01:11:35,760 Speaker 1: It was a really uh it was a really virgil situation. Um. 1182 01:11:36,080 --> 01:11:39,320 Speaker 1: I went down there for for two reasons, three reasons. 1183 01:11:39,360 --> 01:11:41,639 Speaker 1: One was I was a sort of a bookish boy 1184 01:11:41,680 --> 01:11:45,400 Speaker 1: and I was aware of its uh literary history. Secondly, 1185 01:11:45,400 --> 01:11:48,240 Speaker 1: it was a rundown cheap place to live, I mean 1186 01:11:48,280 --> 01:11:50,679 Speaker 1: boat to Wall Street, which is one shop after another, 1187 01:11:50,680 --> 01:11:52,479 Speaker 1: and it was boarded up when I moved on there. 1188 01:11:52,960 --> 01:11:55,439 Speaker 1: There's no if your parents came from visit, there was 1189 01:11:55,479 --> 01:11:58,719 Speaker 1: really no place to take him to dinner. There's one place, 1190 01:11:58,760 --> 01:12:03,200 Speaker 1: the A and B Lobster was terrible. And I had 1191 01:12:03,240 --> 01:12:06,760 Speaker 1: the only skiff there. Yeah, I read that once. Yeah, 1192 01:12:07,080 --> 01:12:09,120 Speaker 1: I think it was one of your essays. Yeah, you 1193 01:12:09,160 --> 01:12:11,280 Speaker 1: mentioned that at the time you had the only flat 1194 01:12:11,360 --> 01:12:15,439 Speaker 1: skiff in Key West. What year was that, I think 1195 01:12:15,520 --> 01:12:21,360 Speaker 1: sixty nine something like that. And um, so it was 1196 01:12:21,400 --> 01:12:23,680 Speaker 1: a kind of uh it was partly a sort of 1197 01:12:23,960 --> 01:12:26,479 Speaker 1: hippie brigadune, you know what I mean. Because it was 1198 01:12:26,479 --> 01:12:29,080 Speaker 1: a cheap place to live. It felt like it wasn't 1199 01:12:29,080 --> 01:12:33,040 Speaker 1: in the United States, and you know it was you know, 1200 01:12:33,160 --> 01:12:37,320 Speaker 1: half the people there were uh spoke Spanish or they 1201 01:12:37,320 --> 01:12:39,720 Speaker 1: were conk sin spoke, you know, spoke this kind of 1202 01:12:40,960 --> 01:12:45,720 Speaker 1: creole conk talk. And it was very interesting place. I mean, 1203 01:12:45,760 --> 01:12:48,040 Speaker 1: I was just loved it so much. It was such 1204 01:12:48,080 --> 01:12:50,960 Speaker 1: a great place to be. And then in addition to that, 1205 01:12:51,040 --> 01:12:55,240 Speaker 1: I had a friend who was an outstanding traditional guide 1206 01:12:55,240 --> 01:12:58,439 Speaker 1: who would who would give me a couple of his 1207 01:12:58,840 --> 01:13:01,840 Speaker 1: clients that he didn't on a fish, usually because they 1208 01:13:01,880 --> 01:13:06,360 Speaker 1: didn't know how to fish anyway. That was guiding. Those 1209 01:13:06,400 --> 01:13:09,320 Speaker 1: people gave me a minimal living. And then I had 1210 01:13:09,320 --> 01:13:11,960 Speaker 1: a little contract with Sports Illustrated. I think I had 1211 01:13:11,960 --> 01:13:14,880 Speaker 1: to do six pieces a year for them. Between that 1212 01:13:14,960 --> 01:13:16,960 Speaker 1: and my two days a week deal, I I had 1213 01:13:17,680 --> 01:13:19,960 Speaker 1: a bare bones living and I could rent a rent 1214 01:13:19,960 --> 01:13:23,800 Speaker 1: a place cheaply and just live my life. And it 1215 01:13:23,880 --> 01:13:26,680 Speaker 1: was just a great place to be. And and I 1216 01:13:26,800 --> 01:13:28,680 Speaker 1: know a lot of people who were there then I 1217 01:13:28,720 --> 01:13:31,880 Speaker 1: still know them, and we all agree that it was 1218 01:13:31,960 --> 01:13:37,280 Speaker 1: like it was like the thing that the best part 1219 01:13:37,360 --> 01:13:40,439 Speaker 1: of our lives could never be replicated anywhere. It was 1220 01:13:40,479 --> 01:13:43,519 Speaker 1: just there's nothing like it ever anywhere, never will be again. 1221 01:13:44,800 --> 01:13:52,160 Speaker 1: Um uh. And that's the feeling that I don't have exclusively. 1222 01:13:52,160 --> 01:13:53,840 Speaker 1: I mean, everybody I know who was there I just 1223 01:13:53,880 --> 01:13:58,840 Speaker 1: heard from. I had. I had a friend, it's kind 1224 01:13:58,840 --> 01:14:03,000 Speaker 1: of an artist, and he was smuggling dope. Everybody's smuggling dope. 1225 01:14:03,520 --> 01:14:09,080 Speaker 1: It was, you know, it was smuggling sail boats and 1226 01:14:09,439 --> 01:14:13,120 Speaker 1: acoustic guitars was sort of the basic equipment for life 1227 01:14:13,120 --> 01:14:17,080 Speaker 1: at Key West. And there were some very courageous guys 1228 01:14:17,120 --> 01:14:19,040 Speaker 1: that were going to South America, you know, and bringing 1229 01:14:19,120 --> 01:14:22,920 Speaker 1: bring back loads of pot. And it was considered you know, 1230 01:14:23,520 --> 01:14:26,240 Speaker 1: it wasn't considered a grave thing if you if you 1231 01:14:26,280 --> 01:14:29,960 Speaker 1: get caught. Yeah, And I had two good friends that 1232 01:14:30,040 --> 01:14:33,880 Speaker 1: were bringing back a load of dope from Carla Hana 1233 01:14:33,960 --> 01:14:38,000 Speaker 1: and they hunder ten foot coast guard cut her pull 1234 01:14:38,040 --> 01:14:42,240 Speaker 1: alongside of him, and so they took a chainsaw and 1235 01:14:42,240 --> 01:14:44,439 Speaker 1: they put a hole in the bottle of the boat 1236 01:14:44,439 --> 01:14:47,160 Speaker 1: and sank it, and the coast guard boarded and put 1237 01:14:47,160 --> 01:14:48,960 Speaker 1: a pump on it, pumped it back out, and they 1238 01:14:49,479 --> 01:14:52,000 Speaker 1: and they and they were two great guys. They were 1239 01:14:52,040 --> 01:14:54,720 Speaker 1: wonderful carpenters. So they went up to Eggland Air Force Base, 1240 01:14:54,800 --> 01:14:58,040 Speaker 1: which was sort of a minimum security prison. They had 1241 01:14:58,080 --> 01:15:01,800 Speaker 1: to make roll top death for the warden and all 1242 01:15:01,800 --> 01:15:04,439 Speaker 1: the politicians up there and you know said, you know, 1243 01:15:04,479 --> 01:15:06,880 Speaker 1: go back to what you were doing. Well, one of 1244 01:15:06,920 --> 01:15:09,280 Speaker 1: those guys, now he just you know, because now he's 1245 01:15:09,280 --> 01:15:11,479 Speaker 1: a felon, so he had to do other things, so 1246 01:15:11,520 --> 01:15:14,759 Speaker 1: he moved to the Bahamas. He's got this fantastic fishing 1247 01:15:14,800 --> 01:15:18,240 Speaker 1: lodge on the Bahamas, he's got the he's got two 1248 01:15:18,280 --> 01:15:22,120 Speaker 1: great restaurants in a bookstore and a tackle shop at 1249 01:15:22,120 --> 01:15:24,720 Speaker 1: the US that he runs from Afar. You know, he said, well, 1250 01:15:24,760 --> 01:15:26,800 Speaker 1: if I'm a felon, I gotta do the best I can. 1251 01:15:27,760 --> 01:15:29,960 Speaker 1: And there are a couple of guys like that who 1252 01:15:30,040 --> 01:15:32,080 Speaker 1: still remained and named over the Missouri. You know, they 1253 01:15:32,080 --> 01:15:34,400 Speaker 1: couldn't guide anymore because they were felling, so they just 1254 01:15:34,479 --> 01:15:37,760 Speaker 1: opened a big business. They have homes and belize and 1255 01:15:37,800 --> 01:15:42,360 Speaker 1: they were forced by this limitation on their options something 1256 01:15:42,400 --> 01:15:45,640 Speaker 1: even more creative. But your main draw Key West was 1257 01:15:45,680 --> 01:15:49,200 Speaker 1: the fishing, right, unbelievable fishing. I mean, you have the Gulf. 1258 01:15:49,400 --> 01:15:53,320 Speaker 1: It's the head of the Gulf Stream, so you have 1259 01:15:53,400 --> 01:15:57,720 Speaker 1: this phenomenal depth of species there, and then you have 1260 01:15:57,760 --> 01:15:59,640 Speaker 1: the Gulf of Mexico, which is a whole different kind 1261 01:15:59,640 --> 01:16:01,280 Speaker 1: of fish. You have the Gulf Stream, and you have 1262 01:16:01,320 --> 01:16:06,000 Speaker 1: the Atlantic fishery. Um, it's very intricate, fascinating to try 1263 01:16:06,040 --> 01:16:09,439 Speaker 1: to figure out. We didn't have GPS, we didn't have 1264 01:16:09,520 --> 01:16:15,439 Speaker 1: cell phones, we didn't have online tide information. Uh, and 1265 01:16:15,479 --> 01:16:18,200 Speaker 1: you had to convert everything like you get you get 1266 01:16:18,200 --> 01:16:22,799 Speaker 1: a government tide book that Miami would be your closest information. 1267 01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:26,880 Speaker 1: You had to convert everything and like what the delays are? Yeah, 1268 01:16:27,000 --> 01:16:29,200 Speaker 1: and the delays were very different from the Gulf side 1269 01:16:29,200 --> 01:16:31,240 Speaker 1: from Atlantic sided. They only might be a mile or 1270 01:16:31,280 --> 01:16:39,800 Speaker 1: two apart, completely different tides, a difference of hours hours. Uh, 1271 01:16:40,200 --> 01:16:44,160 Speaker 1: throughout throughout your life. Of because you've been around and 1272 01:16:44,280 --> 01:16:46,599 Speaker 1: you've explored so much, do you have this do you 1273 01:16:46,680 --> 01:16:51,200 Speaker 1: have this ongoing feeling that that um places are ending 1274 01:16:51,280 --> 01:16:55,880 Speaker 1: all the time? Well, yeah, but do you feel like 1275 01:16:55,880 --> 01:16:59,360 Speaker 1: the American West is like has ended? Well, it's very 1276 01:16:59,600 --> 01:17:04,160 Speaker 1: you know, I no, not really. I mean I probably 1277 01:17:04,200 --> 01:17:07,000 Speaker 1: that what I struggled with understanding in my fiction is 1278 01:17:07,040 --> 01:17:09,120 Speaker 1: to try to figure out how it's moving on, because 1279 01:17:09,360 --> 01:17:11,240 Speaker 1: when I got to Key West in the sixties, there 1280 01:17:11,240 --> 01:17:13,240 Speaker 1: were people moving out because they thought it was ruined. 1281 01:17:14,479 --> 01:17:17,080 Speaker 1: When I left left there in seventy eight, that we're 1282 01:17:17,120 --> 01:17:20,599 Speaker 1: quick going there in sight, I thought I was sure 1283 01:17:20,720 --> 01:17:23,360 Speaker 1: it was done. And I know all these people that 1284 01:17:23,439 --> 01:17:25,200 Speaker 1: have moved there since then, I just think it's been 1285 01:17:25,200 --> 01:17:27,840 Speaker 1: the greatest lives and and and that's going to happen 1286 01:17:27,880 --> 01:17:32,920 Speaker 1: here too. Well, is this is not gonna be uh, 1287 01:17:32,960 --> 01:17:37,200 Speaker 1: you know, the imagery, the vision we have in Montana 1288 01:17:37,240 --> 01:17:38,840 Speaker 1: is not the same as it once was. I mean 1289 01:17:38,880 --> 01:17:40,840 Speaker 1: it was when I got here in the sixties and 1290 01:17:40,920 --> 01:17:44,120 Speaker 1: not much had changed. I mean, my neighbors were all 1291 01:17:44,320 --> 01:17:48,720 Speaker 1: old family ranchers, you know, they were They were not polarized. 1292 01:17:48,760 --> 01:17:50,639 Speaker 1: You know, I was a hippie. That's so long hair? 1293 01:17:50,760 --> 01:17:52,240 Speaker 1: You know, they were just why you get your hair 1294 01:17:52,320 --> 01:17:54,360 Speaker 1: long while girls like it? You know, Oh, well that's 1295 01:17:54,360 --> 01:18:00,600 Speaker 1: a good idea. And and uh, you know some of 1296 01:18:00,600 --> 01:18:06,040 Speaker 1: the my rancher neighbors were born in the eight hundreds. Yeah, 1297 01:18:06,080 --> 01:18:14,200 Speaker 1: you know, guy board in nine still ranching. Um. Then 1298 01:18:14,200 --> 01:18:17,759 Speaker 1: it could kind of polarized us against them insiders I'll start, 1299 01:18:18,120 --> 01:18:20,320 Speaker 1: you know, natives, non natives that could. That went on 1300 01:18:20,439 --> 01:18:22,000 Speaker 1: for a while and we're kind of evolving out of 1301 01:18:22,040 --> 01:18:24,840 Speaker 1: that now because there's so many that the what do 1302 01:18:24,920 --> 01:18:29,040 Speaker 1: they call it the attrition rate in Montana, The turnover 1303 01:18:29,120 --> 01:18:31,400 Speaker 1: rates has been very high. I'm not sure it's as 1304 01:18:31,479 --> 01:18:33,120 Speaker 1: high as it used to be, but it was always 1305 01:18:33,200 --> 01:18:37,120 Speaker 1: very high. People are always arriving at departing was part 1306 01:18:37,160 --> 01:18:40,920 Speaker 1: of it. Do you feel as a writer that you're 1307 01:18:41,080 --> 01:18:46,559 Speaker 1: more interested in tracking the change than you are in 1308 01:18:46,760 --> 01:18:51,920 Speaker 1: lamenting or rooting for yep, Like you feel like you 1309 01:18:51,960 --> 01:18:55,640 Speaker 1: can just you could almost stand back and like passively 1310 01:18:55,680 --> 01:18:58,599 Speaker 1: observed as long as you hit it, hit the nail 1311 01:18:58,600 --> 01:19:01,040 Speaker 1: on the head. Oh well, I mean I want to. 1312 01:19:02,200 --> 01:19:04,400 Speaker 1: There's a great book by Lewis Hyde that's just being 1313 01:19:04,439 --> 01:19:07,240 Speaker 1: reviewed right now about the art of forgetting. You know, 1314 01:19:07,880 --> 01:19:11,439 Speaker 1: you can't be uh, you can't be chained by your 1315 01:19:11,920 --> 01:19:15,040 Speaker 1: the past or your own past. In many ways, you 1316 01:19:15,080 --> 01:19:17,080 Speaker 1: really don't have much to say about what's going on. 1317 01:19:17,720 --> 01:19:20,680 Speaker 1: I Mean, one of the magic things about literature is 1318 01:19:20,720 --> 01:19:23,040 Speaker 1: that it really is the only thing that can kind 1319 01:19:23,080 --> 01:19:27,920 Speaker 1: of capture, uh, the atmosphere of a given moment um. 1320 01:19:28,000 --> 01:19:29,880 Speaker 1: You can look at the movies of the twenties, you 1321 01:19:29,920 --> 01:19:33,080 Speaker 1: can read the newspapers of the nineties. You're never going 1322 01:19:33,120 --> 01:19:35,000 Speaker 1: to get the feeling for the twenties that you're gonna 1323 01:19:35,000 --> 01:19:38,120 Speaker 1: get from reading the Great Gaspee. I mean those that's 1324 01:19:38,160 --> 01:19:41,000 Speaker 1: the only thing that can really Literature still is the 1325 01:19:41,000 --> 01:19:43,280 Speaker 1: only thing that can really capture what it was like 1326 01:19:43,640 --> 01:19:46,040 Speaker 1: to be there at that time. And it's no good 1327 01:19:46,479 --> 01:19:52,559 Speaker 1: to be there at that time. But lamenting some other era. Um, 1328 01:19:52,680 --> 01:19:54,679 Speaker 1: but that's hard to do. I mean, it's going by 1329 01:19:54,720 --> 01:19:58,599 Speaker 1: you like clay pigeons, trying to catch up with it. 1330 01:19:58,680 --> 01:20:02,680 Speaker 1: Just what, you know, whatever, it is not easy. You 1331 01:20:02,720 --> 01:20:10,639 Speaker 1: don't write from the past too much, not much. No. Um. 1332 01:20:10,640 --> 01:20:14,360 Speaker 1: Maybe I've kind of you know, I feel I've benefited 1333 01:20:14,640 --> 01:20:16,800 Speaker 1: from the ability to kind of start over, you know. 1334 01:20:16,840 --> 01:20:19,519 Speaker 1: I mean, I wasn't very interested in living the life 1335 01:20:19,560 --> 01:20:21,160 Speaker 1: I kind of grew up with. I mean, I had 1336 01:20:21,200 --> 01:20:23,560 Speaker 1: a great life as a kid, you know, but I 1337 01:20:23,800 --> 01:20:25,680 Speaker 1: didn't want to stay in the Midwest, you know, and 1338 01:20:26,720 --> 01:20:29,040 Speaker 1: or stay in the southern Midwest. It seemed to be 1339 01:20:29,200 --> 01:20:33,559 Speaker 1: much going on there. And also I had a kind 1340 01:20:33,600 --> 01:20:38,880 Speaker 1: of a divided childhood because all my family lived in 1341 01:20:39,720 --> 01:20:43,400 Speaker 1: on the Massachusetts coast, you know, and I loved it 1342 01:20:43,439 --> 01:20:45,679 Speaker 1: out there, and my mother never wanted to leave there. 1343 01:20:46,320 --> 01:20:48,439 Speaker 1: So in the spring of the year, she just load 1344 01:20:48,520 --> 01:20:51,200 Speaker 1: us kids up and we lows us up in the 1345 01:20:51,200 --> 01:20:55,799 Speaker 1: car and drives back to my grandmother's falling down triple 1346 01:20:55,880 --> 01:21:01,840 Speaker 1: decker Irish ghetto house and in Fall River, Massachusetts. And 1347 01:21:01,880 --> 01:21:04,800 Speaker 1: I thought that was the greatest you know, go fish 1348 01:21:04,840 --> 01:21:07,040 Speaker 1: for stripe bass with my cousins who just left. I've 1349 01:21:07,040 --> 01:21:11,040 Speaker 1: been fly fishing with my cousin Fred for sixty five years. 1350 01:21:11,360 --> 01:21:15,680 Speaker 1: We just left. We're still doing it. You guys just fishingly. 1351 01:21:15,680 --> 01:21:17,559 Speaker 1: Don't need to say a whole lot of time. We'll 1352 01:21:17,560 --> 01:21:23,759 Speaker 1: go anywhere we can go. Did you fish? I heard 1353 01:21:24,760 --> 01:21:26,599 Speaker 1: mentioned that you were going to fish with Rachel Matten? 1354 01:21:26,640 --> 01:21:29,280 Speaker 1: Do you do you fish? And tell? Like? Uh? I 1355 01:21:29,320 --> 01:21:33,479 Speaker 1: was gonna Rachel was a bad fisherman. And I met 1356 01:21:33,520 --> 01:21:35,840 Speaker 1: her once. I was surprised. I went to an event. 1357 01:21:36,760 --> 01:21:41,840 Speaker 1: It was her and Tucker Carlson on stage. They didn't 1358 01:21:41,880 --> 01:21:44,400 Speaker 1: known each other and work together and we're friends. Their 1359 01:21:44,439 --> 01:21:47,639 Speaker 1: friends with her, and they were bound by um an 1360 01:21:47,640 --> 01:21:50,000 Speaker 1: interest in fishing. And they got up and they were 1361 01:21:50,040 --> 01:21:52,240 Speaker 1: on stage together talking about that, and I was very 1362 01:21:52,240 --> 01:21:55,759 Speaker 1: surprised that she was the angler. That's fascinating. Well, Tucker 1363 01:21:55,800 --> 01:21:58,959 Speaker 1: Carlson comes to the same place we're go doing anyway 1364 01:21:59,560 --> 01:22:02,320 Speaker 1: last or we were gonna go stripe fishing to stripe 1365 01:22:02,320 --> 01:22:05,760 Speaker 1: bass fishing together. I'm a big admirer of hers and UM. 1366 01:22:06,920 --> 01:22:09,840 Speaker 1: And then NBC grounded her, just said, you know, you 1367 01:22:09,880 --> 01:22:12,240 Speaker 1: can't go off for a few days. There's just she said, 1368 01:22:12,280 --> 01:22:15,040 Speaker 1: unless we actually she wrote back, she said, unless we 1369 01:22:15,080 --> 01:22:19,760 Speaker 1: get real indictments. I can't go, oh, I got you so, 1370 01:22:20,600 --> 01:22:24,559 Speaker 1: and uh, what's the story you have where I can't 1371 01:22:24,600 --> 01:22:26,800 Speaker 1: hear the name of it right now? You have a 1372 01:22:26,840 --> 01:22:33,200 Speaker 1: story where you guys go hunting birds and and in 1373 01:22:33,240 --> 01:22:36,720 Speaker 1: the end, uh, one of them, he goes off over 1374 01:22:36,760 --> 01:22:39,479 Speaker 1: the hill and kills himself. Yeah. I hear that story. 1375 01:22:39,520 --> 01:22:41,360 Speaker 1: I hear so much about that story. That thing has 1376 01:22:41,400 --> 01:22:44,639 Speaker 1: really had an ongoing life. What's that story called? It's 1377 01:22:44,720 --> 01:22:47,840 Speaker 1: called there's two of those hunting stories, what's called sports one. 1378 01:22:47,920 --> 01:22:53,680 Speaker 1: This one's called Uh. Yeah. I had to read the 1379 01:22:53,760 --> 01:22:55,479 Speaker 1: end a handful of times to make sure that in 1380 01:22:55,520 --> 01:22:59,400 Speaker 1: fact he had going off and shot himself because he 1381 01:22:59,720 --> 01:23:04,880 Speaker 1: gives his hunting partner. He kind of in a very 1382 01:23:04,960 --> 01:23:10,479 Speaker 1: unceremonial way, explains a little bit about his dogs. Take 1383 01:23:10,520 --> 01:23:14,400 Speaker 1: care of the dogs, Yeah, the care schedule. Yeah, when 1384 01:23:14,479 --> 01:23:18,960 Speaker 1: she goes into heat, what she eats? And then he 1385 01:23:19,000 --> 01:23:22,120 Speaker 1: wanders off over a hill, which is a little bit 1386 01:23:22,160 --> 01:23:24,280 Speaker 1: misleading because they had seen the covey birds go over 1387 01:23:24,320 --> 01:23:26,439 Speaker 1: the hill. But he goes over the hill and there's 1388 01:23:26,479 --> 01:23:30,120 Speaker 1: a gunshot. Yeah. Well, you know I had to be like, 1389 01:23:30,120 --> 01:23:32,760 Speaker 1: oh what you know, I'm like, oh no, he absolutely 1390 01:23:32,840 --> 01:23:36,280 Speaker 1: killed himself. Did that come from? It is that I 1391 01:23:36,320 --> 01:23:39,719 Speaker 1: don't anything in your personal life, not really a couple 1392 01:23:39,760 --> 01:23:43,400 Speaker 1: of things kind of, you know. I don't expect to 1393 01:23:43,520 --> 01:23:47,559 Speaker 1: head out in the rapture, you know, But I always 1394 01:23:47,600 --> 01:23:52,040 Speaker 1: thought the closest thing to rapture that I know is 1395 01:23:52,120 --> 01:23:56,320 Speaker 1: to step into a cuvey covey rice. There's really nothing 1396 01:23:56,360 --> 01:23:59,080 Speaker 1: like it. There's so much life, so many beating hearts, 1397 01:23:59,120 --> 01:24:02,320 Speaker 1: so many eyes, so much expectation, all goes up like 1398 01:24:02,439 --> 01:24:08,600 Speaker 1: a big celestial corsage. And I thought, if I was 1399 01:24:08,640 --> 01:24:11,840 Speaker 1: gonna if I was going to sort of moored out 1400 01:24:12,200 --> 01:24:14,640 Speaker 1: by my own hand, that would be kind of a 1401 01:24:14,720 --> 01:24:17,400 Speaker 1: nice way to go. And I heard when my cousin 1402 01:24:17,479 --> 01:24:21,479 Speaker 1: just told me he had an old friend, uh it 1403 01:24:21,560 --> 01:24:26,040 Speaker 1: was terminally ill and was going to I'm gonna end 1404 01:24:26,120 --> 01:24:28,519 Speaker 1: that day. Either knew that was his last day or 1405 01:24:29,360 --> 01:24:32,840 Speaker 1: uh or they were going to pull the the pain 1406 01:24:33,000 --> 01:24:34,880 Speaker 1: mid plugs or something. But he knew it was over. 1407 01:24:35,720 --> 01:24:38,080 Speaker 1: And there's an old friend of his lives in Rhode Island, 1408 01:24:38,080 --> 01:24:40,160 Speaker 1: and so he was very cheerful about it. He had 1409 01:24:40,160 --> 01:24:42,000 Speaker 1: a great life, he had a good run, said me, 1410 01:24:42,120 --> 01:24:44,040 Speaker 1: I find a find with this. Well, they said, what 1411 01:24:44,080 --> 01:24:46,840 Speaker 1: do you want? He said, well, this was actually still 1412 01:24:46,920 --> 01:24:48,719 Speaker 1: in the winter. He said, just build a big fire. 1413 01:24:49,600 --> 01:24:53,120 Speaker 1: I don't want my lap rob robe. I want my 1414 01:24:53,479 --> 01:24:59,960 Speaker 1: bird dog, I want my cat. That's it off he want. 1415 01:25:01,320 --> 01:25:04,560 Speaker 1: He's fine with it. Were you friends with Richard Brodigan, 1416 01:25:04,600 --> 01:25:08,280 Speaker 1: You have very you have very good friends. Tell a 1417 01:25:08,320 --> 01:25:10,599 Speaker 1: little about that. I mean, were you involved, I mean, 1418 01:25:10,680 --> 01:25:13,080 Speaker 1: were you It's kind of like this famous story about 1419 01:25:13,080 --> 01:25:14,519 Speaker 1: a bunch of guys that were hunting and he was 1420 01:25:14,520 --> 01:25:18,120 Speaker 1: supposed to show up, yeah, and didn't show up. The 1421 01:25:18,160 --> 01:25:24,080 Speaker 1: thing that I remember the most was, um uh, I 1422 01:25:24,080 --> 01:25:25,960 Speaker 1: thought he was doing great. I talked to him into 1423 01:25:26,800 --> 01:25:32,440 Speaker 1: giving up drinking for a period, and he just transformative, 1424 01:25:32,479 --> 01:25:34,640 Speaker 1: I mean physically changed. He had this big, sort of 1425 01:25:35,840 --> 01:25:38,120 Speaker 1: projected belly, you know, and he's drinking all the time 1426 01:25:38,160 --> 01:25:41,600 Speaker 1: and starting at daybreak practically. And then he spent this 1427 01:25:41,640 --> 01:25:44,320 Speaker 1: whole summer being this happy, thin guy to give readings 1428 01:25:44,320 --> 01:25:47,559 Speaker 1: around the neighborhood. Everybody was determined to resume drinking as 1429 01:25:47,560 --> 01:25:50,759 Speaker 1: soon as possible, especially he liked to go to Japan 1430 01:25:50,800 --> 01:25:52,679 Speaker 1: and stay drunk the whole time he was in Japan. 1431 01:25:52,760 --> 01:25:55,280 Speaker 1: That was his big deal. And I'm not sure. Maybe 1432 01:25:55,280 --> 01:25:58,759 Speaker 1: it's put apart of bonding and culture or something in Japan. 1433 01:25:58,880 --> 01:26:05,280 Speaker 1: But um, so he came to my house, uh, and 1434 01:26:05,360 --> 01:26:12,040 Speaker 1: he brought this black Japanese funerary funerary urn. Are you 1435 01:26:12,160 --> 01:26:16,600 Speaker 1: Japanese or Chinese? Half Chinese? Half Chinese, half Chinese? So 1436 01:26:16,720 --> 01:26:19,479 Speaker 1: you don't you know what a funerary urn is? Is 1437 01:26:19,520 --> 01:26:23,720 Speaker 1: that Japanese or Chinese? But I believe that it's Japanese 1438 01:26:24,080 --> 01:26:28,519 Speaker 1: and that's where the anyways, beautiful, beautiful black ceramic thing. 1439 01:26:28,560 --> 01:26:30,000 Speaker 1: He brought it over to my house and he said, 1440 01:26:30,400 --> 01:26:32,880 Speaker 1: I want you to hang on to this, and he said, 1441 01:26:33,040 --> 01:26:37,320 Speaker 1: you'll look, someone will call you for it. Fine, Richards, 1442 01:26:37,439 --> 01:26:39,080 Speaker 1: I put it there. I had it two fly ras, 1443 01:26:39,200 --> 01:26:44,160 Speaker 1: one of which I gave the ripped torn and uh, 1444 01:26:44,479 --> 01:26:46,720 Speaker 1: not too long after that, I get a call, you know, 1445 01:26:46,840 --> 01:26:48,719 Speaker 1: from his daughter. I think it was from his daughter saying, 1446 01:26:48,760 --> 01:26:53,040 Speaker 1: you know, Richards committed suicide. We've sent the urn no ship. Yeah. 1447 01:26:53,160 --> 01:26:57,200 Speaker 1: He even told her where to find it. Huh. You 1448 01:26:57,240 --> 01:27:00,240 Speaker 1: know why I asked you about that. We're driving up here, 1449 01:27:01,320 --> 01:27:06,799 Speaker 1: driving around looking for your house. Um yoanninging here Yannie 1450 01:27:06,800 --> 01:27:09,559 Speaker 1: and I were talking about our friend Doug, who's out 1451 01:27:09,560 --> 01:27:11,960 Speaker 1: here with a couple of buddies of his from Wisconsin. 1452 01:27:12,560 --> 01:27:15,120 Speaker 1: Right now, they're here in Montana and they're just driving 1453 01:27:15,160 --> 01:27:21,360 Speaker 1: around fishing, and Joannice mentioned me that part of their 1454 01:27:21,400 --> 01:27:26,280 Speaker 1: plan while they're driving around fishing is to read Trout 1455 01:27:26,320 --> 01:27:30,640 Speaker 1: Fishing in America. And I said to Joannice, well, you know, 1456 01:27:30,680 --> 01:27:32,320 Speaker 1: it doesn't really have anything to do with trout fishing, 1457 01:27:32,800 --> 01:27:37,000 Speaker 1: and he said, they know. Oh, that's great, greatly. Hey, 1458 01:27:37,040 --> 01:27:40,879 Speaker 1: I gotta Richard's daughter just sent me a new addition 1459 01:27:40,880 --> 01:27:42,519 Speaker 1: of it. I might be able to see it. I 1460 01:27:42,560 --> 01:27:45,800 Speaker 1: saw it the other day, Um of troun Fishing in 1461 01:27:45,800 --> 01:27:51,320 Speaker 1: America with Billy Collins introduction. Okay, isn't that cool? Yeah? Well, 1462 01:27:51,320 --> 01:27:53,760 Speaker 1: it was a magical book. I mean, and whatever it was, 1463 01:27:54,080 --> 01:27:55,800 Speaker 1: I don't know what it was. I've read it two 1464 01:27:55,920 --> 01:27:58,400 Speaker 1: or three times. It's just a great book. Yeah, one 1465 01:27:58,439 --> 01:28:02,679 Speaker 1: of the most requestioned books in the entire American library systems, 1466 01:28:02,800 --> 01:28:06,120 Speaker 1: right up there with Huckleberry Finn or something. You know, 1467 01:28:06,240 --> 01:28:10,280 Speaker 1: there's a couple more questions for you. There's the thing 1468 01:28:10,320 --> 01:28:13,720 Speaker 1: that I've read where you've written it a couple of 1469 01:28:13,800 --> 01:28:19,840 Speaker 1: times or said in interviews, UM that fishing is the 1470 01:28:19,960 --> 01:28:26,280 Speaker 1: second most published subject after mathematics. Yeah, what does that mean? Though? 1471 01:28:26,320 --> 01:28:28,759 Speaker 1: I have no idea. It is way too much stuff 1472 01:28:28,800 --> 01:28:32,240 Speaker 1: about fishing out there. I hate to throw throw another 1473 01:28:32,280 --> 01:28:34,439 Speaker 1: little one out there. No. I thought about that when 1474 01:28:34,439 --> 01:28:36,120 Speaker 1: I came in and looked at your bookshelves, and I 1475 01:28:36,200 --> 01:28:38,160 Speaker 1: remembered that. I can't remember if you wrote it or 1476 01:28:38,200 --> 01:28:39,960 Speaker 1: said in an interview, but you've written it. Was the 1477 01:28:40,000 --> 01:28:43,360 Speaker 1: second most published subject, next to mathematics. I don't know why. 1478 01:28:43,360 --> 01:28:48,439 Speaker 1: It's just because for the sort of outdoor activities, especially 1479 01:28:48,520 --> 01:28:51,599 Speaker 1: the ones with any kind of a predatorial component, it's 1480 01:28:51,600 --> 01:28:55,320 Speaker 1: the most contemplative. So it may that maybe what what 1481 01:28:55,479 --> 01:28:57,439 Speaker 1: leads to it. I have a book that I tried 1482 01:28:57,479 --> 01:29:03,920 Speaker 1: to get. It's called Blood notts um unbelievable book by 1483 01:29:04,040 --> 01:29:07,080 Speaker 1: an English writer, A good name for a fishing book. Yeah. 1484 01:29:07,280 --> 01:29:09,920 Speaker 1: He was the he was the dance critic of The Observer, 1485 01:29:10,479 --> 01:29:15,320 Speaker 1: really and he wrote the stunning book about fishing. Um. 1486 01:29:15,439 --> 01:29:18,000 Speaker 1: And uh, I mean it's just a great book U. 1487 01:29:19,640 --> 01:29:22,759 Speaker 1: And I got all sorts of people to help promoted. 1488 01:29:22,840 --> 01:29:25,759 Speaker 1: I had always always renowned people write blurbs and stuff 1489 01:29:25,760 --> 01:29:28,519 Speaker 1: for it really didn't they was published very poorly and 1490 01:29:28,520 --> 01:29:32,120 Speaker 1: didn't really go anywhere. Um. But it was one of 1491 01:29:32,160 --> 01:29:35,759 Speaker 1: these books like the book about the Swedish utopia VSA 1492 01:29:35,880 --> 01:29:40,080 Speaker 1: v angling you know. Uh. And this guy grew up 1493 01:29:40,120 --> 01:29:44,240 Speaker 1: he comes from. It starts out dad was teaching him 1494 01:29:44,240 --> 01:29:47,040 Speaker 1: to fish, and he he never could understand why his 1495 01:29:47,080 --> 01:29:50,040 Speaker 1: mother would get up in the morning and apply saves 1496 01:29:50,080 --> 01:29:53,160 Speaker 1: to his fire to father's body and then they get 1497 01:29:53,240 --> 01:29:55,960 Speaker 1: dressed and go fishing, and he couldn't understand what that 1498 01:29:56,040 --> 01:29:59,320 Speaker 1: was about. Uh. And then as he learned to fish, 1499 01:29:59,360 --> 01:30:01,559 Speaker 1: he started quick singing his dad about these things. Turned 1500 01:30:01,560 --> 01:30:03,360 Speaker 1: out his dad was in a tank battle and his 1501 01:30:03,479 --> 01:30:08,320 Speaker 1: talent in the Nazi tank hit it with an anti 1502 01:30:08,400 --> 01:30:10,479 Speaker 1: tank weapon of some kind of The thing burst into 1503 01:30:10,520 --> 01:30:12,320 Speaker 1: flame and he was one of the first guys to 1504 01:30:12,360 --> 01:30:16,080 Speaker 1: get a total plastic surgery treatment of the Second World War. Well, 1505 01:30:16,120 --> 01:30:18,520 Speaker 1: that kind of folds in as he's learning to fish. 1506 01:30:18,720 --> 01:30:20,799 Speaker 1: Then he has a He has a hero at school 1507 01:30:20,840 --> 01:30:24,240 Speaker 1: who's like one of those super male figures that young 1508 01:30:24,280 --> 01:30:26,840 Speaker 1: guys kind of identified with when they're kids in school. 1509 01:30:26,840 --> 01:30:31,679 Speaker 1: He's a falconer, he's a great fisherman, and he followed 1510 01:30:31,760 --> 01:30:35,120 Speaker 1: him through life. They often fish together. The hero guy 1511 01:30:35,640 --> 01:30:40,639 Speaker 1: joined the Royal Irish Constabulary in uh in Northern Ireland 1512 01:30:40,720 --> 01:30:44,320 Speaker 1: during the troubles. These guys all went to this ancient 1513 01:30:44,439 --> 01:30:47,840 Speaker 1: Catholic college in England's like six year old college and 1514 01:30:48,080 --> 01:30:51,240 Speaker 1: grew up in this kind of intense Catholic atmosphere. He 1515 01:30:51,360 --> 01:30:54,000 Speaker 1: joins the the r U R what it was called, 1516 01:30:54,800 --> 01:30:59,760 Speaker 1: and he's captured by the I ra A uh and 1517 01:31:00,000 --> 01:31:03,759 Speaker 1: they tortured him for two weeks. They brought fake priests 1518 01:31:03,760 --> 01:31:07,280 Speaker 1: in to do the last rites, and then they killed 1519 01:31:07,360 --> 01:31:11,080 Speaker 1: him and then leers. Afterwards, this guy fishing runs into 1520 01:31:11,120 --> 01:31:13,320 Speaker 1: some of those I ra A guys and they said, well, 1521 01:31:13,800 --> 01:31:15,439 Speaker 1: I can tell you this about your friend. He was 1522 01:31:15,479 --> 01:31:18,599 Speaker 1: a real soldier, he never broke But this is all 1523 01:31:18,680 --> 01:31:24,040 Speaker 1: interwoven with with hardcore serious fishing. And I began to think, 1524 01:31:24,080 --> 01:31:26,600 Speaker 1: you know, it's pretty seamless, you know. Then O, this 1525 01:31:26,640 --> 01:31:32,400 Speaker 1: would have happened if he hadn't been a fisherman, you know. So, Uh, 1526 01:31:32,680 --> 01:31:38,080 Speaker 1: what's the name Harry? Uh? Oh? What is that? Uh? Anyway, 1527 01:31:38,080 --> 01:31:41,320 Speaker 1: there's a wonderful writer. He died long ago. What about fishing? Uh? 1528 01:31:41,920 --> 01:31:44,400 Speaker 1: Starlight Angling Club was was one of his one of 1529 01:31:44,439 --> 01:31:46,559 Speaker 1: his books. They were so intermeshed with life, you know, 1530 01:31:46,640 --> 01:31:50,160 Speaker 1: And that's so maybe that's why there's so much fishing 1531 01:31:50,200 --> 01:31:52,719 Speaker 1: stuff out there. I don't know, do you feel that 1532 01:31:53,080 --> 01:31:58,280 Speaker 1: if you ended the world now and let it start 1533 01:31:58,360 --> 01:32:02,559 Speaker 1: back over again and the world gets going again, would 1534 01:32:03,760 --> 01:32:09,120 Speaker 1: um would so many writers that fish be fly fisherman? 1535 01:32:09,320 --> 01:32:10,760 Speaker 1: Or do you think you could let it start over 1536 01:32:10,800 --> 01:32:13,360 Speaker 1: again and it would wind up that so many writers 1537 01:32:13,360 --> 01:32:19,240 Speaker 1: that fish were spin fisherman. What a question? I don't know. 1538 01:32:19,479 --> 01:32:24,280 Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean, the mentality of trying to 1539 01:32:24,320 --> 01:32:26,280 Speaker 1: catch a fish with a fly is so very different, 1540 01:32:26,320 --> 01:32:31,720 Speaker 1: I mean with spin fisherman basically attacking fish. Yeah, and 1541 01:32:32,200 --> 01:32:36,679 Speaker 1: I like that, And uh, you have to fly fishing 1542 01:32:37,000 --> 01:32:39,960 Speaker 1: is you kind of have to make a deal. You 1543 01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:42,960 Speaker 1: know what English fly fishing writer Shaip, what do you do? 1544 01:32:43,080 --> 01:32:46,040 Speaker 1: What's this all about? He said, Well, you make a 1545 01:32:46,120 --> 01:32:52,320 Speaker 1: cast and then you await results. That's a that's a 1546 01:32:52,640 --> 01:32:57,200 Speaker 1: whole other thing. Then, you know, you know what I'm saying, Man, 1547 01:32:57,280 --> 01:32:59,080 Speaker 1: I like them. I like all that. I like any 1548 01:32:59,160 --> 01:33:01,280 Speaker 1: kind of fishing you got. You got a line in 1549 01:33:01,360 --> 01:33:03,519 Speaker 1: one of your fishing stories where you're talking about a 1550 01:33:03,680 --> 01:33:08,760 Speaker 1: fly presenting a fly to a fish. You said that 1551 01:33:08,800 --> 01:33:13,800 Speaker 1: it's like a highway exit that's labeled free beer, right, 1552 01:33:14,120 --> 01:33:18,519 Speaker 1: and most motorists are just gonna blow pass. Some motors 1553 01:33:18,600 --> 01:33:22,200 Speaker 1: are gonna think like, oh, that's a ruse and they're 1554 01:33:22,240 --> 01:33:25,080 Speaker 1: gonna ambush me and kill me. I didn't remember saying this, 1555 01:33:25,240 --> 01:33:29,680 Speaker 1: but some guys are just gonna get off. There are 1556 01:33:29,680 --> 01:33:33,519 Speaker 1: gonna take those are the fishy catch. You know. He 1557 01:33:33,560 --> 01:33:35,240 Speaker 1: had a magic moment. I was last year. I was 1558 01:33:35,280 --> 01:33:37,640 Speaker 1: fishing on the New Fork of the Green and Wyoming. 1559 01:33:38,680 --> 01:33:41,479 Speaker 1: I was fishing with dry flies. That big, big dry flies. 1560 01:33:41,520 --> 01:33:43,960 Speaker 1: Are a lot of great drakes on the water and 1561 01:33:45,080 --> 01:33:49,280 Speaker 1: fired out there's floating along, dancing along. We're all filled 1562 01:33:49,320 --> 01:33:54,520 Speaker 1: with hope. This big brown trout comes up. It stalls. 1563 01:33:56,720 --> 01:34:00,519 Speaker 1: He says, this is bullshit and he swims away. As 1564 01:34:00,520 --> 01:34:04,639 Speaker 1: he swims away, it's all going downstream. He's developing doubts. 1565 01:34:07,160 --> 01:34:08,639 Speaker 1: I can see him go through this thing, and he goes, 1566 01:34:09,280 --> 01:34:16,800 Speaker 1: I think I'll eat it. So I recently had uh. 1567 01:34:18,160 --> 01:34:20,960 Speaker 1: But we're at my mother's home, and my mother lives 1568 01:34:21,000 --> 01:34:23,080 Speaker 1: in the house I was brought up in, and my kid, 1569 01:34:23,920 --> 01:34:29,320 Speaker 1: who's nine, he looks under the pontoon boat. She's got 1570 01:34:29,320 --> 01:34:32,080 Speaker 1: a pontoon boat moored up to her dock. He looks 1571 01:34:32,080 --> 01:34:34,599 Speaker 1: out of the pontoon ball. There's a big, large mouth 1572 01:34:35,680 --> 01:34:39,640 Speaker 1: um feeling it hovering in the hovering in the shadows, 1573 01:34:39,800 --> 01:34:44,599 Speaker 1: you know, and he takes his beach saying and eventually 1574 01:34:44,600 --> 01:34:47,200 Speaker 1: gets a big what we call like a horn nose chub. 1575 01:34:47,600 --> 01:34:49,880 Speaker 1: Those big those now they get the males get a 1576 01:34:49,920 --> 01:34:54,320 Speaker 1: knobby knows on him and I free hook it on 1577 01:34:54,360 --> 01:34:56,479 Speaker 1: their for him. There's no weight, it's just this chubb 1578 01:34:57,040 --> 01:34:58,559 Speaker 1: and I tell him to flick it up under there, 1579 01:34:58,560 --> 01:35:04,799 Speaker 1: you know. And the way that fish, just the total 1580 01:35:04,840 --> 01:35:11,000 Speaker 1: conviction with which that fish took that chubb, like no 1581 01:35:12,600 --> 01:35:16,880 Speaker 1: hesitation or doubt like something like that. Though, it is 1582 01:35:16,920 --> 01:35:19,120 Speaker 1: a little bit magical to watch. Well, that fish is 1583 01:35:19,160 --> 01:35:23,960 Speaker 1: like I'll take it, I buy it. And it's interesting 1584 01:35:24,000 --> 01:35:26,519 Speaker 1: because you know, it's almost startling. You know, there's fish 1585 01:35:26,560 --> 01:35:29,400 Speaker 1: that living around docks and stuff in Florida. You know, 1586 01:35:29,439 --> 01:35:31,679 Speaker 1: they've had so many people try to catch them. I mean, 1587 01:35:32,080 --> 01:35:37,960 Speaker 1: you can slide a live shrimp down their face like this. 1588 01:35:39,280 --> 01:35:43,800 Speaker 1: They're not gonna let it fall uh one more for you. 1589 01:35:43,880 --> 01:35:45,880 Speaker 1: I know. It's on the way in. There's turkeys hanging 1590 01:35:45,880 --> 01:35:48,479 Speaker 1: around here. Are they living here? Yere? Around? Are they 1591 01:35:48,520 --> 01:35:50,640 Speaker 1: migrate up and down? No, there're a lot of a 1592 01:35:50,680 --> 01:35:53,120 Speaker 1: lot of them around here, and they get very yeah, 1593 01:35:53,200 --> 01:35:56,160 Speaker 1: they get very tame. They hone in on the imagine 1594 01:35:56,200 --> 01:35:58,280 Speaker 1: that they're only making their living because they can winner 1595 01:35:58,360 --> 01:36:01,040 Speaker 1: up around animals, livestock. I think that's part of it. 1596 01:36:01,080 --> 01:36:05,200 Speaker 1: We had we had one living on rusty, living on 1597 01:36:05,240 --> 01:36:07,519 Speaker 1: the porch all winter long, and he went off with 1598 01:36:07,560 --> 01:36:10,240 Speaker 1: his pack. Used to be when we would grain our 1599 01:36:10,240 --> 01:36:12,439 Speaker 1: horses out of a trough, you know, we take a 1600 01:36:12,479 --> 01:36:14,240 Speaker 1: bucket of grain and put it in this long wooden 1601 01:36:14,240 --> 01:36:16,080 Speaker 1: trough and we gotta go out there. The horses will 1602 01:36:16,120 --> 01:36:18,120 Speaker 1: be lined up and there'll be turkeys lined up between 1603 01:36:18,160 --> 01:36:22,799 Speaker 1: the horses. So do you do you hunt the turkeys? 1604 01:36:23,600 --> 01:36:26,040 Speaker 1: Do I have turkeys? It wouldn't be very sporting here. 1605 01:36:26,360 --> 01:36:29,120 Speaker 1: I have gone turkey hunting. I haven't been successful at it, 1606 01:36:29,120 --> 01:36:31,120 Speaker 1: but I've gone turkey hunting when I've been visiting my 1607 01:36:31,280 --> 01:36:35,639 Speaker 1: in laws in Alabama, and that's very that seems very 1608 01:36:35,680 --> 01:36:37,479 Speaker 1: interesting to me. But I mean, this would be case 1609 01:36:37,520 --> 01:36:40,400 Speaker 1: of going out and plugging one. I mean, these are 1610 01:36:40,439 --> 01:36:45,120 Speaker 1: Miriam's turkeys. They were established there a New Mexico turkey originally. 1611 01:36:45,280 --> 01:36:48,120 Speaker 1: They they're like hans. They just found a biota that 1612 01:36:48,160 --> 01:36:53,920 Speaker 1: they could move right into. Uh. Remember earlier I was 1613 01:36:54,040 --> 01:36:57,200 Speaker 1: praising you for just how believable everything, and you're and 1614 01:36:57,320 --> 01:37:00,280 Speaker 1: your work is We're gonna move on to something unbelievable. Yeah, 1615 01:37:00,280 --> 01:37:01,760 Speaker 1: I just want to ask you about the one thing 1616 01:37:01,760 --> 01:37:04,720 Speaker 1: that I was like, uh, that's not cracked. What was it? 1617 01:37:04,800 --> 01:37:07,840 Speaker 1: You know, your story Canyon Ferry. Yeah, there's a guy 1618 01:37:07,880 --> 01:37:10,000 Speaker 1: that's taken like his he's taking a kid out of 1619 01:37:10,000 --> 01:37:13,960 Speaker 1: ice fishing on Canyon Ferry Lake, but it's the wintertime 1620 01:37:14,560 --> 01:37:18,480 Speaker 1: and he has a coffee can full of crawlers. Oh 1621 01:37:18,560 --> 01:37:21,880 Speaker 1: I really didn't like that. Yeah, they'd phrazed, wouldn't they 1622 01:37:21,920 --> 01:37:25,360 Speaker 1: Just he wouldn't have that guy. Yeah, he wouldn't have 1623 01:37:25,560 --> 01:37:28,599 Speaker 1: that guy, wouldn't have that. He couldn't buy him like that. Yeah, 1624 01:37:28,680 --> 01:37:30,559 Speaker 1: it might be true. Ye know. I feel like if 1625 01:37:30,560 --> 01:37:32,559 Speaker 1: you ever do a revised version, you need to change. 1626 01:37:32,600 --> 01:37:35,680 Speaker 1: He needs to have a styrofoam container. Yea that he 1627 01:37:35,720 --> 01:37:40,160 Speaker 1: bought a Bob Wartz a styrofoam container from the cold. 1628 01:37:40,400 --> 01:37:42,160 Speaker 1: That was the only thing I've ever read. And this 1629 01:37:42,200 --> 01:37:44,200 Speaker 1: is this is this sounds like an insult, but it's 1630 01:37:44,240 --> 01:37:47,400 Speaker 1: a it's a compliment. How many books have you written? 1631 01:37:48,040 --> 01:37:50,439 Speaker 1: I don't know, fifteen or something, I guess, and how 1632 01:37:50,520 --> 01:37:53,679 Speaker 1: many how many short stories? I don't know? A lot. 1633 01:37:53,920 --> 01:37:56,559 Speaker 1: I just collected him in excess of like, you know, 1634 01:37:56,760 --> 01:38:01,080 Speaker 1: dozens and dozens and he've written an entire of essays 1635 01:38:01,080 --> 01:38:06,640 Speaker 1: about horses. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I just want to 1636 01:38:06,640 --> 01:38:10,040 Speaker 1: point out that all that and that I'll take it 1637 01:38:10,200 --> 01:38:14,519 Speaker 1: if that's the worst one time when I was like, no, oh, 1638 01:38:14,600 --> 01:38:18,679 Speaker 1: it was painful, but it just I think that it 1639 01:38:18,680 --> 01:38:29,559 Speaker 1: it reveals how um, just the how well versed you've 1640 01:38:29,600 --> 01:38:35,600 Speaker 1: become in your life, just everything having to do with America. Yeah, no, 1641 01:38:35,720 --> 01:38:40,920 Speaker 1: I'm you know, it's funny. I have a friend who's uh, 1642 01:38:42,479 --> 01:38:47,840 Speaker 1: who just married you just married a girl from Prague. 1643 01:38:48,400 --> 01:38:50,559 Speaker 1: There's a guy that I fished to sail with luck 1644 01:38:51,200 --> 01:38:54,960 Speaker 1: and she has some kind of a uh problem coming 1645 01:38:55,040 --> 01:38:57,040 Speaker 1: going out of the country. I mean her, you know, 1646 01:38:57,360 --> 01:39:00,040 Speaker 1: you can't just get married now and automatically assaults of 1647 01:39:00,160 --> 01:39:02,920 Speaker 1: this problem. So they're out of the country now, they're 1648 01:39:02,920 --> 01:39:08,120 Speaker 1: wandering around, they've been on the Croatian coast, they're doing stuff. Um. 1649 01:39:08,160 --> 01:39:10,559 Speaker 1: But I can tell how homesick he is for America. 1650 01:39:10,640 --> 01:39:12,600 Speaker 1: And he's a real ex hippie, you know, he's not 1651 01:39:12,720 --> 01:39:16,000 Speaker 1: nostalgic about America. But I lived over I lived in 1652 01:39:16,000 --> 01:39:18,360 Speaker 1: Ireland one time. I lived in Spain. I lived in Italy, 1653 01:39:19,160 --> 01:39:20,920 Speaker 1: but I was always trying to find what's going on 1654 01:39:21,000 --> 01:39:25,479 Speaker 1: in America, you know. And uh and also I got 1655 01:39:25,520 --> 01:39:28,360 Speaker 1: sort of educated in the early idea that there was 1656 01:39:28,400 --> 01:39:30,639 Speaker 1: such a thing as American literature that wasn't the same 1657 01:39:30,680 --> 01:39:33,840 Speaker 1: as English literature. That was actually when I was going 1658 01:39:33,840 --> 01:39:37,439 Speaker 1: to college. That was a relatively new idea that you know, 1659 01:39:37,479 --> 01:39:42,080 Speaker 1: it wasn't always in the air. And uh, programs like 1660 01:39:42,120 --> 01:39:44,800 Speaker 1: American Studies, all those kinds of things. The old idea 1661 01:39:44,840 --> 01:39:46,680 Speaker 1: that there is such a thing. We're not just a 1662 01:39:47,720 --> 01:39:52,040 Speaker 1: disparate in Malick, we are kind of a people. Uh 1663 01:39:52,120 --> 01:39:58,559 Speaker 1: and that's not been for sure forever. And uh so 1664 01:39:59,120 --> 01:40:02,200 Speaker 1: I'm kind of now that I see it, kind of imperiled. 1665 01:40:02,280 --> 01:40:06,120 Speaker 1: I'm just really interested in what it is, what this 1666 01:40:06,200 --> 01:40:09,800 Speaker 1: country is, what it is to be an American. Um 1667 01:40:09,840 --> 01:40:12,280 Speaker 1: And when I just was overseas, I really noticed that. 1668 01:40:12,320 --> 01:40:13,800 Speaker 1: I was just like, what's going on. I gotta get 1669 01:40:13,800 --> 01:40:17,679 Speaker 1: the Buildings Gazette. I'm done in Brittany, you know, powing 1670 01:40:17,760 --> 01:40:20,719 Speaker 1: mysel phone. What's going to happen to the Billings Gazette today? 1671 01:40:22,840 --> 01:40:28,400 Speaker 1: It's kind of it's kind of ignorant in a way 1672 01:40:28,400 --> 01:40:31,240 Speaker 1: to look at that, but I don't long to be 1673 01:40:31,320 --> 01:40:34,559 Speaker 1: an expatriate as some people did at one time, never 1674 01:40:34,640 --> 01:40:37,559 Speaker 1: did want to be. And whenever I'm not here, I 1675 01:40:37,560 --> 01:40:41,240 Speaker 1: want to know what's going on and I and I 1676 01:40:41,240 --> 01:40:43,840 Speaker 1: would like to kind of claw my way to a 1677 01:40:43,960 --> 01:40:46,920 Speaker 1: sort of a template or an overview of what an act, 1678 01:40:47,000 --> 01:40:50,320 Speaker 1: what this country actually is, since it's changing so quickly. 1679 01:40:51,640 --> 01:40:54,519 Speaker 1: My wife had a job for a while where it 1680 01:40:54,520 --> 01:40:59,920 Speaker 1: would have been possible to go and take a position overseas, 1681 01:41:00,840 --> 01:41:04,120 Speaker 1: and when she brought this up to me, I told 1682 01:41:04,120 --> 01:41:06,840 Speaker 1: that I was just too American to live somewhere else, 1683 01:41:07,960 --> 01:41:11,360 Speaker 1: which I felt was Yeah, I thought I wouldn't be 1684 01:41:11,360 --> 01:41:13,479 Speaker 1: able to pull it off. I wouldn't be able to 1685 01:41:13,520 --> 01:41:15,360 Speaker 1: pull it off either. And you know you noticed it 1686 01:41:15,400 --> 01:41:17,880 Speaker 1: if you you know, if you get translated a lot, 1687 01:41:18,360 --> 01:41:20,360 Speaker 1: because they really have a lot of a lot of 1688 01:41:20,479 --> 01:41:25,000 Speaker 1: uh problems with our language, you know what I mean. 1689 01:41:25,400 --> 01:41:28,519 Speaker 1: For example, they couldn't translate the title Cloudbursts, which is 1690 01:41:28,560 --> 01:41:32,120 Speaker 1: my collected stories. French couldn't translate that there isn't a cloud, 1691 01:41:32,160 --> 01:41:34,000 Speaker 1: but there isn't a term for that. Where do they 1692 01:41:34,040 --> 01:41:39,200 Speaker 1: go with I can't remember? Or what's what? Whatever they 1693 01:41:39,240 --> 01:41:43,000 Speaker 1: went with? What's it? Translate speak French. They went with 1694 01:41:45,280 --> 01:41:49,640 Speaker 1: wandlecil city near when I was in franchise. Is that 1695 01:41:49,760 --> 01:41:54,080 Speaker 1: a nice tale? Oh yeah, it's very nice. Thank you. 1696 01:41:55,840 --> 01:41:59,920 Speaker 1: There is there anything that you wish you've gotten asked about? 1697 01:42:00,000 --> 01:42:02,439 Speaker 1: They didn't get asked about here today? Yeah? Any you 1698 01:42:02,439 --> 01:42:05,120 Speaker 1: want to wedge, you know, But this has been really fun. 1699 01:42:05,160 --> 01:42:07,840 Speaker 1: I could do this for a long time because it's 1700 01:42:08,000 --> 01:42:10,400 Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of intuitive. You know, I'm I'm 1701 01:42:10,479 --> 01:42:14,040 Speaker 1: enjoying this. I guess I was concerned that there would 1702 01:42:14,040 --> 01:42:16,720 Speaker 1: be more of a template for what we were going 1703 01:42:16,760 --> 01:42:20,519 Speaker 1: to go toward that hasn't happened. Um, maybe I missed out. 1704 01:42:20,600 --> 01:42:22,320 Speaker 1: What would that have been? I think you sucked up. 1705 01:42:22,360 --> 01:42:29,480 Speaker 1: I'm not sure, but that's what I like. That approach 1706 01:42:29,560 --> 01:42:33,559 Speaker 1: to anything. I mean, that's the way I write. You know, 1707 01:42:33,880 --> 01:42:36,600 Speaker 1: something arrests my attention. I have no idea what's going 1708 01:42:36,640 --> 01:42:39,320 Speaker 1: to happen. I had an image one time we rented 1709 01:42:39,320 --> 01:42:43,720 Speaker 1: a house down the Gulf coast when you're I went 1710 01:42:43,760 --> 01:42:46,000 Speaker 1: down ahead of time. I didn't know anybody at this town. 1711 01:42:46,080 --> 01:42:48,280 Speaker 1: It was seemed very strange to me that people seemed 1712 01:42:48,280 --> 01:42:50,280 Speaker 1: fairly strange. But I had the rental host, you know, 1713 01:42:50,320 --> 01:42:53,439 Speaker 1: on the renter, the realtor gave me the keys, and 1714 01:42:54,080 --> 01:42:55,839 Speaker 1: I went out to look at the Gulf of Mexico 1715 01:42:56,000 --> 01:42:59,800 Speaker 1: and the the wind blew the door shot. Now I'm 1716 01:42:59,800 --> 01:43:01,760 Speaker 1: on the porch. I can't get back into the house. 1717 01:43:01,840 --> 01:43:05,120 Speaker 1: I don't know anybody. Somebody drove me there, and I 1718 01:43:05,120 --> 01:43:09,479 Speaker 1: mean I felt this kind of derascinated panic, you know. 1719 01:43:09,880 --> 01:43:14,760 Speaker 1: Suddenly I became nobody on this windy porch. So that's 1720 01:43:14,760 --> 01:43:16,240 Speaker 1: how I had to go on. I had just had 1721 01:43:16,280 --> 01:43:19,760 Speaker 1: that image. I said, well, wonder where this goes? And 1722 01:43:19,800 --> 01:43:22,519 Speaker 1: that life is kind of like that, I think. And 1723 01:43:22,600 --> 01:43:28,640 Speaker 1: that's what most fiction writers, uh uh, admit at some 1724 01:43:28,720 --> 01:43:31,200 Speaker 1: point in a time, most of them not all that 1725 01:43:31,280 --> 01:43:35,160 Speaker 1: writing is really improvisitory. I mean, as a cheever said 1726 01:43:35,160 --> 01:43:37,640 Speaker 1: it over and over again. In fact, my my experience 1727 01:43:37,720 --> 01:43:40,880 Speaker 1: is if you really know where it's going, it's probably 1728 01:43:40,880 --> 01:43:43,960 Speaker 1: not going to be any good. You don't write the 1729 01:43:44,080 --> 01:43:47,720 Speaker 1: end first, no, no, hell no. But I revised a lot. 1730 01:43:47,760 --> 01:43:49,760 Speaker 1: I'm a I'm a rewriter, you know. I do a 1731 01:43:49,840 --> 01:43:52,760 Speaker 1: lot of drafts, but I don't know where it's going. 1732 01:43:52,800 --> 01:43:55,880 Speaker 1: Maybe I want to be a reader when I'm writing. 1733 01:43:55,880 --> 01:43:57,400 Speaker 1: I want to be a reader with a little bit 1734 01:43:57,479 --> 01:44:02,400 Speaker 1: of an advantage, which is what I used to do 1735 01:44:02,479 --> 01:44:05,799 Speaker 1: magazine stories, which is totally different, but pieces of reporting 1736 01:44:05,880 --> 01:44:08,479 Speaker 1: or whatever. I would start with a place I wanted 1737 01:44:08,520 --> 01:44:12,400 Speaker 1: to get, like a really cool scene or something that 1738 01:44:12,479 --> 01:44:16,479 Speaker 1: was impactful, and then picture writing the rest of the 1739 01:44:16,560 --> 01:44:19,160 Speaker 1: article in the way that would warrant such an impactful ending. 1740 01:44:20,280 --> 01:44:22,080 Speaker 1: Did you actually follow through with that or oh, that's 1741 01:44:22,080 --> 01:44:24,080 Speaker 1: just how I would start. I feel like if only 1742 01:44:24,120 --> 01:44:27,080 Speaker 1: I could write something so good that it could end 1743 01:44:27,080 --> 01:44:30,280 Speaker 1: with this and have it makes sense. I wrote a 1744 01:44:30,320 --> 01:44:32,680 Speaker 1: note down, I wrote this note of dialogue done. I'm 1745 01:44:32,680 --> 01:44:35,639 Speaker 1: gonna try to do something but eventually and it just 1746 01:44:35,880 --> 01:44:39,040 Speaker 1: just in quotes. It's just a u ass whole Did 1747 01:44:39,120 --> 01:44:43,200 Speaker 1: you dictate this? I don't know where is that going? 1748 01:44:45,120 --> 01:44:50,479 Speaker 1: But it has energy. You know, well, this is the 1749 01:44:50,479 --> 01:44:52,679 Speaker 1: perfect way to get out of the interview. Stay tuned 1750 01:44:53,320 --> 01:44:55,760 Speaker 1: as you read the life's work of Tom mcwayne and 1751 01:44:55,800 --> 01:44:59,120 Speaker 1: watch for that line and you'll have a feeling of 1752 01:44:59,640 --> 01:45:04,160 Speaker 1: coming full circle back to this. But seriously, thank you 1753 01:45:04,800 --> 01:45:08,320 Speaker 1: for coming on. Appreciate it. I appreciate it, and I 1754 01:45:09,000 --> 01:45:11,160 Speaker 1: am kind of a fan of what you do. Keep 1755 01:45:11,200 --> 01:45:13,800 Speaker 1: it as loose as it as it has been, and 1756 01:45:14,360 --> 01:45:16,640 Speaker 1: the only way you can be sure of. That is 1757 01:45:16,640 --> 01:45:21,880 Speaker 1: when you realize how many enemies he requires. There's a 1758 01:45:21,880 --> 01:45:24,960 Speaker 1: couple out there. Yeah, I'm sure. Well, thank you again, 1759 01:45:25,040 --> 01:45:26,759 Speaker 1: appreciate it. Okay, my pleasure.