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

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trotlining and just.

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Speaker 2: In general country living. I want you to stay a.

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Speaker 1: While as I share my experiences in life lessons. This

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Speaker 1: Country Life is presented by Case Knives from the store

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Speaker 1: More Studio on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the

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Speaker 1: best outdoor podcast that airways have to offer. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some

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Speaker 1: stories to share. Who's helping who? Help can come in

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Speaker 1: the form of just about anything. It can be in

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Speaker 1: the traditional sense of assisting someone in need, or just

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Speaker 1: by offering a place to feel at ease, safe and

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Speaker 1: relax with a familiar voice. I'm going to talk about

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Speaker 1: both of them today, and I'm going to star with

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Speaker 1: the most obvious of the two in this story. But

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Speaker 1: pay attention. Sometimes the help e comes to help earth.

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Speaker 1: This one was sent in by Andrew Moody. Andrew is

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Speaker 1: what i'd call a jack pot winner. He did what

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Speaker 1: all our dads told us to do. Mary the farmer's daughter.

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Speaker 1: Andrew did that, and now he gets to hunt the

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Speaker 1: whole farm. Have a beautiful wife and a beautiful little girl.

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Speaker 1: Andrew is making tracks on the family farm near China Grove,

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Speaker 1: North Carolina. Now I looked it up, and if you

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Speaker 1: were looking at the state of North Carolina and needed

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Speaker 1: to know where China Grove is, picture this in your cranium,

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Speaker 1: representing North Carolina as a white tailed deer broadside and

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Speaker 1: face to the right, China Grove would be smack dab

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Speaker 1: in the middle of a liver shot. Now, that ain't

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Speaker 1: gonna help you find it by telling Siri, give me

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Speaker 1: directions to liver shot, North Carolina. But maybe you get

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Speaker 1: the idea of where it is. It makes perfect sense

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Speaker 1: to me anyway. This is good stuff. And in Andrew's

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Speaker 1: words and my voice, here we go. The twenty twenty

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Speaker 1: five hunting season has been rough. Turkey season was a bust.

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Speaker 1: It was strikeout after strikeout, and I'd licked my wounds.

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Speaker 1: And by the time deer season got here, I felt

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Speaker 1: more confident. I had some good deer on camera, and

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Speaker 1: I felt like I had finally started figuring things out.

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Speaker 1: After having good success the year before. My ego was

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Speaker 1: quickly humbled after spending week in Missouri camping.

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Speaker 2: And hunting in the rain.

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Speaker 1: When the weather finally cleared up and we started to

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Speaker 1: see some deer. It was time to make that thirteen

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Speaker 1: hour trek back east with our tails touched firmly between

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Speaker 1: our legs. Getting back home, I felt like I had

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Speaker 1: a good chance to get on some deer, and then

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Speaker 1: I missed a nice buck with my boat. The following

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Speaker 1: weekend was a rifle opener, and I broke the ice

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Speaker 1: with a big old freezer Queen. Two weeks later, I

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Speaker 1: still hadn't connected with one of my target bucks and

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Speaker 1: the trigger finger was getting itchy, so I elected to

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Speaker 1: take another big dough and a couple of minutes after

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Speaker 1: I shot, I checked the camera app on my phone

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Speaker 1: only to find that my target buck, a big ten

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Speaker 1: point that would be my biggest to date, was standing

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Speaker 1: in the woods just forty yards off the field. When

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Speaker 1: I shot man. I was sick knowing that he was

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Speaker 1: so close, and I blew. It was a tough pill

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Speaker 1: for me to swallow. I had a pity party after

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Speaker 1: that hunt, and I started losing my motivation to get

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Speaker 1: up and go to the woods. Then this past week,

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Speaker 1: I got a call from my brother in law letting

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Speaker 1: me know he had been contacted by a local nonprofit

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Speaker 1: organization called Hands of a sportsman. Now they were looking

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Speaker 1: for a spot to help a disabled teenage boy get

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Speaker 1: his first deer. Now I knew about this organization and

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Speaker 1: I had been wanting to get involved, but never set

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Speaker 1: aside the time to do so. Now it was my chance,

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Speaker 1: and I could not wait to get to work. We

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Speaker 1: met the guys out at our farm and looked over

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Speaker 1: a couple of spots where we could put out some blinds.

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Speaker 1: I set one up on the field behind my house

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Speaker 1: where I felt like we had the best chance. This

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Speaker 1: is the same spot where just two and a half

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Speaker 1: weeks before I had lost the joy of the hunt

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Speaker 1: over missing that opportunity on that target buck. My wife

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Speaker 1: and year and a half old, dear obsessed daughter helped,

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Speaker 1: and I.

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Speaker 2: Just knew this was going to be the spot where

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Speaker 2: we made it happen.

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Speaker 1: Fast forward six days to Sunday evening, December twenty first,

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Speaker 1: Chad and David, with hands of sportsmen and our hunter

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Speaker 1: Tyler and his dad, Timothy Kaiser, were at my house

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Speaker 1: and we were all getting ready for the hunt. Tyler

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Speaker 1: has three ye bro palsy and is in a wheelchair,

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Speaker 1: and he was so fired up about having.

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Speaker 2: The opportunity to hunt. Now including me.

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Speaker 1: That talied four men and Tyler crammed inside of ground

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Speaker 1: blind and won a sight that was Chad had the

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Speaker 1: rifle set up with the scope attached to a scream

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Speaker 1: so that Tyler.

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Speaker 2: Could see the crosshairs inside the scope, and a.

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Speaker 1: Button that he could push when he was ready to

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Speaker 1: take the shot, and we went over the process to

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Speaker 1: make sure we all understood. Chad would power on the

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Speaker 1: device and aim the rifle. Tyler would make sure he

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Speaker 1: could see the screen clearly, and Chad would press the

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Speaker 1: safety override button and tell Tyler to shoot. Then Tyler,

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Speaker 1: at his discretion, would press the trigger. Work Now, it's

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Speaker 1: amazing to see the technology we are blessed with these days.

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Speaker 1: To make something like this happened for someone with these

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Speaker 1: type of challenges. It was a humbling experience for me.

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Speaker 1: We'd taking my ability to do this for granted. Now,

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Speaker 1: as the minutes clicked by, we whispered stories and made

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Speaker 1: sure Tyler was warm and having fun. He would smile

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Speaker 1: and give us the thumbs up and take a swig

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Speaker 1: of sweet tea. And I had been saying prayers under

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Speaker 1: our breath that we would see some deer and at

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Speaker 1: four forty nine that afternoon, I sent out a text

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Speaker 1: to the Southern Collective Digital Deer Camp grew for some

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Speaker 1: prayers that we would be able to get Tyler his

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Speaker 1: first deer that night. Two minutes later, David, who was

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Speaker 1: filming the hunt, said, deer, and sure enough we had

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Speaker 1: a deer going right where we wanted him. We went

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Speaker 1: through our practice procedures, and once that deer stopped giving

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Speaker 1: us a perfect broadside shot, Chad gave Tyler the go ahead.

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Speaker 1: Tyler mashed that button like his life depended on it.

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Speaker 2: Bam.

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Speaker 1: There was a very short pause, and all at once,

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Speaker 1: I think the three of us said dropped him. At

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Speaker 1: the same time Tyler smoked him, and the five of

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Speaker 1: us commenced the celebration. Tyler was coming unglued, and I

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Speaker 1: have never seen more joy in someone's life than right

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Speaker 1: there in that moment. I was humbled once again. The

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Speaker 1: rest of the group didn't know about the text I

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Speaker 1: had sent out, so I showed him there was exactly

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Speaker 1: four minutes between the text asking for prayers and that

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Speaker 1: deer being on the ground. If you don't believe in

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Speaker 1: the power prayer, buddy, you better. We spent the next

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Speaker 1: hour taking pictures getting Tyler his ceremony on first deer

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Speaker 1: war paint and letting him call as many family members

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Speaker 1: as he could to cap off an already amazing hunt.

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Speaker 1: That deer Tyler shot was a piebald spike. As any

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Speaker 1: hunter knows, a piebald deer or rare want of.

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Speaker 2: A kind, just like Tyler.

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Speaker 1: I've had cameras up and hunted these deer all year,

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Speaker 1: and this is the first time I have laid eyes

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Speaker 1: on this coincidence, I think, not.

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Speaker 2: My joy or honey is back.

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Speaker 1: I have a whole new outlook on life thanks to Tyler.

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Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, I dropped off a little present for Tyler.

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Speaker 1: I was able to snag that empty rifle shell after

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Speaker 1: he shot his deer, but I took it to work

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Speaker 1: to have it laser engraved with his name day in

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Speaker 1: the first year. I paired that with a beautiful redbone

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Speaker 1: case mini trapper in a display box, so that he

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Speaker 1: will have something he can hang on to for a

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Speaker 1: lifetime and always remember that hunt. He gave me a

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Speaker 1: big old hug and I told him I couldn't wait

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Speaker 1: to do it again next year. And according to Andrew,

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Speaker 1: that's just how that happened. Well, Andrew Moody of China

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Speaker 1: Grove or better yet, Liver Shot in North Carolina. I'm

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Speaker 1: not sure who helped who the most. My money is

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Speaker 1: on Tyler. Reeve's going to post a link in the

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Speaker 1: show description of this wonderful organization that helped Tyler with

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Speaker 1: his hunt. Hands of a sportsman is something we can

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Speaker 1: all support, and I'm challenging.

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Speaker 2: You to join me in doing so.

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Speaker 1: It's been well over one hundred weekly visits where you

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Speaker 1: folks have been kind enough to invite me into your lives.

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Speaker 1: Our one sided conversations are something that I look forward to.

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Speaker 1: I enjoy sitting down and sharing my experiences, my stories,

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Speaker 1: and my observations and your stories as well. Like I

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Speaker 1: always say, and I firmly believe everyone has a story

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Speaker 1: and they all deserve to be heard. I've been accused

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Speaker 1: of running out of stories and using the ones from

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Speaker 1: listeners as time fillers, that I've dipped my bucket into

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Speaker 1: memory well so many times that it's finally run dry.

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Speaker 1: On the contrary, I haven't gotten deep enough in there

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Speaker 1: to get past the wiggletails. I can assure all the

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Speaker 1: naysayers that there is plenty to come, and I'm making

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Speaker 1: more of them every day. I want our visits to

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Speaker 1: be more like a conversation instead of just my testimony. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the format of my show nine times out of ten

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Speaker 1: has me waxing poetic into the mic in my studio

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Speaker 1: with only myself and a coon hound that can't talk. Now,

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Speaker 1: that's where your stories come in, and y'all have really

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Speaker 1: sending in some good ones. Reading them is one thing.

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Speaker 1: Listening to you tell them in person, well that's quite another.

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Speaker 1: I wish you could see be talking into this mic

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Speaker 1: when I'm telling a story. On second thought, it might

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Speaker 1: be better that you can't. I'm as animated as I

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Speaker 1: can be. I'm waving my arms in exaggerated motions, much

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Speaker 1: to the dismay of my gal pal and sound engineer

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Speaker 1: to the Stars, Reva Hanson.

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Speaker 2: Who has to take all the collateral recket out of

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Speaker 2: my recordings each week.

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Speaker 1: In an attempt to make me sound as professional as

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Speaker 1: she can. I promise you don't want that job. It's

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Speaker 1: a wonder she ain't snashed herself bald headed trying to

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Speaker 1: fix this conglom motion of run on sentences, mispronunciations and

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Speaker 1: duovers I send her each week. But that's the way

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Speaker 1: I learned to tell a tale. I watched my dad

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Speaker 1: tell a story, and I aim in imaginary twenty two

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Speaker 1: at a running squirrel or an a five at a

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Speaker 1: rise and covey of bob wats for Jerky's arm up,

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Speaker 1: like he was holding a fly rod with a potential

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Speaker 1: world record bluebill on the other end, corkscrewing his way

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Speaker 1: to the surface, only to see a big old flathead

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Speaker 1: on a number eight brim hook. Stories to me are

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Speaker 1: as much visionary as they are auditory, and the good

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Speaker 1: ones play like a movie when someone tells them. With

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Speaker 1: my limited vocabulary and pension for buffundery, I rely on

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Speaker 1: facial expressions and descriptive movements to help sell the story.

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Speaker 1: That's why I try to be as animated as I

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Speaker 1: can with my voice in an attempt to convey in

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Speaker 1: your head what I'm doing while I'm talking into this microphone.

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Speaker 2: I have a picture of my dad that hangs on

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Speaker 2: the wall now.

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Speaker 1: In this photo, he's sitting in his chair wearing a

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Speaker 1: white V necked T shirt and overalls. He's laughing like

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Speaker 1: I've seen him do countless times while telling the story

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Speaker 1: or listening to a good one from someone else. It's

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Speaker 1: him I'm talking to every time I pushed record on

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Speaker 1: this computer. Him in that picture is a standard by

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Speaker 1: which I operate now. He loved to make people laugh,

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Speaker 1: to make him feel good, and I'm reminded of how

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Speaker 1: good he was at that whenever I think about a

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Speaker 1: man I met at his funeral. I've shared it on

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Speaker 1: here before, but I think it bears repeating occasionally when appropriate,

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Speaker 1: and there's no more better time than today.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: After the service, I was shaking hands and hugging folks

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Speaker 1: who were there out of respect and love for what

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Speaker 1: my dad and my family meant to them, and I

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Speaker 1: saw a man standing back patiently waiting for his turn

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Speaker 1: to talk to me. I didn't recognize, but he looked

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Speaker 1: to be in the age range of my dad, so

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Speaker 1: I knew he was either a farmer or a hunting acquaintance.

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Speaker 2: The sheer number of people there.

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Speaker 1: Had caught me off guard, and I was struggling to

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Speaker 1: remember all the names of the people I hadn't seen recently,

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Speaker 1: all of which who knew exactly who I was. I

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Speaker 1: was just gonna have to apologize for not knowing his

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Speaker 1: name when it came to be his turn to talk

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Speaker 1: to me. It wasn't the first time that day I'd

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Speaker 1: had to do that. He wore a starched pair of

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Speaker 1: Levies cowboy boots and a dark green colored western shirt

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Speaker 1: with pearl snaps in a black leather vest. Something about

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Speaker 1: him stood out to me since the first time I

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Speaker 1: noticed him in line. He was a grandpa right out

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Speaker 1: of central Casting that appeared to be alone, not talking

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Speaker 1: to anyone else around him, and biting his time until

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Speaker 1: his opportunity came to speak to me. And when it did,

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Speaker 1: that man's word words changed my life. I'd given up

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Speaker 1: trying to guess his name or where I knew him from,

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Speaker 1: and was relieved when he stuck out his hand and said,

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Speaker 1: you don't know me, but me and your dad hunted

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Speaker 1: together many times where I live in Louisiana and here

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Speaker 1: in Arkansas. He put the callous tand and sunweathered hand

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Speaker 1: he'd just shaken mine with on my left shoulder, and

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Speaker 1: he turned me back toward the mass of people who

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Speaker 1: were all busy talking to one another and said, son,

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Speaker 1: you look at that. There are at least three hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty to four hundred people here, and all of

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Speaker 1: them share one thing between them. Well, I turned to

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Speaker 1: see old folks and young folks, and people I knew,

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Speaker 1: people I didn't, and every descriptor and category of people

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Speaker 1: who'd come to pay their respects. And outside of knowing

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Speaker 1: my dad and my family, which I thought was too

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Speaker 1: obvious of an answer, I was having trouble following and

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Speaker 1: what he meant. He turned me back around from that

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Speaker 1: crowd to face him, with no other distractions, and he

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Speaker 1: looked me dead in the eyes, and he said, every

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Speaker 1: one of them people, every last one of them, think

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Speaker 1: they were your daddy's best friend. And if you only

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Speaker 1: learn one thing from him, you take how he treated

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Speaker 1: folks to heart. I couldn't speak, even though I tried

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Speaker 1: my heartes. I nodded my head and I tried to

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Speaker 1: get out of yes, sir, but it didn't sound like one.

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Speaker 1: And then he just smiled and he patted on my

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Speaker 1: shoulder and he walked away. I have no idea what

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Speaker 1: his name was, and I couldn't swear in court if

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Speaker 1: he even told him. What he said resonated with me,

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Speaker 1: and I've tried to live up to what he said

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Speaker 1: every day since.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: That was a long and widening road to get to

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Speaker 1: where I'm going.

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Speaker 2: But what that man said that day is come home

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Speaker 2: to roost. More than once.

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Speaker 1: When the Meat Eater Live Tour was being planned, we

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Speaker 1: were all running through the format of what we would do,

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Speaker 1: the stories we'd tell, the games we'd play, and who'd

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Speaker 1: be the special guest in each town. It was an

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Speaker 1: ever morphine and fluid format that would change right up

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Speaker 1: until we all met for the first one in Birmingham, Alabama,

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Speaker 1: and then it would change in some manner a little

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Speaker 1: each night, and by the time we hit Austin, Texas,

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Speaker 1: the last show of the tour, we had it pretty

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Speaker 1: well dialed into where we wanted it. One thing that

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Speaker 1: was constant from the start was the meet and greet

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Speaker 1: before the show. It was by far my favorite. I

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Speaker 1: finally got to have a two sided conversation with the

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Speaker 1: folks who listened to this show and all the others.

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Speaker 1: The theme was pretty consistent of what people said. They

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Speaker 1: enjoyed the humor, the nostalgia, the family, and the stories

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Speaker 1: about growing up in the country. Even the folks who

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Speaker 1: didn't grow up that way enjoyed hearing about it.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't an ego thing.

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Speaker 1: It was more of a validation that I'm putting out

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Speaker 1: content that people enjoy, and folks were quoting things back

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Speaker 1: to me that I'd said, and it made me realize

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Speaker 1: once again how impactful anyone can be when talking to others,

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Speaker 1: not just me or someone with a media platform, but anyone. However,

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Speaker 1: what happened one evening was on a whole new level

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Speaker 1: of awareness. Let me preface this with the following. Not

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Speaker 1: long into this very unique job I have, I received

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Speaker 1: a direct message on Instagram from a lady whose husband

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Speaker 1: was deployed in the Service, and apparently he had been

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Speaker 1: listening to This Country Life with his three year old

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Speaker 1: daughter at one time or another before receiving his orders

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Speaker 1: to leave. That lady said her daughter asked to play

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Speaker 1: my show at bedtime and it helped her to relax

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Speaker 1: and trust her daddy being gone and go to sleep. Now,

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Speaker 1: I'm not one hundred percent sure that's arousing review and

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Speaker 1: testament to my voice or the boring content to help

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Speaker 1: that baby girl go to sleep, but it doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: It worked, and the note I got from that self

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Speaker 1: described tired mama said, thanks for helping in a way.

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Speaker 2: You probably didn't know you could. She was right.

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Speaker 1: I had no idea that was back in twenty twenty three,

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Speaker 1: and I'm happy to report that her daddy's been home

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Speaker 1: for over a year now. In twenty twenty four, I

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Speaker 1: got word that a couple in the Northeastern US had

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Speaker 1: listened to multiple episodes while his wife was in labor.

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Speaker 1: I could see that being painful on both ends, but

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Speaker 1: we never know how what we say will affect the

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Speaker 1: other folks. In the spring of twenty twenty five, I

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Speaker 1: had an occasion to meet a couple that were dealing

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Speaker 1: with some medical issues and spending an evening with them.

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Speaker 1: They said the trips back and forth to the hospital

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Speaker 1: were made easier by listening to This Country Life. I've

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Speaker 1: gotten a bunch of messages since this show started, and

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Speaker 1: some of it was even to keep doing them now,

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Speaker 1: all the positive has far outweighed the negative. And then

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Speaker 1: one night at the Memphis show, the third e end

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Speaker 1: of the tour, I met a couple in line who'd

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Speaker 1: been patiently waiting to talk. As a lady and her

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Speaker 1: husband approached, she stuck out her hand and she said, Hi, Brent,

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Speaker 1: my name's Kat, and you helped me through chemo. I'm

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Speaker 1: not one hundred percent clear yet, but I'm working on it.

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Speaker 1: In a flash, my mind shot back to September the tenth,

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Speaker 1: twenty eleven, at the Reefs Cemetery, to that conversation I

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Speaker 1: had with that old man that I'd never met, conversation

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Speaker 1: that took place in the shadows of my family's ancestral

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Speaker 1: home and a stone's throw from where my father's remains

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Speaker 1: were lie for eternity. I gathered my composure of thoughts

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Speaker 1: as best I could, and we visited for not nearly

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Speaker 1: long enough before they moved along to make room for

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Speaker 1: the next one's in life. I keep hearing about the

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Speaker 1: impact this weekly struggle of mine has had on the

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Speaker 1: people who listen, and no one knows the impact you

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Speaker 1: all have had on me. Think about a lot of

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Speaker 1: you all the time. The differences we make in other

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Speaker 1: people's lives, most of the time go unnoticed and certainly unpublished.

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Speaker 1: I share them here only to show how we never

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Speaker 1: really know what our effect is on the people within

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Speaker 1: earshot ripple. Our words and actions making the water around

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Speaker 1: this is far reaching, with or without a podcast, and

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Speaker 1: the negative ones they go just as far as the

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Speaker 1: positive cause all of you. I'm a different person, and

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Speaker 1: hopefully a better one. Three decades of seeing the worst

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Speaker 1: in people. Even the good ones, can take a toll

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Speaker 1: on a person's view of the world, and I was

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Speaker 1: no exception. This opportunity I've been afforded has been a

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Speaker 1: blessing and giving me the platform to try to do

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Speaker 1: what that old man told me to do fourteen years ago.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying, sir, I'm trying. Thank you so much for listening.

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Speaker 1: Try to make a difference in someone's life today.

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Speaker 2: You'll get the better end there, I promise.

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Speaker 1: Until next week, this is Brent Reeves signing off.

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Speaker 2: Y'all be careful and