WEBVTT - Ep. 117: THIS COUNTRY LIFE - The Power of 'Hello' 0:00:05.160 --> 0:00:09.240 Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Rieves 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.680 from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living. 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.040 I want you to stay a while as I share 0:00:16.079 --> 0:00:18.479 my stories and the country skills that will help you 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.360 beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as 0:00:22.400 --> 0:00:25.880 part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.960 outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends, 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.040 pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:38.040 think I got a thing or two. The teacher, the 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:43.960 power of hello. I've said it before and I'll say 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.239 it again. Sharing the burden of a problem with a 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:51.640 friend lightens your load, just like sharing a joy magnifies it. 0:00:52.120 --> 0:00:55.720 Friends can come from the most unexpected places and the 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.040 best ones. Man, sometimes they seem like to be honest 0:00:59.080 --> 0:01:02.400 to goodness divine intervention. This week, I want to talk 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.760 to you about some friends I've made just stumbling through 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:09.679 life out amongst nature, looking for something to catch and eat, 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:13.680 or just by being neighborly and just saying hello. It 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.880 can literally open doors. And the story I'm fixing to 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:22.240 tell you is a prime example. Sixty five years ago, 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:24.880 my aunt Norma Fay married a fellow by the name 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.840 of Tully McCoy. Uncle Tully was born in nineteen thirty 0:01:28.880 --> 0:01:33.039 four and grew up in Pike County, Kentucky, which is 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:37.360 located on the Kentucky and West Virginia state line, separated 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:40.039 only by the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.800 Does any of that sound familiar? Well? It or too. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.440 That's where all the feuding took place between them and 0:01:47.520 --> 0:01:52.280 the hat Fields. Uncle Tully's father, Jim McCoy, was nine 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.680 years old when that feud ended. He remembered it well, 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:58.960 but Uncle Tully said he never talked about it. I'm 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.120 happy to say that I talked to my uncle Tully 0:02:01.160 --> 0:02:04.320 this morning. I was getting the details about one of 0:02:04.360 --> 0:02:08.320 my favorite stories I've ever heard him tell, and it 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:18.880 all started with a hello. In late fifties, Uncle Tully 0:02:18.880 --> 0:02:22.040 found himself married to my aunt Norma and living in 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.639 a little rock selling insurance door to door. Now, folks 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:28.880 didn't make any appointments back then. They just drive up, 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.840 knock on the door, and make their sales pitch. On 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.400 this day, he was outside of town visiting with folks 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.960 in the rural areas and drove up to a house 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.399 that had no car in the driveway, but he could 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:42.760 tell that the front door was open and only the 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:46.160 screen door was closed. Now, that wasn't uncommon back in 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.320 that time for a family to have only one vehicle. 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.280 Not seeing a car and that the house didn't necessarily 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.920 mean that there wasn't anybody at home. It probably meant 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:56.800 that the man of the house was gone to work 0:02:57.160 --> 0:02:59.000 and his wife was there taking care of the home. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:03.400 On the door and said hello and heard nothing. He 0:03:03.480 --> 0:03:06.160 tried again, Hello. He heard a voice in the back 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:10.160 of the house say hello. Uncle Tody said hello. The 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:13.600 voice answered him, come in, So he opened the screen 0:03:13.639 --> 0:03:16.519 door and stepped inside the living room. He said, my 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:19.840 name's Telling McCoy and the voice said hello, but no 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.079 one came out to meet him. He said he was 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.600 just standing in the living room looking around for the 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.440 person that kept talking to him. So he said, what's 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.280 your name, and the voice answered back, Jim Hardy. Jim Hardy, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.760 Jim Hardy. My uncle said he didn't know what was 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:38.720 going on, but something just didn't seem right. He said, 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.880 I'm telling McCoy and I'm selling insurance. Would you be 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.360 interested in he said Immediately the voice cut him off, saying, 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:50.040 Jim Hardy four o'clock, Jim Hardy, four o'clock. My uncle 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:51.800 said he looked at his watch and thought, well, it 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.600 ain't nowhere near four o'clock. Then he heard a car 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:58.040 pulling up outside and watched from inside the house as 0:03:58.080 --> 0:04:01.320 the family that obviously lived there got out of their 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.400 car and started walking up on the porch and inside 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.600 the house, just just looking at him. My uncle said 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:10.200 he didn't know what to do, but he knew he 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.320 was standing in some place he ought not to have, 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.440 and regardless of what Jim Hardy was saying, he wasn't 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:17.839 supposed to be there. As the man of the house 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:21.279 walked in, my uncle said he couldn't explain fast enough 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.120 how he came to be standing in that man's living room. 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.440 When that fellow started laughing and said, someone told you 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:31.200 to come in, didn't they. My uncle said, yes, sir 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:33.560 Jim Hardy, but he won't come out where I can 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.919 see him. The man was doubling over and laughing and 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.479 grabbed my uncle by the arm and walked him into 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:44.000 another room where a big parrot was in a cage, saying, 0:04:44.360 --> 0:04:49.239 Jim Hardy, four o'clock, Jim Hardy, four o'clock, Jim Hardy 0:04:49.360 --> 0:04:53.280 was a character on a Cowboy TV show called Tales 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:57.560 of Wells Fargo that ran from nineteen fifty seven to 0:04:57.720 --> 0:05:00.919 nineteen sixty two, and you guessed it, it came on 0:05:01.080 --> 0:05:04.520 at four o'clock. Now, the end of this story would 0:05:04.560 --> 0:05:06.640 have been a whole lot better if I could have said, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.760 and the man bought a whole bunch of insurance. But 0:05:10.920 --> 0:05:15.839 he didn't. But if the parrot hadn't said hello, my 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:19.520 uncle would have never had the opportunity to make his pitch. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:23.719 All that we could ask for are the opportunities, and 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.039 the parrot gave him one. The rest, well, that's all 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:36.520 up to us, and that's just how that happened, all right. 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:38.400 I was talking to my brother this morning and I 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:40.240 told him about what I was going to be talking 0:05:40.279 --> 0:05:42.440 about this week, and told him, you know how we 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.679 used to know all our neighbors in just about every direction. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:48.679 Now that really didn't encompass a whole lot of folks, 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:52.120 Because if you drew a mile circle from the house 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.040 on the farm that we growed up on, you wouldn't 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.640 have had enough folks to fill the football team. But 0:05:57.720 --> 0:06:00.760 we knew them all. You draw that circle half a 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:03.680 mile from where I live now, and you'd have close 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:05.400 to as many folks that were in the town where 0:06:05.480 --> 0:06:08.280 I went to school. We've lived in this house in 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:10.880 this neighborhood for twelve years, and in that time I've 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:14.719 known four different families, three of which represent folks that 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.840 bought and sold the same house. I know there's been 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.919 folks who've lived and died within my immediate area that 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:23.560 I ain't never met, and I'm ashamed to admit that 0:06:24.240 --> 0:06:27.279 how many good folks have I missed making friends with 0:06:27.400 --> 0:06:30.120 by not making an effort. There's a man that walks 0:06:30.200 --> 0:06:33.040 daily in our neighborhood, getting his exercise and told in 0:06:33.120 --> 0:06:35.960 a sack to pick up trash. I've seen him in 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.599 the folks yards, snatching up to every President, wal Mart, 0:06:38.640 --> 0:06:42.000 and daughter of General. Bags that travel around the landscape 0:06:42.040 --> 0:06:45.000 like red neck tumbleweeds. I happened to be outside one 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.279 day and he came walking by and I spoke to him. 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:50.240 After years of just giving him a friendly smile or 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:54.000 a nod as he walked by, he stopped and we 0:06:54.200 --> 0:06:58.200 visited for an hour about everything you could imagine. And 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:00.440 when he left, he was tolting some fro and bear 0:07:00.520 --> 0:07:03.400 steaks and a jar bear grease. A week or so later, 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.320 he dropped off some homemade bread and some Greek to 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:08.839 zeki sauce he learned how to make when he was 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:12.119 stationed in Greece in the Air Force. Good Night, nurse, 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.520 it was good. All of that was made possible by 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:19.600 just saying hello. Those two syllables with the correct voice 0:07:19.680 --> 0:07:22.600 inflection are just like a master key that could unlock 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.240 a whole new world of possibilities. In this world that's 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:29.280 dominated by social media, flooded with some of the most 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.040 anti social behavior, I think it's time we redirected some 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:37.880 effort into socializing face to face instead of keyboard to keyboard. 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.240 There are a few detractors to in person conversations. One 0:07:42.320 --> 0:07:44.080 I can think of is the type of person you 0:07:44.120 --> 0:07:46.400 ask what time it is and they proceed to give 0:07:46.400 --> 0:07:48.960 you the history on how the watch was made. Then 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:50.680 you've got the type that has to get right up 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:52.800 on you when they're telling you a story and their 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.160 breath is kicking your old factories. Like Bruce Lee with 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:59.240 his legs set on autopilot. Those folks, they're good for 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:02.920 a text, y'all. Don't get me wrong now, I'm not 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:05.520 kicking social media down the road because I use it 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:09.120 in my job. I've also met people through social media 0:08:09.160 --> 0:08:12.120 that have become like family, and if it hadn't been 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:15.239 for it, our pass might not have ever crossed. Who knows. 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:20.120 I can say for certain that those relationships one hundred 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.200 percent did happen because of social media. We just need 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.960 to balance it more. And really my idea of a 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.160 correct balance would be heavy on the social and less 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:33.440 on the media. I'd rather talk to someone a text them. 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.680 A text thread is like a baseball game. It's got 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:40.360 no time limit and could theoretically go on forever. A 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:44.200 phone call that's just one audios my friend from being over. 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:47.440 And I keep going back to the old school social 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:51.240 media men holding court and cafes and feed stores over 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.880 cups of coffee. The same thing was the fashion when 0:08:54.920 --> 0:08:56.960 I'd had to go with my grandma to the beauty 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:00.480 parlor and sit and listen to them jawing about all 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:02.640 the old men that were at the cafe. In the 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:05.440 feed stores, they were talking about all the old ladies 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:10.760 at the beauty parlor. The family and friend gatherings are irreplaceable. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:13.559 Folks were more respectful to one another back in the 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:16.720 day when saying something ugly in arms reach if somebody 0:09:16.720 --> 0:09:19.720 can make your nose bleed, and they may not have 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.320 respected you, but at least they were a little more careful. Now, 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.640 I'm as bad as anybody. These days, you see more 0:09:25.720 --> 0:09:28.840 than one person sitting together, and nine times out of 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.760 ten they're all staring at their phone. My wife and 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:35.280 I sit in the living room watching TV and our phones, 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.240 sending funny things back and forth and never say in 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:40.240 the world, how in the world did we get here? 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:44.400 And where are we going? It's a double edged sword, 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.480 but it's more than probable that I wouldn't be here 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.280 now talking to you if it were for social media. 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:53.720 I saw a post on the Hunting for Them about 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.000 a guy I had never heard of auctioning off hunts 0:09:57.000 --> 0:10:00.160 in Arkansas to promote an organization that I now ever 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.079 heard of, and hunting an animal in Arkansas I had 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.760 never seen in the wild. That was my old buddy 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:10.200 Clay and his Arkansas Black Bear Association. I contacted him, 0:10:10.280 --> 0:10:12.480 thinking it would be a good promotion for his cause 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:16.599 and good experience for me, being a new outdoor videographer 0:10:16.960 --> 0:10:19.040 and who wouldn't want to see a bear in the woods. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.679 After talking on the phone, a couple of times. It 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:24.120 only took him a year to take de bait. Our 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:27.240 first hunt together was in the sweltering heat wave in 0:10:27.400 --> 0:10:31.040 southeast Oklahoma. We became friends, and now he's like my 0:10:31.120 --> 0:10:34.880 little sister. I'm just kidding, he's like my big sister. 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.559 Stop it, Brent. Really, he and his whole family are 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:42.040 my family. Not only me, but my family too. Now 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.440 I know that ain't some kind of anomaly. That's how 0:10:44.480 --> 0:10:47.360 folks become friends. They meet, enjoy each other's coming, and 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.559 decide to keep spending time together. It's just the medium 0:10:50.600 --> 0:10:54.760 of how those encounters initiate. It's different these days. I've 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.280 got numerous friends that I've met through hunting and fishing, 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.480 which I think is the base for any relation ship. 0:11:00.840 --> 0:11:04.160 You have to share a common interest, and once that's established, 0:11:04.600 --> 0:11:08.000 then you learn how that person sees the comedy denominator 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:10.640 that brought you together. If you're willing to see their 0:11:10.760 --> 0:11:13.840 version of your interest, you might learn that their perspective 0:11:13.880 --> 0:11:17.960 is better than yours. You just never know because of 0:11:17.960 --> 0:11:21.079 that initial contact of an offer to help and seeking 0:11:21.160 --> 0:11:25.720 help in return. From back in twenty twelve, Let's fast 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:31.000 forward an incredible journey filled with focused hard work, determination 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:35.720 and adventure. To April of twenty twenty three, Clayton Newclem 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.680 and I were sitting in Bozman, Montowna, in the Meat 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.679 Eater studio fixing to record a podcast with Steve Vanella 0:11:42.800 --> 0:11:46.320 and all the other hosts of all the Meat Eater podcasts. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.160 It was a pretty surreal moment, and I looked at 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.600 my friends sitting across the table from me, and I said, 0:11:52.040 --> 0:11:54.040 this is a long way from that old bear bait 0:11:54.040 --> 0:12:04.839 in Oklahoma. Ain't at Claybowm, but it sure was. Last 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:08.160 thing I want to tell you truly demonstrates the power 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.640 of a chance meeting. And it happened six years ago. 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.000 I made the decision, after fifty one trips around the Sun, 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.160 that I was a fly fisherman. It was as conscious 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:21.840 a decision as I've ever made. Growing up on a 0:12:21.880 --> 0:12:24.400 farm in South Arkansas and catching a trout on a 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:27.840 fly rod with a hand tied fly seemed foreign and 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:32.480 far away. I was intrigued, and that fire smoldered for years. 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:36.240 Outdoor magazines and books were my obsession, and from big 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:40.080 game hunting in North America and Africa to fly fishing 0:12:40.120 --> 0:12:43.520 out West, I dreamt of one day doing these things 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:47.040 that I only read about now at fifty one, and 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.079 not knowing a soul that flyfished. I was going to 0:12:50.120 --> 0:12:53.520 make that a reality. I just didn't know how now. 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:55.800 I fished with a fly rod in my whole life. 0:12:55.960 --> 0:12:59.240 The basic concept of how to use one was taught 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.520 to me at an early It was my father's weapon 0:13:02.559 --> 0:13:05.640 of choice for catching brim where we lived, and he 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.520 could roll cast a hook cricket into the narest of 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:11.880 spots between cypress knees and limbs and pull out a 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.640 bluegill after bluegill. He was a dang Jedi with a 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:17.680 fly rod, and I tried to be just like him. 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.600 Bluegill were one thing, but catching a trout with a 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:24.520 fly rod, man, that was a whole of the creature. 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.920 My occupation kept me in the southern half of Arkansas 0:13:29.000 --> 0:13:31.960 until I excepted the position in Little Rock and made 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.400 my home. A few miles away and nearly halfway across 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:38.640 the state from where I grew up, less than an 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:41.440 hour north was the Little Red River. It's a tail 0:13:41.520 --> 0:13:44.880 water stream out of Grier's Ferry Lake where the Fish 0:13:44.920 --> 0:13:49.480 and Wildlife Service have managed a trout hatchery beginning coincidentally 0:13:49.920 --> 0:13:53.319 in nineteen sixty six, the same year I saw the 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:56.320 light of day. Here they raise and released rainbow and 0:13:56.320 --> 0:13:59.240 book trout into public waters to be enjoyed by everyone, 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:03.920 and a resource with boundless opportunities of which I had 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:08.520 never taken advantage of. That was fixing the change. One day, 0:14:08.920 --> 0:14:11.120 like a bolt of lightning from a cloudless sky, I 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.559 announced to Alexis that, unbeknownst to her, she'd married a 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:17.800 fly fisherman, and that he'd been trapped inside my body 0:14:18.000 --> 0:14:22.360 this whole time. I don't remember her looking surprised, or 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:25.160 even looking up from what she was doing, but I 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:28.200 do remember her calmly asking if you got enough room 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:30.360 for him with all those other idiots in there. I 0:14:30.520 --> 0:14:34.200 just let that go. I was mission focused and operating 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:38.080 at full speed. I knew not one soul the flyfish 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:40.640 for trout, So I did what we all do when 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.440 we want to know something and don't have anyone to ask. 0:14:43.880 --> 0:14:48.400 I got on the internet how to fish for trout 0:14:48.440 --> 0:14:52.160 with a fly rod? Got me sixteen million, eight hundred 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:56.200 thousand answers in less than half a second. I don't 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:58.720 know that I didn't watch them all. I spent hours 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.520 and hours watching him. I ordered books. I bent the 0:15:01.560 --> 0:15:03.560 ears of men who worked at a local fly shop 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:06.880 Little Rock, trying to absorb everything I could to do 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.920 it by myself, all before I ever left my house 0:15:09.960 --> 0:15:12.880 to go fishing. A week into my new found purpose 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.400 in life, I bought a new fly rod, a few flies, 0:15:15.560 --> 0:15:18.080 and some wagers. I had a fly rod at home, 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:20.840 but that one I'd bought many years ago, and the 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.080 last person I'd used it with was the man that 0:15:23.160 --> 0:15:25.600 had taught me to fish in the first place, and 0:15:25.640 --> 0:15:27.840 now he was gone and had been for quite a 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.800 few years. It had hung there in the garage, beside 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.320 the last one he owned, and it was a reminder 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:36.280 of a million memories with him. Man, it was hard. 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.800 It was just hard to fish with That one. Made 0:15:38.800 --> 0:15:41.160 me miss my dad to the point that I didn't 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:43.560 even brim fish for quite a while after he died. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.200 The next day I planned to drive the Little Rock 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.440 with a new one, tie on a fly that the 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:51.320 fly shop man had sold me, and bring this all 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:57.280 full circle. New rod, new hobby, old dream. How hard 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:03.160 could it be? There was one vehicle in the parking 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.360 lot when I got there. No crowds meant less pressure 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.280 on the fish and less likely i'd be pulling someone's 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:11.360 ear off while I beat the air into submission with 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:14.360 my new fly rod. There was one guy standing beside 0:16:14.360 --> 0:16:16.880 a small point fishing in a narrow part of the 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.120 river below the dam. I wasn't sure of the proper 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:23.840 etiquette when approaching a fisherman stand in midstream, so I 0:16:23.960 --> 0:16:26.840 quickly calculated the amount of fly line he had stretched 0:16:26.840 --> 0:16:28.840 out before him and tried to add a little cushions 0:16:28.880 --> 0:16:32.200 to that distance behind him, and I walked past him downstream. 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:34.160 After all, I didn't want him tearing one of my 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:38.040 ears off either. He never turned around, and I waded 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.160 out into the Little Red River for the first time, 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:43.640 sixty or more yards below him, and washed him catch 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:48.480 a fish. WHOA fly fishing is easy, It's gonna be fun. 0:16:50.640 --> 0:16:53.200 My first cast landed somewhere in the vicinity where I 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:56.400 was aiming, but most importantly, that fly was in the 0:16:56.480 --> 0:16:59.840 river and I was fishing the current pool. My line 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.040 down streamed every so slowly, switching it back and forth 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:06.360 as the different floes pulled and pushed my fly through 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.080 that cold water. A fish rose up river to feed 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:11.840 on a bug, and I saw that guy catch another fish. 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.879 Man I was excited. The fish were biting, and this 0:17:15.040 --> 0:17:17.479 other guy and I were the only two folks around 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:22.800 my day advanced like this cast watched the line float by, 0:17:22.880 --> 0:17:25.800 waiting for a bite. See that guy catch a fish, 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.560 Change flies, See that guy catch a fish. Cast again 0:17:30.600 --> 0:17:33.000 with no results, And this went on for an hour. 0:17:34.040 --> 0:17:35.800 After a while, he said, hey, won't you come up 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:37.879 here with me. There's room up here, and they're stacked 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.040 in here. Pretty good. He caught another fish while he 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.399 was telling me that. Well, going back to my raising 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:46.320 of not wanting to be a bother, I said, man, 0:17:46.359 --> 0:17:49.520 I'm good. Thanks. Though, Now not only did this dude 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.360 catch fish like an otter, he was also a gentleman. 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:57.480 I hated him immediately. I made cast after cast without 0:17:57.480 --> 0:18:00.280 a bite, all the while that guy seemed to catch 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.639 one every other cast or so. I changed flies. He 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.120 caught a fish while I manufactured not in my line, 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.359 false casting like I was in a sword fight with 0:18:09.480 --> 0:18:13.240 invisible man. That joker caught a fish. I dropped my 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.840 sunglasses in the river. I watched them sink like a 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:18.719 fallen leaf, just out of reaching into the frigid depths 0:18:18.720 --> 0:18:22.720 of the water. He caught a fish. Oh yeah, fly fishing. Oh, 0:18:22.760 --> 0:18:27.399 it's easy catching fish while fly fishing. That was something 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.560 of a different sword, at least for me. I needed 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:32.800 my dad to tell me how to do this, and 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.360 even if I could have talked to him, he never 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.440 fly fished either. Mercifully. The warning blew with the dam, 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:42.240 and that means they're fixing it, turn some water loose, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.119 and we had to get off the river and to 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.920 higher ground quick and in a hurry. The river can 0:18:47.960 --> 0:18:50.480 go from waist deep and hardly any current at all 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.120 to ten feet and running faster than grass goes through 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:57.200 a goose in short order. But I just went on 0:18:57.240 --> 0:18:59.720 my first fly fishing trip. And while I had my 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:01.879 hat and had it to me by the trout gods 0:19:01.880 --> 0:19:05.840 and that guy fishing upstream giving me lessons, I was 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:09.119 still inspired to do it. I thought about it a 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.720 lot that first few hours. I stood in that cold water, 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:15.199 watching drift after drifting the same with no fish, not 0:19:15.280 --> 0:19:19.080 even a bite, but with no thoughts of disappointment, anger, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:22.919 or really even discouragement. I wanted to learn how to 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:26.000 do what I'd watched that guy above me do all afternoon, 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.720 and when I looked up, he was standing on the 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:31.560 bank near the trail leading back to the parking lot, 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.720 waiting on me as a guy closer, I could see 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:37.240 this guy was a fly fisherman, not that I needed 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:40.080 to get any closer to see that, because I spent 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:42.560 the better part of the day watching him demonstrate that 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:44.800 while trying not to let him catch me looking. But 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:48.080 he knew, though, he knew, like every home run here 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:51.359 that ever live knows that when you're in the zone 0:19:51.400 --> 0:19:56.359 and smashing fastballs to the parking lot, everybody's watching. It 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:58.440 wasn't the crack of a bat that kept me looking 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:01.160 up ever that day. It was the of his flylne 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.879 being pulled up out of the water tight as a 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.720 fiddle string, over and over with a trout on the 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.960 other end. I tell you that cat was purpose driven 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.680 to catch every trout within his loop, and I'd argue 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.480 that if he didn't. A joker came offully close. When 0:20:17.480 --> 0:20:19.040 I got up to him, he stuck out his hand 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:23.199 and he said, howdie, my name's Terry. I shook his 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:25.520 hand and fought the urge to salute him, and raised 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:28.320 his arm like he just won the fly fishing championship 0:20:28.560 --> 0:20:31.120 of the civilized world. So I did what I always 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.840 do I said something stupid. Hi, Terry, my name's Brent, 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:38.160 and you're a lot prettier than I thought you were. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.240 Terry and I talked for thirty minutes, just like we 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.480 were old friends. I didn't have to tell him that 0:20:45.560 --> 0:20:47.680 I didn't know what I was doing, but to make 0:20:47.720 --> 0:20:50.320 sure he knew, I said, Terry, I don't know what 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:52.760 I'm doing. I just know I want to do it. 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:55.920 And then he asked me, can you come back tomorrow? 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.840 That was twenty and seventeen. He taught me more than 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.199 I could have ever learned on my own. How to 0:21:03.240 --> 0:21:05.800 read the water, how to match the hatch, how to 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:10.159 tie flies, window fish, where to fish, patience, persistence, and 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.639 above all bed a good steward and a protector of 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.840 the resource, the same lessons I'd have been taught before 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:18.480 when I was a little boy, by a man that 0:21:18.560 --> 0:21:22.200 i'd watched catch fish after fish, just like I'd watched 0:21:22.280 --> 0:21:31.119 Terry do. The first day we met, a couple of 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:33.320 years ago, my wife and I were on our way 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:36.480 back from Texas, and after a long period of silence 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:39.440 and just riding, I began to tell her how random 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:42.040 I thought it was that Terry and I had met 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:45.720 that day. Now, I could have gone anywhere. I had 0:21:45.840 --> 0:21:48.960 never been fly fishing before, and there were closer places 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:52.600 to my house, and miles and miles of trout water 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:56.159 in Arkansas on different rivers. But I went there to 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.560 that spot where he was, and it was just the 0:21:59.600 --> 0:22:02.040 two of us. After a minute or two, she looked 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:04.560 at me and said, you don't see it. Do you 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:08.359