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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 trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented

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Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you

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Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airwaves had off. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tail gate. I've got

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Speaker 1: some stories to share for the love of a knife.

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Speaker 1: If you're a new listener or a highly decorated veteran

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Speaker 1: of this struggle each week, you've no doubt surmised by

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Speaker 1: now that I have an affinity for Case pocket Knives.

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Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a little how that relationship

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Speaker 1: started over a year ago, where we are now, and

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Speaker 1: how to play a game that can fill your pockets

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Speaker 1: with knives or your mouth with dirt. But first, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to tell you a story. It was a case

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Speaker 1: medium Stockman pocket knife, and it cost fourteen dollars in

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine. It was brand new, The sizes were

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Speaker 1: made of yellow del run and it ran a close

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Speaker 1: second to the Mini Trapper that we the Reeves family

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Speaker 1: considered a gift from Heaven. I remember standing at the

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Speaker 1: display case, listening to mister Leland Bryant tell stories about

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Speaker 1: him and my dad while I smushed up the glass

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Speaker 1: with my hands and painstakingly scared over each knife, the colors,

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Speaker 1: and the blade configurations. Fourteen dollars was a lot of

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Speaker 1: money to a thirteen year old in April of nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy nine, especially when the money came from what was

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Speaker 1: left from selling further previous winter, and maybe a little

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Speaker 1: of my birthday money from March. But I was determined

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Speaker 1: to give my dad a case pocket knife for his birthday.

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Speaker 1: The case display at Hurley's Hardware was the flame, and

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Speaker 1: I was the moth. I couldn't walk by that store

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Speaker 1: on the sidewalk without going in to look at him.

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Speaker 1: I didn't have a lot of opportunities to go in there,

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Speaker 1: living so far out of town, so when I had

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Speaker 1: the chance, I took full advantage of it. Whenever I

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Speaker 1: was in town and turn loose, my friends and I

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Speaker 1: would go inside, taking a break from the heat to

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Speaker 1: soak up some air conditioning, fingerprint the glass, and stink

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Speaker 1: up the place like only young boys can. Mister Leland

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Speaker 1: and all the other folks in there would ask each

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Speaker 1: of us how our parents were doing by name, mostly

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Speaker 1: out of curiosity and care, but maybe a little just

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Speaker 1: to remind each of us that if we broke anything,

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Speaker 1: they knew who to call to seek reimbursement and retribution from.

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Speaker 1: It didn't matter when or who I was with. If

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Speaker 1: I had the chance to go in and look at

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Speaker 1: that knife display, I did it. And I've said this before.

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Speaker 1: You can bait a trap with a case pocket knife

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Speaker 1: and catch me every time. This should explain to what

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Speaker 1: degree my weakness for these things is. But on this

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Speaker 1: particular day, I was shopping for one for my dad.

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Speaker 1: I wasn't just ogling all of them and dreaming about

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Speaker 1: holding them each in my hands. I was fixing the

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Speaker 1: walk out of there with a brand new one and

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Speaker 1: then give it away to him on his birthday. It

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Speaker 1: would be the first case knife I would ever purchase.

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Speaker 1: I had want in my pocket that day, one that

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Speaker 1: my dad had given me, and I owned more than

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Speaker 1: one of them at that time, but they'd all been

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Speaker 1: given to me as gifts or I'd want them playing

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Speaker 1: mumbletypeg on the playground at school. What's mumblety peg? Well,

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Speaker 1: I'm so glad, you asked It's a game dating back

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Speaker 1: to the eighteen hundreds where folks would flip pocket knives

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Speaker 1: into the ground and competition. Some did it for money

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Speaker 1: and some did it for fun. But here's how we

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Speaker 1: played at West Side Elementary in Warren, Arkansas, the same school.

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Speaker 1: Me and another fellow sophisticate skipped by hopping a train

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Speaker 1: and hoboing all over town. And I suppose this is

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Speaker 1: where I should put the disclaimer don't try this at home.

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Speaker 1: That's for all the nerd lawyers that are listening and

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Speaker 1: looking for an opportunity to get Brentley in some litigations.

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Speaker 1: Since we are dealing with a sharpened instrument, at least

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Speaker 1: it should be sharpened. But if flipping a knife off

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Speaker 1: your fingers into the ground sounds dangerous, you probably ain't

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Speaker 1: toting one. And if you are toting one and it

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Speaker 1: still sounds dangerous, odds are your knife's about as sharp

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Speaker 1: as you are. Nonetheless, consider yourself warned. Before school and

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Speaker 1: at the big resist, we'd gather up, hopefully out of

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Speaker 1: the constant eye of the duty teacher standing out there

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Speaker 1: surveying the playground with their X ray vision and hound

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Speaker 1: dog smelling abilities, searching out anything that was fun. They

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Speaker 1: could immediately put a stop to it. Mumblety peg was

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Speaker 1: at the top of their list, not because it involved

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Speaker 1: a pocket knife. We could tote pocket knife to school.

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Speaker 1: Then that wasn't a big deal or the problem. No,

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Speaker 1: it was because of the gambling. And it wasn't really gambling,

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Speaker 1: not really. It was more of a game of skill.

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Speaker 1: But when a younger would lose his knife or get

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Speaker 1: a mouthful of dirt trying to keep it, some of

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Speaker 1: them would go squalling to the teacher. That's the kind

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Speaker 1: of folks that need warning labels on paper coffee coaps

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Speaker 1: contents may be hot. Really, did you not just order

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Speaker 1: hot coffee? Or right about the road signs that say

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Speaker 1: bridge may ice in cold weather? Was the in cold

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Speaker 1: weather part really necessary? For that matter? Was the bridge

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Speaker 1: may ice necessary if it's rain and sleeping or snowing

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Speaker 1: and the temperatures are dipping around the freezing mark? Shouldn't

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Speaker 1: you already know that? Don't get me started. Here's how

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Speaker 1: you wind up losing your pocket knife at school or

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Speaker 1: go home with your teeth looking like you had a

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Speaker 1: mouthful of burnt matches from chewing the dirt up trying

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Speaker 1: to keep your knife. Check it out. MUMBLETYPEG requires you

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Speaker 1: to stick your knife in the ground by flipping it

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Speaker 1: from lying flat on your closed fist both hands, then

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Speaker 1: by throwing it by gripping the blade both hands, then

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Speaker 1: with the point of the blade resting on each finger

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Speaker 1: and thumb, both hands, again your arms crossed across your

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Speaker 1: chest both hands from the top of your head, and

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Speaker 1: backwards over each shoulder, with the finale ben when you

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Speaker 1: would slap that knife as it stood in the ground

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Speaker 1: from your last over the shoulder throat, having to successfully

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Speaker 1: stick your knife in the ground again. Now that last

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Speaker 1: one was called plowing the ground, and it was not easy.

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Speaker 1: You each took turns, and when someone missed, the other

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Speaker 1: person started whenever he missed. If he did, the previous

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Speaker 1: contestant would pick back up from where he stopped until

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Speaker 1: one person made it all the way through, depending on

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Speaker 1: how many steps the loser had left determined how many

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Speaker 1: times the winter got to hammer a finger long limb

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Speaker 1: whittled down to somewhere between a pencil and a toothpick

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Speaker 1: into the dirt. Now we played an abbreviated version of

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Speaker 1: mumblety Peg because we didn't have time for a real

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Speaker 1: game due to our primary reason for being at school

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Speaker 1: was to get an education and not holne our skills

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Speaker 1: as a future circus performers. So if the loser was

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Speaker 1: four steps away from finishing when he got beat, the

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Speaker 1: winner got four licks on that peg that was just

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Speaker 1: in the ground enough to hold it upright. The hard

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Speaker 1: ground wasn't an issue, and if you broke the peg

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Speaker 1: when hammering it in the ground, the game was a tie.

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Speaker 1: This discouraged folks from trying to pound a peg to

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Speaker 1: China out of meanness. But if the ground was soft,

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Speaker 1: you'd be gnawn. You'd be gnawn at the dirt trying

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Speaker 1: to get that peg like a beaver on a pinnock,

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Speaker 1: or you had the option of giving up your pocket

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Speaker 1: knife to the winter. If the peg was so deep

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Speaker 1: you didn't want to be digging for it with your choppers.

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Speaker 1: If you got that peg out of the ground successfully,

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Speaker 1: you got to keep your knife and your reputation as

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Speaker 1: a sportsman. Our playground version took out the over the

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Speaker 1: shoulder throws and apply on the ground throw. Those were tough,

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Speaker 1: and we wanted to get to the peg rooting as

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Speaker 1: fast as possible and for as many folks we could

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Speaker 1: get before the bell rang. If we could just have

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Speaker 1: one young and eating dirt, it was a victory for

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Speaker 1: us all. Now more than once I watched boys hauling

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Speaker 1: butt to the bathroom to wash the dirt off their

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Speaker 1: faces and out of the mouths, to get to their

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Speaker 1: seats before the tarte bell rang. I was in that

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Speaker 1: number occasionally myself, but I never lost a knife, not

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Speaker 1: one that's mumblety Peg, or at least our version of him.

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Speaker 1: We played another game called Chicken, that one I ain't

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Speaker 1: talking about, not today.

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Speaker 2: Anyway.

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Speaker 1: Back to Hurley's Hardware and the case display, mister Leland

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Speaker 1: opened up the display cabinet and pulled out a brand

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Speaker 1: new Steal in the box medium yellow model thirty three

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Speaker 1: eighteen CV case Stockman pocket knife. I ainted him fifteen

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Speaker 1: dollars and had a twenty dollars bill left in the

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Speaker 1: bill of my overalls. I asked him to go ahead

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Speaker 1: and hand me that brown bone mini trapper for myself.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: I left there with three dollars in change and two

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Speaker 1: new knives, one for my dad and one for me.

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Speaker 1: I wrapped his present the best I couldn't. When his

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Speaker 1: birthday came a few days later, I gave it to him.

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Speaker 1: I remember his big smile when he opened it up

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Speaker 1: and how proud he was to have his new knife.

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Speaker 1: We both said it was a match to his yellow

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Speaker 1: trapper that he already had. I showed him the one

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Speaker 1: I bought that day. He gave me a quarter in return.

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Speaker 1: That keeps you from having bad luck. Hey, I don't

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Speaker 1: make the rules, I just follow them anyway. My dad

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Speaker 1: would carry that knife on and off for a while,

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Speaker 1: just like I and others I know do, swapping them

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Speaker 1: out for new ones that had been added to the rotation,

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Speaker 1: and eventually putting them back in the box. They came

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Speaker 1: in and placed him in a drawer. That's where I

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Speaker 1: found it thirteen years ago after he passed away. We

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Speaker 1: were getting his affairs in order and doing all the

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Speaker 1: things you have to do when taking care of someone

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Speaker 1: in the state, and I found it, and I recognized

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Speaker 1: it immediately, the birthday gift I had given him on

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Speaker 1: April to sixteenth, nineteen seventy nine. I knew which birthday

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Speaker 1: because if you know case knives, you know that they

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Speaker 1: have a stamp dating system on the blade, things that

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Speaker 1: change every year. He was forty two years old when

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Speaker 1: I gave it to him. That knife is now forty

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Speaker 1: five years old, three years older than he was when

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Speaker 1: he got it. There's no surprise ending to this story,

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Speaker 1: and you really know, unique revelation, just just a footnote

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Speaker 1: in the legacy of an inanimate object that I shared

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Speaker 1: with my dad and for the last thirteen years he's

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Speaker 1: been sharing it back with me. I'll share it with

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Speaker 1: one of my children one day and a host of others.

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Speaker 1: And that's just how that happened.

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Speaker 2: But is at the end, we'll see.

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Speaker 1: For the love of a knife. I guess y'all heard

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Speaker 1: the new opening for the show. If you skip through,

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Speaker 1: I'll save you the trouble of going back. This Country

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Speaker 1: Life is now presented by Case Knives. If you're new

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Speaker 1: to This Country Life, go back and start at the

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Speaker 1: beginning of all the shows if you really want to

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Speaker 1: get an idea about my family's history with this brand.

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Speaker 1: None of it has been planned or orchestrated in any way,

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Speaker 1: and was actually started by someone who contacted the good

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Speaker 1: folks in Bradford, Pennsylvania and said to the effect of, Hey,

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Speaker 1: there's some dude that works for me theater that has

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Speaker 1: a podcast, and y'all want to hear it. Now, fast

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Speaker 1: forward a year and a half later, and those folks

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Speaker 1: are inviting me and my family to come to the

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Speaker 1: Maid in Bradford event celebrating one hundred and thirty five

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Speaker 1: years case knife production. One hundred and thirty five years

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Speaker 1: ago was eighteen eighty nine. The Eiffel Tier was finished.

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Speaker 1: North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington were admitted as states.

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Speaker 1: Brook Trout were introduced into the Firehole River and Yellowstone

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Speaker 1: National Park, and the New York Giants won their second

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Speaker 1: consecutive World Series by defeating the Brooklyn Bridegrooms three to two.

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Speaker 1: And up in New York, not far from Bradford, Pennsylvania,

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Speaker 1: the Case Brothers whooped up a case pocket knife. Ma'am?

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Speaker 1: Was that a good year?

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Speaker 2: What?

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Speaker 1: Anyway, as things have a tendency to do, they worked

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Speaker 1: out In last week, my wife Alexis, and my youngest daughter,

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Speaker 1: Bailey and I found ourselves in the company of a

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Speaker 1: bunch of like minded folks whose only difference in us

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Speaker 1: is that they used just about all the letters of

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Speaker 1: the words they're speaking. They called it a family reunion

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Speaker 1: every year, and spending a little time with them, I

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Speaker 1: can see wire there were folks from all over the country.

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Speaker 1: There knife collectors and traders from every direction and points

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Speaker 1: of the compas setting down under one big tent, showing

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Speaker 1: off their collections and visiting and reminiscing about old times

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Speaker 1: and talking about the new ones to come. There were

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Speaker 1: some really amazing knives, both new and old, there, and

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Speaker 1: I gave a couple of them a ride home to Arkansas.

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Speaker 1: They like it here. But the best part of the

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Speaker 1: trip we were treated to a tour of the factory

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Speaker 1: where all the knives are made, all of them, every

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Speaker 1: one of them right here. Five minutes into the tour,

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Speaker 1: I asked Tony Defonso, who was over plant production above

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Speaker 1: the din of the fans and the operating machines, if

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Speaker 1: I could take a video, and he said, yeah, but

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Speaker 1: make sure you get that big American flag hanging on

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Speaker 1: the back wall. We're proud of that flag and these

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Speaker 1: knives that we're making here in America. Over six thousand

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Speaker 1: knives were being turned out in that plant every day.

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Speaker 1: The majority of it is by hand. The only automated

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Speaker 1: production was a robotic welder that was added to weld

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Speaker 1: bolsters onto spacers. Now we're gonna talk about exactly what

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Speaker 1: each of those are in a minute, and I promise

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Speaker 1: you don't want to hang around for it. It's going

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Speaker 1: to be the best part of this whole episode. I

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Speaker 1: met Miss Linda, who's been working there for thirty three years.

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Speaker 1: She was one of the many long tendered employees that

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Speaker 1: worked there, some of them generational employees, along with parents

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Speaker 1: and children and spouses, siblings and cousins, all making a

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Speaker 1: living producing of product that goes through one hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty steps from the time it gets there is raw

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Speaker 1: materials until it leaves wrapped tighter than bark on a

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Speaker 1: beech tree with wax paper and secured it in a box.

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Speaker 1: I talked with Tammy at the wrapping table and I

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Speaker 1: asked her for a lesson in rapping, and she gave

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Speaker 1: me one. I challenged her to a race on the

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Speaker 1: next one. She finished so far ahead of me that

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Speaker 1: she could have took a nap before I was done.

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Speaker 1: I saw trays and tables full of every model of

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Speaker 1: pocket knife in production. The workspaces were all orderly and clean,

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Speaker 1: unlike what I would assume the nine factory would be.

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Speaker 1: It was obvious that the folks working there take a

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Speaker 1: lot of pride in their work, and they should. City

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Speaker 1: of Bradford has a population of less than eight thousand

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Speaker 1: people that lies three miles south of New York State

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Speaker 1: in the Alleghany Mountains and is a paradise all its on.

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Speaker 1: Remember when I said I was going to talk about

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Speaker 1: welding bolsters and spacers and it was going to be

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Speaker 1: the best part. Well, we're at that part now, and

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Speaker 1: if you happen to have a case pocket knife close

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Speaker 1: it can do so safely. Whoop that rascal out and

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Speaker 1: follow along. I've got my dad's dockmen in front of me,

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Speaker 1: so I'm gonna use that one to tell you the

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Speaker 1: rest of this story. Each end of the knife has

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Speaker 1: a shiny silver part on both sides. Those are called bolsters.

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Speaker 1: If you turn the knife over and look at the back,

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Speaker 1: you'll see the brass or gold colored thin line. That's

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Speaker 1: the spacer that allows the blade to move in and

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Speaker 1: out of the knife without touching the other blades or

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Speaker 1: rubbing against the inside. Not very exciting stuff, I know,

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Speaker 1: but very important to where I'm going with this. For

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Speaker 1: the last two years, Case out of a machine that

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Speaker 1: helps the folks weld the bolsters onto the spacers. Because

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Speaker 1: of the demand for more knives. This is in addition

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Speaker 1: to the folks that were already welding them by hand,

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Speaker 1: and an activity that is taking place right now, regardless

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Speaker 1: of the time you're listening to this podcast, there's folks working.

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Speaker 1: That machine didn't replace anyone. This corner of the factory

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Speaker 1: was actually the first place we visited on the tour,

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Speaker 1: but it made the biggest impact on me, not only

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Speaker 1: for the tour, but for the whole trip. Tony introduced

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Speaker 1: me to a man i'd been watching concentrate on his work.

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Speaker 1: Mister Dave was in what seemed like perpetual motion, moving

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Speaker 1: around this station, welding bolsters onto spacers, steadily placing the

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Speaker 1: finished parts into a tree. He was obviously well versed

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Speaker 1: in his duties, and I shook mister Dave's hand, and

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Speaker 1: I was surprised to learn that mister Dave had been

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Speaker 1: working for Case for nearly fifty one years. For the

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Speaker 1: last fifty one years, mister Dave had his mits on

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Speaker 1: just about every case pocket knife that was made there.

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Speaker 1: Here's where it gets good. Before I left home, I

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Speaker 1: thought about what two knives I'd take with me. Y'all

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Speaker 1: know where most of you do anyway, that I told

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Speaker 1: two pocket knives. One used to be an off brand loaner. Well,

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Speaker 1: I retired that practice and I now carried two case knives,

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Speaker 1: and I don't loan either one of them, but I

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Speaker 1: wanted to bring two knives with me on that tour

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Speaker 1: that meant something. One of them I brought was a

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty three Model sixty two oh seven Mini Trapper

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Speaker 1: than John Pantuso gave me last year. John works on

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Speaker 1: the marketing team and he sent it to me after

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Speaker 1: he heard the podcast. That was my introduction to the

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Speaker 1: company and the rest of the folks that worked there,

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Speaker 1: and that knife means a lot to me. It was

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Speaker 1: the first token of appreciation from a company that not

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Speaker 1: only me, but my entire family has been promoting for

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Speaker 1: the last six generations. I accepted it on behalf of them,

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Speaker 1: and it was for all of them that I carried

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Speaker 1: it with me back to Bradford. The other knife, the

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Speaker 1: second knife I carried, was the case document that I

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Speaker 1: gave my dad for his birthday in nineteen seventy nine.

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Speaker 1: I planned to get a picture of both of them

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Speaker 1: in that factory. I thought that'd be pretty cool. The

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Speaker 1: first case knife that have been given to me by

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Speaker 1: case in the first case that I bought that had

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Speaker 1: also been my dad's, the guy that started me on

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Speaker 1: this whole trip to Pennsylvania when he gave me my

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Speaker 1: first one when I was just a little boy. While

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Speaker 1: I stood there listening to mister Dave tell me what

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Speaker 1: he did and for how long you've been doing it,

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Speaker 1: started doing some math in my head. I said, mister Dave,

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Speaker 1: you were working here in nineteen seventy nine, right. He

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Speaker 1: smiled and nodded yes. I pulled that knife out and

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Speaker 1: handed it to him, and I said, would you have

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Speaker 1: worked on this knife? He opened up the blade and

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Speaker 1: checked the tang stamp markets indicating what decade in year

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Speaker 1: it was produced, and handed it back to me, smiling. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I would have worked on that knife, he said. I

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Speaker 1: couldn't tell him the story of that knife fast enough.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I couldn't tell him but

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Speaker 1: about half of it before I got so emotional I

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Speaker 1: couldn't say anything. Lexis had to finish the story for me.

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Speaker 1: Mister Dave understood, and he smiled. He allowed me my moment. Then,

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Speaker 1: when he found out I was from Arkansas, he wanted

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Speaker 1: to know how good the deer hunting was I regained

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Speaker 1: my composure and I told him how proud I was

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Speaker 1: to meet him, and I thanked him for his work

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Speaker 1: he was doing there and that he had been doing

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Speaker 1: throughout his career. I told everyone I met him there

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Speaker 1: that could hear me how much I appreciated the effort

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Speaker 1: that they put in to turning metal and bone into

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Speaker 1: utilitarian pieces of handmade art. It's not just knives that

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Speaker 1: they're making, and they know it. The next day at

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Speaker 1: the Case Museum, Miss Heather and Jeremy were set up

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Speaker 1: outside during the events, sharpening and polishing knives for anyone

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Speaker 1: that wanted it done. Now. I'd met him the day

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Speaker 1: before on our tour and I watched him masterfully doing

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Speaker 1: the same job, But now I had the opportunity to

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Speaker 1: really watch them and for them to tell me about

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Speaker 1: each step and how they did it and how long

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Speaker 1: they been doing it. I let him polish and re

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Speaker 1: sharpen the knife that John had given me and how

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Speaker 1: I came about receiving it, each commenting and laughing that

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Speaker 1: they probably handled that knife before I did. Then, before

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Speaker 1: I handed him my dad's knife, I told him that story.

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Speaker 1: I know they've heard no telling how many tales just

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Speaker 1: like mine at events like that one. But they each

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Speaker 1: listened intently, and they thanked me for telling them about

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Speaker 1: each knife and for letting them become part of the

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Speaker 1: history of this one. I probably could have summed that

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Speaker 1: last twenty five minutes up with one sentence. I bought

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Speaker 1: a knife for my dad when I was young, and

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Speaker 1: after he died, I got it back. That's a fair

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Speaker 1: assessment of the tale. But the knife isn't the story.

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Speaker 1: The story is all the people, from my friends on

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Speaker 1: the playground and the teachers at school, to mister Leland

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Speaker 1: and Hurley's Hardware, mister Dave, all the other wonderful people

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Speaker 1: that I met along the way, and my wife and

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Speaker 1: daughter went with me on this journey to a little

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Speaker 1: valley in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. It started generations

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Speaker 1: ago on my great grandfather bought a pocket knife. How

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Speaker 1: thankful I am for that seemingly inconsequential act. That was

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Speaker 1: the first ripple in the pond that is still making

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Speaker 1: waves today. I thank you so much for listening and

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Speaker 1: being a part of this country life of mind. It

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Speaker 1: truly is something special, and I'm forever grateful for all

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Speaker 1: of your support for me and ol'clay bow here on

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Speaker 1: the Bear Greece Channel. Speaking of that rascal, me and

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Speaker 1: him will be down in Venice, Louisiana at the Cypress

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Speaker 1: Cove Medieater Fishing Experience on October tenth through the sixteenth,

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Speaker 1: and there's still some slots available for that. If you're interested,

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00:23:57,080 --> 00:24:00,840
Speaker 1: you can find out on the Meat Eater website. I'll

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00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:03,040
Speaker 1: be in the Great State of Kansas with the Latvian

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Speaker 1: Eagle himself, mister Giannis puld tell Us on December the

404
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:10,200
Speaker 1: thirtieth through January the second. Come bring into New Year

405
00:24:10,200 --> 00:24:12,679
Speaker 1: with me and Giannis and help us put some ducks

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Speaker 1: toes up in the decoys. There's a couple of spots

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00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:19,160
Speaker 1: left that are gonna go quick. I keep telling them

408
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,359
Speaker 1: that we should be blowing up beaver dams and running

409
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Speaker 1: trot lines in the Selein River bottoms. Maybe we could

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Speaker 1: do something like that one day, who knows. But that's

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Speaker 1: it for me until next week. This is Brent Reeves

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Speaker 1: signing off. Y'all be careful