WEBVTT - Hunters Horn - TN Mountain Bear Hunter Eldridge Cutchall 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.880 You're listening to the Sportsman's Nation podcast network, brought to 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:08.200 you by Federal Premium Ammunition. Now, this company has been 0:00:08.240 --> 0:00:12.559 a round for man like over a hundred years, and 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:16.319 these guys make loads for just about any bird that 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:20.040 you can hunt. And because it's spring, that means it's 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.720 turkey season. And they have turkey loads for ten gage 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.800 all the way to four tens and everything in between. 0:00:28.040 --> 0:00:31.840 And they call it their Federal Heavyweight t s S. Right, 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.519 this is a heavyweight tungsten supershot load and that's their 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.680 turkey load, right. 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My name is Clay Nukeleman. I'm the host 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.360 of the Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. I'll also be your 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:39.679 host into the world of hunting the icon of the 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:45.240 North American wilderness. Prepare. We'll talk about tactics, gear conservation. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.080 We will also bring you into some of the wildest 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:58.840 country off the planet chasing bear. Well. In our family, 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:03.200 when my grandfather there died, we started a tradition that 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:06.360 anybody in our family that was a hound hunter, when 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.400 they die, we bring the hunting horn to the graveside 0:02:10.400 --> 0:02:13.639 service and the last thing we do before we bury 0:02:13.760 --> 0:02:17.160 them a is my son blows that horn, and it's 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:21.000 symbolic to us that as we lay them the rest 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:37.480 that we're calling their dogs in the last time. I 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:42.400 recently had the opportunity to travel to East Tennessee and 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:47.400 to sit down with my friend Tracy Jones. Tracy Jones 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:53.440 is a houndsman, a longtime houndsman, and Tracy took me 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:58.480 over to a man's house that he deeply respects and 0:02:58.639 --> 0:03:01.880 uh and I do, how as well. After I met him, 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.239 an older gentleman eight five years old by the name 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:09.440 of Eldridge cuts you off. Eldridge is a long time 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:16.000 Tennessee mountain bear hunter and we we had a conversation 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.120 with Eldridge. So the way this podcast lays out is 0:03:20.120 --> 0:03:23.639 a little bit different than most in that there's a 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:29.160 Tracy and I will have a conversation privately before that 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:31.760 that that starts the podcast off, and then we'd go 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:37.800 into about a thirty two minute interview with Eldridge. This 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:43.160 podcast special and you can enjoy it. Check out W 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:48.120 Hunting Supply. Buddy Woodbury and his team. These guys and 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:52.720 gals are dedicated to the preservation of hound sports. They're 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:58.160 also dedicated to incredible customer service and having the best 0:03:58.200 --> 0:04:02.119 selection and best prices for all your garment products, all 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:07.440 your hound related needs. So check out W Hunting Supply 0:04:08.120 --> 0:04:13.640 for any of your dog related stuff that you're gonna need. Hey, 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:19.400 there's also something pretty cool that happened First Light. Our 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:24.040 buddies at First Light the clothing company produced a film 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:29.040 called New Cam. Yeah, they came to Arkansas and they 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:32.200 made a film about me. And in the film, we 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:36.440 squirrel hunt on mules, we coon hunt, and we uh 0:04:36.560 --> 0:04:39.680 we deer hunt a little bit. And they they kind 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.200 of introduced my family. It's just a super well done film. 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:45.279 I mean, like the quality of the film, it's incredible. 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.679 It's done by Jordan Riley Taylor Coleman of Captured Creative 0:04:49.400 --> 0:04:51.839 And you can check all you can check that film out. 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:55.160 It's it's up right now at first light dot com 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:58.760 or first Light's YouTube channel. And uh, yeah, you could. 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.479 You could support what we're doing here at Bare Hunting 0:05:01.520 --> 0:05:05.120 Magazine by checking out that film leaving some comments on it. 0:05:05.880 --> 0:05:09.880 And uh, I was I thought it was pretty pretty important, 0:05:09.960 --> 0:05:15.360 pretty cool that that we got a hat tip from 0:05:15.400 --> 0:05:18.120 a big national company like first Light. I mean there's 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:21.560 hound stuff inside of there, and and uh and and 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:25.440 I hope the film just represents the the hunting lifestyle 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:27.479 that a lot of us lead that that listen to 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.520 this podcast. So check out our buddies at first light 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:40.240 dot com. We just got back from Eldridge Cutshaw's house. 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:47.520 Eldridge is eighty five, and uh, a guy like him 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:51.640 would have just had a He would have had to 0:05:51.680 --> 0:05:54.720 have been an incredible athlete. Really, is that a good 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:56.760 way to describe it? To hunt these mountains like he 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:01.080 had to? Tracy, Yes, sir, I think so. Eldridge. Uh, 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.520 Like I told you before, I was too young to 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:06.200 get to hunt with him and some of the other 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:09.520 a whole lot up until you know, I became a teenager. 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:13.240 But my grandpa, my dad, and a lot of other 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.320 men around here hunted with him, and I always had 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:17.840 a great deal of respect for him. So when we 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.599 talked to month or so ago and you were telling 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:22.600 me you weren't want to do some podcasts with some 0:06:22.640 --> 0:06:25.239 of the old Mountain bar hunters that were the real deal, 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.880 I was very glad that you were able to get 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.720 over today and talk to Eldridge, because he he was 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:36.200 a real deal. When you say that, what do you mean, Well, 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:38.640 I mean he knew what he was doing and he 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:43.760 did it. Yeah. Yeah, he was just good at what 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:49.880 he did. Yeah, you a minute ago, he said, I mean, 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:55.440 Eldridge was a humble man. He didn't you know, he's 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.520 getting up in years that he didn't. He he wasn't 0:06:59.520 --> 0:07:02.400 trying to tell us what a great bear hunter. He 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.160 was humble man. And uh, you know, a guy like 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:11.160 that probably never knew even how unique his life was 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:16.560 inside of what he did and how he focused on 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.800 on bear hunting and and the toughness that it took. 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:21.920 And I mean some of these guys probably never even 0:07:22.000 --> 0:07:25.480 knew that what they did wasn't normal. Is that a 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.400 good way to describe it. Well, he was raised in 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:34.000 the mountains, so what other people would consider to be extraordinary? 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:37.400 And I believe the average person if they followed a 0:07:37.440 --> 0:07:41.800 man like Eldridge cut y'all, or Layman Rice or another 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:44.520 man I knew the name of Carson Landers and other 0:07:44.600 --> 0:07:47.840 men that I could name who were exceptionally hard goers 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:52.480 in the mountains, if they followed them for a day, Um, 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:56.560 I believe they would come away understanding that these were 0:07:56.600 --> 0:08:01.200 extraordinary men in the environments that they grew up in. Yeah. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:03.840 But those men grew up in the environment and it 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.800 was an extraordinary to them. Yeah. I mean the elder 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:08.560 and said his dad took them to the top of 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:11.800 h Can't Creek bald what a lot of people call 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:14.320 a Viking mountain and dropped them off, and they were boys, 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.760 and they coon hunted out the mountain, out the Appalachian 0:08:16.800 --> 0:08:19.280 Trail and down off the side of the mountain to 0:08:19.320 --> 0:08:24.480 their home place. I mean that's rough country through there, Yeah, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:28.440 no doubt. I like what you said there that they 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:35.360 they were tough men. I escaped me. What you just 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:39.280 said that they that that for the area. They they 0:08:39.360 --> 0:08:43.000 did what it took to be successful, and they were 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:49.199 and they and they they took it serious. And um yeah, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:53.120 well I always have the utmost respect for some of 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.079 these men, because everybody ought to be honest with themselves. 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:00.760 And I think I can say that I probably enjoy 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:05.440 bar hunting as about as much as anybody, but I 0:09:05.480 --> 0:09:09.960 don't consider myself on the same level or anywhere close 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:11.920 to it as some of the people that I had 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.680 the opportunity to grow up around. I mean a man 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:20.160 like Eldridge and again I mentioned Layman Rice and Carson 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:23.280 Lander's and my dad was pretty tough. And I mean 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.760 I could name other people. I mean, I there's a 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:28.839 long list I could name. I hate to do that. 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:30.840 I just named a few people that a lot of 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:32.480 people around here would say, yeah, they were, they were 0:09:32.480 --> 0:09:36.599 really tough in the woods. Why. I never put myself 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:39.120 in that category, because that would be a lie. But 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:43.000 I recognize that when I see it, right, Yeah, what 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:45.920 you know, what I think is is unique. Is a 0:09:46.040 --> 0:09:51.520 guy like Mr Elders is truly the last of a breed. 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:56.760 There will never be another generation of people barring and 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:01.560 apocalypse and we lose our technology. I mean, he grew 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.000 up before GPS. He told us that he didn't have 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:08.600 electricity in his house. He grew up running through these 0:10:08.640 --> 0:10:13.000 mountain mountains chasing these dogs on foot, and that produced 0:10:13.040 --> 0:10:18.760 a certain skill level that you can't attain unless you 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.000 have to do that. I mean, I have no problem 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.560 I coon hunt in Arkansas. I have no problem saying that. 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:25.719 If it weren't for garments, I probably wouldn't be a 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:29.680 coon hunter. I mean, we coon hunted without those when 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.040 I was in high school, and we didn't know any different. 0:10:33.040 --> 0:10:38.440 But today it's changed me, you know, And and in 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:40.319 some ways there's some positive of that, but in a 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.320 lot of ways there's there's negative. So what we're just 0:10:43.360 --> 0:10:45.760 saying is that these guys were a different breed and 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:50.640 there's there's not a lot of them left. Well, I 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:53.959 think we're in a position right now, at least here 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:58.720 in the area where we live where the old timers, 0:10:58.960 --> 0:11:02.360 they're real what I call the real hardcore bear hunters 0:11:02.400 --> 0:11:04.840 that you know, lived and breathed in the mountains and 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:09.280 that was their sort of their natural environment. They're fading away, 0:11:09.720 --> 0:11:11.480 which is why I thought it was important for you 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:14.760 to go talk to Eldridge. And I know maybe another 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:16.360 manner too that I'd like for you to be able 0:11:16.400 --> 0:11:21.000 to talk to along those lines. And then there's some 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.840 men that I know personally now and I'll hold off 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:27.400 on missing the names. They probably wouldn't want me to 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:31.920 mention their names. That I grew up with those people, 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:36.640 and they're really were really tough, I mean really tough 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:42.319 in the mountains, but they're now hitting their late sixties, 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:47.439 early seventies, and not not too many men can really 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.800 handle the mountains outside of their late fifties, the sixties 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.080 and mid sixties at really point. I'm not that you 0:11:55.120 --> 0:12:00.000 can't go to the three, but there's a difference between 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:04.720 a man in his peak when he's thirty five versus 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.000 time you get sixty in his mountains. Like you can 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:11.880 go someplace where it's flat, like you know, Wisconsin or 0:12:11.920 --> 0:12:15.840 Michigan and other places, and it's really great hunting, but 0:12:15.960 --> 0:12:19.000 you don't have the elevation climbs. Yeah, and it's the 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:24.800 elevation wires on you, I think when you get older. Yeah, yeah, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:26.920 what do you what do you think The big takeaway 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:29.120 from all this is because you know, I think about it, 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:34.600 I've I've always appreciated older people. I mean ever since 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.040 I was a little kid. I I just appreciate it. 0:12:37.080 --> 0:12:39.679 I think I got I think my dad instilled that 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:44.560 in me. He he turned our gaze towards older people 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:49.760 and I saw him give them respect. And so, aside 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.240 from just a hat tip to an older man that's 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:57.560 been there before, what can we take away from these 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:02.360 guys lives, Tracy? Aside from just yes they were Yes, 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.800 they were tough. Yes they had to endure hardship. We're 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:08.640 not gonna go back and hunt the way they did. 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.040 Just like I said, I mean, nobody's gonna get rid 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:16.400 of their garments and nobody's gonna So what's what's the 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:26.240 what's the takeaway like for for us? Well, I think 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:30.600 the only thing that makes life worth living is for 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:35.560 some things to be sacred. Like the relationship between a 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.959 man and his wife is sacred, So that makes life 0:13:38.960 --> 0:13:43.040 worth living if that relationship isn't sacred and takes the 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:47.720 value out of it. Um, your relationship with God, if 0:13:47.720 --> 0:13:50.400 you have a personal relationship with him that's sacred to you. 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:53.400 That's why you don't want to dishonor that relationship with 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:58.680 God and Uh. I think part of the sacredness of 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:05.560 life is honoring your elders. Any society that doesn't have 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:13.200 a huge respect for its ancients is basically doomed because 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.160 you you learned neither from their successes, nor you you 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:20.720 you don't learn from their failures. Mhm. So you're gonna 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:25.040 have the same problems that they had without any recourse. 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.400 I mean, you're not gonna learn from them whatsoever. Last night, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.280 last night I was dealing with at church. I was 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:37.440 in a passage where David was running from Saul and Uh. 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:41.920 In that passage, one of the things that David referred 0:14:41.960 --> 0:14:44.480 back to was something he had learned from one of 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:46.600 the ancients. He had an opportunity to kill Saul and 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.320 didn't take it, and he said one of the things 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:52.480 that stopped him was specifically something he had been taught 0:14:52.520 --> 0:14:55.720 by the ancients that had to do with not taking vengeance. 0:14:57.480 --> 0:14:59.560 And I really made a big deal out of that 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.560 church because I think as a society we need to 0:15:03.600 --> 0:15:08.480 slow down and reintroduce our young people to their elders. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:12.360 They need to know their grandfather and their grandmother, and 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:14.680 if they have one of great grandfather and grandmother. They 0:15:14.680 --> 0:15:17.360 need to know their older uncles and their older aunts, 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.640 and they need to know the older people in their community, 0:15:19.720 --> 0:15:22.520 in their church, and they need to be taught that 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:27.400 those people are valuable, that they're not just old people 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:32.080 that can't do anything anymore, and they need to learn 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.600 what those people have done and have respect for what 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:40.680 they've done in the difficulty. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:47.840 I think the what I heard elders say, I kept 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.600 prodding them, saying, hey, can you think of a story 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.920 or can you think of a uh what was the 0:15:55.920 --> 0:15:58.840 most meaningful parts of your bear hunting? That he said 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:02.120 he wouldn't trade anything for what he learned. That was 0:16:02.160 --> 0:16:03.880 what he said. I mean, you know, you can tell 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:07.360 elder just getting to the point where life's kind of becoming, 0:16:08.000 --> 0:16:14.560 it's kind of distilling down into the essentials. And he 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:19.080 kept going back to the relationships that he built inside 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.920 of hunting. Did you notice that it did? I did 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:25.800 that kind of surprised. Nine out of ten, how people 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:27.760 you talk to you asking why you hunt, they're gonna 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:33.080 say the dogs. Some of them wouldn't even hunt if 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:37.080 if it wasn't for the dogs. But elders kept saying 0:16:37.080 --> 0:16:41.640 his friends, his buddies, and and naming them, and the 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.560 and the friendships and the joy he had with those people. 0:16:44.560 --> 0:16:46.160 And I think that's what I think that's a little 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:50.040 different about elders from a lot of folks well, But 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.800 I think what he tapped into there is something that 0:16:54.520 --> 0:17:00.040 is sometimes wrongly skewed inside of people where rather and 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.760 those relationships being healthy, those relationships become competitive or there's 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:07.439 jealousy or something. But I was talking with a gentleman 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:12.119 yesterday right here in Tennessee, and essentially we came to 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:18.280 the same place, was that the relationships that were built 0:17:18.640 --> 0:17:22.280 through whatever medium you know, I mean inside of the 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.680 bare hound world. You can't do it on your own. 0:17:26.280 --> 0:17:29.000 No man is an island if he's gonna be successful. 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:31.840 And last we talked about that with hounds and breeding 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.960 stuff and and you depend on people, you can't. You 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.560 can have the best dogs in the country, the truck 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:40.359 full of them and go out in these mountains just 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.600 you and your gun and that truck full of dogs, 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.160 and you're not probably gonna kill very many bear, Am 0:17:45.160 --> 0:17:47.520 I right? I mean it takes it takes a lot 0:17:47.560 --> 0:17:52.159 of people. In in what we distilled down and what 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.040 I saw inside of this this gentleman I was talking to, 0:17:56.160 --> 0:18:00.000 was that he valued those people. He actually teared up. 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:05.119 He shed a tear on our podcast talking about some 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:07.359 of the men that he'd hunted with. When he was 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:11.400 thinking about the ones that we're already gone, he he said, 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.160 a couple of times I miss them. Yeah, the elders 0:18:14.160 --> 0:18:21.800 didn't the yeah yeah. Well to me, what that does 0:18:22.080 --> 0:18:26.000 as a middle aged man here a few years ago, 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.120 I would have thought I was young, but now I'm 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.080 officially in the middle age. In the middle is that 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.720 we can get so focused on on the on the fruit, 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:40.080 on the product of what we're doing, you know which 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.720 obviously I'm here because I like bear dogs and bear hunting. 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.040 That's what drew me and you together. That's the reason 0:18:46.040 --> 0:18:48.359 I'm in East Tennessee. So that there there always is 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:53.399 a thing that you're after. But what it makes me 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.000 do is I want to slow down and pay more 0:18:56.040 --> 0:18:59.639 attention to the to the relationships that I've got with people, 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:03.119 and make sure that I'm not burning over stuff in 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:09.040 pursuit of and in goal. And then when I'm eighty five, 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:11.960 I look back and realized I had a lot of 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.280 burned bridges or or I hadn't fostered a relationship, because 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.600 ultimately those people are what give value to what you do. 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.200 I mean, in my bare hunting, if I could tell 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:26.639 no one what I did, I probably I don't know 0:19:26.640 --> 0:19:28.280 if I would do it or not. I mean, as 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:31.880 much as there's an inner desire and this native desire 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.280 to hunt, a lot of the value that comes from 0:19:35.359 --> 0:19:40.040 hunting comes from sharing it with people. You know. I 0:19:40.080 --> 0:19:43.119 think one of the most important things out of listening 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:46.200 to him today is not something he said, and it's 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.240 something that your listeners won't be able to see. And 0:19:48.280 --> 0:19:50.800 that was the joy on his face when he was 0:19:50.840 --> 0:19:54.200 talking about it. I mean you could tell that there. 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:59.000 His face just was like gonna glow because of how 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.359 much he and Alder, how fun it was him. And 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:06.119 he said, if you can't have fun, stay home. Yeah. Yeah, 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:08.920 you know, his face really did light up. He had 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:15.880 he had bright blue eyes, didn't he and he uh, 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:18.760 when he smiled, you could it was almost like he 0:20:18.800 --> 0:20:22.560 was young. You It's like he he was kind of 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:24.600 this old man and then when he smiled, he just 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:30.840 kinda he kind of lit up. But well, I think 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:35.919 there's I'm continuing to search for for why I have 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:44.439 why I placed value on guys like him. Well, I 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.000 think one of the difficult things about being middle aged, 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:51.080 like you're you were talking about earlier is the men 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:53.960 that you grew up with and that you respected, and 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.600 that that you think a lot of some of them 0:20:57.600 --> 0:21:00.560 have passed away, and some of them are nearing that place, 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:06.200 and you're finally old enough to realize what a privilege 0:21:06.200 --> 0:21:08.119 it was to grow up around these men, and that 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:12.120 kind of been because they're they're scarce in our society, 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.600 and those kinds of men are scarce. Yeah, And I 0:21:16.240 --> 0:21:18.880 think about it, and I think about you know, it's 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.960 hard to watch the old bulls go down. It's hard 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.320 to watch the old lines go down. But then again, 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.639 what a privilege it was to live with them. And 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:34.720 we may never be exactly the kind of men they are, 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.320 but at least we knew them. Mm hmmm mm hmm. 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:43.000 And I think for for our time though, we can be, 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.600 you know, I mean, we we live in a whole 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:49.880 different set of challenges, Tracy, and you know it, we've 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:55.400 talked about it than they did. I mean, so inside 0:21:55.440 --> 0:21:58.439 of the challenges that you know, they challenged, they were 0:21:58.560 --> 0:22:01.240 challenged by the physics coal elements and the toughness of 0:22:01.320 --> 0:22:06.640 life and poverty and and big mountains and and our 0:22:06.760 --> 0:22:11.480 challenge is now different, but we still have the opportunity 0:22:11.680 --> 0:22:18.520 to walk through life in a noble way. And you know, so, 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:20.600 I mean, I see I see these old guys, and 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:22.480 I'm like, I want to be like them. Not I 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:24.840 won't be. I won't. I won't be just like them 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:26.320 because my life was different. I grew up in a 0:22:26.440 --> 0:22:31.280 different time. But I wanna. I want to be honorable 0:22:31.520 --> 0:22:33.879 when I'm old. I want to have given my best. 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:41.119 I want to have, you know, lived ultimately lived a 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:43.760 life that I felt like was pleasing to God. Well, 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.480 I like the the series or whatever you call that 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:50.720 you're doing here where you're finding these older men and 0:22:51.240 --> 0:22:57.040 getting them recorded so that we have them have it saved. Yep. Well, hey, 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:01.119 thank you for thank you for for hosting today. I 0:23:01.320 --> 0:23:07.240 really appreciate it. You're welcome. I joined it. Yeah, as 0:23:07.320 --> 0:23:12.560 you walk into Mr Eldridge's house, he's got some bear mounts, 0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:18.160 he's got bare hides, he's got some old, old, tarnished 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:21.920 deer antlers around. It's a place where you know you're 0:23:22.000 --> 0:23:25.760 walking into the house of somebody who's dedicated their life 0:23:26.119 --> 0:23:28.800 to the outdoors. When you look off his front porch, 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.760 you can look about about eight miles and you can 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:36.720 see big Appalachian mountains. One of the mountains, this Viking mountains, 0:23:37.600 --> 0:23:42.640 and those are the mountains that Eldridge hunter. And uh. 0:23:43.480 --> 0:23:45.240 He said that he could blow his horn off his 0:23:45.359 --> 0:23:48.960 front porch and those dogs could hear him from eight 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:53.400 to ten miles away blowing his hunter's horn, and those 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:57.960 dogs would come back. You're gonna appreciate Eldridge cut you 0:23:58.040 --> 0:24:05.080 off well. In our family, when my grandfather died, we 0:24:05.240 --> 0:24:08.600 started a tradition that anybody in our family that was 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.240 a hound hunter, when they die, we bring the hunting 0:24:12.280 --> 0:24:14.840 horn to the graveside service, and the last thing we 0:24:14.960 --> 0:24:19.639 do before we bury them is my son blows that horn. 0:24:19.960 --> 0:24:23.680 And it's symbolic to us that as we lay them 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.440 the rest that we're calling their dogs in for the 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:51.320 last time. So you could hear it for a long ways. 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:57.600 Huh ten miles you think you can? Wow? Did you 0:24:57.760 --> 0:25:01.560 use you use one of those to call your dog? Yeah? Yeah? 0:25:02.960 --> 0:25:06.360 Tell me about these horns? What did people use them for? Well? 0:25:07.480 --> 0:25:09.920 Mostly it was back years ago as fox hunters that 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:12.159 used them, and they use them to call their dogs 0:25:12.240 --> 0:25:15.040 in whenever they was done hunting. You know, no GPS, 0:25:15.119 --> 0:25:19.160 no telemetry, and they could blow their horn and call 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:22.280 the dogs in, just like Eldridge just said that from 0:25:22.359 --> 0:25:24.200 his yard. You could hear this, he said, all the 0:25:24.240 --> 0:25:26.919 way to Old Forge. And that's what ten mile across 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:30.879 their Old Forge. Really you could hear that for ten miles. Well, 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:36.879 they carry through the mountains. Mm hmm. Right, what what 0:25:37.040 --> 0:25:41.840 county are we in? Are we in Greene County? Greene County, Tennessee, 0:25:42.680 --> 0:25:48.239 which borders North Carolina. Yeah, it's across the chepd Well 0:25:48.320 --> 0:25:51.880 shut that door. Just across the top of that mountain's 0:25:51.920 --> 0:25:57.760 North Carolina and North Carolina. So we're in Greene County, Tennessee, 0:25:58.680 --> 0:26:05.400 near Greenville, and I'm here with with Mr Eldridge, Cutshall 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:10.760 and Tracy Jones. Uh. Tracy has been on the podcast before. 0:26:11.160 --> 0:26:14.760 We we talked with him last year. But thank you 0:26:14.840 --> 0:26:16.720 so much for letting us come and visit with you, 0:26:17.680 --> 0:26:22.800 Mr Eldridge. Really a pleasure you come. You come, highly 0:26:22.880 --> 0:26:27.560 spoken of. Bye bye Tracy for sure. Tracy, Why don't 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:31.280 will you tell me how you know Mr Eldridge? Well, 0:26:31.520 --> 0:26:35.959 I know Eldridge through my Papal and my daddy. They 0:26:36.080 --> 0:26:41.400 hunted together back years ago and for a long time. Yeah. Yeah, 0:26:42.520 --> 0:26:45.200 And so you told me something on the way here 0:26:45.320 --> 0:26:48.600 that most of the people that would have bear hunted 0:26:48.640 --> 0:26:51.480 with hounds and this part of in this part of 0:26:51.520 --> 0:26:54.639 the country, in this county, would have would have learned 0:26:54.720 --> 0:27:01.760