Speaker 1: Welcome to this country life.
Speaker 2: I'm your host, Brent Reeves from coon hunting to trot
Speaker 2: lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay.
Speaker 2: Awhile as I share my experiences and life lessons. This
Speaker 2: country life is presented by Case Knives on Meat Eaters
Speaker 2: Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast.
Speaker 1: The airwaves have to offer.
Speaker 2: All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate.
Speaker 2: I've got some stories to share, picking beans and sewing
Speaker 2: up coons. The things we say and how we say
Speaker 2: them speak a lot about who we are and from
Speaker 2: where we come. Dialects and accents can sometimes be as
Speaker 2: accurate as dropping the ONEX pen to our homes. Now,
Speaker 2: what passes for everyday native speech to a particular group
Speaker 2: of people can be misunderstood or completely undecipherable to those
Speaker 2: living just a few hours away. Idioms are a prime example.
Speaker 2: And if you don't know what an idiom is now,
Speaker 2: you will before we're done.
Speaker 1: Y'all get ready, We're gonna jump right into this one.
Speaker 2: I was at an online meeting recently with two of
Speaker 2: my colleagues that meet either.
Speaker 1: They were in their offices in Bozeman. One is from
Speaker 1: Iowa and one from New York. Now during the course
Speaker 1: of the meeting, and actually throughout most of our conversations,
Speaker 1: they snicker and sometimes laugh out loud at the analogies
Speaker 1: and phrases I used during normal conversation. I used to
Speaker 1: ask them what's so funny, and they would repeat something
Speaker 1: I just said that I say or hear down here
Speaker 1: on the daily. That's something that they've lived into their adulthood,
Speaker 1: only to hear me say it for the first time.
Speaker 1: I was sitting in the eye doctor's office the other day,
Speaker 1: right after one of those meetings, and a John Prime
Speaker 1: song came on the waiting room speakers that wasn't sung
Speaker 1: by John Prime, but I recognized it as being written
Speaker 1: by him. Y'all, hang on just for a minute, I promised,
Speaker 1: This is going somewhere, and it may even give a
Speaker 1: glimpse into how my brain works or doesn't work, depending
Speaker 1: on how you look at it. Anyway, there I was
Speaker 1: waiting for what seemed like forever. When Bonnie Rach started
Speaker 1: singing John's song. I started thinking about another John Prime
Speaker 1: song that was cleverly written using phrases that was, according
Speaker 1: to him, inspired by a crossword puzzle and things he'd
Speaker 1: heard his grandmother say, which in turn led me to
Speaker 1: thinking about our meeting in Reva and Krinn laughing at
Speaker 1: the idioms I was flippantly using during our conversation. Idioms
Speaker 1: are phrases that say something that have absolutely nothing to
Speaker 1: do with the subject of your conversation, but having a
Speaker 1: expressive or descriptive tie into your subject. For example, if
Speaker 1: you and I were planning to go fishing and we
Speaker 1: had yet to set a date and time to go,
Speaker 1: and a third person asked when we were leaving, we
Speaker 1: could say, it's still up in the air. Now immediately
Speaker 1: they would know that we haven't yet decided on the time.
Speaker 1: That's an idiom just from the description that we said
Speaker 1: it's still up in the air. It's got nothing to
Speaker 1: do with fishing. We ain't fishing in the air. But
Speaker 1: we could say that also if we didn't want them
Speaker 1: to know, but that'd be a lie, not.
Speaker 2: An idiom, regardless, you get the idea. I started reviewing
Speaker 2: some of the ones in my head that I use
Speaker 2: most often, and that seems second nature to me that
Speaker 2: they and others have found to be at least mildly entertaining, thought.
Speaker 1: Provoking, and some of them just downright bizarre.
Speaker 2: Now, I haven't lived a sheltered life by any means,
Speaker 2: but the use of these things in the community in
Speaker 2: which I live make them a permanent part of the vernacular,
Speaker 2: or at least my party. Anyway, not until I got
Speaker 2: out of my circle did I see how differently folks
Speaker 2: interpreted my speech. Now, even those in my circle find
Speaker 2: some of them humors, even if they've never heard it before,
Speaker 2: because they have an instant identifier to the phrase, having
Speaker 2: been raised in a similar environment. Here's a prime example.
Speaker 2: Got beat like a rented mule. Now, I have heard
Speaker 2: this say in all my life, but taking it face
Speaker 2: value by someone not familiar with why you would rent
Speaker 2: a mule in the first place, or be forced to
Speaker 2: hit one, that idiom would make no sense. The first
Speaker 2: time I used that phrase somewhere, it wasn't recognized. Was
Speaker 2: it fort seal? It was during my Army advanced training
Speaker 2: and my friend Merritt Bradshaw and I were side by
Speaker 2: side doing endless pushups along with the rest of our
Speaker 2: platoon because of another soldier's in fraction. Now that wasn't unusual.
Speaker 2: Drill sergeists looked for some to punish you for. Is
Speaker 2: a lesson, and they used negative reinforcement both as a
Speaker 2: reminder and exercise.
Speaker 1: But if the same guy.
Speaker 2: Made the same mistake twice or did something someone else
Speaker 2: had just previously done that caused us to get punished,
Speaker 2: our feelings of empathy for the offender lessened dramatically with
Speaker 2: each push up. It was during one of these sessions
Speaker 2: that I mistakenly uttered that phrase, which only caused us
Speaker 2: more pain by my friend's unfamiliarity with what I said.
Speaker 2: It was somewhere around push up one hundred when Marriott
Speaker 2: whispered to me, if Smith does that again, the drill
Speaker 2: sergeant is gonna kill us, I whispered back, if he
Speaker 2: does that again, I'm gonna beat him like a rended mule.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I am not sure what caused my friend from North
Speaker 2: Carolina to bust out laughing like he was anywhere but
Speaker 2: where he was, but I knew immediately that we were doomed,
Speaker 2: and I regretted saying it, even though I couldn't imagine
Speaker 2: why he responded like he did to the most overused
Speaker 2: Southeast Arkansas idiom ever quoted. I'd heard that nearly every
Speaker 2: day of my life, usually in reference to what was
Speaker 2: going to happen to me if my mama caught me
Speaker 2: skipping school or chewing the back of again.
Speaker 1: Elementary school was a tough time for me. But in
Speaker 1: Private Bradshaw's defense, he was from North Carolina and we
Speaker 1: were in Oklahoma under a ton of stress, which exacerbated
Speaker 1: even the slightest crack and his ability not to laugh.
Speaker 1: It was a pressure relief valve for him, and I
Speaker 1: had triggered it.
Speaker 2: My friend collapsed into a fiddle laughter and in a
Speaker 2: pool of sweat that had dripped off his face onto
Speaker 2: the concrete, I saw my life flash before my eyes
Speaker 2: as I looked up to see that campaign had aimed
Speaker 2: at the two of us and growing bigger with each step.
Speaker 2: As drift Sergeant Franks ran toward us, stepping on the
Speaker 2: backs of soldiers in his rush to kill us.
Speaker 1: Both his eyes wide with.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable delight, while the veins in his forehead bulged out
Speaker 2: past his eyebrows. And what happened next is more like
Speaker 2: a foggy night mary of push ups, grass, drill, sweat,
Speaker 2: and an endless tirade of profanity driven insults that encouraged
Speaker 2: the both of us to reconsider the directions of our
Speaker 2: lives should he choose at that moment to allow us
Speaker 2: to keep one. There was one person, though, that was
Speaker 2: thankful that I'd made Merrit laugh, bringing the whole of
Speaker 2: our drill sergeant's attention upon the two of us and
Speaker 2: away from him. That was Private Smith from Illinois, the
Speaker 2: original offender and the sole reason we were in that
Speaker 2: predicament to begin with. You're welcome Smitty. Now that was
Speaker 2: thirty eight years ago. Smitty probably retired at General. But
Speaker 2: beat him like a red and mule. Allowed me to explain,
Speaker 2: the phrase gives the idea that someone would treat a
Speaker 2: rented mule rougher than one you owned. Beat could be
Speaker 2: replaced with worked road, or any descriptor that aligned with
Speaker 2: what you were talking about. Like I said, I've heard
Speaker 2: that phrase all my life and used in a jillion
Speaker 2: different ways. Way before I used it in the most
Speaker 2: inopportune time imaginable in the fall of nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 2: But when I hear it now, I always think about
Speaker 2: the day when I thought saying it was going to
Speaker 2: turn me into the mute. Now, for another example, check
Speaker 2: this out. Clay and I were talking a few years
Speaker 2: ago about someone in regard to their perceived intelligence. I
Speaker 2: have no idea who it was we were talking about now,
Speaker 2: but we were both in agreement that they were smart.
Speaker 2: Clay said that dude as sharp as attack on an
Speaker 2: idiom that I've heard all over in every form of media, print, radio,
Speaker 2: on television, everywhere, including.
Speaker 1: On this channel. From March of twenty twenty two, Reva's
Speaker 1: going to reach way back in the Bear Grease vault
Speaker 1: for a sound bite right now. When Clay was talking
Speaker 1: to Steve, who, among others, was guests hosting on a
Speaker 1: Render episode number forty seven entitled Steve Ranella on Jerry
Speaker 1: Klower from the first season of Bear Grease, Clay was
Speaker 1: telling Steve and the others who were setting in for
Speaker 1: the regulars to do their best because the regular Render
Speaker 1: crew would be judging their performance when it aired the
Speaker 1: following week. Steve had the following to say, play the drop, Reva.
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you guys, though, I've got to
Speaker 3: warn you that you will be scrutinized heavily by the
Speaker 3: original Bear Grease crew. Okay, so my wife, Misty Nukem,
Speaker 3: Brent Reeves, Josh Lambridge, spilmmaker Gary Believer, Nukelem.
Speaker 1: That Brent Reeves is sharp. Yeah, man, he's sharp. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think that speaks for itself. The term sharp isn't
Speaker 1: defined by borders or relegated to a specific area or
Speaker 1: people due to its context like the rented mule line.
Speaker 1: Everyone knows that sharp is an immediate positive reference in
Speaker 1: recognizing someone's intelligence when used in that in that reference. Now,
Speaker 1: during Mina Clay's conversation, after he had made his bid
Speaker 1: about the person's intelligence being sharp, I made the statement
Speaker 1: that I'd go a step further and say he's sharp
Speaker 1: as a rat pill. That drew a slightly confused look
Speaker 1: from Clay Bow and he said, did you say rat pill? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I said rat pill? He said, like like rat droppings. Yep.
Speaker 2: I said, I don't get it. I said, you ever
Speaker 2: seen one? He said yeah. I told him a rat
Speaker 2: pill idly sharp on both ends. That makes it twice
Speaker 2: as sharp. Now he knew exactly what I was talking
Speaker 2: about once he pictured it in his mind and was
Speaker 2: more than amused at the thought. Now I have to
Speaker 2: confess that that variation of sharp is attributed to my father,
Speaker 2: as I have never heard it anywhere else other than
Speaker 2: from him. I have a good feeling that had it
Speaker 2: been more popular in the lexicon of Michigan, that Steve
Speaker 2: would have used that one instead of repeating Brent Reeves
Speaker 2: as sharp, he's sharp, when he could have just said
Speaker 2: Brent Reeves as sharp as a red hill. Now, whether
Speaker 2: my dad said it first, I don't know. But if
Speaker 2: you know the origin of that one, or have ever
Speaker 2: been described in such a manner, congratulations, you're in good company.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the one that
Speaker 2: Steve himself came up with that wound up being on
Speaker 2: the meat eater T shirt. And that one is A
Speaker 2: fresh set of eyes finds more beans I met.
Speaker 1: When I first heard it, I didn't give it much thought.
Speaker 1: It didn't sing to me.
Speaker 2: But like rabbits soaking in buttermilk, the longer it marinated,
Speaker 2: the better I liked it. A fresh set of eyes
Speaker 2: will find more beans. It's the reason there are editors
Speaker 2: who read books and make the stories better. There's so
Speaker 2: many of these things that as I sat in the
Speaker 2: waiting room and started making a list of the ones
Speaker 2: I've used and heard that when the nurse walked out
Speaker 2: and called my name, she had to call it twice
Speaker 2: because I was busy as a one armed paperhanger making
Speaker 2: notes for this episode.
Speaker 1: You see what I mean.
Speaker 2: There's one for everything. There are endless numbers of idioms.
Speaker 2: You can search up a list up on the Google
Speaker 2: machine and have a list of one hundred before Catkin
Speaker 2: lickers behind. I read them all and that last one
Speaker 2: wasn't known there. So that's one hundred and one and
Speaker 2: one of my all time favorites. That was so funny
Speaker 2: to me when I was a kid and still is.
Speaker 2: Is also attributed to my dad. There's quite a visual
Speaker 2: reference in your head when you hear it, and after
Speaker 2: you do, you may never get it out of there.
Speaker 1: There's a lot.
Speaker 2: Going on, and there are several levels of understanding that
Speaker 2: go into getting the mental picture and the humor of
Speaker 2: the phrase. But one time he bought an old disc
Speaker 2: to use with our tractor and breaking ground for the garden.
Speaker 2: He bought it from one of the farms he traveled
Speaker 2: to and his job as a poultry industry serviceman, a
Speaker 2: job I've described in great detail on several episodes. The
Speaker 2: diskey bought was an old six foot massive ferguson that
Speaker 2: had it been listed in a for sale ad. As
Speaker 2: used it would have been misleading. A better description would
Speaker 2: have been well used. It was pretty rough now.
Speaker 1: My dad offered the man a fair price and he
Speaker 1: gladly accepted.
Speaker 2: I think the farmer would have let Dad have it
Speaker 2: just to get it off his farm, since he recently
Speaker 2: got himself a new one. It was a good deal
Speaker 2: for both parties, and there were several issues that required
Speaker 2: some welding, and we had a welder, and my dad,
Speaker 2: who I've described on here before, is frugal about anything
Speaker 2: that didn't pertain to hunt dogs, horses and ground and shotguns.
Speaker 2: I was going to give this disc the old fixer
Speaker 2: upper treatment that I was going to be as health.
Speaker 1: The farmer loaded it on our trailer and home it went.
Speaker 1: We backed it into the barn, and the following morning
Speaker 1: we were up bright and early, him ready to weld
Speaker 1: and me ready to be in the way. It was
Speaker 1: how we worked best.
Speaker 2: My job was to take a wire brush and remove
Speaker 2: the rust and if there was any paint left where
Speaker 2: he was going to weld. I spent a lot of
Speaker 2: elbow grease on that project, scrubbing away the years of
Speaker 2: neglecting rush so my dad could fix it, fusing the
Speaker 2: pieces back together with a weld of molten steel.
Speaker 1: I scrubbed and he welded, and before it was all over,
Speaker 1: I got the burner rod, myself wearing the hood and
Speaker 1: his big old leather gloves.
Speaker 2: Now once completed, we stood back and looked at the
Speaker 2: wells he'd made, returning the pieces back to one that
Speaker 2: had been given up as too far gone to fix.
Speaker 2: To me, it looked as good as a Picasso or Rembrandt,
Speaker 2: having watched and helped to a certain degree in the
Speaker 2: monumental task of making it whole again. I was feeling
Speaker 2: good about it, and someone snapped a picture of the
Speaker 2: two of us standing side by side admiring our handiwork.
Speaker 2: You'd have seen an expression of confidence and satisfaction on
Speaker 2: my face and one of slightly less than enthusiastic on
Speaker 2: my father's.
Speaker 1: What you think, Dad, what do you think? I said? Look?
Speaker 2: He stared at that disk, his eyes going from well
Speaker 2: to well, checking his work inch by inch, never looking
Speaker 2: at me. Only the repairs we've done in an already
Speaker 2: I sore piece of farming equipment.
Speaker 1: Hated breath. I waited for his answer, ever so slightly.
Speaker 1: He shook his head and, with a voice bordering on disgust.
Speaker 1: He said, it looks like a coon's butt that's been
Speaker 1: sown shut with a grape vine. Yeah, in the NATO second.
Speaker 2: It took me to process the image of a coon's
Speaker 2: exhaust flight that I'd seen countless times as we skinned them,
Speaker 2: and to picture it sown shut like a hole in
Speaker 2: the toe of a sock with a grapevine.
Speaker 1: Of all things.
Speaker 2: I went into convulsions of laughter, the kind of infectious
Speaker 2: laughter that makes everyone else laugh within here it even
Speaker 2: though they have no idea what's so funny? And for
Speaker 2: days and weeks, and I guess decades, I still laughed
Speaker 2: at his description of our consulted efforts to fix that disc.
Speaker 1: Oh Man.
Speaker 2: On a side note, for anyone that's interested, that disc
Speaker 2: is still churning dirt every spring and fall. When my
Speaker 2: brother Tim fires up Dad's tractor and gets his garden
Speaker 2: and food plaut Treddy. Now there's an idiom somewhere in
Speaker 2: that story. And don't judge a book by its cover,
Speaker 2: it quickly comes to mind. But I just didn't sing
Speaker 2: for me. How about a coon's butt? So on is
Speaker 2: a garden grown?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that sins I'm gone.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna put it to a vote on my Instagram
Speaker 2: page as a which one you like the best, mine
Speaker 2: or Steve's and let y'all be the judge.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 2: Y'all, get over to the media or YouTube channel and
Speaker 2: check out my buddy Clay and his mountain goat hunt
Speaker 2: in Alaska and the History channel for Steve's newest episode
Speaker 2: of Hunting History until next week.
Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful
Speaker 3: In