WEBVTT - Ep. 64: Gas Station Taxidermy Roadshow 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.920 And what I don't understand, Brent, is tell me why 0:00:09.000 --> 0:00:11.480 there's not a deer head in there. I mean, this 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:15.480 is a rural community, is built out law. There's got 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:19.680 to be a deer head in there. On this episode 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.240 of the Bargarase podcast, Brent Reeves and I are hitting 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:27.760 the two lane highways and byways of America in search 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.440 of something deep in the roots system of American identity 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:35.360 and symbolic of a way of life. We're looking for 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:41.080 taxidermy in gas stations. Yep, that's right. We're going on 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:45.880 a taxidermy road trip. And I've noticed the public display 0:00:46.080 --> 0:00:50.599 of bucks, bears, and ducks is becoming rarer, and I'm 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.840 in search of why the American gas station at one 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.120 time acted as the town square in relational hub of 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:02.200 small communities, but things are changing. We'll talk with podcaster JB. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.759 Shrieve about how the oil and gas industry has impacted 0:01:05.800 --> 0:01:08.840 America since World War One, and we'll also talk with 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:13.600 an expert on the tangible effects of social capital on communities. 0:01:14.080 --> 0:01:18.080 But not before we make some incredible stops and see 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.640 some incredible bucks, and meet some incredible people, get a 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:26.120 cold fountain drink and buckle up. Because we're about to 0:01:26.319 --> 0:01:30.200 roll down the road. I doubt you're gonna want to 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:32.760 miss this one. My sixteen year old daughter got this. 0:01:32.920 --> 0:01:36.000 She's twenty eight. Yeah, she got up that morning putting 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.399 on makeup. Now, I'm a what are you doing, mom? 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:40.480 I've got to look good in my picture when I 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.360 killed the deer. People don't do that. You just do 0:01:44.480 --> 0:01:48.120 not get deer like that. And low and behind seventh 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:50.520 thirty they know more got out there, got the deer. 0:02:00.880 --> 0:02:03.520 My name is Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:08.560 Grease Podcast, where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:12.200 for insight and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.440 story of Americans who lived their lives close to the land. 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:22.680 Presented by f HF gear, American made purpose built hunting 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:26.280 and fishing gear as designed to be as rugged as 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:38.200 the places we explore. We're walking up to Boroughs Country 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.519 Smoke House, Crystal Springs, Arkansas. We'll see if they have 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.040 any deer heads or bear skulls in here. Do you 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.239 reckon they do? I hope they do. We'll see it 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:55.920 smells real good. Brent Reeves and I are on a 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:59.400 road tripping mission. We've hit the highway in search of 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:03.800 dear head beds, bear hides, fish and ducks, and public places. 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:07.520 The public display of taxidermy, or p d T as 0:03:07.560 --> 0:03:11.120 we'll call it, I'm convinced, is a small but important 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:15.680 component of rural American culture. You see in the embryonic 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:19.880 stages of America. Hunters were the first pop culture heroes, 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.440 and even going back a step further, Native Americans deeply 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.400 influenced early Euro American culture, and these people truly revered 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:33.359 a good hunter before sports figures, home improvement, instagram influences, 0:03:33.400 --> 0:03:37.240 and radio stars. Hunters carried the cultural flash that people 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:41.600 were drawn to. They had all the adventure, the wild stories, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:47.280 the travel, all the fun, and provided some fundamentals to society, 0:03:47.800 --> 0:03:50.840 meet and furs. To be a hunter was a noble 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:54.240 identity that carried with it an intrinsic set of American 0:03:54.320 --> 0:04:01.120 values self sufficiency, courage, and independence. Hunters were provideds in 0:04:01.200 --> 0:04:04.040 that world. The noble head of a buck or the 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:07.240 height of a bear displayed in a public space was 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:12.200 emblematic of stability and sustenance in a wild place. It 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:16.440 was a celebration of wild beauty as well. The arcs 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:20.520 and undulations of white tail antlers couldn't be replicated by 0:04:20.600 --> 0:04:26.719 Michelangelo or the modern world's greatest sculptors. There are finest 0:04:26.839 --> 0:04:30.720 and most raw expressions of art, and there's no way 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:34.320 around it. Antlers on the wall are symbolic of human 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.400 subjugation and winning in the wilderness. And if you don't 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.479 like the sound of that, try this one on a 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:46.160 parking lot of building a car. Are all signs of 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:50.800 man dominating nature to just not as poetic. A deer 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:55.880 head is comparatively a really nice gesture. However, the world 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.720 interprets deer heads in public places. I don't really care. 0:05:00.440 --> 0:05:04.640 I love them. I always have. When I walk into 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.240 a business and I see a buck hanging on the wall, 0:05:07.560 --> 0:05:11.640 I feel a warming sensation in my spirit. I can't 0:05:11.720 --> 0:05:15.800 explain it, I just always have. I can actually remember 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:20.040 stores from my childhood that had big deer but most 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.960 of them are gone. I feel like the march of 0:05:23.040 --> 0:05:26.000 time is taking away parts of our culture, and deer 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.880 heads and gas stations in public places is one of them. 0:05:30.240 --> 0:05:39.040 They're disappearing. But why, I'm in search of the answer. Remember, 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.720 we've just walked into a smokehouse. Hunter Roark's family has 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:47.440 owned and ran it for the last forty years. Burrol's 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:51.880 Country Smokehouse was named after Burl ro Ark, Hunter's grandfather, 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:54.919 who passed away a few years ago. He was a 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.240 well spoken and stately man. He wore a long beard 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.640 and leather boots up to his knee eats. Talking with him, 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:03.719 it was hard to discern if you were talking to 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.800 a backwoods trapper or a governor. I like these kind 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:13.360 of people. I've asked Hunter to tell me about the smokehouse. Well, 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:17.040 Burl Smokehouse, We've been here for over forty years, and 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:20.280 my grandpa opened it and we've been voted best sandwich 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:22.560 in the state back in the nineties. We smoked all 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:26.000 of our own meats and cheeses, homemade bread, full of 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.200 antiques and full of bear hides and elk sheds and yeah, 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:32.560 lots of like we got lots of lots of bear 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.400 pictures on the wall. This is your grandpa and uncle. 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:38.560 And do you know anything about this bear over here? 0:06:38.800 --> 0:06:40.839 Where did that bear come from? Pretty sure that bear 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.600 came from over around, you know, but we've always called 0:06:44.600 --> 0:06:47.359 it the Hawkins Lands. Yeah, that's where that one should 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.800 have came from. Now there's a there's a nice white 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:53.040 tail buck hanging out there. You know anything about that, dear? Yeah, dude, 0:06:53.480 --> 0:06:56.279 Grandpa just bought it. I could make up some story 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:01.000 for We walk up to a glass case filled with 0:07:01.080 --> 0:07:05.040 giant cinnamon rolls and above it are scores of stone, 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:10.440 projectile points and framed glass cases. Yeah, I look at this, Brent, 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:13.360 describe how big that is? That that's about the size 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.480 of a grizzly bear Home Paul in Alaska. Yeah, you 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.560 can feed a small child for a week for this 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.240 right here. That's what you are famous for, hunt Man. 0:07:22.280 --> 0:07:24.600 Look at those, the beef jerky and the cinnamon rolls 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:29.680 your two best most popular items, you know, Giant cinnamon rolls, 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:33.400 bear hide, stone points, and white tails. Man, I love 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:36.880 this place and I love America. Could this get any better? 0:07:37.640 --> 0:07:41.200 Yes it can. We've got a big hook right here. 0:07:41.200 --> 0:07:44.720 That's a blubber hook for whales whenever they are. It's 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:49.400 probably three ft long with a big, big ring on 0:07:49.440 --> 0:07:51.000 the end of it where it could hang, and it's 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:52.920 just a bit. It looks like a huge fishing hook. 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:55.880 But yeah, they use it on the boats to pull 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:58.520 the whale blubber up into the boat. But yeah, they 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:01.000 hook that blubber on that hook and winch it up 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.720 into the boats. That's the kind of energy I came 0:08:03.760 --> 0:08:07.960 here for. Brent reeves a blubber hook. That's where you 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:09.480 want to eat. That's where you want to get your 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.320 beef jerk. It looks like a barbelous trout hook from 0:08:12.320 --> 0:08:18.400 Moby Dick Burrows. Country spoke House is a fair Grease 0:08:18.560 --> 0:08:22.680 podcast approved business. I love a place that isn't afraid 0:08:22.680 --> 0:08:26.880 of a little p DT. And we're on the road again. 0:08:27.920 --> 0:08:30.760 Our pokes are full of goodies, and we're headed east 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:35.200 on Highway to seventy towards Kirby, Arkansas, and we coast 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:39.720 in on fumes into the Brady Mountain. One stop, we 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.920 go in to check it out. We're looking for some 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:48.400 p DT, the public display of taxidermy. So Brent and 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:51.960 I just during the run out of gas and we 0:08:52.080 --> 0:08:55.120 made it to a gas station over here around Crystal Springs. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.000 And I've never been in this gas station, but it 0:08:58.000 --> 0:09:01.959 looks promising. It's kind a log cabin looking place. I 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:07.440 just saw a guy with Nirvana shirt. Let's walk up 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:09.840 in here and see if there's any any tax dermy, 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:14.439 any fish anything? Oh nice? Oh, look at there a 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.560 wood duck coming in hot. It's like hot, a little 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:19.480 dust on it. It would like us coming in here 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:23.720 with the there's a yoke for a mule, like a 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:27.520 plow and yolk hanging on the wall. Here's some planners, peanut. 0:09:27.760 --> 0:09:30.319 Look at that right there, that's a mule deer. That 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:37.080 is about a hundred mule deer. That's pretty odd for Arkansas. 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.640 Some hillbilly from Arkansas drove out west in nineteen sixty 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:44.760 in their granddad's Pontiac. Hold that thing back and look 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.959 there's a big striper. We're over here by Lake Washtall. Hey, 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:50.600 this gas station gets an A plus rating from the 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:55.560 Burgeras podcast. Yeah you got bait, tackle, taxidermy and fuel 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:01.280 happy and slightly surprised to and some PDT. On our 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:05.760 first unscripted stop. We're on the road again, and I'll 0:10:05.800 --> 0:10:09.440 be honest, this trip hasn't been planned blindly. I know 0:10:09.520 --> 0:10:12.640 about some great gas stations with big deer heads, and 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:16.200 we're headed to one now in Kirby. But while en route, 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:18.440 we cut through the back roads and I see a 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:24.120 country gas station and we pull in. We're in Arkansas, 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.719 little store. I have no idea if they got any 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:29.880 deer heads. In here. It's like a big log. It 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:34.960 looks promising. We walk into the tidy, well staffed establishment 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:38.240 and buy a drink as our cover, I'll have a 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:47.160 great thank you, take care, thank you struck out. So 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:49.520 we walked in there, and we uh, we didn't. We 0:10:49.520 --> 0:10:51.640 didn't want to be rude to these sweet people. So 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:53.920 I bought a Mountain dew and Bent bought a s. 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:57.839 But there was not a deer head in sight when 0:10:57.840 --> 0:10:59.880 we walked in there. And what I don't know, a 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.440 stand Brent is tell me why there's not a deer 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:07.080 head in there. I mean, this is a rural community's 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:11.000 built on laws. There's got to be a deer head 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:16.480 in there. But this is not a bear groose approved business. 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:20.760 It's not approved, it's not sanctioned. It's we can't sanction this. 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.480 I can't. I can't get behind it. Now, fair buckle up. 0:11:24.520 --> 0:11:29.640 I'm not wishing ill on these people. They had no 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:35.000 they had no excuse. Motif it would fit the motif 0:11:35.400 --> 0:11:41.520 it would there's no excuse. It was just empty walls. 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:46.440 Slightly discouraged. We're on the road again. We hit Highways seventy, 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:51.360 head through Glenwood into downtown Kirby. I'm looking for a 0:11:51.400 --> 0:11:56.600 place called dun Laps. There it is Man the dun 0:11:56.679 --> 0:12:02.080 Lap Store. Three a gallon given it away, No kidding. 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:05.520 That's the cheapest gas I've seen in weeks. So this 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.600 place where in Curby, Arkansas. Here comes an ambulance pull over. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:14.200 So the dun Lap Store is known far and wide 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.120 for having a bunch of big deer and fish, and 0:12:17.360 --> 0:12:20.400 I've never been in this store. We're looking for a 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:28.840 woman named Sandra. Okay, Oh yeah, hello are you Sandra. 0:12:29.640 --> 0:12:33.560 I'm Clay. Thank you for for meeting with This is 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:40.320 Brent Reeves. Reeves. Dun Laps sits on the southeast corner 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:43.160 of the crossing of Highway eighty four and twenty seven. 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.480 It's the crossroads at the center of town. There are 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.360 a couple of gas pumps outside, but it feels like 0:12:49.400 --> 0:12:53.320 you're walking into a small grocery store. They've got some 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:58.200 serious p DT. How long have you had this store? 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.120 This is your businesses not to Ny two September the 0:13:01.120 --> 0:13:05.040 feet will be thirty years we've been here. Excellent, that's great. Plus, 0:13:05.200 --> 0:13:09.400 Ernie dune Lap started it in about nineteen thirty thirty 0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:12.199 six and he had it for fifty plus years. Another 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:14.040 man had it for three years, and then we came 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.040 back from Texas. We had I've worked for Mr Dunlope 0:13:17.080 --> 0:13:19.719 my whole life here. I had my fifteenth birthday in 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.800 this store. So every time I go to I went 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:25.120 to Henderson State University, and when I go, he'd want 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:26.600 me to come back and working the summers. Tell me 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:28.840 I picked my hours whatever I wanted to work and all, 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:33.800 and so I I just lived here practically. As we 0:13:33.880 --> 0:13:36.920 talked to Miss Sandra. Directly to our left is a 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.960 string of big white tail shoulder mounts. I try not 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:45.240 to be distracted, maintaining the eye contact that's important when 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:49.600 you first meet someone. But I'm ready to talk white tales. 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:53.840 Will you give us a tour of your of brand? 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.720 What kind of what kind of duck is that brands? 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.520 That another it is? That's a drake Wood duck and 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:03.760 he's uh coming in. I don't know. Squirrel, there's a squirrel, right, 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:05.840 So it was all this stuff here when you got 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:09.079 the store saying no. Ms. Madison Vaughan a young man. 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.400 He's about twenty two right now. He started taxidermis when 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.680 he's about sixteen, and so that's when it needs destin. 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.000 I'm not taking real good care of it. Mad dog 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.480 taxidermy if you need anything, called Madison's Madison Vaughan is 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:26.600 his name. And then we have an elder, Hail Billy Don. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:32.440 How are you? Yeah? So these deer man, there's some 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:34.400 big deer. So I'm looking at let me let me 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:37.000 count on one, two, three, four or five, six, seven, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:41.600 eight nine ten bucks, Brent, I'm gonna say that deer 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:45.280 right there is a hundred probably a hundred sixty seventy 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:49.000 in deer, no doubt. Actually you know the score seventy 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.800 six because it is knows the score. We had a 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:57.040 plaque on it up here. This was Severe Counties laden deer. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:02.160 Jimmy Curzy killed it twenty years before that. He got this, dear, 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:04.960 very impressed Sandor that you knew the score of that. 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:06.720 I've heard it from him and nephew, and he was 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:08.800 telling me, I'm pretty sure. I mean, don't I know. 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.880 It looks every bit of it. It looks every bit, 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:13.840 but it is Severe Counties. It's the leading of all 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:17.640 time because it won it in twift But he said 0:15:17.720 --> 0:15:20.640 twenty years before he killed that year at Gilham said 0:15:20.680 --> 0:15:22.880 he was at home and he drive in and said 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:24.400 his neighbors told and said he'd look at it every 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:26.440 day and said, this neighbor said you better get that, dear. 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:28.760 Somebody's gonna get that dear. So he got it. And 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:31.400 can you that thing's a monster. Do you see the 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:34.240 devil horns? I've never saw this. Do you see the 0:15:34.240 --> 0:15:37.360 devil horns on it? I never knew about those. Now, 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:40.480 what you're calling devil horn is just split. No down 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.600 here on the bottom right about his high boss. See 0:15:42.600 --> 0:15:47.880 where they stick out the little yeah kickers whatever. But okay, 0:15:48.120 --> 0:15:51.280 like this, Oh, I took her, I took her picture down. 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:53.920 Oh my goodness, my sixteen year old daughter got this. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.840 She's twenty eighth. Yeah, she will be Dr Carly in 0:15:56.960 --> 0:16:00.000 December third of this year. She graduates from Dr. Carr 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:03.920 Practic in Dallas, Texas. When she was sixteen, she killed 0:16:03.920 --> 0:16:06.520 this deer. She got up that morning. Her and her 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.000 brother argued. He said, no, no, you can go, you 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:13.120 can go. He was like nine, and she said, no, Carly, 0:16:13.200 --> 0:16:14.920 you go. He didn't want to get up. He didn't 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.720 want to get up. So she's up putting on makeup. Now, 0:16:17.760 --> 0:16:19.720 I'm a what are you? Didn't mom? I've got to 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:22.080 look good in my picture. When I killed the deer, 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:26.560 I said, honey, people don't do that. You just do 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:30.280 not get deer like that. And lo and behind seventh 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.720 thirty they no more got out there, got the deer. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:35.480 She calls back. I go in and tell her little 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:38.440 brother and he and he never does is. He had 0:16:38.440 --> 0:16:41.600 a melt down, jerk that cover up over his head, 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:44.120 had a squall and fit. I said, you get your 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:45.720 mother out of that bed, and you got be proud 0:16:45.760 --> 0:16:48.200 for your sister. I said, she would be proud for you. 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.800 So when he got to go the next time, he 0:16:50.920 --> 0:16:53.520 got the squareliest looking little horns. But he was tickled 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:55.840 to day and that hanging in the gas station and 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.880 he was do you know the score of that, dear you, Carly? 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:03.360 I do not know me. It's probably half of that one. Well, 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:08.879 I'm gonna guess it's a high one point. I am 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.359 very impressed that she knows all the stories about these 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.439 dear ms. Sandra doesn't know it, but she's ascended to 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:19.080 the ranks of some of the best storytellers of the 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:24.919 Beargrease podcast. But she isn't through yet. My brother killed 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:27.920 this one, and Carly had got her Sparson and shine 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.760 he got his. Like A couple of years later, my 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.320 husband at a day lot till dark all week long, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:36.760 did not see anything. They went to our lace at 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.240 Pike City Park City ark saw down here long and 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.600 so my brother watched NASCAR racing all day. Decided then 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:46.520 who was gonna run over and hunt kills? This dear 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:48.679 calls me and he's a nervous rate. He said, I 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:50.720 think it's big. Now I don't know, maybe it don't. Yeah, 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:53.120 I think it's big. No, maybe it's not. So he said, 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:54.919 you got a flashlight, Kim to get me and my 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.240 little son, my whole son at that time was about 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:00.200 to has a barney flash like that's all we had, 0:18:00.240 --> 0:18:01.920 and we back it in. He backed up to the 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.320 tellot's hid it and I said, big my foot, Shane, 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:08.919 Yes it was. It was gigantic. The horns were turned 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:11.240 and it was standing up. It was great. And my 0:18:11.359 --> 0:18:13.440 niece wants to come and get that. She's his daughter, 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:15.160 has just had a baby, and she wants to put 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.080 in the nursery. So we might be looking might lose. 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:23.320 How could this place get any better? These people want 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:28.000 to put this dear head in their kids nursery hashtag winning. 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:31.439 And we haven't even mentioned the bear hide hanging on 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:35.040 the back wall of this store. I'm very impressed that 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:39.080 you know all these stories, stories, and and and I 0:18:39.160 --> 0:18:42.760 wish we had George mccuardor George mcquarter if you're listening, 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:45.840 you better get your deer back up here. We had 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.720 come on George. We had to hang George's down through 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:53.640 where that one's hung down. We had they went through 0:18:53.680 --> 0:18:56.120 it and then I mean literally, when we hung it down, 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.560 they still touched the ceiling. That dear was just a 0:18:59.560 --> 0:19:02.600 freak of nature, and he took it. He won. I 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.760 think it was a state of Arkansas for and what 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:10.080 is it? No typical, but oh it was unbelievable. Before 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.000 we leave, here's a little bit more about the store. 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:15.600 This is such a neat store. So you got you 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:17.720 got quite a bit of fishing tackle over here. You 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:23.359 got pretty good. I mean it's handcut, revised, handcut. I 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:26.119 have some ribs, Yeah, I have ribs. I have everything. 0:19:26.160 --> 0:19:29.600 We have Deli mead. All your people love our Cajun turkey. 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.040 We do Deli sandwiches. We run our own hamburger, but 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.600 hand dipped ospreme. We have hand dipped discres a d 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:41.960 plus years. It's been here. Yes, Well, I gotta say, Sandra, 0:19:42.080 --> 0:19:45.200 when I walk into a gas station like this, absolutely 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:50.360 love it because there's just there. Used to these community 0:19:50.480 --> 0:19:53.360 stores like this were like the hub of the community, 0:19:53.359 --> 0:19:55.840 which it feels like this still is, but it's kind 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:01.000 of rare. And then I display up there there's the gardeners, pictures, 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.400 there's kids. I'm sure there's no of no relation to yell. 0:20:03.440 --> 0:20:05.960 They're just part of this community. Well we are. We're 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:10.000 all like family. Yeah, everybody's like family. Well, and and 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.800 then I love coming in here and seeing deer heads where, 0:20:12.800 --> 0:20:15.000 I mean, I really do. It's just it's just kind 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:20.960 of who we are as our Kansas dun Lap store 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.800 and Miss Sandra are gonna be hard to top. In 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:28.720 This place is certainly Bear Grease podcast approved. But our 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:33.560 trip isn't over yet. We're just getting started. I want 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:37.320 to understand why gas stations like dun Laps are becoming 0:20:37.359 --> 0:20:41.280 more rare. JB. Shrieved is the host of the End 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:44.760 of History podcast. He's an author and just a smart dude. 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:47.800 I go to him when I need answers, and I 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:50.800 want to learn now about how the ups and downs 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:54.520 of the oil and gas industry of affected American culture, 0:20:54.920 --> 0:21:01.520 specifically mom and pop gas stations. Here's JB. So the 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.000 US is really an oil economy, like there's probably never 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:06.800 been an economy like this in the history of the world. 0:21:06.840 --> 0:21:09.320 There hasn't, in fact, because the globe went to oil 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:12.480 right after World War One and the British changed their 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:14.520 navy over from coal to oil. And that's where the 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:17.040 story really picks up. As far as when when when 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:21.520 oil went mainstream in the global economy, well after World 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:24.560 War Two. What happened is the U s comes back 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:26.920 and a lot of this stuff had already started to 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:29.399 occur in the nineteen twenties, but then the Great Depression hit, 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:31.639 World War Two hits, and everything gets put on pause. 0:21:32.080 --> 0:21:34.880 As far as economic development. We come back from World 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:37.719 War Two and everybody's got money in hand. There's this 0:21:37.840 --> 0:21:41.160 economic boom that's unfolded, and it kept on unfolding until 0:21:41.200 --> 0:21:44.760 the latter half of the nineteen sixties. In that economic boom, 0:21:45.040 --> 0:21:47.719 it's really a story of oil at the bottom of everything. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:51.119 You see oil rising and it's easy access oil for 0:21:51.200 --> 0:21:54.280 the United States, and it really changed the way the 0:21:54.400 --> 0:21:58.080 US economy works, so that it really changed our society, 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.320 our culture. Well, in the not in fifties, you get 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:04.360 an interstate system built, and so people are driving more 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:07.440 in The interstate system came from Dwight Eisenhower came back 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:11.000 from Germany. He saw the autobaron, he sees all these things. 0:22:11.040 --> 0:22:13.200 He's anticipating, you know, we could have World War three, 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:15.800 and so they want to build an interstate system that's 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.160 going to connect all the military bases around the country. 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:21.320 That was the original inception, but of course it turned 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:24.520 into something that connected trade all over the country, and 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:27.600 so people started driving and we became a driving culture 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:29.760 that you have the rise of fast food in the 0:22:29.880 --> 0:22:32.480 not team fifties, you have the rise uh and that's 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:34.399 people just eating in their car on their way to 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:37.720 in the automobile industry just took off and they were 0:22:37.760 --> 0:22:41.240 all these lots of different models of cars and it 0:22:41.400 --> 0:22:46.200 became yeah, and it's like it's not like yeah exactly 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.119 gas conors. I remember on the movie Back to the 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.080 Future where at one point they've got a car that's 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:54.240 flying or something and he says, don't hit that, it'll 0:22:54.280 --> 0:22:56.320 just rip into you because it's built like a tank. 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.159 Cars were built differently back then because they were heavier, 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:01.119 we had the oil and it's cheap. It was easy 0:23:01.160 --> 0:23:03.560 to access, and so who cares about how much it 0:23:03.600 --> 0:23:05.719 costs to fill it up because it was cheap at 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:07.760 that time. So you've got all of this going on. 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:09.840 It's changed in the shape of the economy. And one 0:23:09.840 --> 0:23:12.439 of the big things all these gas stations start to 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:16.040 develop as people are traveling across the country with gas guzzlers, 0:23:16.040 --> 0:23:21.320 so they've got to stop pretty frequently to fill up. Yeah, exactly, 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:24.360 and so you can only get the price of gas 0:23:24.400 --> 0:23:26.679 so cheap. As far as that would there would be 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.640 price wars throughout the nineteen fifties between these gas companies, 0:23:29.920 --> 0:23:32.520 the mom and pop shops as well as the big corporations. 0:23:33.000 --> 0:23:35.040 But they decided, you know, what we're gonna have to 0:23:35.040 --> 0:23:37.159 do is build some other kind of competitive edge. So 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:39.640 if you watch like the Andy Griffiths Show or any 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:42.200 show from back there in that time, you see guys 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:44.240 come out of the gas station. They're wearing a uniform. 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.720 They're gonna wash your windows, they're gonna check your oil, 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.000 they're gonna check your lights, do all this stuff, and 0:23:49.040 --> 0:23:50.960 don't you dare pump your own gas. We've got that 0:23:51.040 --> 0:23:55.000