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Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. Brent has the week off

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Speaker 1: this week, so we're re airing his first episode called

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Speaker 1: Freight Trains and Hurricanes for all of you newer listeners

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Speaker 1: who might have missed out on it. Have a great

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Speaker 1: Thanksgiving weekend, enjoy time with your loved ones, and we'll

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Speaker 1: see you again next week for another new episode of

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Speaker 1: This Country Life.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves.

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Speaker 2: From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 3: I want you to stay a while.

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Speaker 2: As I share my stories and the country skills that

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Speaker 2: will help you beat the system. This Country Life is

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Speaker 2: proudly presented as part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing

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Speaker 2: you the best outdoor podcast.

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Speaker 3: The airways have to offer.

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Speaker 2: All right, friends, pull you up a chair or drop

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Speaker 2: that tail gate.

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Speaker 3: I think I got a thing or two and teacher.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Meet Eaters This Country Life Podcast with me

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Speaker 2: Brent Reeves. Some of you may know me from my

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Speaker 2: Shenanigans on the Bear Grease Render with my buddy Klay Nukeom,

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Speaker 2: but most of you are probably saying, who is this

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Speaker 2: cat and why should I be listening to him? Well,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna tell you cause I know stuff about living

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Speaker 2: in the country, and on this podcast, I'm going to

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Speaker 2: tell you the stories you need to hear and teach

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Speaker 2: you the country skills that will help you beat the system.

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Speaker 2: Folks that know me are saying, Brent, you've been a

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Speaker 2: police officer for over thirty years, what do you mean

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Speaker 2: beat the system? Maybe nonconformity is a better way to

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Speaker 2: approach it. Miss Roberts, my eleventh grade English teacher, called

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Speaker 2: me a walking example of a nonconformist. I'm not talking

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Speaker 2: about dodging the draft, not having good manners, or cheating

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Speaker 2: on your taxes. I'm talking about that good old country

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Speaker 2: common sense that goes against all what I call corporate thinking.

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Speaker 2: I like doing my own thing that's the best results

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Speaker 2: for everyone. This show could be a weekly focus of

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Speaker 2: one sad story after another relating to my job. After all,

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Speaker 2: folks don't call nine one one to spread good news.

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Speaker 2: It's a daily grind of seeing even the best people

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Speaker 2: at their worst times day after day. But we ain't

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Speaker 2: gonna do that. We're going to focus on the good

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Speaker 2: days and the lessons learned in everyday country life.

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Speaker 3: And I'll throw a police story in there too when

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Speaker 3: it's appropriate.

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Speaker 2: After this introductory episode where I tell you who I

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Speaker 2: am and a little about myself, I'm gonna start the

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Speaker 2: rest of them by telling y'all what the topic of

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Speaker 2: the week is, what you can expect to learn before

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Speaker 2: it's over, and then hit you with a story to

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Speaker 2: get you good and settled. And then we're going to

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Speaker 2: jump in with both feet by the country skill everyone

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Speaker 2: should know. Hunting, fishing, and just general country living is

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Speaker 2: what we're going to be talking about. If it can

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Speaker 2: be done in rural America, it's fair game on the list,

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Speaker 2: and the lessons learned can usually be applied everywhere.

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Speaker 3: Here we go.

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Speaker 2: I grew up on a small farm in southeast Arkansas,

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Speaker 2: and my whole world hinged on my next adventure in

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Speaker 2: the outdoors. I love to hunt anything and everything. I

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Speaker 2: ran a trap line before catching the bus during the winter.

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Speaker 2: From age twelve until I graduated high school, we rode

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Speaker 2: horses and hunting squirrels with dogs. They'd also bay hogs.

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Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, we hunted just about everything

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Speaker 2: with dogs other than turkeys. Mountain curves, walkers, pointers, and

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Speaker 2: labradors were what we used most for hunting squirrels, coons, quails, ducks, deer,

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Speaker 2: and codies. Also, there wasn't a bluegill, brim bass, or

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Speaker 2: a catfish safe that swam anywhere near the tippid waters

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Speaker 2: of Cleveland County. My family's heritage and legacy in that

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Speaker 2: part of Arkansas dates back to when it became a state,

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Speaker 2: and hunting, fishing, and farming wasn't just a way of life,

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Speaker 2: it was the only way of life. The Celine River,

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Speaker 2: that most holy stretch of water that runs from north

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Speaker 2: to south through the heart of Cleveland County, remains to

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Speaker 2: this day the lifeblood of my family's past and the

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Speaker 2: focus of our sporting future. The boat ramp that we

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Speaker 2: frequented most is named the Lloyd Wilton Buddy Reeves Selein

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Speaker 2: River Access by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in

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Speaker 2: honor of my father, a never ending tribute to him

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Speaker 2: and my family's.

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Speaker 3: Love for that spot on Mother Earth.

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Speaker 2: My ancestors depended on the fishing game that lived in

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Speaker 2: and along this Washta River tributary, and I was fully

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Speaker 2: convinced as a child that we owned it and had

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Speaker 2: since the first trickle of water found its way through

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Speaker 2: those woods. My first memories are there amongst my family

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Speaker 2: and those river bottoms. There were two seasons in my mind,

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Speaker 2: hunting and fishing. Neither one involved school. I didn't really

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Speaker 2: mind school, I just didn't have time for it. There

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Speaker 2: were traps to be set and run, fish to be caught,

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Speaker 2: and creaks to be explored. Everything that I considered fun,

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Speaker 2: and sitting in a schoolhouse wasn't one of them. Which

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Speaker 2: reminds me of a story. And that's pretty well how

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Speaker 2: these weekly visits are going to go. I'm going to

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Speaker 2: start talking about something that will remind me of something else,

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Speaker 2: and I'm going to tell you about it and then

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Speaker 2: get back to the main subject I started with. Now,

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Speaker 2: I promise it ain't going to be confusing. The whole

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Speaker 2: thing ain't going to last but about twenty minutes, So

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Speaker 2: just relax and hang on. The story I'm reminded of

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Speaker 2: happened when I was in the sixth grade. The friends

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Speaker 2: that I'd see and play with was the only reason

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Speaker 2: I would get on the bus to go every day.

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Speaker 2: That and my Mama would give me a whooping if

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Speaker 2: I didn't. But on this particular day, I had a plan.

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Speaker 2: An unnamed friend of mine and I had noticed every

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Speaker 2: day when we got to school, me getting off the

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Speaker 2: bus and him getting out of his mama's car because

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Speaker 2: he lived in town. That the potlatch train that traveled

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Speaker 2: from one side of town to the other hauling wood

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Speaker 2: chips from the sawmill to the steam powerhouse and bunks

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Speaker 2: of lumber to the dry hills, passed by the school,

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Speaker 2: and the tracks were only a short distance from the

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Speaker 2: front door. Every morning was the same, get off the

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Speaker 2: bus stand in front of the school, aggravate girls. The

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Speaker 2: bell would rain all the younguns and the duty teacher

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Speaker 2: would go inside, and the potlatch train would roll by

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Speaker 2: at a blistering pace a puppey could keep up with.

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Speaker 2: From the front door to the railroad track was less

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Speaker 2: than forty yards. In addition, the train would come back

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Speaker 2: about fifteen minutes before the bell rang to go home

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Speaker 2: every day. These facts had not gone unnoticed by myself

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Speaker 2: or my associate. I don't know how many days we

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Speaker 2: planned it, but it was several. Everything had to be perfect.

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Speaker 2: The two main things that had to happen was the

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Speaker 2: duty teacher needed to go in before we did, and

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Speaker 2: the train had to be right on time. It was

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Speaker 2: a Wednesday, the third morning before it all came together.

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Speaker 2: Now this wasn't our first foray into fight in the system.

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Speaker 2: So the regular duty teacher was adamant that US two

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Speaker 2: go in before she did amongst all that cackling.

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Speaker 3: Herd of fifth and sixth graders.

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Speaker 2: But on Wednesday we had a substitute, and apparently she

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Speaker 2: didn't get the memo operations see you later, Chumps was

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Speaker 2: a goat. It was perfect in every way. I saw

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Speaker 2: the sub when I got off the bus. My buddy

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Speaker 2: was already there, grinning like a baked possum. We knew

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Speaker 2: that freedom was only one more step away. And as

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Speaker 2: the bell rang, that old familiar sound of that squeaking,

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Speaker 2: rumbling train echoed around the corner of the schoolhouse.

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Speaker 3: It was go time.

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Speaker 2: We lagged behind the teacher who'd gone in amongst a

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Speaker 2: lot large group of kids, and slipped around the corner

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Speaker 2: and waved at the engineer as he drove past. We

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Speaker 2: hopped on the last box car and rode it to

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Speaker 2: the depot that was conveniently in the dead center of town,

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Speaker 2: a block off Main Street, right beside the YMCA Little

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Speaker 2: League Field, in a short walk from my buddy's house.

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Speaker 2: We went to his house, crawled in a window and

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Speaker 2: tried to watch TV, but back then there was only

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Speaker 2: three channels, and every one of them had some kind

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Speaker 2: of soap opera playing. So we went down to the

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Speaker 2: town branch and there wasn't enough water running in it

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Speaker 2: to float a stick, no snakes to catch, no frog

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Speaker 2: eggs to chunk at one another. So we decided we'd

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Speaker 2: just go eat.

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Speaker 3: Now.

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Speaker 2: My partner had some money and he sprung for our dinner,

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Speaker 2: and that's what we called the New Meal, and we

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Speaker 2: edit at the Wayne's Cafe on the Square in downtown Warren, Arkansas.

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Speaker 2: We shot a couple of games of pool and pinball

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Speaker 2: in the back of the building while the old men

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Speaker 2: that were regular smoked cigarettes and solved the world's problems.

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Speaker 3: They were oblivious to our prisence.

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Speaker 2: Coincidentally, next door was the bank where my mama was

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Speaker 2: busy working, and assuming I was in the school, we

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Speaker 2: decided to leave. As we walked out the front door,

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Speaker 2: I poked all the money I had left in the

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Speaker 2: cigarette machine and skipped out the door fifty cents poor

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Speaker 2: and a pack of Lucky strikes richer. We walked in

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Speaker 2: broad daylight down the side walk in front of God

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Speaker 2: and everybody in a town where everyone knew everyone, and

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Speaker 2: not one soul said a word to us or told

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Speaker 2: our parents they'd seen us in town when we were

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Speaker 2: supposed to be in school. We made it back to

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Speaker 2: the depot, climbed up in an open top box car,

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Speaker 2: and waited for the train that told us back across

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Speaker 2: town to the schoolhouse. We were sitting on tons of

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Speaker 2: pine chips about the size of a half dollar, smoking

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Speaker 2: lucky strikes like they wasn't going to make them anymore.

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Speaker 3: When the train jerked.

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Speaker 2: And commenced us take us back across town. We rode along,

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Speaker 2: looking at the site so over the top of that

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Speaker 2: box car like we were riding on the City of

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Speaker 2: New Orleans instead of the warning selene A railroad. When

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Speaker 2: we got back across town, we climbed down the ladder

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Speaker 2: on the opposite side of the school, bailed off the

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Speaker 2: train at the exact spot we got on it that morning,

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Speaker 2: waited while the train rolled on by it and hidding

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Speaker 2: the bushes till the bell rang. When it did, we

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Speaker 2: walked across the tracks to the school and blended into

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Speaker 2: that stampede of children that poured out of that building

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Speaker 2: like it was on fire. He got in the car

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Speaker 2: rider line and I walked up on the bus like

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Speaker 2: my name was on the title. It was absolutely the

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Speaker 2: most fool proof plan I'd ever devise, even up till now.

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Speaker 2: My pals on the school bus immediately recognized my achievement

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Speaker 2: after not seeing me all day, and gave me the

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Speaker 2: proper respect that afforded by not saying a word about it.

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Speaker 2: We could have been caught at any turn, but for

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Speaker 2: reasons unknown to either of us, we weren't. We never

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Speaker 2: got caught. No one would know about it if I

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Speaker 2: hadn't just fessed up to it. Two young lads not

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Speaker 2: quite twelve years old had conspired to beat the system.

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Speaker 3: And we did.

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Speaker 2: They both would grow up and be involved in law enforcement,

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Speaker 2: me on the badge tote in the end and him

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Speaker 2: on the other. I think about it sometimes, and I

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Speaker 2: wonder how it come to him growing up and violating

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Speaker 2: the law and me making a living out of enforcing it.

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Speaker 3: I don't have an answer.

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Speaker 2: All I know for sure is if it had to

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Speaker 2: be one of us going rogue, I'm glad it was him,

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Speaker 2: all right. I've been a police officer in the state

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Speaker 2: of Arkansas since nineteen ninety one. I've worked everything from

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Speaker 2: patrol swat, undercover, narcotics, burglaries, homicides, you name it, I've

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Speaker 2: done it. I've served with some fine folks, some real heroes,

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Speaker 2: and I think I've seen just about every kind of

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Speaker 2: person there is, the good ones, the bad ones, and

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Speaker 2: all those in between.

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Speaker 3: I've been in a.

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Speaker 2: Few tight spots when I didn't know if I was

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Speaker 2: going to make it back home, which reminds me of

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Speaker 2: a perilous story that has absolutely nothing to do with

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Speaker 2: law enforcement.

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Speaker 3: But peril is peril. There ain't no.

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Speaker 2: Difference to the dead man it being dead at the

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Speaker 2: hands of some outlaw or a dangerous thunderstorm in the

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Speaker 2: middle of the Arkansas River. I spent countless hours with

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Speaker 2: my older brother Tam chasing animals, none so much as waterfowl.

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Speaker 2: To catch these beautiful creatures, one must implore the use

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Speaker 2: of many different types of equipment that usually includes waiters, firearms, boats, ATVs.

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Speaker 2: And to be successful, you must be in the places

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Speaker 2: ducks like to gold like rivers, lakes, reservoirs, et cetera.

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Speaker 2: All of these items and the places you use them

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Speaker 2: have one thing in common. They are all capable of

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Speaker 2: killing you if you use them the wrong way, or

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Speaker 2: if you don't respect them. I've come close to migrating

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Speaker 2: to that great duck blind in the sky on more

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Speaker 2: than one occasion. This is one particular one that comes

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Speaker 2: to mind. It was opening day in the late eighties.

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Speaker 2: Tim and I were sitting under the Pendleton Bridge, which

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Speaker 2: crosses the mighty Arkansas River, well before daylight, trying to

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Speaker 2: wait on a thunderstorm to go by. Our boat was

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Speaker 2: ready to launch, our gear, placed it in its appropriate spot,

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Speaker 2: decoy sacked up and loaded in the boat, and each

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Speaker 2: of us anxious to get to the morning's hunt and

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Speaker 2: get the duck season started. My black lab Anne was

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Speaker 2: also anticipating, and she just walking back and forth under

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Speaker 2: that bridge, looking at me like saying, you know, come on,

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Speaker 2: let's go. The Arkansas River has claimed many lives, and

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Speaker 2: Tim and I have been on it before. When storms

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Speaker 2: blew in and it's not safe to be navigating the

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Speaker 2: river when mother nature's letting.

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Speaker 3: Off a little steam.

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Speaker 2: We impatiently waited in about forty five minutes before sun

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Speaker 2: of the rain stopped. The clouds broke apart, and we

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Speaker 2: launched the boat for the fifteen minute ride up river

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Speaker 2: to our spot. We made our way to the place

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Speaker 2: that we picked out, relieved that the weather had improved,

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Speaker 2: and looked forward to a good hunt now. When we

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Speaker 2: got there, we quickly set up the decoys, finished preparing

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Speaker 2: for the hunt just as the sun started to brighten

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Speaker 2: the horizon. I can recall a few ducks flying that morning.

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Speaker 2: I think I think we only killed like a green

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Speaker 2: winged teal or two before they absolutely just stopped flying.

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Speaker 2: The storm that morning had moved in from the southwest,

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Speaker 2: dropped an enormous amount of rain, blew the rest of

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Speaker 2: the leaves off the trees, and left nearly as fast

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Speaker 2: as it had approached. Unbeknownst to us, the storm we

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Speaker 2: like to refer to now as Hurricane Muskrat was just

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Speaker 2: warm enough and getting ready to put on a big show.

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Speaker 2: The second storm came with twice the ferocity.

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Speaker 3: Of the first. It rolled right over the type of us.

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Speaker 2: We quickly loaded the boat with our gear, grabbed the dog,

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Speaker 2: and headed for the boat round. As we tried to

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Speaker 2: make our way down, the wind was blowing right in

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Speaker 2: our face and against the current building two and three

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Speaker 2: foot waves that washed over front of the boat, soaking

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Speaker 2: everything that was dry and filling our boat like a

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Speaker 2: water trough. I knew we'd never make it to the

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Speaker 2: boat ramp, so I turned the boat toward a small

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Speaker 2: sandbar and.

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Speaker 3: Headed there as fast as I could.

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Speaker 2: I ran the boat up on the sand and Tim

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Speaker 2: and Ann and I sprinted to a small depression that

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Speaker 2: held about three inches of water.

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Speaker 3: Muskrats had tunneled.

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Speaker 2: Into one end of the pothole, and the river had

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Speaker 2: broken through when the water level was higher and allowed

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Speaker 2: it to drain, exposing the pothole.

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Speaker 3: Like it was like a shallow soup boat.

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Speaker 2: We hunkered down near the down current end of the pothole,

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Speaker 2: and putting our backs to the bank, attempted to light

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Speaker 2: as flat as we could. The wind was blowing so

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Speaker 2: hard that it was raining sideways, and the lightning that

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Speaker 2: came with it was purple frequent, and Buddy, it was

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Speaker 2: way too close. Lightning was striking the sandbar, and we

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Speaker 2: could feel concussions of thunder, and that was the only

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Speaker 2: thing that drowned out the noise of the wind in

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Speaker 2: the rain.

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Speaker 3: I was scared.

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Speaker 2: Tim looked up the bank of the pothole and saw

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Speaker 2: a muskrat then that had partially washed out below the

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Speaker 2: rim and offered a little more protection from the storm.

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Speaker 2: The washout was about three feet wide, and the top

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Speaker 2: of the bank hung over the opening like a little cave. Now,

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Speaker 2: on a normal day, a small child wouldn't have had

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Speaker 2: enough room to sit in there and play. On this day, me,

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Speaker 2: Tim didn't have any problem getting in there and still

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Speaker 2: had room to include the dog. The storm got so

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Speaker 2: bad that I started worrying about the river washing the

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Speaker 2: boat away. Had that happened, we would have literally been

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Speaker 2: up the creek without a paddle or a boat from

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Speaker 2: which to paddle it. I told Tim that I was

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Speaker 2: going to check on the boat, which was like less

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Speaker 2: than one hundred yards from our shelter and across the sandbar,

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Speaker 2: but you couldn't see it because of how hard it

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Speaker 2: was raining. I took off of the boat and and

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Speaker 2: to off with me. The wind blew her sideways, and

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Speaker 2: then it blew her off her feet as she tried

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Speaker 2: to stay at my heel. So I went back to

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Speaker 2: the muskrat then and told her to stay with Tim.

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Speaker 2: I found the boat and it was completely swamped and

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Speaker 2: going nowhere. The weight of the water had welded it

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Speaker 2: to the sandbar. I ran fast as I could back

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Speaker 2: to Tim and Anne and staying as low as I

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Speaker 2: could while lightning was hitting all around me, and promising

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Speaker 2: to live my life in a better fashion if I

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Speaker 2: could just live the sea another day. Crawling back into

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Speaker 2: that foot and half's face made me realize that fear

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Speaker 2: and love of life are ample motivators when it comes

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Speaker 2: to accomplishing of gold. The water level in that pothole

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Speaker 2: was about three inches when we first crawled in. When

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Speaker 2: we got out of it, it it risen over two feet.

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Speaker 2: This storm only lasted about forty minutes, but as fast

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Speaker 2: as it started, dislike the other one, it ended. The

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Speaker 2: rain stopped, the wind died down, and the clouds began

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Speaker 2: to clear. We emptied our boat, made it back to

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Speaker 2: the ramp and headed to Star City, Arkansas. That was

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Speaker 2: the closest place we knew of that had a washingtaria.

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Speaker 2: You might call it a launder mat, but whatever you

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Speaker 2: call it, it was our only hope to get our

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Speaker 2: clothes dried so we could hunt that afternoon. I told Tim,

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Speaker 2: we just robe in the launder mat, put our waiters on,

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Speaker 2: and wait for our clothes to drive. Thirty minutes later,

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Speaker 2: we slid to a stop in front of the washing tia.

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Speaker 2: The windows were fogged over from the cold outside and

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Speaker 2: the warm inside. We were freezing, and when we walked in,

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Speaker 2: the heat from those dryers felt so good on my

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Speaker 2: skin that I came out of those waiters and commenced

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Speaker 2: to peeling off layer after layer of wet clothes, and

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Speaker 2: Tim was busy doing the same. We were two rows

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Speaker 2: of washing machines away from the front door.

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Speaker 3: We just walked in.

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Speaker 2: We got down to our union suits about the same time.

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Speaker 2: You know, the red ones with the flaps in the back.

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Speaker 2: These were the only garments dowd in between us and nudity.

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Speaker 2: But since no one else was there and no one

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Speaker 2: could see through the windows, we both just hunkered down

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Speaker 2: behind the row washing machines that was going to completely

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Speaker 2: hide us and everything you're not supposed to scratch in public,

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Speaker 2: and started unbuttoning our thumrels. It was at this time

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Speaker 2: that one of the three ladies, who were all sitting

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Speaker 2: in a row and unnoticed beside the door we just

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Speaker 2: walked in, said, boys, are you all going to charge

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Speaker 2: us anything for this? If I'd have had anywhere to go.

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Speaker 3: That would have been my cue to get gone.

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Speaker 2: Tim looked at me, bug eyed and squeaked out, no, ma'am, and.

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Speaker 3: They started laughing.

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Speaker 2: They turned their heads, held up some newspapers and continued

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Speaker 2: to laugh while we slipped back into our waiters and

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Speaker 2: crammed all our clothes and the biggest drier in there.

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Speaker 2: We had absolutely not seen them, and I rushed to

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Speaker 2: get in there to get warm and dry. And normally

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Speaker 2: you go home after a start like that, but we didn't.

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Speaker 2: It was opening day, and we beat the system first

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Speaker 2: of all by living, then getting dry, and only changing

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Speaker 2: our location, not our plans to go hunting. Of course,

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Speaker 2: if we'd had some extra clothes with us, I wouldn't

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Speaker 2: even be telling this story. Now, that's a couple examples

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Speaker 2: of who I am. You'll be learning more about me

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Speaker 2: and my life experiences as we go along. First and foremost,

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Speaker 2: I'm a husband, a father, and a grandfather, and those

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Speaker 2: are the best jobs I've ever been blessed to have.

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Speaker 2: I'm also an outdoor videographer writer that's been fortunate enough

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Speaker 2: to travel to some amazing places to capture on him

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Speaker 2: some incredible hunts, helping people and having fun. That's what

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Speaker 2: I like to do, and that's what I'm going to

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Speaker 2: continue to do. That's what this whole podcast is about.

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Speaker 2: And if we can't do both every week, I bet

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Speaker 2: we can do one or the other. My dad told

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Speaker 2: me when I was a little boy that there's no

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Speaker 2: place you'll ever be that you can't have fun, and

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Speaker 2: if the place you are ain't fun, then you make

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Speaker 2: it fun. I ain't never forgot that, and that's how

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Speaker 2: I try to live my life. So if you like

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Speaker 2: hearing stories and want to learn a country skill or

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00:21:13,960 --> 00:21:17,159
Speaker 2: two that could impress your friends, maybe raise your credit scored,

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Speaker 2: help you beat the system, I expect to see you

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Speaker 2: here next week. Bring a friend and an extra set

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Speaker 2: of clothes.

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Speaker 3: You might need them. This is Brent Reeves signing off.

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Speaker 3: Y'all be careful