WEBVTT - Ep. 488: This Country Life - Coon Claw Jake and Philip Worm 0:00:04.800 --> 0:00:08.440 Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves 0:00:08.880 --> 0:00:12.280 from coon hunting to trotlining and just general country living. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:14.120 I want you to stay a while as I share 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.760 my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented 0:00:18.800 --> 0:00:23.040 by Case Knives from the store More Studio on Meat 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:26.960 Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that 0:00:27.160 --> 0:00:31.040 airways have to offer. All right, friends, grab a chair 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.360 or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:44.640 Coon Claude Jake and Philip Worm. We're living off the 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:49.320 land this week, two similarly themed stories that highlight the 0:00:49.440 --> 0:00:52.320 willingness to make a go of it in the wild, 0:00:52.400 --> 0:00:54.840 one of them for a few days, in the other 0:00:55.520 --> 0:00:59.480 for a lifetime. I think you'll like them both. Join 0:00:59.560 --> 0:01:10.360 me at the fire. Let's get started. This story comes 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.440 from This Country Life listener Jacob Clark. Jacob's a fellow 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:17.520 Arkansas native and making tracks with his family up around 0:01:17.720 --> 0:01:22.160 ash Flat, the sole county seat of government in Sharp 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.959 County since nineteen sixty seven, with a portion of it 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.120 poking over into Fulton County. It is one of eighteen 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.760 cities to reside in more than one county. I learned 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:39.120 that today anyway, Jacob shared the following, and here it is. 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:44.880 I grew up with a deep love and respect for 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:50.040 the outdoors, particularly those arcs. My forefathers hunted and trapped 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:53.280 to feed their families. Lucky for me, my father could 0:01:53.320 --> 0:01:56.120 afford a few extra groceries to go with our deer meet. 0:01:56.200 --> 0:01:58.960 Over the years, we still needed to meet and often 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:03.440 hunted justice up on protein in the freezer. But I 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:06.360 was blessed to grow up with a different perspective than 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.320 my grandfather's, which was surviving. I was just able to 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.320 enjoy the many aspects of hunting and enjoy it all 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:18.400 with my father, my grandpa, and my uncles. Many years ago, 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:20.880 some friends from up north came down to hunt with 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:24.639 my dad and I. I was twelve. One of them, 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:29.160 Eper was his nickname. He was a bona fide north 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:32.919 Woods trapper. He took me under his wing and told 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.880 the wildest trap line stories. I had used dog proof 0:02:36.960 --> 0:02:40.200 traps before on the farm, but never anything like what 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.920 youper talked about. In that fall, I dug out some 0:02:44.320 --> 0:02:46.800 old night of Victor, wanting to half cold springs that 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:51.639 belonged to my great grandfather, and I started trapping. Fast 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.960 forward about two years and I was running my own 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:58.840 trap life. Being homeschooled allowed me some flexibility with my schedule. 0:02:59.520 --> 0:03:01.799 I was getting up at daylight, walking a mile to 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.200 the Strawberry River and running a dozen or so set 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:09.160 targeting red fox. We also had a four hundred acre 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:12.840 farm in southern Missouri that my grandpa built a cabin on. 0:03:13.680 --> 0:03:16.600 I wanted to go trap on that farm so bat 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:21.440 and finally he let me do it. The plan was 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:24.000 fool proof. My dad would drop me off after church 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.240 on Sunday morning and come get me before church Wednesday afternoon. 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.840 I had three cold mornings to catch as many coons 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.400 and cowoats as possible, and we lived about two hours 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:39.160 from the farm. I didn't have a driver's license, just 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:42.000 my uncle's old side beside he left there for deer hunt. 0:03:42.920 --> 0:03:45.280 Dad made it clear that I was to keep that 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:49.960 thing on the farm. I have no idea who preached 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.160 that Sunday or what they preached about. I was mentally 0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:57.240 already in the woods. After church, I went and I 0:03:57.240 --> 0:03:59.440 got a loaf of bread, a gallon of milk, and 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.880 a dozen eggs and some bacon to get me by. 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.320 Plus you had a little deer meat to fry. If 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.640 I wanted to fancy dinner. This was going to be 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:13.280 awesome easy just three days or so, I thought. That 0:04:13.400 --> 0:04:15.840 Sunday evening I set a few traps, even though I 0:04:15.880 --> 0:04:17.960 didn't have a lot of time before dark, and I 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.240 used the flashlights. At the last one, I had my 0:04:21.279 --> 0:04:23.960 twenty two and my favorite skinning knife. And let me 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:27.160 tell you, at the Boogeyman so much as sneezed, I 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.800 was sending everything I had in whatever direction he was. 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.400 And once the last one was set, I was skidaddling 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:38.320 back to the cabin as fast as my legs would go. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.400 I made eggs and toasting, put on one of my 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:48.080 favorite John Wayne movies. I was in high cotton. Once 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:50.599 it came time to go to bed, though, the cabin 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:55.720 started making making some strange noises that the Boogerman and 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:59.040 make it back with me. I wasn't sure, but my 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.320 twenty two slip in bed right next to me, just 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.080 in case. Monday morning, I stepped out and took in 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:09.640 a long breath of fresh Ozark air. That was That 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.520 was it, man, I was. I was pretty much an 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:18.160 ozark version of bear Claw Chris Lap from Jeremiah Johnson. 0:05:19.040 --> 0:05:21.440 I only caught two coons that day, but I was 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.120 able to set the rest of my traps. I got 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.359 done before lunch, and I went out to cut some 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.440 hickory sticks. That afternoon. A five foot hickory stick sold 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:34.039 for sixty cents at our local cane factory, and I 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.440 had to save up for a truck, and it was 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:40.040 a good way to pass the time until dark and 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:44.000 make a little money while I was doing it. That night, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.680 it was another simple meal with John Wayne movie in 0:05:46.800 --> 0:05:51.680 lights out. I slept a little better, just a little. 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:57.920 On Tuesday morning, the trap line yielded nothing. I was discouraged, 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:01.120 but I persevered. Nonetheless, changed up a couple of my 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:04.039 dirt hole sets and I cut some more sticks, and 0:06:04.120 --> 0:06:07.359 that afternoon I called my dad to give him an update. 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.080 He encouraged me to continue on and reminded me of 0:06:11.120 --> 0:06:13.800 how blessed I was to be able to get out 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.120 there and do it. So many grown men would have 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.640 given so much to be doing what I was doing. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:24.880 It's all about perspective now. Dad informed me that my 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.120 mother and both of my sisters had come down with 0:06:28.240 --> 0:06:31.920 some kind of bug and were pretty sick. I prayed 0:06:31.960 --> 0:06:34.159 for him, and I went on about the day looking 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:39.120 forward to Mom's cooking the next night. But that night 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.160 it was just another simple meal, another John Wayne movie, 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:46.040 another day done. The Burgerman never even crossed my mind, 0:06:47.000 --> 0:06:52.080 at least no more than once. Wednesday was my last 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:55.040 day out in the wild, my last day fending for myself. 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.520 I checked the trapline. I caught three more coons and 0:06:58.520 --> 0:07:01.440 that was it. I got to the end and loafed 0:07:01.480 --> 0:07:04.200 around a while, waiting for the daily call from Dad. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.640 He called and said, son, the girls are pretty sick. 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:12.760 I don't feel comfortable leaving them. I'll have to try 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.800 and get up there tomorrow if that's all right. Well, 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.600 of course I was coon clawed J Clark after all. 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:24.000 Thankfully I didn't pull any of my traps. I reset 0:07:24.080 --> 0:07:26.400 the ones that had coons in them, and I went 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.760 back to the cabin. I had a few pieces of bread, 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:31.480 a couple of eggs, and a glass or two of 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:34.600 milk that was left. And after that there was a 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:38.280 couple of packages of peanut butter crackers and maybe some 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:42.080 cans of viny sausages in the cabin pantry. I killed 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:44.120 a couple of squirrels and I had them for supper. 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:47.720 That night. I went to bed, and I slept pretty good, 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.200 confident that I would be in my own bed the 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:55.760 following night, Thursday, I got up and I felt well 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.920 rested down some cold water, and I stepped outside to 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.960 relieve myself, and I walked around the corner of the cabin, 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:05.840 half awake, and ran right smack dab into the Boogerman. 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:09.480 The neighbor's old dog had wandered over a mile to 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.080 the cabin and thought he was as lone as I 0:08:12.160 --> 0:08:15.720 thought I was. We both jumped about a foot high, 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:18.560 let out a high pitched yet, and we both went 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:22.000 our separate ways. I no longer had to pay, and 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:26.920 I would guess that he probably didn't either. I think 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:29.520 I'm ready for Dad to come get me. And he 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:32.680 called and said the girls were still sick and there 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:36.400 wasn't much hope of being picked up today. I reassured 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.440 him that I was good on groceries and I left 0:08:39.640 --> 0:08:43.319 to go check my sets. I planned to kill another 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:46.319 couple of squirrels and stretch when I could out until tomorrow. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:50.000 And on the very last trap, I couldn't believe my eyes. 0:08:50.679 --> 0:08:54.880 I called an old bobcat, my first one ever in man. 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.480 Was I excited His pelt was worth eighty dollars to 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:02.199 my local buyer. I couldn't wait to tell everyone about it. 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:06.240 Made my way back to the cabin in time for lunch, 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.680 only I didn't have much to choose from, and I 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.800 was about to get flat out hungry. I went to 0:09:13.880 --> 0:09:16.840 skinning that bobcat, and right about the time I was done, 0:09:17.000 --> 0:09:21.040 I realized he had some decent sized backstraps, and they 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:25.520 looked like normal meat. To me, I had some flyer 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.720 and grease left from frying deer. Now he yanked those 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:33.040 backstraps off that bobcat and I hid it inside. Mama 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.000 taught me how to cook a lot of things, and 0:09:35.080 --> 0:09:38.040 I treated this meat like everything else, A little bit 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.240 of seasoning, a little bit of flyer. Friday on a 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:43.840 cast iron skille it now. I took a seat at 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.960 the table and dug in, and it was amazing. Who 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:50.640 would have thought. All I know is I had a 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:53.080 full belly the rest of the day and went to bed, 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:55.839 confident that I could do this for as long as 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.320 I needed to. I just didn't want to do it 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:04.280 much longer. The next day was Friday, and my belly 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.920 was on empty. When I got up, I gathered myself. 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:09.640 I ate an egg, and I peeked outside to make 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:13.880 sure no hounds were scavenging around, and I hit the woods. 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:17.920 Nothing was lighthearted that morning. I was dead serious about 0:10:18.000 --> 0:10:21.600 everything and starting to feel lonely. I'd been gone long 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:23.800 enough that I wasn't sure Mom and the girls would 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:28.160 recognize the grizzly looking woodsman they replaced their son and brother. 0:10:29.880 --> 0:10:33.079 Mama had said farewell to her baby boy last Sunday. 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:36.680 I was a different man. Now. I might as well 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.720 sell all my possessions and head west for the rocky Mountains. 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:44.120 I was no longer a fourteen year old boy. I 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:49.360 was a fourteen year old mountain man. Dad called and 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:51.800 he said the girls were better and he would update 0:10:51.880 --> 0:10:58.000 me after lunch. Hallelujah. That was the best news I 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:01.319 could have heard at that point. This mountain man was 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:04.600 ready for Mama's cooking. And I checked the trapline and 0:11:04.640 --> 0:11:07.400 I had another coon. And I couldn't believe it, but 0:11:07.520 --> 0:11:11.760 another bobcat. Only this time I wasn't thinking about the 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:15.439 eighty dollars in the bragging rights. I was already smelling 0:11:15.480 --> 0:11:20.720 those backstraps being fried up for supper. Dad called that afternoon. 0:11:20.760 --> 0:11:23.320 It wasn't too sure about leaving the girls yet, but 0:11:23.800 --> 0:11:28.680 was also worried about me. Me. I'm doing great now. 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:32.079 I got my supper a huge boosting morale, and I'm 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:36.240 doing just fine. Just to come tomorrow. That night, I 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:40.559 slept better than ever, so good. I left my twenty 0:11:40.559 --> 0:11:44.080 two in the other room. The next morning, I didn't 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:47.000 catch anything, and I pulled all my traps. I had 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.360 two bobcat pelts and a few coon pelts, and a 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:52.920 pile of hickory sticks and a couple pieces of fried 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:57.520 bobcat left over. Eventually, I heard his truck coming through 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:59.960 the woods, and when he pulled up, all I can 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:03.800 think to say was, Dad, You're the first human being 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:07.120 I've seen in a week. And he really got a 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.480 kick out of that, but I was serious when saying it. 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.560 I showed him the hides and offered him the leftover 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:16.760 fried cat. He wasn't a fan, but also more well 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.760 nursed than I was going into the trying it, and 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:22.200 I talked his ear off all the way home. I 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.000 was proud, and I could tell that he was proud 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:30.360 of me. I'm a firm believer that I created designed 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.839 the heart of a man to be wild and dangerous, 0:12:33.520 --> 0:12:37.680 and that week my heart changed. I found the wild 0:12:37.760 --> 0:12:40.520 in it, and I came out with some confidence that 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:44.920 I can be dangerous when I need to be. I 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.040 tell both of my little boys every day that they're strong, 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:53.280 they're wild, and they are dangerous. That week in the 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.480 southern Missouri ozarks and made a lifelong impact on me 0:12:57.559 --> 0:13:02.400 and would later influence how I lead my family someday. 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.640 I hope my boys have the same desire I did 0:13:05.720 --> 0:13:07.800 to be outdoors, and I hope I can give them 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.560 the same opportunity that my folks gave me, only I 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.720 won't leave them for too long. Or maybe I will. 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:20.760 We'll just have to see how my wife feels that week. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:26.960 And according to Jacob Clark, the ash flat flash, that's 0:13:27.200 --> 0:13:31.920 just how that happened. Well, Jacob, I appreciate you sending 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.240 that in and sharing it with the rest of us. 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:37.760 You learned at an early age that you can be 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.560 self sufficient when you want to be, But being put 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:42.640 in a position to do it when you have to be, 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:54.520 now that's a whole other level of satisfaction. Thanks buddy. 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.720 In nineteen fifty nine, Philip Henry Worm went to work 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.840 weld and bumpers on buses at the Ward Bodyworks Company 0:14:03.880 --> 0:14:07.880 in Conway, Arkansas. He was earning a dollar an hour 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.640 and was promised a ten cent raise after his first 0:14:11.679 --> 0:14:17.640 three months. It was an agreement between his supervisor and Philip. Philip, 0:14:17.679 --> 0:14:20.040 being a man of his word, expected his boss to 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:23.520 be the same. He was eighteen years old, and he 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:28.200 and his new wife pat because her Patsy, were determined 0:14:28.320 --> 0:14:32.360 to make it on their own. Philip was born in 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.000 nineteen forty one. His father was a truck driver serving 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:38.360 overseas in World War Two, as were all of his 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:41.960 uncles and relatives who were of age, all of whom 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:45.800 would come home to Conway after surviving the conflict that 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:50.320 ended in the fourth year of his life in nineteen 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:55.920 fifty nine. Fourteen years following that grand homecoming, Conway's population 0:14:56.040 --> 0:15:00.040 had added twenty nine hundred ar Kansas telling to a 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.920 a little over eighty six hundred folks, and Philip Warm 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:06.520 was three months into a job banking on a promise 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:11.360 of a supervisor's word, and the week leading up to 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.840 the promised ten centini raised, he reminded his supervisor of 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:18.760 the agreement they had made. When he collected his check 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.960 on Friday and that raise wasn't there. Philip went home 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:27.480 and he never looked back. I sat on the couch 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:29.920 with him a few weeks ago, miss Pat and his 0:15:30.000 --> 0:15:33.240 son Terry, and we talked about his life and what 0:15:33.400 --> 0:15:37.280 he did next. He said. I came home and I 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:40.120 told my wife I didn't get that raise, and she said, 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.200 you quit, didn't you? And I told her I did. 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:44.720 She asked me what I was going to do, and 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:47.320 I told her I didn't know, but I'd have it 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:52.080 figured out by Monday. Philip took two days to think 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:54.240 and map out his plan on how he was going 0:15:54.320 --> 0:15:58.840 to support his brand new family. During the time of 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.000 his youth, he became a depth at playing marbles and 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.360 hunting rabbits with a slingshot, two skills that helped to 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:10.080 keep his pockets full of ammo in Mama's kitchen full 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:13.600 of meat. Like most folks of the time in place, 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:17.640 they raised nearly everything they ate, depended very little on others, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:22.840 and worked for all that they had. He also called 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:26.080 rabbits with a trap known as a rabbit gum wants 0:16:26.080 --> 0:16:29.400 a rabbit gum? Well, I'm glad you asked. The name 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:32.920 comes from the traditional hollowed out blackgum log that the 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.560 traps were made from. They naturally holler out due to 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.520 a condition called heart rod, which is a fungus that 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:42.320 causes the center to rod away and it leaves a 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:47.440 wooden pipe of sorts. The outside is still solid, and 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:49.760 all that was needed to complete the trap was a 0:16:49.800 --> 0:16:52.640 back wall on one end and a triggered trap door 0:16:53.040 --> 0:16:56.480 on the other. The name stuck, and now, at least 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.360 here where I'm from, every trap of that type, even 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.400 the ones built out of lumber, are called rabbit gums. 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.400 But back to that weekend in nineteen fifty nine, sometime 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:13.560 between Friday night and Sunday night, Philip Worm made his decision. 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:17.720 On Monday morning, after breakfast, he left the house and 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:21.240 headed for the northeast corner of Oak and Chestnut Street 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:27.080 in Conway, where the store entrance tiles steel reads. Grummer 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:32.639 Hardware Company, a local concern, originally operated as John Grummer's 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:37.720 Hardware Store starting around nineteen oh five. Walter Massey took 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.280 over the stocking name in October of nineteen forty two, 0:17:42.160 --> 0:17:46.119 and on that day in nineteen fifty nine, the protagonist 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:49.639 of our story walked inside and purchased a spool of 0:17:49.760 --> 0:17:55.159 nylon line in a box of fish hooks. There was 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.919 a popular local saying that if you can't find it 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.840 at Mass's, they don't make it. They sold everything from 0:18:01.920 --> 0:18:05.280 farm tools, guns and ammo, to fishing gear and cannon 0:18:05.280 --> 0:18:09.600 supplies and hard to find engine parts. Philip Worm walked 0:18:09.640 --> 0:18:13.640 into that store unemployed but singular focused, with a desire 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:17.440 to depend on only himself to provide for his family. 0:18:18.520 --> 0:18:22.000 He walked out a commercial fisherman, with Lake Conway the 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:29.080 first place he planned to start working. Lake Conway was 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:32.960 formed when the down was placed across Palarm Creek, forming 0:18:33.000 --> 0:18:36.600 a sixty seven hundred acre reservoir in central Arkansas, just 0:18:36.720 --> 0:18:40.520 south of Conway, built in nineteen forty eight by the 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.719 Arkansas Game and Fish Commission as the largest lake constructed 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:47.840 by h State Wildlife Commission. It was there that Phillips 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.840 started fishing out of a wooden boat that he'd made 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:54.119 in high school, and while doing so, he met the 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:58.400 man who would become his partner for many years. Afterwards. 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.080 He learned to tie gillnets and hand wove them from 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.600 linen using a net needle and a sheet bend or 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:08.960 a weaver or not. Mister Philip made his linen gill 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.600 nets in the backyard of his home. There wasn't any 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:16.280 locally available nylon small enough to use back then, and 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:19.560 nets would be made from linen and cotton before the 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:24.320 introduction locally from monofilment small enough to use later in 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:28.560 the decade, US gill nets to catch and sell buffalo 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:31.080 on the wholesale markets for seven cents a pound or 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:35.600 retail at fifteen catfish were more than double that. So 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.680 it's an easy formula comparing commercial fishing to welding bumpers 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:44.000 as to which one was more lucrative. It's also an 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:49.439 easy summation as to which one was harder. Fishing was 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:52.840 every day and you didn't get rained out. You just 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:57.679 got rained on a simple formula for a young entrepreneur. 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.879 You can't sell fish if you hadn't caught him. So 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:06.679 that's what mister Philip did. He fished. He first started 0:20:06.680 --> 0:20:08.480 out in Lake Conway, and then he moved to the 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:13.240 Arkansas River, adding the Mississippi as his business expanded. He 0:20:13.320 --> 0:20:16.359 leased private lakes from landowners and netted buffalo by the 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:25.760 boat loads all through the cold winter months, net in 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.000 season open in January on the Mississippian on one occasion, 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:32.480 mister Phillip and his fishing partner were prepping one hundred 0:20:32.520 --> 0:20:35.879 fiddler nets to drop up and down the Big Muddy. 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:38.880 Once they were set, he said he would take them 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:42.000 two solid days from daylight to dark to run them. 0:20:43.160 --> 0:20:45.960 He built a portable fish box that could hold a 0:20:46.000 --> 0:20:48.880 ton of fish and traveled with a capper in an 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:54.400 ice machine. Garfish he sold right alongside buffalo and catfish. 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:58.199 I've eaten them myself and the good He had a 0:20:58.240 --> 0:21:01.040 good market for all three. But fishing is hard, and 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:04.440 not just because of the environment. A catfish in buffalo 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:08.200 fish's metabolism slows down in cold water, and so does 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.760 the catch. They become sluggish and they don't move as much, 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:14.400 and if they ain't swimming, they ain't getting in the net. 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:18.160 If they ain't getting in the net, the fisherman doesn't 0:21:18.160 --> 0:21:22.200 get paid. Fortunately, for the growing number of children being 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.320 added to the stringer at the wormhome, the height of 0:21:25.359 --> 0:21:30.399 the fur boom was just getting underway. Add trapper to 0:21:30.480 --> 0:21:33.919 mister Phillips's resume and you'll have two thirds of the 0:21:33.960 --> 0:21:36.639 skill sets that kept the lights on at his house 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:41.080 over the last sixty years or so. He trapped here 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:43.479 in Arkansas and out west for weeks at a time. 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.800 Traps were about a dollar each when he started out, 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.040 and we walked outside to a shed behind his house, 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:53.159 and traps by the dozen sat orderly in boxes and stacks, 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.880 ready to be prepped for the upcoming season, although they 0:21:56.920 --> 0:22:02.240 appeared to have been sitting there for several seas. Three 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:07.159 hundred dollars bobcats, top priced coyot and coon hides from Kansas, Colorado, 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.240 and Wyoming were what he talked about with the most 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:14.760 excitement each year from October to December. He stayed in 0:22:14.840 --> 0:22:17.800 campers and cabins in those states and ran his trap 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.760 lines much like the fur trappers did. They were the 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:26.960 first Europeans to see those places many years before. The 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:29.800 pictures his daughter Tammy shared with me I'm referring to 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:34.360 now will be on my social media channels. They're really impressive. 0:22:34.800 --> 0:22:37.840 In a big tip of the hat as proof positive 0:22:38.440 --> 0:22:41.360 to someone who relied on his knowledge of the environment 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.840 and how the animals he was after interacted in it. 0:22:44.920 --> 0:22:48.359 He wasn't just posing with a pile of furs in 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:51.960 those shots. He and his family were sitting amongst the 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:56.560 car payment school clothes, Christmas presents, groceries, light bill and 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.280 every other item required to raise a family and live 0:23:00.320 --> 0:23:05.560 a comfortable life. Comfort or lack of it, was the 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:08.240 only thing that interrupted his trap lines. When the snow 0:23:08.240 --> 0:23:14.399 got too deep, mister Phillip went home. Now, if that 0:23:14.440 --> 0:23:19.000 ain't enough, get a load of this. At one time 0:23:19.040 --> 0:23:23.280 in Arkansas there were six turtle farm permits issued. That's right, 0:23:24.200 --> 0:23:30.280 turtle farm permits. Guess who had one of them, correct again, 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:36.399 mister Phillip. For decades, Arkansas allowed heavy commercial collection of 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.680 turtles alongside pond bread and raised ones. Between two thousand 0:23:40.680 --> 0:23:45.040 and four and twenty seventeen, one point three million turtles 0:23:45.080 --> 0:23:49.720 were harvested in Arkansas, leading to concerns of the sustainability 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:54.639 of taking such slow mature in wild reptiles. Commercial turtle 0:23:54.680 --> 0:23:57.159 ponds like mister Phillips filled the void in a market 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:01.359 that didn't take from the wild population. He raised them himself, 0:24:01.840 --> 0:24:05.399 as many as twenty five thousand a year from three 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:10.119 small ponds on his property annually. Ponds were inspected and 0:24:10.200 --> 0:24:13.480 kept the codes regulated by the States Game Commission, and 0:24:13.560 --> 0:24:17.760 for nearly twenty years, turtle farming counted as the third 0:24:18.160 --> 0:24:24.600 of three sometimes simultaneous careers. They provided for the worm femily. 0:24:25.920 --> 0:24:29.239 They sold turtles commercially, most of which went overseas and 0:24:29.359 --> 0:24:32.840 locally as well. Now what I'm about to play for 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:35.760 you now is a story told by mister Phillip about 0:24:35.800 --> 0:24:40.280 his longtime fishing and hunting partner, the late Bobby Alverson. 0:24:41.240 --> 0:24:44.920 This tale is introduced by mister Phillips's wife, Miss pat 0:24:45.920 --> 0:24:49.080 Here it is here's the story. 0:24:49.920 --> 0:24:54.720 Those are leaders thought and wanted the turtle bottle, twenty 0:24:54.760 --> 0:24:59.760 five thirty pound turtle. And Bobby went and got the turtle, 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:05.439 and he wasn't paying close enough attention, and the turtle 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:09.560 turned and bit bit the end of his finger roll 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:12.760 right about the top of the right about the joint. 0:25:13.160 --> 0:25:17.040 And he sacked the turtle up and collected the money, 0:25:17.040 --> 0:25:19.520 and then he went to the doctor and they sold 0:25:19.600 --> 0:25:22.359 the end of it up. And when I got down 0:25:22.400 --> 0:25:26.520 there Monday morning to go round nuts, he was telling 0:25:26.560 --> 0:25:30.800 me about it, and he brought out this jar that 0:25:31.000 --> 0:25:34.200 was filled up with I don't know what he had alcohol, 0:25:34.320 --> 0:25:37.359 I guess anyway, he had the end of that finger 0:25:37.440 --> 0:25:40.080