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Speaker 1: Welcome to this country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves

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Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.

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Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share

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Speaker 1: my stories and the country skills that will help you

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Speaker 1: beat the system. This Country Life is proudly presented as

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Speaker 1: part of Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best

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Speaker 1: outdoor podcast the airways have to offer. All right, friends,

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Speaker 1: pull you up a chair or drop that tailgate. I

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Speaker 1: think I got a thing or two, and teach you

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Speaker 1: the stuff we towed around in our pockets every day.

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Speaker 1: Carrie is a term I'm only recently familiar with, but

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Speaker 1: one I've been practicing since my feet hit the ground

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Speaker 1: in the mid sixties. Now, that's only partially true because

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Speaker 1: some of that time, at least initially, I was what

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Speaker 1: was being toted around every day. But from my earliest

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Speaker 1: memories of having breeches with pockets, I've had my go

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Speaker 1: to items that I couldn't leave the crib without, especially

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Speaker 1: after I got out of the actual crib. Now why

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Speaker 1: is this important? Because a man needs to be prepared. Well,

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Speaker 1: that's partially true. The correct answer is we all need

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Speaker 1: to be prepared and carry things we need, so feel

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Speaker 1: free to interchange pocket with purse, backpack, satchel, briefcase, sock, brazier,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you decide to cash something that you might

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Speaker 1: need later. But what are these items? Are they there

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Speaker 1: out of necessity and utility or are they simply there

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Speaker 1: for nostalgia or maybe a little bit of both. I

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Speaker 1: can't speak for yours, but I'm going to tell you

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Speaker 1: all about mine. We're gonna talk about it in a minute,

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Speaker 1: because first I'm gonna tell you a story. Mister Bill

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Speaker 1: Chancellor was attracting mechanic more accurately be described as the

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Speaker 1: tractor mechanic. And I'm not saying he was the only

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Speaker 1: one around, because where I grew up, you couldn't swing

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Speaker 1: a dead cat around more than once without hitting the

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Speaker 1: tractor man. Regardless of where you were standing. There was

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Speaker 1: lots of folks that were tractor mechanics. What I am

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Speaker 1: saying is, if a tractor mechanic needed a tractor mechanic,

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Speaker 1: he called mister Bill. Now, I can't remember where my

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Speaker 1: dad got his tractor, but it wasn't in the best

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Speaker 1: of shape and he got a pretty good deal on

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Speaker 1: it because of that. It was a thirty five horsepower

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Speaker 1: massive Ferguson, and the red paint had long faded to

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Speaker 1: a rust brown, and the gray color of the engine

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Speaker 1: and the chassis that was all gone. There was a

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Speaker 1: little paddent left in the seat, and the only thing

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Speaker 1: left that identified it as a massive Ferguson was a

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Speaker 1: sliver of one of the decals that was on the hood.

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Speaker 1: But the plan was to help mister Bill rebuild it

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Speaker 1: from the floor to the ceiling, and mister Bill shop

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Speaker 1: so whenever Dad got away from work that summer, we

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Speaker 1: worked on that tractor under the guidance of mister Bill.

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Speaker 1: I was probably eleven or twelve and trying to make

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Speaker 1: a track in every track my Daddy made at that time.

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Speaker 1: And on this particular day, we were nearing the completion

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Speaker 1: of the tractor restoration. And let me tell you, that

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Speaker 1: joker look good. The engine had been completely overhauled. The

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Speaker 1: paint was original massy Ferguson red and gray paint. Mister

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Speaker 1: Bill had replaced the decals with originals he'd gotten from

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Speaker 1: the Massive Ferguson headquarters. I remember exactly where I was standing,

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Speaker 1: watching mister Bill as he adjusted something under the hood,

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Speaker 1: and he asked my dad above the racket of the tractor.

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Speaker 1: He said, Buddy, I can't reach my knife, let me

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Speaker 1: borrow yours. Well. I started looking around for mister Bill's

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Speaker 1: knife because I knew my dad was not about to

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Speaker 1: hand him his. When I see my Dad reach in

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Speaker 1: his pocket and hand it to him, I couldn't believe

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Speaker 1: what I was seeing. I wasn't allowed to touch it,

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Speaker 1: and here mister Bill was scraping and gauging on metal

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Speaker 1: with all his might. I was shocked. That was a

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Speaker 1: killing the fence. But my dad just looked on like

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Speaker 1: nothing was happening, Like the previous eleven years of proper

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Speaker 1: knife care instruction that he drilled into my head had

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Speaker 1: never happened. That's a knife, not a screwdriver. That's a knife,

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Speaker 1: not a hammer. And yet right before my eyes, I

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Speaker 1: was watching mister Bill slap annihilate the edge off my

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Speaker 1: father's case knife, which was the knife everyone who knew

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Speaker 1: reeves was correctly spelled r EA and not re carried

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Speaker 1: in their pocket. There were no exceptions. Dad got that

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Speaker 1: pocket knife back and eventually we loaded up and we

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Speaker 1: headed home. Now we ain't got out of the driveway

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Speaker 1: when I said, Dad, I saw you had mister Bill

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Speaker 1: your pocket knife. He kind of laughed, and he said, son,

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Speaker 1: you saw me hand him a pocket knife. He handed

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Speaker 1: it to me. It wasn't a case. I was a

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Speaker 1: little confused. I said, I thought we only told case knives.

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Speaker 1: He said, we do so, but we don't want them.

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Speaker 1: All right, every day carry eedc for short, the stuff

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Speaker 1: in your pocket or in my case, pockets, because I

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Speaker 1: got stuff in just about all of them. This is

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Speaker 1: learned behavior from someone in my formative years, like my dad,

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Speaker 1: my grandpa, my older brothers, folks I spent the most

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Speaker 1: time hanging out with, which was exactly how they came

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Speaker 1: about carrying the items in their pockets. Every male member

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Speaker 1: of the Rhees family carries a case pocket knife. Now

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Speaker 1: you ladies, hold on to you hate mail. My sister

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Speaker 1: in law has a collection of them that would rival

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Speaker 1: most museums. I kid you not. My wife doesn't toe

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Speaker 1: one because she has me, but if she wanted to,

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Speaker 1: she would, and I would make sure she had a

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Speaker 1: good one. Now, I don't know what number of great

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Speaker 1: grandpas it was that started this tradition, but I could

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Speaker 1: testify that the Reeves family has been patrolled in Arkansas

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Speaker 1: and removing with a knife all the parts of animals

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Speaker 1: that don't taste good. Since before the Civil War and

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Speaker 1: way before the case brothers got together in eighteen eighty

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Speaker 1: nine and commenced to giving birth to what would become

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Speaker 1: a staple in the reeves. Boys every day carry the

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Speaker 1: case pocket knife. Around nineteen twenty, one of them jokers

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Speaker 1: designed the trapper model, and that's the one. That knife

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Speaker 1: has become a part of our identity. And you can

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Speaker 1: bet one thing for sure, if you see one of

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Speaker 1: us and need a knife, we got at least one.

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Speaker 1: We ain't gonna let you borrow it. Just show us

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Speaker 1: what you need, cut and get out of the way. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: Let's start with the right front pocket of these American

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Speaker 1: made roundhouse overalls. Inside you'll find a case pocket knife

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Speaker 1: and a tuba chapstick. Some might say, why would a

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Speaker 1: man told a pocket knife in twenty twenty three, Same

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Speaker 1: reason he told one in six hundred BC, when the

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Speaker 1: first folding knife was invented. Did I say six hundred BC?

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Speaker 1: I sure did, because that's when some cat in Austria

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Speaker 1: got tired of his wife hollering at him for poking

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Speaker 1: holes in his breeches every time he put his knife

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Speaker 1: back in his pocket. Now, I'm sure she had plenty

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Speaker 1: of soul and to do without fixing his clothes every

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Speaker 1: time he got finished skin in a mess of squirrel.

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Speaker 1: So he invented the folding pocket knife and marital bliss.

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Speaker 1: And for at least twenty six hundred years, a man

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Speaker 1: that was prepared and ready to be a man has

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Speaker 1: toaded a pocket knife. And just think six hundred and

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Speaker 1: one years after he invented it, say around one ad,

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Speaker 1: I bet he was the most popular dad in Austria

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Speaker 1: when the tales of him setting around the tree cutting

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Speaker 1: ribbons off of Christmas presents quicker than a hiccup way

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Speaker 1: to gold Man in Austria. You, sir, are a legend. Now.

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Speaker 1: If you're not prepared to answer the call when your

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Speaker 1: wife hollers for you cut something for I wonder about

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Speaker 1: your priorities and her judgment. At the beginning of our marriage,

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Speaker 1: Alexis would say, Brent, do you have your knife? And

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Speaker 1: my answer would usually reference a question about a bear's

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Speaker 1: wilderness bathroom habits. Now years later, as she celebrates daily

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Speaker 1: her lottery like husband, when it's a simple honey, cut

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Speaker 1: this for me and bam, the deed is done. I'm

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Speaker 1: always ready. A pocket knife can protect your family, skin

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Speaker 1: your supper, help you build a shelter, open the package,

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Speaker 1: perform surgery. The possible uses are endless when you need

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Speaker 1: one and have it, life is golden when you need

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Speaker 1: one and don't. There's not a more helpless feeling. This

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Speaker 1: is normally where I chunk in a story about how

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Speaker 1: I got in a bind one time and needed a

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Speaker 1: knife and didn't have one. I can't do that, you

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Speaker 1: know why, because I ain't never been with that one,

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Speaker 1: except when we go to airports, concerts and different places

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Speaker 1: now where you can't. I can't tell you how many

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Speaker 1: times I'll pat my pocket for the knife that ain't there,

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Speaker 1: and the short lived panic that startles me till I

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Speaker 1: realized I didn't bring it with me on purpose, Which

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Speaker 1: reminds me of a time when me and Clay Nukem

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Speaker 1: were catching a flight out of Northwest Arkansas. We were

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Speaker 1: headed for British Columbia on a bear hunt, and it's

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Speaker 1: not a big airport, but the security folks there are

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Speaker 1: just as observant and dedicated to doing their job and

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Speaker 1: making things safe for all of us. Fortunately, we were

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Speaker 1: in Arkansas and not some big city airport. When the

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Speaker 1: X ray man found the skinning knife and clay Bow's

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Speaker 1: carry on, Apparently our clothes and our gear leaned more

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Speaker 1: toward a couple of hunters than a couple of fellows

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Speaker 1: with nefarious intentions. We called Misty and she came and

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Speaker 1: picked up the knife. The TSA guy was cool about it. Besides,

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Speaker 1: we had several others legally packed and secured in our luggage.

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Speaker 1: We wound up not needing the skin a knife anyway,

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Speaker 1: But that's a different story. All right. Pocket knife covered

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Speaker 1: that one pretty well, at least till we get to

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Speaker 1: the other pocket. But until we do, what else is

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Speaker 1: in the old right front pocket? Chapstick? Now here's a

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Speaker 1: disclaimer down here. We call lip bomb chapstick, regardless of

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Speaker 1: the brand, but we never call it lip bomb. Hey,

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Speaker 1: I don't make the rules. I just live bomb. That's

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Speaker 1: the end of the disclaimer. Chapstick. Not much you can

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Speaker 1: say about that. Sure you can. You can dive it

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Speaker 1: on a cut to help stop bleeding. You can use

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Speaker 1: it to moisturize dry skin. Heck, you can even use

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Speaker 1: it to help with building a fire and keep you

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Speaker 1: from having chapped lips. My dad told me a joke

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Speaker 1: when I was a kid about an old cowboy that

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Speaker 1: rode into town from out on the range. Instead of

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Speaker 1: rushing into the sloan to get him a cold drink,

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Speaker 1: he hitched his horse up and pulled a brush out

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Speaker 1: of his saddle and started brushing itself off. The mayor

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Speaker 1: of the town was watching him as the cowboy cleaned

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Speaker 1: up as best he could, straightened his clothes, washed his

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Speaker 1: hands in the trough, and tucked his shirt in. The

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Speaker 1: mayor was impressed and started walking toward him and welcomed

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Speaker 1: him to the town. When the cowboy walked around to

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Speaker 1: the back of the horse, poked his finger and the

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Speaker 1: horses behind, and rubbed it on his lips. The mayor

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Speaker 1: was shocked, but he welcomed him anyway, and he said,

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Speaker 1: I appreciate you cleaning up when you got here. We

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Speaker 1: got a lovely little town and we want to keep

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Speaker 1: it that way. But man, I only got one question.

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Speaker 1: Why did you poke your horses behind and rub it

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Speaker 1: on your lips. The old cowboy looked at him and said,

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Speaker 1: my lips are chapped. And the mayor said, oh, is

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Speaker 1: that cure? And the cowboy said no, but it keeps

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Speaker 1: me from licking them and making it worse. Told some

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Speaker 1: chapstick with you. It's smaller than a horse, cheaper to feed,

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Speaker 1: and there's no bad aftertaste. The right front pocket is done,

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Speaker 1: So what's an old lefty? The loner pocket nowe life,

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Speaker 1: a buckeye and a sack at your wheel one dollar coin.

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Speaker 1: The loner knife is for your friend that doesn't carry one,

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Speaker 1: but finds himself in the need of one on occasion,

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Speaker 1: which is the very reason you tote one to begin with.

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Speaker 1: And if he doesn't tote one, he ain't got enough

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Speaker 1: sense not to use your good one in a manner

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Speaker 1: that it wasn't designed. All these things I'm about to

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Speaker 1: say now go slap out the window, and in its emergency,

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Speaker 1: when it's life and death, nothing else matters. However, when

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Speaker 1: it ain't and you need a wire cut, a screw tightened,

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Speaker 1: or a prie bar, don't look at me and ask

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Speaker 1: to borrow my pocket knife. It's something to be respected,

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Speaker 1: taken care of, maintained, and sharpened regularly, because a dull

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Speaker 1: one is of no service to anyone. Now, I'm not

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Speaker 1: going to tell you what the brand of my loaner

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Speaker 1: pocket knife is because it don't matter. It ain't a case.

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Speaker 1: It's a well made pocket knife, I assure you. But

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Speaker 1: I'm talking about what's in my pockets and what I

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Speaker 1: like the best. You may hate case pocking knives and

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Speaker 1: like something totally different. I don't care. That's fine with me.

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Speaker 1: But you ought to be in jail if you do.

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Speaker 1: Just kidding, not really. What about that sack of jewee

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Speaker 1: a one dollar coin, Well, I can tell you it

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Speaker 1: was minted in two thousand. Monetarily it's worth whatever a

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Speaker 1: DOLLARBI value. But my wife gave it to me. And

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Speaker 1: if you don't know whose sack of jewel is, do

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Speaker 1: yourself a favor and look her up. Or better yet,

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Speaker 1: read Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose. That book is thicker

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Speaker 1: than a cathead biscuit, but worth the effort and just

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Speaker 1: dis ease to digest. She was an invaluable guide and

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Speaker 1: interpreter that helped Louis and Clark find their way across

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Speaker 1: the wilderness and back when our country was young and

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Speaker 1: we didn't know our behinds from fifteen cents about anything

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Speaker 1: west to Saint Louis. The coin serves as a symbol

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Speaker 1: from my wife to me that when i'm out on

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Speaker 1: a hunt or a long journey, I can always find

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Speaker 1: my way home. She's my sackage will. She's a whole

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Speaker 1: lot more, but she's not much on skin and stuff though,

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Speaker 1: and I have a feeling of sacage weel was. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: That's why I told it the buckeye. If you've listened

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Speaker 1: to any of the Bear Grease Render podcast you may

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Speaker 1: have heard me mention it. I'll tell you about this

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Speaker 1: particular one in a minute. First, I want to talk

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Speaker 1: about why you'd have one. To begin with. Esculus pavia,

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Speaker 1: commonly referred to as the red buckeye, that is the

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Speaker 1: most prominent variety of the two known grown to Arkansas.

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Speaker 1: It produces a nut, which is actually the seed, and

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Speaker 1: it grows in a pod that matures in late summer. Now,

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Speaker 1: folks have been toting them in their pockets for luck

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Speaker 1: for generations. There's an old said that when you'll never

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Speaker 1: find a dead man with a buck eye in his pocket. Now.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if that's because you don't find a

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Speaker 1: lot of dead men laying around, or because it wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be too cool to peel for through their clothes if

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Speaker 1: you did. My family, close friends and I would give

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Speaker 1: them to each other as tokens of good luck for hunting.

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Speaker 1: I'm whare and our family's passed. It was dictated that

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Speaker 1: one hunter had to give it to another for it

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Speaker 1: to work. You couldn't just find one and put it

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Speaker 1: in your pocket and reap the benefits. That ain't how

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Speaker 1: that works now. I'm not superstitious at all. I just

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Speaker 1: firmly believe that if I was to lose the one

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Speaker 1: I got in my pocket, that I wouldn't never have

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Speaker 1: another successful hunt. The one I have I've been caring

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Speaker 1: for close to ten years, and it means a lot

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Speaker 1: to me. First time I met Old Clay Bow, he'd

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Speaker 1: asked me to come film a bear hunt for him

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Speaker 1: in the Washtaw Mountains in Arkansas. He and the majority

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Speaker 1: of his youngest took me around where he grew up hunting,

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Speaker 1: and we wound up on a mountain in the area

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Speaker 1: and I saw a buckeye bush. I told him the

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Speaker 1: story of how my family traded him back and forth

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Speaker 1: and handed him one, and in return, he gave one

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Speaker 1: to me. I'm still toting it to this day, and

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Speaker 1: I have every day since that hunt nearly ten years ago.

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Speaker 1: Clay's always amazed when he asked about it, and I

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Speaker 1: take it out of my pocket and show it to me.

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Speaker 1: He told me he lost the one I gave him

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Speaker 1: before we got off the mountain that day. He didn't

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Speaker 1: kill a bear that year either. Aincidence well, never know

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Speaker 1: for sure, but no, absolutely not a coincident. In the

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Speaker 1: bill of my overalls on the right side, I carried

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Speaker 1: my billfold, all my folded money. Inside that bill fold

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Speaker 1: is a five centennial quarter, a quarter minuted in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy six. My dad had jars full of them, so,

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Speaker 1: along with everything else that's part of my uniform, I

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Speaker 1: told one of those in remembrance of him. Until I

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Speaker 1: started thinking about all my everyday carry items to tell

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Speaker 1: you all about. I've never really seen how much connection

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Speaker 1: there was to the members of my family who passed away,

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Speaker 1: but now I do, and talking about each one of

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Speaker 1: them makes me smile. I've always fancied a good pocket watch,

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Speaker 1: and on one Father's Day, my wife and little girl

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Speaker 1: Bailey gave me one. It came all the way from London, England,

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Speaker 1: and it keeps time like a man possessed. It has

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Speaker 1: a decorative silver coon attached to a short chain on

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Speaker 1: the other end that hangs on the outside of the

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Speaker 1: bill by overalls. Now for all those that have a

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Speaker 1: pair of overalls, real overalls, and you never quite figured

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Speaker 1: out what that slit was above the bill of the

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Speaker 1: pockets and the small hidden pockets sewn into the scene

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Speaker 1: on the bib. If you didn't know what that was for,

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Speaker 1: stand by for news. It's for your pocket watch chain

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Speaker 1: and your pocket watch. The watch is obviously for telling time,

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Speaker 1: but the fob tells everyone a little bit about you.

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Speaker 1: It makes a statement without making one. I like to

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Speaker 1: think that when folks see mind It, they see a

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Speaker 1: country boy that's proud of where he came from, proud

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Speaker 1: of the folks he raised him, and even more proud

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Speaker 1: to share these stories. Thank you so much for listening.

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Speaker 1: If you like it, share it with your friends. Maybe

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Speaker 1: they'll like it too. And hey, beat the system, fucking knights.

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Speaker 1: Keep the good one for yourself along the other ones

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Speaker 1: to your friends. This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all

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Speaker 1: be careful