WEBVTT - Ep. 62: The Unusual Whitetail Streak of Ora Lee Provence 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:08.720 I love the fact that something like that is possible. 0:00:09.080 --> 0:00:12.200 If everything in deer hunting had to be by the books, 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:16.160 predictable due only to those who put in the work, 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.200 who who had this plan, or who did all the homework, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:21.319 whatever it was, if that was the only way that 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.160 you could have these storybook endings to be a little 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:28.480 bit boring. On this episode of the Burgrease podcast, we're 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:32.159 talking about two giant public land white tails killed by 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.000 the same man on the same year, all the while 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:41.120 exploring a universal and ancient idea. It's one that has 0:00:41.200 --> 0:00:46.640 not escaped any culture. It's homogeneous across time, oceans, and 0:00:46.760 --> 0:00:51.720 people's It's the idea of a streak of luck. All 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:54.840 can agree that beneficial things do happen that are far 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:59.320 beyond human control. But the catalyst or origin of disfavor 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.560 or where the ideologies to verge. I want to introduce 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:07.440 you posthumously to an incredible man by the name of 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.800 Aora Lee Province or as they called him, or who 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.039 I interviewed in twenty nineteen, just a month prior to 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.319 his passing at the age of ninety one, Mr Ory 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.200 killed two non typical deer in the fall of nineteen 0:01:21.280 --> 0:01:25.400 sixty five on public land and the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. 0:01:25.840 --> 0:01:30.520 This was as unlikely as being struck by lightning twice. 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:34.160 We'll hear from Mr Or himself and meet his son. 0:01:34.640 --> 0:01:38.959 Will also hear from Whitetail Wacko's Mark Kenyon and Tony 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.400 Peterson from Meat Eater's Wired to Hunt podcast, and we'll 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.560 talk with one of the best Ozark Mountain deer hunters 0:01:45.560 --> 0:01:49.680 that I know, most Shepherd about streaks of luck. I 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:52.680 doubt you're gonna want to miss this one. I think 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:55.440 that's like sort of the secret sauce to hunting is 0:01:55.920 --> 0:01:59.160 the possibility of that stuff just falling together and having 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.400 an amazing year. You're once in a lifetime encounter. I 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:12.200 don't I don't know. I think it's so cool. My 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.880 name is Clay Nukelem and this is the Bear Grease Podcast, 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:20.400 where we'll explore things forgotten but relevant, search for insight 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.200 and unlikely places, and where we'll tell the story of 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:28.919 Americans who lived their lives close to the land. Presented 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:34.000 by f HF Gear, American made purpose built hunting and 0:02:34.040 --> 0:02:37.520 fishing gear that's designed to be as rugged as the 0:02:37.520 --> 0:02:49.160 places we explore. Hey, Rusty just looking at that, dear, 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.240 And I know you guys don't like to do this, 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:54.240 but what do you think that, dear, Because we're about 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:55.800 to do the math to find out if you just 0:02:55.840 --> 0:03:01.720 walked up and saw that, dear. Um, Hotty, I'm gonna 0:03:01.720 --> 0:03:05.200 say he's gonna be really close to one seventy. I'm 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:08.840 saying up for one sixties. That's just a wild gift. 0:03:10.000 --> 0:03:13.640 I've recruited official score Rusty Johnson to go with me 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.320 to Winslow, Arkansas, to score the first of the two 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.680 bucks that Mr Or killed the nineteen sixty five. As 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:25.040 we're finishing up Or He's son, Eugene, who's now in 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:31.040 his seventies, walks up. Mr Eugene, how you doing, Cam? Yeah, 0:03:31.280 --> 0:03:33.840 good to see you. Russe Johnson? What was her name? 0:03:33.960 --> 0:03:40.280 Rusty Johnson too? Mr Eugene looks at the rack of 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:42.640 his father's twenty six point buck in the back of 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.320 the side by side where we've been measuring the rack. 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.920 We're almost finished. Eugene was just a kid, but he 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.960 was there when this buck was killed. Oh that was 0:03:54.000 --> 0:03:57.840 something else. Now you were You weren't standing beside him 0:03:57.840 --> 0:03:59.600 when he killed this deer, but you were with him 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.360 on the hunt. I was with him on that hunt. 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:04.720 What do you what do you remember about that day? Well? 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:06.320 What are you doing here? Now? Can I record you? 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:09.360 Is all right? I don't care what I remember on 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:11.280 that day. I remember it was a long, hard day. 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:14.080 Who getting him out? Yeah? You know, Well he had 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.320 tucked me and set me down, and and he's always 0:04:17.360 --> 0:04:19.479 one of those that just slip along, you know, and 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:22.560 do his hunting. And so he come back to man 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.159 and said, I've I've shot one. I need you go 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.680 help me track it. So he got me down and 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:29.839 put me on the blood trail. He said, you'd follow 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:31.520 this and I will try to go get in front 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.240 of it. So when I went out there a few 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:36.400 hundred feet or yards whether that lady, he had it 0:04:36.440 --> 0:04:42.279 all covered up. So he wanted you to find surprised 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:44.719 on it. Now you how old were you? I think 0:04:44.720 --> 0:04:48.000 I was fourteen, So you you would have hunted enough 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:52.320 to have known that was an incredible dear. Oh yeah, 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.840 this story gives us our first glimpse into Oriy Province. 0:04:57.240 --> 0:05:00.120 He was of good humor and wanted to involve his 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.640 son in the seemingly once in a lifetime track job. 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.560 The Horns of the buck are now yellowed and dusty. 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.720 They're mounted a top of white tail mannekin that scarcely 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.440 reflects the anatomical features of a real buck. The hair 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.799 is faded and ghostly. To someone who loves white tails, 0:05:18.880 --> 0:05:21.640 this is a beautiful sight. And I'll have you know 0:05:22.400 --> 0:05:25.320 this is the smaller of the two bucks killed that 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:30.119 season on public land by Mr or Man Watter unlikely place. 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:36.720 How many points does this saying heavy three, four, five, six, seven, 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.799 eight nine. I described this buck as a tight racked 0:05:42.000 --> 0:05:45.560 heavy horn for the region mainframe ten point with sixteen 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.640 kicker points on the right side, the brow time clusters 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.840 into what looks like a webbed beaver track. The second time, 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:57.520 the G two flares into a cluster of five non 0:05:57.600 --> 0:06:02.000 typical points, including a big fly arching towards the limestone 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:05.400 beneath our feet. Mark Kenyon would faint if he saw 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:09.120 this deer from a tree stand. I wanted to ask 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.320 Mr Eugene the question that I'm going to ask everyone 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.880 else on this episode, and his answer is what you 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:18.880 might expect from a son. What do you what do 0:06:18.960 --> 0:06:21.880 you make of a guy that we calculated up that 0:06:22.000 --> 0:06:26.080 he hunted probably eighty years I mean he so eighty 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:31.640 years and hunting and one year, in one week he 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.279 kills just two. Incredible dear, What are you making that? 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:40.000 What do mak of that? I mean, like incredible hunter? Yeah, 0:06:40.400 --> 0:06:42.800 I mean, you know, I guess they might be some. 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:44.839 I don't know if it would be in lucky in it, 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:47.160 but I mean when you come up with something like 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:51.240 that that close, you know, Uh, I've not done that yet. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:57.840 I want to make some definitions clear so that we're 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:01.479 all talking about the same thing. I would describe luck 0:07:01.720 --> 0:07:05.039 simply as for two of his circumstances that come about 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.479 seemingly by chance rather than the result of someone's actions. 0:07:10.040 --> 0:07:14.000 The second word, we're gonna use his streak, and by 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:17.680 that I mean when something happens more than once you're 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.400 on a streak. Will combine these two into the phrase 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:26.840 lucky streak when good stuff starts happening all in a row. 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:29.520 It's hard to argue with the fact that Mr. Ory 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:33.160 was a seasoned, decorated, and skilled hunter. There's no argument 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.080 at all. He had a unique style slip hunting the 0:07:36.200 --> 0:07:38.680 Rocky Bluffs where he lived, and he was born and 0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.840 bred in these mountains. He knew dear, and he killed 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:45.200 lots of big deer in his life, but none near 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:48.400 as big as these two killed on the same year 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.440 when he was thirty eight years old. It's clear that 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:55.640 it wasn't all luck or just undeserved favored. But I 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:58.920 think there is more to this story than skill alone. 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.760 He tapped into a streak of good luck. But we 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:07.800 still don't know how big the smaller deer is, which 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:14.880 this one is smaller twelve sixteen two, so that dear 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:24.760 grows scores hundred and seventy one. Good job on a 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:28.240 quick porch score job. In two thousand eleven, I scored 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.920 this twenty six point buck, almost ten inches under its 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.520 true growth score one seventy one. Old Rusty doesn't miss 0:08:35.640 --> 0:08:39.920 very much. However, the second and clearly bigger buck had 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.280 less judgment calls, and when I scored the buck in 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:46.760 two thousand and eleven, it had an incredible hundred and 0:08:46.800 --> 0:08:50.199 eighty six gross inches. And to put that into perspective, 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.200 I mean a hundred and seventy inches deer. The vast 0:08:53.280 --> 0:08:56.480 majority of deer hunters will never kill a buck that big, 0:08:56.720 --> 0:08:59.319 guys who have even dedicated their lives to deer hunting. 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:02.840 But a one eight six is even bigger, and it 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:06.480 carries two drop times and an almost shot through horn 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:09.280 where one of Mr Ri's stray bullets almost shattered the 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:12.840 main beam. This, my friends, in this part of the world, 0:09:13.280 --> 0:09:17.319 is like getting struck by lightning twice A one, one, 0:09:17.559 --> 0:09:22.120 and six. There are lots of ideas around luck, and 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.560 they can basically be broken into two broad categories. The 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:29.680 first would be the naturalistic interpretation of luck, which would 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.600 be positive and negative events can happen at any time, 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.400 both due to random natural processes, and even improbable events 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:42.440 can happen by random chance. The second idea would be 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:47.959 a supernatural interpretation of luck, basically forces outside of this 0:09:48.120 --> 0:09:52.640 natural realm govern at will the events of the earth. 0:09:53.520 --> 0:09:56.320 But I'd like to invite you to step out of 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.880 the western culture worldview that blindly dominates most of a 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:03.800 into a black and white railroad track ideology, saying that 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:06.840 you have to pick one or the other. Perhaps they 0:10:06.880 --> 0:10:11.000 could both be operating at the same time. We're trying 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:14.679 to answer the question of how much human success is 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:18.920 skill and hard work and how much is seemingly luck. 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:22.800 The answer to this has big implications for how you 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:26.119 live your life, and at the end of this podcast. 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:29.120 I'm gonna tell you about a vivid and specific dream 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:32.160 that I had about a white tail buck and how 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:38.400 it changed my life. So stick around. The next part 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.520 of this story creates in me a wide range of emotions. 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.440 We're going to go back to March of twenty nineteen 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:48.240 and meet Mr Ory and his wife Mary. That day 0:10:48.320 --> 0:10:51.920 he was spry, mentally sharp, in great spirits and good 0:10:51.920 --> 0:10:55.000 health for a ninety one year old man. But one 0:10:55.120 --> 0:11:00.640 month after our interview, Mr Ory passed away. Ending our 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.959 conversation that day, after he had told me he had 0:11:04.000 --> 0:11:07.400 lived in the mountains for ninety years. I jokingly said 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:11.800 he's got no plans to leave now. He interrupted me 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:16.760 and said, only up. Mr Ori was an honorable man. 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:21.720 Posthumous fist bump to Mr. Ri. Every generation has had 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.160 old timers like Ori. When Daniel Boone was alive, he 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.920 would have looked back at the real old timers and 0:11:27.960 --> 0:11:31.120 recognized the same thing that we recognized today when we 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.560 talked to really old people, that planet Earth and the 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.360 humans that are on it are in a constant state 0:11:37.480 --> 0:11:41.560 of unstoppable change. When you see human history, you see 0:11:41.559 --> 0:11:45.719 a trajectory that seems to be leading us someplace My 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.840 interest in history and old stories isn't to stop the 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.760 change or nostalgically revel in the past. But I want 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:55.880 to track the change and be prepared for the future. 0:11:56.200 --> 0:11:59.520 And God got at the ruthless pace of time, is 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.840 trying to leave behind some stuff that I'm not ready 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.959 to give up. Now, I want to take you deep 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.560 into the Ozarks to meet a human relic hanging on 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:15.640 the edge of his time on Earth. Mr. Or and 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:18.560 his wife live about as far back in the mountains 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:29.640 as you can live in this state. Here's Mr Or here. Hey, 0:12:32.440 --> 0:12:35.400 how are you doing? Oh? I'm doing far good to 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:38.520 see you, Yeah, to see you. Hello, miss Mary, how 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:42.880 are you? This is my youngest son, Shepherd. I don't 0:12:42.880 --> 0:12:45.719 think he's ever been over here before. I haven't seen 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.559 him before. Come around and have a seat here. How 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:51.960 are y'all doing? Excuse the four I was in the 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:53.920 middle of vacuumen, but I ain't. I got done, so 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:58.120 don't worry about the hat. Oh this is great. The 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:01.800 house was quaint and comfortable, with knick knacks and photos 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:05.880 of children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren on the walls. Through 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.120 the back window you can see a deep Ozark drawl 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:13.240 a non functioning school bus in an oak barn. The 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:17.840 mounted bucks from nineteen six hung in two different rooms, 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:21.160 one in a front bedroom and one in the back. 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:24.720 By permission, I went and got both bucks off the 0:13:24.760 --> 0:13:27.840 wall and leaned them against the couch for us to 0:13:27.960 --> 0:13:31.800 gander at while we talked. For me, hunting has always 0:13:31.840 --> 0:13:34.840 been synchronized with the rest of my life, and I 0:13:34.880 --> 0:13:37.920 think it helps to put these two bucks and Mr 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.439 Ory Streak into context by learning something about his life. 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:47.280 Here's Ms Mary talking about the new computer their kids 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:50.960 bought them, which is pretty high tech. We got this. 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.360 And because he loves be on Monroe, and so he 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.199 can pull up be on Monroe, Leicster Flat, Carter family 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:00.560 and then he hears all the different and Joe, he'll 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:02.960 stumble onto somebody here, come here, this, it's these These 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:05.920 are so good, you know. And I had a little 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.839 last night. They come on, someone, does the Carter family 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.680 come on? They made their first record nineteen point seven 0:14:13.280 --> 0:14:17.000 as Jar was born. Okay, and Monroe's they come on 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:22.240 in thirty six. Here tell you what my story was. 0:14:24.280 --> 0:14:27.240 They'd always had meat to there's leveling of us children, 0:14:27.640 --> 0:14:30.040 but everybody had a job that someone go up to 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.600 cal Some feed the holes, and some done this and that. 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.400 My job was getting at four o'clock the morning, beautiful, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:43.120 go feed the mute and hornishon. Yeah, having my job. 0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:45.840 And I wasn't very big at that time. Up from 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:47.880 the manger, you know, to get up part put that 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:50.960 collar on, buck around the bout it. Of course they're 0:14:51.040 --> 0:14:55.800 generalist dogs. Here's more from Mr Ory, starting us into 0:14:55.880 --> 0:15:00.280 his life story. Well, I was born you in the 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:06.080 tenth nineteen seven, and uh, I grew up. We moved 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:10.200 from the mountain down to across the holiday every where 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.320 I live, and uh twenty nine and uh, then we 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.280 went to school two weeks at win Free nowhere where 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:19.880 you were born right here, close somewhere. I was borned 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:24.080 upon the mountain here about a mile and a half more, 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.360 a massive You weren't born in a hospital, No, no, no, 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.880 they weren't one of us eleven children born in the hospital. 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.560 And so so you were born up here. And then 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.320 we moved down here in twenty nine. Then we moved 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:39.160 back to the mountain. I went to school down you're 0:15:39.240 --> 0:15:42.520 Winfree two weeks and we come went back to old 0:15:42.840 --> 0:15:46.440 home place that was my mother's dad's place. He homes 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.880 did it from the United States government, and I still 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:54.920 got the deed. The highland country of Arkansas was not 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:59.240 valuable or profitable land to homestead. The rocky ground wasn't 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.840 fertile heir to many regions of the country, and it 0:16:01.960 --> 0:16:04.880 was hard to tell. Most people that came here were 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:08.040 poor and just happy to have land, and some were 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:11.680 running from something like debt or even the law. But 0:16:11.880 --> 0:16:17.400 hard times produce hard people. In the eighteen thirties, when 0:16:17.520 --> 0:16:22.560 Davy Crockett yep The real David Crockett, passed through Arkansas, 0:16:22.640 --> 0:16:25.320 he said in a public speech he gave in Little 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:30.720 Rock quote, if I could rest anywhere, it would be Arkansas, 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:34.760 where the men are the real half horse, half alligator 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:38.240 breed such as grow nowhere else on the face of 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:42.800 the universal earth, but just around the backbone of North America. 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:48.560 End of quote. I suspect the provinces were of such type. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.160 So how many brothers and sisters did you have? I 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.160 had to five brothers and five sisters, so eleven kids 0:16:57.000 --> 0:17:00.920 and the older. But that's what it may toil. Three 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:05.720 younger and me and nineteen thirty six, how's nine years old? 0:17:06.000 --> 0:17:10.200 Nineteen thirty six? We got our first radio right, listen 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.080 to the old ridden Cardo family and Bond Monro and 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.600 Charlie Monro. There's together back then. Yeah, and uh that 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:19.160 was a big deal listening to those old radio programs. 0:17:19.160 --> 0:17:22.520 They was good. They was good. Yeah, I like to 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:26.320 listen out of yet. I asked Mr Ory what kind 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:29.679 of work as father did which created the backdrop of 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.600 his childhood. We worked in tam rahab might have worked 0:17:33.600 --> 0:17:36.320 in timber. We worked in Tamarin and farmed a little. 0:17:37.119 --> 0:17:40.520 We had separate dan cows. So he was he was 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:43.800 hauling logs off the mountain with these mules. Oh yeah, right, 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.439 skinning them and neverthing. So you grew up doing that. 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:49.520 That's what they've done all of my life. Just about it. Now, 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:52.960 when did you all start getting more modern? Uh? Log 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:56.120 and equipment? Like you were a logger most of your life? Well, 0:17:56.920 --> 0:18:01.080 how is up? And that sixty and the nineteen sixties 0:18:01.119 --> 0:18:05.840 you started using mechanized equipment for a calling. Laws really 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.239 trumps sometimes, you know. So you were using mules and 0:18:09.520 --> 0:18:16.080 horses and everything, horse mules. What kind of staws did 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.200 you use, like the two man cross cuts, house cross 0:18:19.240 --> 0:18:21.359 cut sauce? Do you have any of that? Old stuff 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.960 still laying around. Mr Ory is going to describe a 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.080 difficult and unstable period in his life in the nineteen 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.320 forties when he was just a teenager. Chrisis struck their 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.240 family by the early and unexpected death of his father 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:43.480 from a stroke, and a World war broke out. Well, 0:18:43.520 --> 0:18:47.560 my dad died in forty four and forty one. Why 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:52.680 the World War two broke out? And UH my brothers, 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:57.280 three of them waiting service, okay, and UH, I was old, 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.000 just wanted left at home. Okay. I took him my 0:19:01.160 --> 0:19:07.439 mother and UH my nephew, and UH two sisters and 0:19:07.480 --> 0:19:09.920 her brother. So you were just a few years too 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.720 young to be drafted into the war. I was when 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:18.680 my dead daughter sixteen, and UH when I become eighteen 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.720 the day I was eighteen, A day after I was eighteen. 0:19:22.400 --> 0:19:25.280 My birthday come on Sunday that year. On Monday, I 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:30.960 registered and I went down in past examination eight David July, 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:35.119 I got my calls for examination, went down passed, and 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:40.639 night Dave August got my call service, and UH ministers 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.640 out here, and I had a big tomato crop out 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:49.160 about ten acres tomaters, and UH and the family there 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.040 we had to have something to live on. But anyway, 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.600 why there's minister out there. He said, this boy they'd 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:59.560 take care of his mother and these children. And so 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:05.800 he wrote, Uh, I got deferred until till locked over 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:10.960 the fifteen another word, truther crop was over. And then uh, 0:20:11.160 --> 0:20:14.240 I've still got my one eight classification. But the war 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.280 was over that time, so you would have gone if 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:21.040 the war would have Yeah, the lords and I went 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.960 to school. Was um, there's in there they went in Germany. 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:27.879 It was clear that Mr Ory was proud of his 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.520 one A classification, which meant he was eligible for military 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.760 service and was ready to roll when the tomato crop 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:38.280 was put up. But by the regional frost date of October, 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:43.720 the Great World War was over. His brothers came home, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.080 and stability returned to his family. Here's Mr Ory talking 0:20:49.119 --> 0:20:52.240 about his work after the war ended. And he'll give 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:58.120 us some insight into the life philosophy of the province. Family. Man. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:01.040 My brother we ain't never did have to go to war. 0:21:02.040 --> 0:21:05.600 And so uh he went him, went and cut timmer 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.000 and locked it. I hold it up, I hold it 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:12.320 on a wagon. He skipped it out and I went 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:15.240 holt and dumped it off at the mail and that 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:19.240 was in the late forties anyway, Now, the Great Depression, 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:22.639 you were just a kid during the Great These hills 0:21:22.680 --> 0:21:25.840 weren't really I mean they were affected by the Great Depression, 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.840 but people were already poor. Yeah, I mean there wasn't 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:31.240 much you could do to somebody that was just living 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:34.520 off the land, basically when it comes to economic stress. 0:21:34.920 --> 0:21:38.080 I've right, Yeah, we lived off the land. Yeah, and 0:21:38.240 --> 0:21:42.480 nineteen thirty six that was dry here, you know, and 0:21:42.600 --> 0:21:46.200 uh we had a smiter crop and we haul water 0:21:46.280 --> 0:21:49.080 and set them out and they got up and just 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:52.880 the blooming and everything turned off dry. We never got 0:21:52.880 --> 0:21:57.359 a tomato, but we we worked in the timmer. You know, 0:21:57.480 --> 0:22:01.520 they paper back then they finally got where they brought 0:22:01.520 --> 0:22:04.480 out food stamps and tanks, but we never got in it. 0:22:04.880 --> 0:22:07.080 My dad just wouldn't have nothing to do with that, 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:11.720 just by principle. He didn't need anything. We we made it. 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:15.000 We made it without it. We worked and they made it. Yeah. 0:22:15.440 --> 0:22:17.840 What would have been a normal meal for your family 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:20.800 back then when you were a kid who had plenteteet 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:28.000 had plenteteeting, We can't raised hogs and vegetables, had a garden. 0:22:28.040 --> 0:22:31.320 I know, you still have a garden, don't you. Well, yeah, yeah, 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:34.720 we we made it fine. I had about dirty swarms 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:38.119 of bees back during the war. While you couldn't get sugar. 0:22:39.280 --> 0:22:43.320 Every food is all racing. You couldn't buy nothing. Everybody's 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:47.120 out of sugar, and I had bees, and we got 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:50.960 to feed the bees, you know, because it used the 0:22:51.119 --> 0:22:57.240 honey somewhere in other end guns. The World War interfered 0:22:57.280 --> 0:23:00.679 with the United States ability to import sugar, so honey 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:03.760 was used as a sugar substitute at home and sent 0:23:03.880 --> 0:23:07.960 to the troops abroad. But primarily, bees wax had over 0:23:08.040 --> 0:23:11.960 three hundred and fifty uses in wartime military operations. It 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:16.200 was used to coat airplanes, coat canvas tents, lubricate all 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:20.440 types of machinery, and was used on ammunition. The average 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:23.199 war machine, whether a plane or tank, was said to 0:23:23.240 --> 0:23:26.600 have ten pounds of bees wax on it. Bees Wax 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.159 didn't expand in heat or crack in the cold. The 0:23:30.240 --> 0:23:34.280 American Bee Journal in the nineteen forties had a slogan quote, 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:38.680 let the bees wax the way to victory. End of quote, 0:23:39.320 --> 0:23:43.919 Who do I sure didn't. Here's Mr. Or giving us 0:23:43.960 --> 0:23:48.480 some geographical data points of his life, and hey, don't 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:50.679 forget about the dream that I'm going to tell you 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:56.040 about at the end. How would you describe these mountains there? 0:23:56.359 --> 0:24:01.920 They're rough, yeah, yeah, but they're beautiful. I've never been 0:24:01.960 --> 0:24:08.359 nowhere else for westerns avanners, uh Shamrock, Texas, and uh 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.080 for South there's been a down around war in Arkansas 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:16.720 and for narths vendors Kansas City for Easter event which 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:21.600 you have little Rock by today's standards, that's a small 0:24:21.680 --> 0:24:25.600 home range. Remember this is all giving us a context 0:24:25.720 --> 0:24:29.879 for his incredible white tail streak of nineteen six. And man, 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:34.160 if sixty years from now they're making media about your 0:24:34.240 --> 0:24:37.320 white tail streak, you must be some kind of a 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:42.680 boss man. Uh, I'd rather like during the war, you know, Wow, 0:24:43.720 --> 0:24:48.040 they wasn't no money much cross ties and selling twenty 0:24:49.119 --> 0:24:53.800 and thirty and thirty five cents apiece and uh it 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:57.920 just couldn't make much in the tember, so uh at 0:24:58.160 --> 0:25:01.760 when the season open. While we'd go hunting, we didn't 0:25:01.800 --> 0:25:06.200 make more hunting catching possums and cones. We'd even skin 0:25:06.280 --> 0:25:10.040 of skunk, anything that we could get a dollar around, 0:25:10.040 --> 0:25:14.800 selling the hides, selling nights. Yeah so you had tree 0:25:14.800 --> 0:25:19.200 dogs oh yeah right, yeah yeah, So so you were 0:25:19.240 --> 0:25:22.440 making money selling hides back during that time, well, making 0:25:22.520 --> 0:25:25.160 more than you could make at the sawmill, right, So 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:27.880 you did that as a kid. Now, there weren't many 0:25:27.920 --> 0:25:29.800 deer though, back when you were a kid. No, dear 0:25:29.840 --> 0:25:33.360 at all, none at all, No, no, hardly every you never, 0:25:33.440 --> 0:25:37.160 I've never seen a deer to love us. Oh sixteen. 0:25:37.800 --> 0:25:40.399 They had a game refuge over here they had. We 0:25:40.480 --> 0:25:42.440 had to hunt around him, but he couldn't hunt there. 0:25:42.720 --> 0:25:45.280 They were trying to reintroduce deer. I try. So they 0:25:45.359 --> 0:25:47.880 brought in some deer. Oh yeah, yeah, they brought them 0:25:47.920 --> 0:25:50.400 in it and there's getting more the kind of scattered 0:25:50.440 --> 0:25:54.120