My UNCLE BOBBY

I have a lot of wonderful memories of my Uncle Bobby and Aunt Lucille's place down in Laurel Hill, Florida just south of Florala. When I got in about the fifth grade, I'd go down there and stay for a week during Christmas holidays so most of  my memories are wintertime. Cousin Dick was six years older than me and Cousin Bill was three years older. After Dick graduated from high school, I stopped my Christmas visits but those visits introduced me to THE WILD and I haven't been the same since.

Their place was right next to the Yellow River Swamp. In fact, today somebody has a business called SHELL'S TRAILS maintaining horse trails in that area. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.9837643,-86.5356752,14z?entry=ttu

SHELL'S TRAIL'S website  https://shells-trails.business.site/?utm_source=gmb&utm_medium=referral

 Uncle Bobby and Aunt 'Cille's house was a big two story farmhouse with screened-in front porches on both the first and second stories. The milking barn with a stock pen was right next to the house. The fronts of all the barns were covered with deer horns. Even back in the Fifties when there were very few deer, small herds of deer from the Yellow River swamp grazed in Uncle Bobby's pastures with his cows. The broom sedge patches were full of quail and Uncle Bobby was an amazing shot. My big coon skin that I passed down to Christopher came from one of my coon hunts in the swamp with my cousins and that's where I first saw a coachwhip snake perform. I couldn't find what I saw which was a coiled coachwhip banging its tail on the ground but there are some good coachwhip videos on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-dxhKCYRyc&t=236s

I continue to have memories of that coon hunt. The three of us, Cousins Dick and Bill plus me began the hunt about two hours before sunup. The pack of dogs consisted of one Black & Tan, one Redbone and two Blueticks plus a little Boston Terrier who served as the "catch dog". The way I understood it, the Redbone was the smartest but it wasn't loud enough. The Black and Tan was the stupidest but was the loudest and would end up following the three others. The two Blueticks were your basic "bread & butter" coon hounds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL-DYyKEXQo

This big raccoon eluded us forever and brought us deeper and deeper into the river bottom swamp.  I recall as we walked, my cousins pointing out some holes they said were dug by folks plundering Indian graves.  I'm not sure if we crossed the Yellow River or a creek but I know we got wet and it was cold but it paid off because the coon was treed right across the bank. 

One of my cousins held the boston terrier and the other one shot the coon out of the tree. When the coon hit the ground, my cousin released the terrier who instantly grabbed the coon by the throat and the fight was over as quickly as it began. The walk back to the farm house included seeing the coachwhip snake and after skinning the coon, we boiled the meat in a washpot and then fed it to the dogs. My cousins tanned the hide and trimmed it before they presented it to me later that year as a gift.

 Getting to spend that time in the woods got me to reading Jim Kjelgaard books so that means I was probably already in the damn fifth grade before I EVER READ AN ENTIRE BOOK! AND IT WAS OVER 100 PAGES!!!! (I was so proud of myself...) https://www.gutenberg.org/files/41723/41723-h/41723-h.htm

In 1962, Walt Disney made a movie based upon a Kjelgaard book. I got hooked on his books FOR A LONG TIME! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtqaN-Lmuk

I ended up reading a bunch of 'em and then found out today that Kjelgaard killed himself when he was 48. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Kjelgaard

from the June 27, 1957 FLORALA NEWS

 

Uncle Bobby got in a little trouble in 1968. It ended up being a misdemeanor "receiving stolen property" with probation but at the time of Uncle Bobby's arrest at the Geneva stockyards it was "INTERSTATE RUSTLING RING EXPOSED!!!!", which it was and it made NATIONAL NEWS but it really wasn't that big a deal for Uncle Bobby. This deputy sheriff was cutting fences, letting the cows graze on the shoulders of the roads and then penning them up for being in violation of the stock laws except he didn't advertise the cows or keep them at the county yard. He penned them at his house and had Uncle Bobby load 'em in his truck to be sold across the Florida line at the Geneva stockyards.

from the May 24, 1968 PLAYGROUND DAILY NEWS (Ft. Walton Beach) 

from the December 19, 1968 PLAYGROUND DAILY NEWS