Bill's Stories About Growing Up
in Pistol Ridge, Mississippi
Written and Compiled by Bill Bounds
Hunting
Ol’ HITLER
(about 1945 - 1950)
by Bill Bounds
This story is about a sly old grey fox called Ol’ Hitler, that for several years, provided South Forrest County, Mississippi fox hunters with some exciting chases for their hounds.
This story includes how my brother Henry and I finally got the best of this legendary fox with a steel trap set at the entrance to a gopher ( land turtle) hole and baited with a dead bird.
In the early evening the hunters strike dogs were released. They eagerly ran the hills and trails to find the scent of the fox. Sometimes it would take time for the strike dogs to find the trail of the fox. In the meantime the fox hunters were listening intensely for the bark of the strike dogs when they found the fox trail.
There was much excitement among the fox hunters as to which dog first found the fox scent. They would ID the strike dog by the sound of his/her bark. The other strike dogs would race to join the strike dog on the trail of the fox.
These barking dogs chasing the fox would excite the fox hunters and they would release their other caged hounds. These released dogs would then eagerly join the chase. If the dogs were extremely excited and the chase moving fast, someone would inevitably shout, “That’s gotta be ‘Ol’ Hitler.’ We’ll get him this time!”
The released chase dogs would add their voices to that of the strike dogs. The sound of eight to twelve hounds caused great excitement for the hunters. Exclamations, such as, “I can tell by the sound of that bark, my bitch “Dolly” is hot on “Ol’ Hitler’s trail.”
Someone else might say, “No, that’s my dog ‘Butch’ that’s pushing “ Ol’
Hitler so fast his tail’s on fire”. There was much excitement about which dog was in the lead or disappointment for one that had lost the fox trail. The sound of the dog’s bark identified the dog and told the hunters how close he/she was on the fox’s trail.
The chase would continue until “Ol’ Hitler” outsmarted the hounds, outlasted them or took refuge in a gopher hole that was too deep and too narrow for the dogs to enter. Sometimes he would climb a tree to escape the dogs. . The dogs then became confused and were eventually rounded up and caged by the hunters.
The hunters would then build a bonfire along side their vehicles and sit around til a bout midnight telling tall tales and blowing hunting horns to call in the tired, stray dogs. Millard, Henry, Ira, and I would join them at this stage of the hunt, because we loved to hear the tall tales told by the foxhunters. They loved to have some wide eyed listeners.
Every once in a while a hunter would get up, go to his vehicle, take a “swig” from his jug of “white lightening” and return to his place near the fire. White lightning was never drunk in front of us children, but we children knew exactly what was going on. After the bonfire was burning good, one man called “Sleepy Bob” immediately closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep while many tall tales were told. He would always laugh a bit when someone told a joke, but never opened his eyes or said anything.
Eventually all the hunters rounded up their dogs and went home.
“Ol’ Hitler was never caught by the fox hunters hound dogs. ‘
In the meantime, Henry and I had found out that a good fox fur was worth five dollars from the fur buyer. We devised a way to catch “Ol’ Hitler. “
We believed that the wily fox could be caught in a Number 2 steel trap, skinned, and his hide sold, and we would have five dollars to spend.
Henry killed a jaybird for bait. We placed the bird down in a gopher hole near where we knew “Ol’ Hitler” hunted for food. I set, camouflaged and staked down, the trap in the entrance to the gopher hole. We left the area hoping “Ol’ Hitler” would find the bait before a possum or skunk did.
The next morning we checked the trap and sure enough “Ol’ Hitler” had stepped on the trap and was caught. He was lunging, trying to get out of the trap. The trap held, but he pulled the trap stake out of the ground and took off running with Henry’s dog straining to get after him. Henry turned his dog loose.
Henry’s dog, “Ol’ Trailer” took off after him, but “Ol’ Hitler” had one more trick to pull. “Ol’ Hitler” shimmied up a tree even with a steel trap and stake
still attached to his leg. Henry knocked him from the tree with a lightard knot. “Ol’ Trailer” caught him and we now had a premium fox hide to skin, stretch, cure and sell to the fur buyer for five dollars.
Note: Some people doubt this story because they don’t believe that the grey fox is capable of climbing trees. The grey fox is commonly called the “tree climbing fox” by zoologists because they know that the grey fox can easily climb a tree to escape danger or find food such as fox grapes and bird eggs.
Ol' Hitler?
Mississippi Tree Climbing Grey Fox
http://www.itsnature.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/GrayFox-Climbing_up_tree.jpg
POSSUM HUNTING AND TRAPPING
VARMINTS FOR MONEY
(~1942-1948)
By Bill Bounds
In the 1940`s, I had never heard of a kid getting an allowance for money to spend. Kids in our community found ways to make their own spending money. In the late fall and winter, the wild varmints ( possum, skunk, and fox) fur became prime.
Millard, Henry, Ira, and myself, as well as other neighborhood kids, got possum fur to sell by hunting them at night with dogs. The possum usually escaped the dogs by climbing up a tree. We would listen to the bark of the dogs to determine when the dogs had “treed” the possum.
The possum could be in a small tree or a very large tree. How did we get the possum out of the tree?
One possum hunter would climb the tree while one shined the carbide light into the tree. The possum would go as far out on a small limb as far as he could to avoid the hunter climbing toward him. The hunter would shake the tree limb vigorously to dislodge the possum from the tree limb.
Possums are very difficult to shake out of a tree because they can hold on with four feet (which are sort of like hands), and a prehensile tail, which can wrap around a limb and support the weight of the possum. In fact, the last thing to let go of the shaking tree limb was usually the tail.
Under the tree, the dogs were excited by the activity in the tree above them. When the possum fell, the dogs would attack, the possum would immediately “play possum”. It was the hunters on the grounds responsibility to hit the possum over the head with a stout stick, keep the dogs from tearing the possum hide apart, and get the possum into the croaker sack to carry it with us. The hunter shaking the tree was always worried about what the dogs would do to him, if he fell out of the tree.
After the possum was secured in the croaker sack, the dogs would immediately go hunting for another possum to tree.
On one nights hunt, we returned home with nine possums in the croaker sack.
We skinned, stretched and dried the hides, then carried them to the fur buyer. Each possum hide usually sold for one dollar. No, we didn’t eat the possum!
Note: I think the south Mississippi comic, Jerry Clower, got some of his stories from possum and coon hunting in South Mississippi
How did we get skunk and fox fur?
Occasionally the possum dogs would find a skunk. The skunks defense was mostly his ability to spray a very smelly substance into the eyes, nose and mouth of his attacker.
The dogs could usually overcome the skunk’s smelly spray and kill him. We had to wrest the smelly skunk from the dogs before they damaged his hide.
Securing the smelly skunk, placing him in the croaker sack with several dead possums, always meant a very “stinking” situation for all. Some of this smell was usually still on us the following week at school. The teachers and principal never complained about the smell. I think their children earned their spending money the same way we did, and smelled as bad as we did.
We also caught skunks and foxes in steel traps by baiting them with a dead bird, placed about two feet down inside a gopher (land turtle) hole.
We set and camouflaged a steel trap at the entrance to the hole. Any varmint that attempted to retrieve the dead bird from the hole for food would spring the jaws of the trap and probably be caught by the foot. If it was a skunk it would be another very smelly situation.
If the yellowish white stripe down the skunk’s back was very narrow, the hide would usually bring about three dollars. The wider the white stripe, the less money we got for the hide.
Sometimes we would catch a grey fox. A fox hide, which is very difficult to remove from the fox, would bring two to four dollars each.
All of the hides were cured by turning them inside out, stretching them over a paddle shaped board and scraping any residue from the inside of the skin with a dull knife blade and hanging the skins up to dry.
At that time in my life a stinking varmint, especially a skunk, smelled like money.
CAPTURING GOPHERS (LAND TURTLES)
(~1940-1950)
By Bill Bounds
The Gopher (Land Turtle) was a favorite source of food for some families in our community. They were slow and easy to catch , when away from their holes in the summer months. In the cooler months they had to be forcefully dragged from their holes with a long straight stiff wire, sharpened and hooked on one end. Some folks called it “Gopher fishing”.
The fisherman could usually tell if there was a Gopher in the hole by slapping the earth at the entrance. If a Gopher was in the hole, he would hear the Gopher shuffling around in the hole.
Gophers are now a protected endangered species, so don’t bother them!
The Gopher fishing hooks were usually improvised from the outer wire support from discarded old style bed springs.
The long wire hook was inserted into the slanted Gopher hole which could be 10 to 12 feet deep. The wire was twisted and jerked by the Gopher fisherman until the gopher was hooked. The Gopher was then dragged out and carried home to be dressed out for the cooking pot.
A mature Gopher could weigh as much as 20 pounds.
Mother (Ida) would not cook or eat Gopher. One time a neighbor borrowed a cooking pot from Mother. Mother found out that the neighbor had cooked a Gopher in the pot. Mother threw the pot away. She would not use it again.
Joe Lee?
TURKEY HUNTER
(~1970)
by Bill Bounds
Penny woke up one morning as it was beginning to get daylight. She walked to the kitchen and looked out the window and saw a magnificent wild turkey gobbler standing right outside in the yard. She went back to the bedroom awakened Joe and told him about the wild turkey in the yard. Joe jumped from the bed got his gun off the wall to shoot the turkey.
Joe slept nude. He went outside “naked as a new born babe” with his gun in his hand to shoot the turkey. The turkey had taken refuge in the wild gall berry bushes that surrounded the back and the two sides of the house. Joe slipped around thru the berry bushes, found the turkey and killed it.
While Penny was fixing breakfast, she heard Joe calling; “Penny! Penny! I got the turkey. I got the turkey” Meanwhile it had gotten daylight and people were beginning to stir around, driving by Penny and Joe`s house on their way to work.
Penny looked outside and saw that someone was standing in a gall berry patch holding a dead turkey gobbler above the bushes. It was Joe hollering; “Penny! Penny! Bring me some clothes. Bring me some clothes.” She took him some clothes so he could dress, and show off his big gobbler to neighbors passing by.
I don`t know if the turkey died from “shot.” Or if the turkey died from “shock.”
Note: I wonder what John Pilot wears or does not wear when he hunts turkeys.