The Coffee Shop

After many years of hunting and fishing trips it takes something special for you to remember one particular one for over 50 years. I had such a trip way back in ‘57 or ‘58 that will always be etched in my brain. I had many trips where I caught lots of fish or shot a lot of squirrels or rabbits, but none I remembered so well as this one.

I had tried to find someone to go with me, but to no avail so at the age of about 17 I pleaded with Mom to borrow her car and planned to leave directly after school for an afternoon squirrel hunt. I planned to go about 15 miles out of town to a place where my uncle’s brother-in-law, Lehman lived. It had been a favorite squirrel hunting place for us for many years until Lehman had moved a few months before. I had not been there for a couple of years, but was sure I would have no problems finding the place.

When I arrived, Laman’s old dog-trot log home was gone!! I knew he had moved into town, but had no idea the house would be gone as well. The barn was still there, but had not been recently used. This was actually a fairly remote location and you passed no other houses for the five miles or so after turning off the paved road. I decided I would just park down by the railroad track about 100yds beyond the old home place. I crossed the tracks on the dirt road and turned onto the lane that went down to the back of Lehman’s corn field where there was a great pin oak flat that always used to be full of squirrels.

The lane was clear so I drove down it a bit until I saw some seriously big mud puddles ahead. Whoops, time to back up. Unfortunately as I started backing up one of the tiny puddles I had crossed going forward proved to be significantly more difficult going backward. The wheels spun. I shifted into forward gear and nothing much changed except I became more firmly stuck.

Realizing that it would not serve my purpose to sink that thing to the axle I got out to survey the situation. Here I was stuck off of a gravel road on dirt lane at least five miles from the nearest highway and perhaps the nearest house as well. It was now about 4 oclock and would be getting dark soon and I had Mom’s car sinking in a mud hole. Well I hiked up to the old home place and looked around for boards or something I could get under the wheels, but that place had been stripped clean. What little I could find I dragged back, jacked up the wheel and stuck them underneath. When I dropped the wheel down it seemed like everything just sank deeper. Well nothing to do but give it a try so I got in, put it in reverse and tried to back out. At first it seemed like it was going to work, but that tire only rolled off the couple pieces of wood I had gathered and started slipping again.

By now the sun was starting to sink and I figured a new tactic was called for. I had noticed a car or two go down the road so I figured surely there must be something the other way. Instead of heading back the way I had come, I started walking farther from the paved highway. About a mile down the road there was a smaller gravel road turning to the right and there was a fence and pasture next to it. So I turned down that way and sure enough. About a quarter of a mile down the road was a house.

By now it was starting to get dark and there was a light in the window. As I approached the house a man was out backing his truck up to his barn. I explained my situation and he told me that he could go pull me out after he fed his cows. Figuring two could feed cows faster than one I quickly offered to help. He climbed up in that barn and I stood in the back of his truck and he tossed those hay bales down to me to stack in the truck.

Thank God he didn’t have more cows, cause by the time I had caught and stacked those 8 or 10 bales this city boy was worn out and beat up. After taking those bales out, breaking them up and tossing them to the cows he got his tractor and drove back to where my car was stuck. With a little help from his tractor the car was out and none the worse for wear in about two minutes. He wouldn’t take anything for his trouble, but at that point I would have gladly given him just about anything I had. Unfortunately he didn’t have a phone so I could call home to explain why I was late, and I spent all my free time the next day cleaning the mud from Mom’s car.

That was my most memorable squirrel hunt ever. I never even got my gun out of the car. I never saw a squirrel and I never went back. I did however gain an increased faith in my fellow man, and I think perhaps that just maybe I grew up just a little that day as well.

The helpfulness of country folk is a wonderful thing to experience. That is one of the reasons I was so adamant many years later when I had the chance to buy a bit of land out in the country to live. I can only hope that whenever a young man finds himself in similar difficulty around here I can return the favor that a farmer down in Louisiana did for me.