This is old blowers and I want to tell you something of real funny thing that that happened Oh about a week or so back and I I'll tell you first of all it was my fault that it happened and The next thing I want to tell you is you better be damn careful about what you say because well I'll just tell you the story and you'll find out what it is that I'm talking about But I run into old Brenda Puckett up at the store the other day And you know I told you about Brenda Puckett. She's the one that that's spelled down old Jack Shoemaker up there in spelling me a while back and she she was she's real serious girl like I told you and She's a they say she's gifted that school I mean I think that means that she's real smart and my girl Emily she says she's real smart too And she ain't made nothing but days in that school You know ever ever since she come there and so she must be awful smart and I told you about her She's writing this column down here for the newspaper The lightning bug, you know that they they print this paper down here every week and and she writes a column for that paper now she don't want nobody to know that and and so She accidentally let it slipped. I mean she told Emily's what I was trying to say She told Emily about it But Emily accidentally let it slip about her writing the column and but she made me promise that I wouldn't tell nobody the name of the column That she was writing and so I ain't never done it So I ain't gonna tell you the name of the column that she writes, but it's what she calls well, I better not say no more about it But anyway, I run into her up there at the store the other day and and so oh Brenda Puckett she told me asked me would would I let her do a interview with me said that she was doing some Research and she wanted me to do an interview with her Well, I was kind of Suspicious that maybe it might have something to do with the paper But then I got to study and then I said well what in the world would she want to interview me about for you know For the paper because I ain't got nothing to say that nobody would be interested in but anyway I told her yeah If she wanted to talk to me that I would I tell her anything she wanted to know and so she told me that it would take us Two or three days to do it because she wanted to go into it and and grant detail And I told her whatever she wanted to do would be alright with me So I never did hear nothing from her for old is about three or four days But finally one day she come down to to the house here and told me that she was ready to get started And I was out there, you know putting hay into the the the start that the Feedboxes for the cows because it was almost milking time like about an hour being milking time And so I told her I didn't have time right then But she said no go on and do what you do and said Can't you talk while you're doing that work and I said word yeah if you want to stay out here in the barn and she said well I don't care So she's come in asking me questions all about how it was when I was a boy and the kind of work that I done and and I told her I told her about having to walk across the foot log You know when the river was up and I mean the creek was up and we couldn't get to the store and then I told her about Sometimes you know it was a three or four days before we could get out because of the high water and and I told her You know different stories about how I roasted Acrens and and Ed them when I couldn't get nothing else to eat and and I told her about How you know I'd pick cotton and that I done whatever I could do you know to To make a living and and she was really interested and she asked me about all that stuff and and then she told me She was gonna have to leave for today But she said we hadn't near about covered the subject but just could she come back you know in a day or two and I said well Yeah Brenda if you want to come back, I'll I'll talk to you Well, it wasn't I guess about a week later or maybe maybe five or six days later She come back and and I was out there shelving manure that day and and she come out there and she said she wanted to Go on with the interview and so she started asking me about Different jobs that I had done You know when I was growing up and and I told her about that you know chopping cotton and about to You know One time I was getting these frogs for this restaurant You know I was out gigging frogs and I didn't make a whole lot of money doing that But I did work for about two or three months gigging frogs and taking them you know to just a restaurant over there in in Memphis and the only trouble with that job was that you know the gas cost me so much to Care them over there that I didn't clear a whole lot of money But that's all they was for me to do then and that's the reason I done it and then I got I've you know I worked in the hay fields cutting hay and and I remember one time I was you know sweeping up in a Downtown there they had me sweeping the streets and I what they called me a Municipal worker and I was you know sweeping the streets and and When it would rain down there, you know, I'd have to drive that Vacuum machine they got and suck up that water out the streets because it was bad about flooding down here and anyway, I told her about all the different jobs that I had done and She was real interested in that and she asked me a lot of different questions and and She asked me one thing she asked me was did I Did I was I bitter about you know having to do all them jobs and I said well no I I wouldn't wouldn't be bitter if I know what that means I said it was just stuff that that I had to do I had to take work You know wherever I could get it and I said sometimes the jobs was good and and Sometimes they they wasn't so good But I said you know people had always been good to me and that if I wanted a job and I said I never could I never did have no trouble getting somebody to harm me. I said that it might not be a job that I necessary wanted to do but I said if I wanted a job there was somebody around that would Would give it to me and so she said that she was going she was gonna have to leave But she was gonna come back and and we probably could finish the interview in the next Next next time she come down and so I told her that was all right if we could but I said long as she wanted to talk I'd talk to her well.
Oh well Brenda Puckett come back there about three days later And she said well mr. Porter we're gonna wind it up today And so I said well if that was what she wanted to do anyway She wanted to do it was was all right with me and she asked me she said You know you told me about doing all that work when you was growing up and she said did y'all ever have any fun? And I said oh yeah, we had a lot of fun I said we we've done a lot of different stuff to have fun and and and I told her about We used to hitch these tomato worms, you know the there was worms that would get on the tomato vines and we'd catch them and we'd tie some bread on them and Hitch them to the match boxes. You know like they were horses and then we would we would poke them with a pencil or Ink peon and and you know make them pull them boxes and I said you know I would get Tomato worm or two of them usually we'd book to them to a matchbox and I said I'd get me too and and my brother would get him to Tomato worms and he'd hook he has owned to a matchbox And that's a weird race them to see which one would win the race and that was one game that we used to play in then I told her about making these mowing areas out of inner tube and how we'd shoot them bow and errors and then I told her about one time we got some popcorn and we made these little old slang shots and we used to shoot that popcorn off of the ceiling and And it would you know he would make a ricochet and say on lock-up them bullets in a Western show You know you've seen these Western shows on television I said that's what I would compare it to but I said that was back before we had any television You know, but I was just trying to tell her something that she would understand and I told her about my daddy getting on to us Well, what he'd get he done more than that he give us a good whooping for wasting that popcorn So we'd had to get little pieces of gravel because he didn't mind us shooting gravel but he didn't want us wasting the popcorn and then I told her about to pitch in whole shoes and And then I told her I said, you know Brenda I said We was bad about playing pranks on people.
I said not not Not something that would hurt him or nothing like that But I said we just like to play tricks on people and I told her but one time about us catching this woman's chickens and what we do is put their heads under their wings and We'd rock them back and forth You know and and take them around and around in a circle and then we'd set them down You know and I don't know if it made them dizzy or would it done? But they'd stay there for about oh a minute You know with their with their heads under their wings and like they were dead You know and I told her about us getting this woman's chicken said how it made her mad at us because she thought we'd kill Them and I said, you know, I wouldn't kill no chicken but I said it probably didn't do them no good, but I said we didn't know no better and we was just having fun and So she she said she asked me she said well Do you think that kids today would do that kind of stuff and I said well no Brenda I don't believe they would because I said they've got Television and and they've got these video games and these other you know things to play with and I said kids You'll get this stuff for Christmas I said we didn't get nothing for Christmas, but apples and oranges and a few You know them nuts and some pieces of hard candy and I said that's all we got for Christmas I said no we was glad to get it. No don't misunderstand me I said we was glad to get it, but I said kids nowadays they get so much stuff give to them But I said they ain't got no imagination and I said they can't think up stuff to do like we did and You know, that's where I made my mistake. I shouldn't order said that because I'll tell you why in the next podcast, but she made quite a bit about that She said you mean that you don't think kids was as smart as you are and are you was and I said oh no I think kids are smarter than we was I don't think they it's matter of being Smart I said they just ain't got no imaginations I said they just but I said as far as as book learning and stuff like that I said they know a whole lot of stuff now that we didn't know back when I was growing up But I said and I said I ain't I'm not criticizing Television because I think kids nowadays learn a lot of stuff from television and it makes them smarter But I said all I was saying was that they didn't have no imagination because it was all you know done for them And so they didn't have to think stuff up for themselves Well, I'll tell you what happened to what happened in the next podcast But I'll tell you one thing I'm gonna be more careful about what I say next time