This is old and blow us and I want to tell you some more about that Spellingby that we had down here as a community activity about two weeks back And I told you about it in the last podcast and I'm not gonna go over that again about how they had to play a parrot school And they decided they were gonna do the same thing that they done in that book that Francine read them, but anyway, I'm gonna go on with the story and I told you that we was always chose up into two teams And that's that was the way it was but we had two captains They was uh two men in the community that was you know respected and and so one of them was Preacher of Crockett and he ain't no real preacher. That's just a nickname and I don't know where he got it He's been preacher Crockett ever since I first met him, you know when he first moved into this Little old community back about 35 years ago and he works at the post office and He's a he's a good feller. I don't I don't see a lot of preacher, but every time I see him, you know He's he's always a real happy and and and joking and friendly and and you know He he he makes everybody feel at home and he's one of the what they call movers and shakers down here I mean he is real big in the community one of the leaders and he usually has a part in everything that's going on down here and Preacher of Crockett is one of the smartest men in this country He he watches the news and keeps up with that all the time and then he reads a lot reads a lot of books and and he's a authority on history a real expert and so he'll Lot of people will argue with preacher, but they don't get very far because a preacher Crockett You know can out argue anybody because he knows so much more about it any anything that you bring up It don't make no difference what it is a preacher Crockett knows about it and these people down here trying to argue with him But you know they just ain't as smart as preacher Crockett and preacher don't get mad at him He don't ever get mad he just you'll tell them like it is and sooner or later they quit because they know they can't out argue preacher So anyway, he he's real big in the church down here and like I say he runs a post office And so everybody down here thinks a whole lot of preacher so it's all ain't it's natural that he would you know that they would have made him one of the captains down there and they did and Preacher was actually the one that chose me you know I was chose I told you next to last and it was just because preacher I guess he felt sorry for me and he didn't want me to be chose last so he chose me next to last but anyway He was one of the captains and the other captain is a this old man down here named Jack Shoemaker and Jack Shoemaker he's kind of a curious fella He is you put smart and he did win a spelling bee down here I've been all about ten years back, but he thinks you know, he's kind of a curious kind of stuck up You know thinks he's smarter than everybody else and but and he might be but you know You don't have to you don't have to act like a you know, you better than other people now will preach your crockett You know, he's he's smarter than most people down here, too But but he don't act any different, you know to anybody he treats me just like he would anybody else But Jack Shoemaker works down here at the drug store and he's one of them Home medicine mixers. That's not what they call it You know, they've got a name for them and I can't think of what it is But you know if you go to a doctor and get a subscription You had to take it Jack Shoemaker and he'll mix it up for you He can read that stuff and and he's been to school.
He is an awful smart person like I say Well, they made him the other captain and you know, he he's not as easy going as as as some people And he kind of gets his Gets his first line if he gets mad, you know, or if he don't think things is going the way he wants them to and So then was the two captains and I'm gonna I won't tell you about one other person Down here because she had a whole lot to do with the spelling bee and what happened down here now She is this 14. Well, I think I believe she turned 15 maybe Last week or week for last but her name is Brenda Puckett and Brenda Puckett is a she's kind of cures herself what I mean is that she's real serious and She's real smart. They all say she is. I don't know her very good but my girl knows her and she says she's one of the smartest people in school and so I guess she is and she I Found out by accident.
She's got a column in this paper down here. See they've got this paper down here called the lightning bug and so she's got her a column in this paper down here. I didn't know it and and Emily let it slip She didn't mean to but oh Brenda Puckett told her you know, she told her that she was I ain't gonna tell you her name in the newspaper Because I promised Brit I promised Emily I wouldn't because she she Brind the Puckett you made Emily promise that she wouldn't tell and Emily didn't mean to tell me but she let it slip Well, anyway, I told Emily I said that's all right I won't say nothing about it Anyway, like I was saying Britain's got this column in this paper down here called the lightning bug and she it's one of these It's one of these current event things where she she looks at what something's going on in the news and then she'll explain it and She's a she's a real smart old girl But she's real serious and she don't joke at all and for a long time She didn't like me much because see I was always joking with her and old Brenda Puckett She don't know how to joke and so when I would try to joke with her or she'd just say, you know whatever or That's a that's real nice of you You know, I'd be joking but she just didn't she just don't know how to joke and some people is like that And one time she come down here and oh Emily she usually comes down here to see Emily but Emily wasn't here and so Brenda Puckett got to looking at the cows and see I've got this old bull down here and and so he he well, you know, he takes up with these cows and Brenda Puckett was out there watching him and So she got asked me questions about that embarrassed me and I said Brenda I don't want to talk about that. I said, you know, we ought not to be talking about that and she said that is so silly She said that's just a natural thing that animals do and she said I just don't understand anybody being that stupid that they think it's something dirty and I said now Brenda first off I want to let you know some I said I didn't say it was dirty and The second thing is that I didn't just didn't think it was right for me to talk to you about it But I said if you think it's all right to talk about it or to watch them cows or whatever you want to do I said it ain't none of my business But what I need to let you know you need to understand is that I can't help being me Anymore than you can help being you and I said I'm like I am and I can't have it And I said you like you are and you can't help it neither Well, she got real quiet and she thought about that and she said well I never had thought about it in that way and so ever since then she's always you know being real friendly to me And of course I quit joking with her because I found out she didn't like to joke And so I just talked to her serious, you know about whatever's going on or how her dad is doing or how his crops is doing You know how she's doing in school and stuff like that But anyway, what reason I was talking to you about O'Brenda Puckett is because of course she goes up there at that school She is she's 15, but she's a great ahead.
She's in the she's in the 11th grade right now She's gonna graduate early and they say she makes solid A's is what they say, you know, I guess they do I guess she does but anyway She they was gonna have that spelling bee down there and as a at the schoolhouse and they were gonna let all the kids and all the growth people You know Take part in it altogether and Brenda Puckett said she didn't want to do it said it just didn't interest her one bit and she didn't want to do it and of course Fran Singh talked to her and she said Brenda she said I know you don't want to do it But she said you part of the community and she said you live in this community and this community supports you and And they probably well, you know they've been talking about making up a scholarship for you when you go off to college and I know you want to go to college and Fran Singh kept talking to her in that way and she said you really owe something to the community and it wouldn't hurt you to come in and Do this spelling bee with them and take part in it and act like one of the people and don't try to act like you better Than what they are and Brenda Puckett said well, I didn't mean I was better. She said I just ain't interested in it And Fran Singh said well, I know you ain't but she said now what would it hurt you to just to take part in this activity? So bring the Puckett. She got to study about it.
She said well I guess it wouldn't hurt me none. She said if you think I ought to do it, I'll do it so she went down there and she she participated in the in a spelling bee too and so she got on my team and She was one of the last ones chose because they didn't know you know a lot of them didn't know How good a speller she was I found out how good a speller she was and the rest of them did too And I'm gonna tell you about the spelling bee in the next podcast because I've done what what Emily caused set the stage for you I told you about the spelling bee and I told you about who was gonna participate in it, you know And and so and I've told you about the main people down here and so I'm gonna tell you the the rest of it in the next podcast and So I'm gonna I'm gonna get on out of here right now and and I'll come back in the day or two until you what happened in the spelling bee