This is old blowers and I wanted to finish up that story that I was telling you week or so or day or so back about me and old Clarence Smith riding that train and we was going up to natural steps, you know We come from Bisco. That's where we live down there me and my daddy and I told you that Clarence Smith come to see us He was nobody man He was a little a little bit older than I was and I told you about us riding that train all the way to natural steps But you know it happened a long time ago and and sometimes you just remember stuff So I told you I made a little mistake I told you that we stayed about three weeks But I know now that we stayed a lot longer than that because I remember I remember we left the day before my brother's birthday and that was that would have been the 20th of June so we left going down there on the 20th of June and It didn't take us, you know But one day and half a night to get there but we stayed a long time because I remember what I remember is that Clarence was about well when we started back, you know and he had he had suffered a pretty pretty bad injury when he fell off that train and then I remember when we was coming back we eat Wild plums and persimmons, you know, they was getting ripe So it must have been way up in the fall that we started back and I had forgot that and then too I remember that my mama had wrote us a couple of letters at least asking us when we was coming back home See my Clarence's grandma had Had wrote and told her that we was bringing a cow home And so I think she wanted that cow more than she wanted me I don't really mean that but what I mean was that she know that I'd be home sooner or later But she wanted me to bring that cow on because they wanted to cow so we I remember we went to church on a Sunday night And we started back at that church led out about nine o'clock And I know we started on toward Bisco about nine o'clock from from natural steps And we had been to a church to do ends up there that had a you know dinner on the grounds And we could have got a lot of food to take back with us And I wish we'd had enough sense to do it We did get some chicken Clarence said let's get some of this chicken So we got us a box of chicken But you know they had cakes and pies and and all kinds of stuff that we could have got and I wish we had and We did before we got back or we might near start a death But we started back with that cow and that cow was just as wild as a cow could be and I don't know if I'd guess Most of you ain't never messed with cows much But a cow is awful stout and if they don't want to go with you You can't make them go with you and that cow drug me down the road I would take a whole tour and she wouldn't go and she would pull back and drag me And she took all the skin off my hands trying to hold on to her and my hands were sore and raw and I couldn't I couldn't get it To go no way and Clarence thought he could but he couldn't pull her neither Now he could hold on to her Clarence was a bigger little bigger than I was and he could hold on to her But he couldn't drag her nowhere he couldn't make her go nowhere So the only way that we could get that cow to go was that I would get in front of her and take a hold to the rope And Clarence would get behind her and twist her tail and she would go You know when he got to twist in her tail But he had to watch out because she was trying to kick his well She's trying to kick him because he had a hold of her tail and she wanted to kick whatever that was and had a hold of her tail So we took her down the road her a kickin and and me hanging on to her and she wore us out And we'd had to stop and rest and they would get her and take off again and go another mile or two And she was just as wild as she could be and when we got plumbed tarred out Then we'd lay down near tie the cow to a tree and lay down and and sleep or try to get some sleep and then we'd start on the next day And So people got to watching us, you know And they'd honked the horns at us and asked us where we was going with that cow And I told them we were going to Bisco and they didn't believe me and they said you can't get that cow to Bisco And I said well we got to and I said that's where we live So they they come into feeling sorry for us and they would I remember it the news got up the road ahead of us People got to hearing about that cow and boys breaking that cow up the road and whenever we'd get somewhere Coming up to a house. Well, somebody would however there come them boys with that cow and Clarence made him mad And he Clarence was mad to cuss anyway, and he would start cussing he'd say I wish that I wasn't gonna say what he said But he said I wish that woman would shed her mouth about that cow, but anyway we had to Persimmons on the way to from natural steps to Little Rock and we had wild plums But I don't know how long it took us it took us two or three days because that cow wasn't cooperating And we like to starve to death cuz we was wore out from wrestling with that cow But about the time we started getting into Little Rock people got to wait known us and they would feed us and people got to Share in their food with us if if we come up and it was dinner time Well, they'd feed us and they'd give us so you know they had cut their food taters and and black eyed peas and and I remember one time We got chicken and they would feed us and share whatever they had with us. I remember one woman give me a peach pie She said that she'd give that to me We'd have it for supper which we did and I remember a little girl.
She would live in this great big house up there all about halfway up Cantrell Hill if you're familiar with with Little Rock and she had a bunch of candy I guess you know they was rich and Because they lived in a great big house and she had this candy and she told us we could have all of it We wanted said she was a part of it and she by that time the The cow had gentled up and she went out and painted the cow and we at the candy She said we could have all we wanted said she didn't care She could get all she wanted I reckon her daddy was rich But we that cow had gentled up. I tell you what happened see that that road between Well, can't throw down at the highway 10 It's what it is comes all the way from all the Oklahoma border all the way to you know to Little Rock It was a gravel road at that time and that cow's feet got wore out on that gravel road and she couldn't walk She was she was told about as bad as we was and so we come to a junk pile directly And there was a bunch of old rubber boots in that junk pile that people had throwed away And we got them boots and we put them boots on that cow and that cow let us do it by that time She she'd jiddled up, you know She didn't want to run them or she couldn't she was she was so we're walking on that gravel road Just like we was and so we put them boots put a pair on her front legs and a pair on her back legs And she come down that road with us wearing them boots and she was glad to get them I guess but people got the laughing about that because they'd see us coming and we had that cow and that cow was wearing boots And so that was another reason that they started sharing their food with us So we got to Little Rock, but I was I was plumb give out But we had to go on to Bisco and a Bisco is another 50 miles east of Little Rock and we come through low-knocking Of course word it doesn't come down the road that we was coming with that cow and people fed us all the way in You know we didn't get hungry no more but we didn't eat no more wild plums neither We get chicken and and and pork chops I remember one one one one woman give us pork chops and So we good all the way, but I want to tell you that trip nearly killed me Because I was I was so sore and my hands you know hadn't healed up and and I was hard to walk in and had blisters on my feet and Clarence wasn't in no better shape than I was and I had you know I'd been out in the Sun and I had these fever blisters these cold sores all over me and It when when I finally did get home I took to the bed and I spent about a week in bed for I could get up to do anything But you know a kid will do something I could do that now for save my life Of course I got better sense than to try now but we we took that cow like I say all the way for natural steps to Bisco and I'll tell you about the cow. She was a good milk cow when we left and we used to we milked the cow all the way back I didn't tell you that but we had to you know cow has to be milked and we milked her and we didn't have nothing to put the Milk in and we put it in Clarence's hat and we drunk some of it on the way From from natural steps because we didn't have nothing to step while persimmons and in plums And so we we drunk that milk for ways, but then like I say people started feeding us But we did have to milk the cow but when we got about oh Between low-known Carlisle that cow Dried up what I mean is she couldn't give no milk and I won't tell you something that cow never did give no milk The rest of her life and I don't know what it done to her, but she couldn't give no milk and you know If you've been around cows, you know that What makes a cow give milk is if she has a calf You know and they'll have a calf and then they can give milk for a period of time And so she was with a bull I know you know a bunch of times But she just couldn't have no calf and that cow never did give no milk the rest of her life And she she was a good gentle cow But she wasn't you know didn't do any didn't good for anybody because she couldn't give no milk But you know that wasn't her fault she couldn't help it But anyway, that's the story that I was gonna tell you and I know I've rambled a little bit because it's kind of hard to Tell something like that and get all the details in and besides that like I say this happened way back under and see when When Brenda Puckett, you know I told this story to her and what she done was she was a you know Brenda Puckett is a smart girl She's a writer and so what she done was she took she wrote down what I said But then when she put it in the paper she straightened it out so you made sense So anyway, I'm gonna stop here and and I'll have another story for you in today. Yeah, everybody take care