1 00:00:13,960 --> 00:00:22,239 It was a hot, salty night August in north central Mississippi, nineteen sixty 2 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:27,719 six. The reason I know the date is because my father had just left 3 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:33,159 my mother, and I'd always known that he left when my baby sister was 4 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:38,399 six weeks old. I know that my baby sister was born the end of 5 00:00:38,479 --> 00:00:45,759 June, So if you had at the weeks and I was told that when 6 00:00:45,799 --> 00:00:52,280 my baby sister was six weeks old, it had to be occurring in the 7 00:00:52,320 --> 00:00:56,640 middle of June, I mean in the middle. We lived in a home 8 00:00:56,719 --> 00:01:00,520 that he had built six years earlier when he met my mom. It was 9 00:01:00,560 --> 00:01:06,280 on my grandfather's property. That's the only acre of land off my granddaddy's place 10 00:01:06,400 --> 00:01:11,560 to this day that I currently do not own because my mom had to sell 11 00:01:11,599 --> 00:01:15,719 it after Dad and Mom divorced. She couldn't make the house payments, not 12 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:25,560 on on one salary. But anyhow, I figure roughly now it's been maybe 13 00:01:25,640 --> 00:01:30,120 a week, maybe ten days, two weeks after my dad had vacated the 14 00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:34,439 premises. We did not have an air conditioner, so what we would do. 15 00:01:36,560 --> 00:01:42,120 It was a two bedroom house, and we would put a box fan 16 00:01:42,640 --> 00:01:48,200 in the dining room at the north end of the house with the flow of 17 00:01:48,239 --> 00:01:52,840 air blowing outward, and we would open up our windows in our bedroom, 18 00:01:52,920 --> 00:02:00,760 which the bedroom with me and my brother slept was on the south off east 19 00:02:00,799 --> 00:02:05,879 corner of the house, and my mother's room, which had my baby sister's 20 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:13,280 basinet and everything was just across the hallway from us on the southwest side of 21 00:02:13,280 --> 00:02:19,360 the house. We had the windows open and the curtains open to of course, 22 00:02:19,400 --> 00:02:24,560 we had screens on the windows keeped insects from coming inside. And I 23 00:02:24,599 --> 00:02:28,479 know it was at night. I have no clue what time at night, 24 00:02:28,719 --> 00:02:31,319 and I didn't care about time. As a child six years old, you 25 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:36,879 don't think about that. Me and my four year old brother was sleeping in 26 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:42,439 the same bedroom together, in the same bed, with the bed up against 27 00:02:42,479 --> 00:02:49,240 the west wall. The foot of the bed was the window looking back on 28 00:02:49,280 --> 00:02:53,319 the back side of the property. When my dad and them pushed off the 29 00:02:53,400 --> 00:03:00,759 land to build the house, they pushed all the extra dirt because they was 30 00:03:00,840 --> 00:03:06,319 kind of cutting into a bluff to level off the house place, and it 31 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:09,719 made sort of a heel which led up to a bigger hill behind the house. 32 00:03:10,879 --> 00:03:15,000 Of course, my grandfather had to fence it off with barb wire fence 33 00:03:15,840 --> 00:03:21,360 I know he had five strand barbed ware fences because when I got older, 34 00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:25,439 I helped him replace every fence posting wear on the whole dang blaze. Even 35 00:03:25,479 --> 00:03:29,919 at six years old, I knew that it was at least a five strand 36 00:03:29,960 --> 00:03:34,719 barb wire fence, which stands anywhere from about four to four and a half 37 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:38,199 foot tall. Sometime during that night, and it may have been early, 38 00:03:38,639 --> 00:03:45,719 it could have been late, who knows, something woke me up outside that 39 00:03:45,840 --> 00:03:50,960 window, and of course when I raised up off the pillow that I was 40 00:03:51,039 --> 00:03:58,080 lying upon, my eyes were already adjusted or adapted to the outside light. 41 00:03:59,159 --> 00:04:03,680 It may I don't know at that stage in August whether or what moon phase 42 00:04:03,719 --> 00:04:09,280 it was, but it was pretty clear. You could see basically pretty much 43 00:04:09,319 --> 00:04:14,400 out in the back up to the top of that hill where the fence line 44 00:04:14,439 --> 00:04:18,079 was. Of course, behind the fence line, the hill and the trees 45 00:04:18,160 --> 00:04:23,199 blended in a little bit, but there was a break between the fence line 46 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:28,399 and a whole fire break that my granddaddy always would put around the perimeter of 47 00:04:28,439 --> 00:04:34,120 his fence. Something on that hill was making a cooing, clicking, tight 48 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:41,240 noise. The cooing was like a dove basically, only a lot deeper in 49 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:49,240 volume it was going. Then they had start going like you click in your 50 00:04:49,279 --> 00:04:56,360 tongue when you're trying to call a horse in or a dog, and then 51 00:04:56,399 --> 00:05:02,959 it would go back to Well, that was the noise that woke me up, 52 00:05:04,600 --> 00:05:12,319 and so I just looked out the window at the foot of the bed 53 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:18,199 towards the east of the house, and I seen something on that bob wire 54 00:05:18,319 --> 00:05:24,439 fence, and it really blew my mind. What I was looking at. 55 00:05:25,519 --> 00:05:31,560 Whatever it was was draped over the top of that fence. It looked like, 56 00:05:31,920 --> 00:05:36,639 and this is the only way I could describe it, the biggest damn 57 00:05:36,800 --> 00:05:41,279 monkey I ever seen in my life. Were you just seeing a silhouette? 58 00:05:41,800 --> 00:05:46,120 No, you could see facial details. No, I couldn't see facial details. 59 00:05:46,199 --> 00:05:55,519 The fence from the window was probably twelve fifteen yards away. But what 60 00:05:55,600 --> 00:06:01,519 I could see was it was slowly while it was making this swaying its head 61 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:08,240 and its shoulders to its right and back to its left in a slow motion. 62 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,720 That's what caught my attention. So if it hadn't been moving, you 63 00:06:12,759 --> 00:06:15,800 may not have seen it, right, I don't know, it's hard to 64 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:21,160 say. I just knew that what I was looking at I was looking towards 65 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:27,040 what woke me up, which was the sound, and then I noticed this 66 00:06:27,120 --> 00:06:31,360 thing slowly swaying on this fence line. Then I noticed that both of its 67 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:38,480 arms were draped over the bob wire fence and almost dragging the ground on the 68 00:06:38,519 --> 00:06:42,519 other side. Now, figure of that out. If the fence, and 69 00:06:42,639 --> 00:06:46,240 I know, the barbed wire fence on an average was a five strand fence, 70 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:49,240 probably four and a half foot, possibly even up to five foot tall, 71 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:55,319 and its arms were draped over that fence, almost the knuckle part of 72 00:06:55,360 --> 00:07:00,759 it was almost dragging the ground on this side. The side that I was, 73 00:07:00,560 --> 00:07:04,680 well, I'm six years old. As I said earlier, the first 74 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:11,279 thing that popped into my head was what's a large monkey? Because see, 75 00:07:11,639 --> 00:07:18,319 I remember Mama taking us to the zoo in Memphis and we seen apes. 76 00:07:18,959 --> 00:07:21,560 I didn't know what an ape was. I knew it was a monkey. 77 00:07:23,399 --> 00:07:28,120 It kind of reminded me of the arm length of a chimpanzee that hadn't seen 78 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:32,720 it the zoo, So I was automatically thinking it was a monkey. Couldn't 79 00:07:32,720 --> 00:07:36,759 tell you what color it was. It was dark. It was making those 80 00:07:36,959 --> 00:07:42,759 cooing and clicking noise. Of course, I had to wake my brother up. 81 00:07:43,399 --> 00:07:50,600 So my brother slept. I slept on the outside opposite of the doorway 82 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:55,279 in the hallway, but he slept on the side was right there by the 83 00:07:55,319 --> 00:08:00,759 door. So I woke my brother up and I said, hey, look, 84 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:03,279 look look at that look outside, look at that monkey outside. Well, 85 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:09,519 he woke up enough to register what I said, woke up enough to 86 00:08:09,639 --> 00:08:16,399 register to listen, and he was hearing this cooing and this clicking noise too. 87 00:08:16,720 --> 00:08:20,519 Then he looks out the window and sees this thing swaying back and forth. 88 00:08:20,959 --> 00:08:24,680 But it didn't take no persuasion for him to haul ass. He was 89 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:30,680 a tight my brother. You'd have to know it. It wasn't that he 90 00:08:30,879 --> 00:08:33,559 was scared of anything. He just never stuck around to figure out if he 91 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:39,600 should be. So once he got a gander or a good look at this 92 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:43,840 thing, he hauled ass right across the hall into my mama's room. Now 93 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:50,360 all this is reflection back over the years after thinking about it after the fact, 94 00:08:52,440 --> 00:08:58,000 But I noticed when when he left the room. Fear is contagious. 95 00:08:58,159 --> 00:09:01,480 There was no way hell I was gonna stay in that bed, especially with 96 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:07,120 him hauling ass. So I was right on his heels, and we both 97 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:13,399 dove into my mother's bed. Well, I remember when we hit the bed, 98 00:09:13,399 --> 00:09:20,559 as I said, this is all after the fact. My mother had 99 00:09:20,639 --> 00:09:26,759 been crying. Her eyes were swollen, she was wiping away tears and you 100 00:09:26,759 --> 00:09:31,200 know, snop, but she hadn't gone to extreme. And I also noticed 101 00:09:31,240 --> 00:09:37,600 too that my baby sister in the basinet over there, the six maybe seven 102 00:09:37,879 --> 00:09:45,480 week old baby, was making fretful noises while she was laying on her stomach. 103 00:09:46,799 --> 00:09:50,399 It was like, you know, we had never noticed that she cried, 104 00:09:50,440 --> 00:09:54,360 but you know, you could hear the baby when she had cried night 105 00:09:54,759 --> 00:09:58,440 because we had the doors open for the air to circuit leave through the house. 106 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,399 Anyhow, we both dove into bed, both not excited but wondering what 107 00:10:03,440 --> 00:10:07,039 the hell and she is? What's going on in the way, you know, 108 00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,840 y'all must have had a bad dream or whatever. I can't remember what 109 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:18,559 all she was saying, but I do remember that when we could coherently tell 110 00:10:18,559 --> 00:10:22,519 her what we both had seen and the only thing we could describe it as 111 00:10:22,759 --> 00:10:28,120 was a monkey outside of our bedroom. Wonda, my mother said, oh, 112 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:33,279 now, there's no such things as monkeys, you know around here. 113 00:10:33,399 --> 00:10:37,360 You know that's in on TV or in magazines or at the Memphis Zoo. 114 00:10:39,279 --> 00:10:45,759 But the only thing I could compare to what I'd seen was this was the 115 00:10:45,799 --> 00:10:50,159 biggest monkey I'd ever seen. In the monkey I was thinking in my description 116 00:10:50,519 --> 00:10:54,159 was a chimpanzee. It wasn't a gorilla because we'd seen gorillas at the Memphis 117 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:58,919 zoop or I would have said a gorilla. It wasn't orangutain because I seen 118 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,679 and then had to Meta zoo. The thing that I could come closer to 119 00:11:03,759 --> 00:11:07,679 it relating to to a six year old at the time, was a big 120 00:11:09,200 --> 00:11:15,240 monkey, and the monkey was a chimpanzee as far as I knew. Then. 121 00:11:15,279 --> 00:11:18,120 She looked at me and my brother and said, well, y'all both 122 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:22,080 had to say, y'all both had a bad dream. Y'all just need to 123 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,679 going back to bed. But Mama went out going where y'all can sleep with 124 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:31,039 me tonight, And that's where we stayed that night, and uh, I 125 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:35,120 can remember it may have been we stayed sleeping the bed with her for two 126 00:11:35,240 --> 00:11:39,360 or three nights after that too, But it wasn't long before we ended up 127 00:11:39,399 --> 00:11:43,600 going back to our bedroom. But then again, it wasn't that much longer 128 00:11:43,639 --> 00:11:48,759 where Mama had to give up the house anyway because she couldn't make the house 129 00:11:48,759 --> 00:11:54,879 payment, so we ended up moving on the same property with my end with 130 00:11:54,039 --> 00:12:00,360 my granddaddy and my grandmother. But looking back on it in a sun memory 131 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:05,919 and the things I know now and thinking about it over the years as many 132 00:12:05,120 --> 00:12:11,200 reports that I've investigated or talked to people about. Once they realized that I 133 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:18,720 knew something about this thing that we call boogers in Mississippi, was that these 134 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:24,440 things are watching us all the time where they're entertainment. As long as there's 135 00:12:24,519 --> 00:12:31,600 an alpha male in other words, a husband or the significant alpha in a 136 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:37,639 booger's primitive logic being the man of the house, they wouldn't do nothing but 137 00:12:37,799 --> 00:12:45,840 watch. But they can recognize anywhere from ten days or up to two weeks 138 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:54,519 when the dominant male presence has left or vacated the premises. And that's when 139 00:12:54,600 --> 00:13:00,720 it's not that they're getting bold towards trying to come and take thank you or 140 00:13:01,080 --> 00:13:07,279 take up with the female of the house. It's just that they've been watching 141 00:13:07,360 --> 00:13:11,919 us so long that they feel like that we're a part of their family in 142 00:13:11,960 --> 00:13:18,039 a certain primitive sort of way. And when this type deal would occur. 143 00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:26,000 They would make theirself known, not on purpose, but there wasn't as they 144 00:13:26,120 --> 00:13:31,480 was more bold about being around, in placing themselves into positions where you would 145 00:13:31,559 --> 00:13:37,360 start seeing them more often than you would if there dominant alpha male of the 146 00:13:37,360 --> 00:13:43,159 house wasn't around. Another thing that I figured out in summary that they're young. 147 00:13:43,279 --> 00:13:46,440 I'm talking about bigfoot or boogers or whatever you want to call them. 148 00:13:48,360 --> 00:13:54,559 When they emotionally cry, it sounds a lot like a human infant crime. 149 00:13:56,440 --> 00:14:03,720 And I've noticed over the years that these things will respond to babies crying or 150 00:14:03,879 --> 00:14:09,639 being hurting in pain through either a colic or whatever, and they cry light 151 00:14:09,759 --> 00:14:13,679 at night being colicky or whatever. Plus the fact that a dominant mail was 152 00:14:13,679 --> 00:14:20,559 not around probably caused this to happen, because you had to remember all the 153 00:14:20,600 --> 00:14:24,960 windows in the house were open, and everything that was going on in that 154 00:14:24,080 --> 00:14:31,039 house, including my mother being very emotional about my father leaving and there was 155 00:14:31,080 --> 00:14:33,759 nothing she can do about it. I'm sure she was in there crying not 156 00:14:33,840 --> 00:14:39,840 only for him just leaving, but her having a very young child and two 157 00:14:39,960 --> 00:14:46,320 other young boys to raise in a house that she probably couldn't even afford the 158 00:14:46,399 --> 00:14:50,240 payments towards I mean, I'm sitting there and I've thought about it a million 159 00:14:50,320 --> 00:14:56,600 times over the years, So it made a very emotional situation that would lure 160 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:01,840 one in because I do know these things can pick up on emotions, especially 161 00:15:01,919 --> 00:15:07,879 over a length of time. And then to hear a very fretful newborn infant 162 00:15:07,919 --> 00:15:16,600 going through probably teething or being colicky or whatever in its infancy, I'm thinking 163 00:15:16,679 --> 00:15:24,360 that that situation was too much for one not to feel like they could probably 164 00:15:24,720 --> 00:15:31,799 in a way help calm the situation down, because you got to remember, 165 00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:39,120 this thing was coohing, making a cooing type noise cooi g and then clicking 166 00:15:39,399 --> 00:15:46,519 in a little rithmatic pattern like It's definitely not an aggressive no. It was 167 00:15:46,639 --> 00:15:52,039 nothing aggressive about it. I think it really got caught up in the situation 168 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:58,639 for it to accidentally reveal itself as it was, especially with me and my 169 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:06,080 brother in the bedroom. That's basically the first time I've ever seen one didn't 170 00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:10,360 have a clue what it was. And then I was told, as my 171 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:15,240 brother was, that we both had the same dream, which I believe more 172 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:21,799 in a big monkey than I would us both having the same dream at the 173 00:16:21,840 --> 00:16:26,279 same time at the same moment. How did you did you ever tell you 174 00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:30,440 dreamed? If I didn't dream, told him about it when we got older 175 00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:36,200 experience, Yeah, I told him when we got older, because basically, 176 00:16:36,679 --> 00:16:41,200 once it occurred, like I said, don't, I can't even tell you 177 00:16:41,279 --> 00:16:45,960 the timeframe. But in a child's mind, it doesn't seem like we was 178 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:52,600 that long in the house wanting to sleep in my mom's bed, long before 179 00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:59,200 we had to physically move in with my grandparents because my mother could not financially 180 00:16:59,519 --> 00:17:03,720 pay the payments on that house. But you weren't over there eating supper. 181 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:11,559 Nope, sure no, sure one't. We never talked back to our mother 182 00:17:11,720 --> 00:17:17,839 back in the sixties anyway, And as a child, you'd think of it 183 00:17:17,880 --> 00:17:19,759 for two or three days and then you was told you dreamed of it. 184 00:17:19,839 --> 00:17:25,599 And see, I understand that perfectly. Yeah, I mean kids don't they 185 00:17:25,640 --> 00:17:29,440 don't think that. Oh I gotta tell I gotta counselbody, right, right, 186 00:17:29,559 --> 00:17:33,359 something traumatic happens, they just kind of deal with it, right, 187 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:38,279 And see I remember all this being that time frame because look at it like 188 00:17:38,359 --> 00:17:45,920 this August and when I remember starting to school at six years of age in 189 00:17:47,119 --> 00:17:53,839 September. Back in those days, school always started the week after Labor Day, 190 00:17:55,440 --> 00:18:00,440 you remember back them day? Oh yeah, well up now they start 191 00:18:00,519 --> 00:18:08,559 to school that first week in August. But uh, my grandkids started getting 192 00:18:08,599 --> 00:18:14,240 homework before they even started school. I'm with you, Yeah, Mom and 193 00:18:14,319 --> 00:18:18,519 daddy instructions on what they need to read and write about. But see, 194 00:18:18,640 --> 00:18:22,920 to even go with the time frame to more disclose when it happened, it 195 00:18:23,200 --> 00:18:29,680 wasn't that long. If this occurred the second week in August. We was 196 00:18:29,839 --> 00:18:37,119 living in my grandparents' house when I first stepped foot on a school bus the 197 00:18:37,160 --> 00:18:41,160 second week in September. So we're talking three weeks difference. Yeah, almost 198 00:18:41,559 --> 00:18:44,680 right over there. Well, you know, as a six year old, 199 00:18:44,720 --> 00:18:48,720 you don't care about time, but there was You don't remember anything up until 200 00:18:48,759 --> 00:18:52,359 that point. That was there. That was the first time. And I 201 00:18:52,400 --> 00:18:57,319 can see that rascal, that big monkey draped over that fence to this date 202 00:18:57,400 --> 00:19:02,359 because it Hell, if it had been Santa Claus, it had been the 203 00:19:02,359 --> 00:19:03,839 same thing. If it had been the Easter Rabbit, it had been the 204 00:19:03,839 --> 00:19:11,400 same thing. Yeah, but I'm looking at something that don't belong. I 205 00:19:11,519 --> 00:19:15,079 knew what horses was, I knew what cows was, I knew what chickens. 206 00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:18,839 I knew what dogs, we had dogs the whole nine yards. But 207 00:19:18,960 --> 00:19:22,079 what I saw draped over that fence, the only thing I ever seen close 208 00:19:22,119 --> 00:19:29,039 to it was behind the cage at the Memphis Zoo, which you're familiar with 209 00:19:29,079 --> 00:19:36,680 Memphis. That was when time made house dunk as bad as the damn It's 210 00:19:36,759 --> 00:19:41,680 line line. Lie. Well, yeah, well they never heard. They 211 00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:49,880 didn't plan that out too well, but that led up till and see that's 212 00:19:49,920 --> 00:19:56,400 how it's harder for me to try to remember when the lightning bug incident happened. 213 00:19:56,799 --> 00:20:03,640 And I'm telling you all this because you you've basically got that hall ready 214 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:07,880 but just right. But okay, but my deal with the lightning bug deal 215 00:20:08,119 --> 00:20:14,359 was the best, and even at ten years old. And I'm saying ten 216 00:20:14,599 --> 00:20:21,279 because I'm using my sister's age as the template again here. I know that 217 00:20:21,359 --> 00:20:27,000 when we was chasing those lightning bugs, she hadn't started to school yet, 218 00:20:29,200 --> 00:20:33,720 So that shows me that she was not even six years old. So if 219 00:20:33,759 --> 00:20:40,839 she wasn't six years old, if she was five, and I'm six years 220 00:20:40,839 --> 00:20:48,480 older than her, that would put me at ten or eleven years of age. 221 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:53,359 But the reason I know the time of the year was because lightning bugs 222 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:56,599 in the South. I don't know what to do in other places, but 223 00:20:56,720 --> 00:21:03,640 I have learned by traveling over the years. It's different times. Lightning bugs 224 00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,799 in the South, when they first start coming out is normally in the early 225 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:14,200 spring, which is May or April. And I do know that the reason 226 00:21:14,319 --> 00:21:22,599 they shine their little butts up is to draw females so they can breathe. 227 00:21:22,799 --> 00:21:26,359 And here we go. Each all three of us had a mason jar running 228 00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:32,240 across the field catching and it was a competition to us. We'd catch as 229 00:21:32,319 --> 00:21:37,160 mant who was gonna catch the most lightning boots, because we'd get my granddaddy 230 00:21:37,279 --> 00:21:41,880 or my grandmama to punch holes in the top of a mason jar with an 231 00:21:41,079 --> 00:21:45,680 ice pick. You remember the old ice pist yep, U mayonnaise jar yep. 232 00:21:47,319 --> 00:21:51,599 Yeah. Well, we had the mason jars because we would always can 233 00:21:51,720 --> 00:21:56,599 all of our vegetables out of the garden and stuff. We each had a 234 00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:00,799 mason jar with poke holes on the top of it, and we was out 235 00:22:00,839 --> 00:22:06,480 in the back pasture at my granddaddy's play. Well, we was doing all 236 00:22:06,599 --> 00:22:11,599 this and it was steadily getting darker, and you got to envision here this 237 00:22:11,839 --> 00:22:17,480 was the back pasture where we kept horses and cattle, and the cows and 238 00:22:17,519 --> 00:22:22,440 the horses, and my granddaddy would always keep it cut down for hay and 239 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:27,000 keep it cut down for grazing purposes. And here's all these cow patties and 240 00:22:27,039 --> 00:22:32,920 piles out there, and we was avoiding them. But that's conducive to a 241 00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:37,440 lot more firefly or lightning bug activity. And the more we was running across 242 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:41,640 the grass, we was kicking them up. Because people don't realize that fireflies 243 00:22:41,759 --> 00:22:48,720 or lightning boats stay under the blade of grass during the day. Their wings 244 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,319 cannot take the direct heat of the sun. It's like mosquitoes, you know. 245 00:22:52,440 --> 00:22:56,640 That's why mosquitoes don't come out in the daytime. But getting back to 246 00:22:56,680 --> 00:23:03,960 that, my grandfather had done his head out of the back door once and 247 00:23:03,079 --> 00:23:07,359 said, hey, y'all, chaps. He'd always call us, chaps, 248 00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:11,440 need to come on to the house, suppers ready, and it's getting dark. 249 00:23:11,119 --> 00:23:15,039 Of course, he knew that time of the year too, even though 250 00:23:15,079 --> 00:23:19,039 it was cooler at night and it was warm during the spring of the day. 251 00:23:19,519 --> 00:23:26,200 That that was when snakes started crawling. They had just come out of 252 00:23:26,279 --> 00:23:30,480 hibernation or what they go through. During the wintertime, and he knew that 253 00:23:30,599 --> 00:23:37,640 these snakes could just come out from anywhere anytime. I mean we're in the 254 00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:41,160 middle of Mississippi. I mean, you know sun during the day. Oh 255 00:23:41,240 --> 00:23:45,880 yeah, well they more come out to feed at night. So he done 256 00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:51,319 stuck his head out the back door several times. The second time and we 257 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,279 heard him when he called us in, but we was having too much fun. 258 00:23:56,200 --> 00:24:00,920 But the third time, all of us occurred. He see something we're 259 00:24:02,039 --> 00:24:07,920 looking if he's looking toward us at we're kind of at a eleven o'clock position. 260 00:24:08,200 --> 00:24:18,599 He sees something further to his left our right that was slowly along the 261 00:24:18,599 --> 00:24:26,119 fence line that was separating our property and the neighbor's property. Something over there 262 00:24:26,160 --> 00:24:33,200 where between the fence line was a hedgerow of cedar trees and other trees that 263 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:40,000 had taken root from birds landing on the bob wire taking a crap with seeds 264 00:24:40,039 --> 00:24:44,960 in the mouth, and these trees would grow. But something over there was 265 00:24:45,039 --> 00:24:51,960 moving in this cedar thick along this fence line. So he caught his attention 266 00:24:52,480 --> 00:24:59,839 and what it was doing was standing up, and he you got to remember 267 00:24:59,839 --> 00:25:06,000 the this is dust dark, and this thing moving is blended in with these 268 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,440 cedar trees as its background. He didn't know what it was, but he 269 00:25:10,480 --> 00:25:17,640 saw something moving. He determined later that it was slowly swaying back and forth. 270 00:25:18,319 --> 00:25:23,920 I've noticed over the years when these things sway, that's their body language, 271 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:30,000 showing that they're nervous to a certain detree. Now remember the first incident. 272 00:25:30,359 --> 00:25:34,640 It will swaying on the fence line. The monkey will swaying. Right 273 00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:41,359 now, this thing sways. When he noticed it was all of a sudden, 274 00:25:41,559 --> 00:25:48,279 this thing drops down on all fours from standing up on two legs, 275 00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:56,160 and then it starts loping towards us on all fours, leading with its left 276 00:25:56,519 --> 00:26:00,960 knuckles on the ground. A field coming end, the same field where me 277 00:26:02,079 --> 00:26:08,640 and my brother and sister were yelling and squealing young youthful voices with the higher 278 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:15,160 pitch before maturity. Well, he knew that he did not. It was 279 00:26:15,200 --> 00:26:18,200 one of those split second deals. He had to make a decision. There 280 00:26:18,279 --> 00:26:21,960 wasn't no gun handy, They wasn't a axe, they wasn't nothing. So 281 00:26:22,039 --> 00:26:29,279 he barrels out the back door and we was probably thirty five almost forty yards 282 00:26:29,279 --> 00:26:33,839 away from it. This thing that was loping towards us, which me and 283 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:40,680 my brother and sister that was not aware of, was actually probably about twenty 284 00:26:40,759 --> 00:26:45,240 yards from us. So my granddaddy already knew that this thing was going to 285 00:26:45,319 --> 00:26:49,799 get to us before he was going to be able to get to us. 286 00:26:51,200 --> 00:26:56,680 Didn't he have to come around with hout. Yes, what happened was he 287 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:03,440 there was a fence line between my granddaddy and the pasture we was in. 288 00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:08,400 My granddaddy had an inner pasture where he would bring his cattle on his horses 289 00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:14,119 in every evening. We didn't understand that one, but he would bring them 290 00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:19,480 in every evening. It was directly because of these things, but we didn't 291 00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:26,279 know that then. But the other pasture we was in was connected to the 292 00:27:26,319 --> 00:27:32,119 other side of the big hill from the first story. We had one hundred 293 00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:37,000 and eighty six acres, and we on the huge hill behind the house, 294 00:27:37,759 --> 00:27:42,000 same hill that was you know, in the first door. To get through 295 00:27:42,039 --> 00:27:48,559 that pasture, though, there was a little bitty filled ditch that was running 296 00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:52,720 kind of parallel with a fence. So it wouldn't have done my grandfather any 297 00:27:52,799 --> 00:27:59,319 good to have jumped over the fence because then he had had to maneuver the 298 00:27:59,400 --> 00:28:04,359 ditch. So he had to run more away from us to go around what 299 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:10,200 he called his tractor shed where he kept his tractor and then go through the 300 00:28:10,279 --> 00:28:14,079 gate right there to get to us, which he would have He would have 301 00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:18,079 got there quicker going that way than he would have if he had tried to 302 00:28:18,759 --> 00:28:22,640 jump through a fence in the ditch. All the time he was running across 303 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,920 that pastor, he started cussing and raising hell and screaming and all kinds of 304 00:28:26,920 --> 00:28:33,160 stuff. Well, that was behavior to me, my brother and my sister 305 00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:38,559 that we wasn't used to seeing from my granddaddy. Very humorous, he was 306 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:44,960 funny, he loved people. Everybody loved my granddaddy, but he just would 307 00:28:45,039 --> 00:28:51,039 never just actually, I thought, in my own personal opinion, it was 308 00:28:51,279 --> 00:28:56,720 kind of like a cartoon when my grand when me and my brother my sister 309 00:28:56,799 --> 00:29:03,039 first noticed him raising all this came. We stopped immediately what we're doing because 310 00:29:03,119 --> 00:29:07,359 this was behavior that my grandfather never did. And I can just envision us 311 00:29:07,400 --> 00:29:11,160 stopping doing what we're doing, and here we go turn all our heads and 312 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:18,559 looking directly at our granddaddy. Well, when we seen him running, and 313 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:22,799 that was the first time I ever seen my granddaddy running physically. This man 314 00:29:23,039 --> 00:29:30,960 was ready at sixty years old. At I'm not saying sixty year old people 315 00:29:30,079 --> 00:29:33,759 cannot run. I'm just saying my granddaddy, I'd never seen him run in 316 00:29:33,759 --> 00:29:38,880 my life. He's never had a reason to us. But we noticed that 317 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,880 he's good, yeah, as getting it as fast as he could get it. 318 00:29:44,319 --> 00:29:49,240 But we noticed he was still yelling and screaming and possibly even cussing anything 319 00:29:49,359 --> 00:29:52,839 he could do. It was just like he. We thought he went plumb 320 00:29:52,960 --> 00:30:00,000 crazy until we noticed that he wasn't looking at us. He was looking pas, 321 00:30:00,079 --> 00:30:04,920 just us father this site. Well, when we noticed that here, 322 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:10,359 we're coming back to the cartoon again, I can envision all three of our 323 00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:15,119 heads. Once we determined that he wasn't doing this screaming and hell raising for 324 00:30:15,279 --> 00:30:22,359 us. He was looking at something to our right. So we all turned 325 00:30:22,359 --> 00:30:26,359 our head and looked that away. Well, when we did, here we 326 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:32,920 see this big ass monkey again. And now he's more like a chimpanzee because 327 00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:37,920 he's loping towards us, leading with his left hand. I noticed it was 328 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:44,799 a knuckle walker. It was on all fours and it was loping towards us. 329 00:30:44,839 --> 00:30:51,279 It wasn't walking on two legs. Again, like I said about my 330 00:30:51,319 --> 00:30:56,400 brother earlier, when my brother seen this, he hauled ass. I think 331 00:30:56,440 --> 00:30:59,880 he almost knocked my grandfather down trying to get to me and my sister. 332 00:31:02,119 --> 00:31:07,559 He didn't let my grandfather's presence to tear him or nothing. Fear is contagious, 333 00:31:08,480 --> 00:31:14,319 and I wanted to haul ass with my brother. But my baby sister, 334 00:31:14,640 --> 00:31:19,240 all of maybe four or five years old, just completely. Her legs 335 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:25,880 melt out from under her and she hits the ground, screaming bloody murder, 336 00:31:26,519 --> 00:31:33,319 screaming hysterically. I've heard her cry, heard her picture fits, I've heard 337 00:31:33,359 --> 00:31:41,240 her when she's strung by walst and everything else. She never reached that level 338 00:31:41,319 --> 00:31:47,240 of screaming and up until that point in my lifetime that she did. When 339 00:31:47,279 --> 00:31:55,039 she saw this thing loping towards us, she knew actually like I did, 340 00:31:55,160 --> 00:32:00,440 because I done already looked at my granddad, and I noticed that this was 341 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:05,039 gonna get to me and my sister way before my granddaddy was gonna get to 342 00:32:05,119 --> 00:32:09,960 us. And even though my granddaddy was raising ten times worth of hell, 343 00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:16,240 it did not deter this thing. That's when I started looking towards it, 344 00:32:16,319 --> 00:32:22,640 and I was not froze in the spot, but I did not want to 345 00:32:22,759 --> 00:32:29,640 leave my baby sister either. How much light was left enough that I could 346 00:32:29,720 --> 00:32:34,359 see it, I could see it real good, especially the closer it was 347 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:39,240 getting. I mean, this is dust dark. Now. I ain't saying 348 00:32:39,319 --> 00:32:44,240 I was cavalier. I ain't saying I was a hero. I just was 349 00:32:44,359 --> 00:32:49,519 not going to leave my baby sister. She was sitting there, just hysterically 350 00:32:49,559 --> 00:32:55,519 screaming. I was scared to death the whole nine yards, but my Granddaddy 351 00:32:55,599 --> 00:33:00,519 was coming. Everything was I was hoping, beyond hope was going to be 352 00:33:00,599 --> 00:33:05,680 all right. But I also had enough sense to know that this thing was 353 00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:10,519 going to get to us way before he was. Now, up until this 354 00:33:10,559 --> 00:33:17,480 point in time, this durned thing was looking at us. And I got 355 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:22,839 the general idea, not from at the moment, but when I was thinking 356 00:33:22,880 --> 00:33:28,079 about it later and then thinking about it over the years after it happened. 357 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:37,279 This thing did not look like it had any malicious dispost. This thing give 358 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:43,000 me the impression it was caught up into me and my brother and my sister 359 00:33:43,119 --> 00:33:47,359 chasing likening bugs, and it wanted to play too. That's the general idea 360 00:33:47,559 --> 00:33:54,079 I got. That was exactly what I was thinking from what I could physically 361 00:33:54,119 --> 00:34:00,440 see. But I, as I said, I've come to this conclusion after 362 00:34:00,519 --> 00:34:07,320 thinking about it for over the years. Well, about this time here, 363 00:34:07,400 --> 00:34:13,440 I am scared to death and put myself between me and my sister and it, 364 00:34:14,239 --> 00:34:17,079 because I knew my granddaddy was coming right behind me. About this time, 365 00:34:17,199 --> 00:34:24,480 my grandfather actually gets within this thing, sat line, and that sucker 366 00:34:25,079 --> 00:34:31,840 hit the brakes and stopped when it saw my granddaddy, even after my granddaddy 367 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:38,159 was raising two hundred times the hell. It was like it had turned the 368 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:45,840 channel and said, oops, I unscrewed up. Because what it did it 369 00:34:45,079 --> 00:34:52,920 stood up on two legs as straight as it could. It did not lock 370 00:34:52,039 --> 00:34:57,880 its knees. That's when I learned something then that has not changed since I've 371 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:02,320 been seeing these things. It had a confused look on its face, and 372 00:35:02,639 --> 00:35:08,760 actually it looked like not that it was pouting. But I got caught with 373 00:35:08,800 --> 00:35:15,159 my hand in the cookie jar. Well, it never took its eyes off 374 00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:22,199 my grandfather, but it stopped within probably eight yards of me and my sister. 375 00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:27,840 That's how close it were. But it took it that long to capture 376 00:35:28,079 --> 00:35:31,760 in its eyesight even though he was raising hell and see That's what blows my 377 00:35:31,840 --> 00:35:37,079 mind. That's how focused that thing was on me and my brother and my 378 00:35:37,159 --> 00:35:42,480 sister when we was chasing these fireflies lightning bulls, which I've always used lightning 379 00:35:42,480 --> 00:35:45,480 bulls. It's all these Yankees that say, ladybody, it wasn't lighting by. 380 00:35:45,519 --> 00:35:50,079 I said, firefly, motherfucker, you know. But uh, just 381 00:35:50,079 --> 00:35:52,960 because you're ignorant, don't mean I'm ignorant. I know what I'm talking about, 382 00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:57,320 you don't. But to make it where you'll know what I'm talking about, 383 00:35:57,360 --> 00:36:01,719 I'll use fireflies. But anyhow, of course, my grandfather never stopped. 384 00:36:01,920 --> 00:36:07,719 He was still coming toward us, and then he reached us, and 385 00:36:07,880 --> 00:36:12,440 he first thing he did he reached down and he grabbed my sister and picked 386 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:17,440 her up and cradled her in his arms. Then he reaches over there and 387 00:36:17,599 --> 00:36:23,719 he pulls me back kind of behind me, talking about my granddaddy. Well, 388 00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:29,320 this thing, with this stumped look on his face like oh, I 389 00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:38,199 screwed up, slowly turns to its left and starts walking bi peeddly to the 390 00:36:38,199 --> 00:36:44,880 woods north of where we was, and my grand My sister was still crying 391 00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:50,880 and all, but she wasn't screaming anymore. My Granddaddy hadn't the screaming was 392 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:55,000 over with, but you know, it was still there. And then all 393 00:36:55,039 --> 00:37:02,119 the time it walked until it disappeared into that cedar breaks north of us. 394 00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:07,719 It was looking over its right shoulder, but it couldn't turn its neck all 395 00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:14,639 the way around. It kind of throwed its shoulders back to look thick at 396 00:37:14,719 --> 00:37:21,000 us. That's when I realized that its neck did not work like I did, 397 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:23,920 which makes sense in the long run, and I'll get into that in 398 00:37:23,960 --> 00:37:29,400 my summer. Of course, my granddaddy takes us back to the house. 399 00:37:30,480 --> 00:37:34,920 I knew then when it got closer to us that it wasn't a chimpanzee. 400 00:37:35,079 --> 00:37:37,800 It wasn't a gorilla, it wasn't a ring of tang. It was something 401 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:45,519 that didn't the compute. And that's when, of course, my mother, 402 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:52,360 my grandmother, was all trying to settle my baby sister down. She didn't 403 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:57,000 even want to discuss, didn't want to talk about it nothing. She had 404 00:37:57,079 --> 00:38:04,119 problems with it the rest of her life. She slept with Mama the whole 405 00:38:04,199 --> 00:38:08,719 nine yards. But my grandfather kind of pulled me and my brother off to 406 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:14,360 the side and told us what this thing was. As far as he knew 407 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:19,440 what it was and the only thing he could ever describe it as, that's 408 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:27,000 a booker. And that's where I learned from the second time I seen one, 409 00:38:27,280 --> 00:38:31,840 and from anything that my grandfather already kind of knew of these things, 410 00:38:32,639 --> 00:38:38,079 and he had a term for boogers, and not a booger up, you 411 00:38:38,199 --> 00:38:45,559 knows, And I know that where I've been castrated and crucified for calling them 412 00:38:45,559 --> 00:38:50,800 boogers ever since I mentioned the word. But in the South, that's what 413 00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:55,599 we called them, and I've learned over the years that's what ninety percent of 414 00:38:55,639 --> 00:39:00,679 the people back in the sixties, the seventies, the eighties, and even 415 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:06,760 before then the fifties, the forties and the thirties called them boogers b O 416 00:39:06,760 --> 00:39:12,119 O G E R S. I think it's a pastized version off a boogieman.