WEBVTT 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.