WEBVTT 1 00:00:06.599 --> 00:00:10.759 My father was born in nineteen twenty five to a family of ten children. 2 00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:16.199 He was in the middle of the stairstep ages, seven boys and three girls. 3 00:00:17.359 --> 00:00:20.839 It was the time of the Great Depression, and the movie Grapes of 4 00:00:20.920 --> 00:00:26.399 Wrath could have been his story put to film. His father was a hard 5 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:30.719 and defeated man who was taken to drink, leaving his family for weeks at 6 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:35.159 a time alone. And the older of the seven brothers were tasked with hunting 7 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:39.799 and fishing to feed the family, and my grandmother would take in sewing jobs 8 00:00:39.840 --> 00:00:45.039 and any odd job to buy basic food needs. The family did okay after 9 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:50.640 my grandfather died, and the boys were excellent hunters and gatherers. I tell 10 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:54.200 this part to explain that my father grew up in the woods hunting, and 11 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:58.799 by hunting I don't mean sitting in a blind with deer feeders settle on timers 12 00:00:58.799 --> 00:01:03.280 to get the deer trained again at the right time. I'm talking about real 13 00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:07.840 hunting is what Dad and his brothers did daily to provide food. Each boy 14 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:12.040 left home in a different direction and would not return home without game, be 15 00:01:12.120 --> 00:01:18.480 it rabbit, squirrel, deer, even a hog. My father feared nothing 16 00:01:18.640 --> 00:01:23.239 and would frequently go out in the dark without a flashlight. He really feared 17 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:30.000 nothing except one thing, or should I say, one place. It wasn't 18 00:01:30.120 --> 00:01:33.799 until I was seventeen or eighteen that I found out he had a fear at 19 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:40.120 all and exactly what that fear was. My father was forty when I was 20 00:01:40.159 --> 00:01:45.599 born. I was what was referred to as a late runner. My sister 21 00:01:45.719 --> 00:01:49.439 was sixteen and my brother was twelve when I came along. Always a hard 22 00:01:49.439 --> 00:01:55.040 worker and always trying to provide better for his family, my father managed to 23 00:01:55.079 --> 00:02:00.000 save money here and there and eventually opened a gas station. Then he opened 24 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:04.680 in a small grocery, followed by a trailer park, in several rental properties, 25 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:08.800 and then he ventured into cattle. He was good at everything he built, 26 00:02:08.879 --> 00:02:14.680 but he excelled in the cattle business. To say that he was my 27 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:19.520 hero as an understatement, but to add to his legend, he was legally 28 00:02:19.560 --> 00:02:23.960 blind. He was declared legally blind at ten years of age, and he 29 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:28.319 was sent to the Texas School for the Blind in nineteen thirty five, where 30 00:02:28.360 --> 00:02:31.319 he stayed for less than a year. He learned to read braille, but 31 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:38.080 he cheated because he could actually see the words. He explained his blindness as 32 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:40.840 drinking a glass of milk and then holding the empty glass to your eyes and 33 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:46.840 looking through the milky residue. But he managed to do everything he needed, 34 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:51.080 and he even held a driver's license. Of course, his brother went and 35 00:02:51.120 --> 00:02:55.719 got that in his place. When I turned sixteen, I became his driver 36 00:02:55.879 --> 00:03:00.479 in his right hand. We would hit three livestock auctions per week, on 37 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:06.800 Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. It was a Saturday auction that brought out 38 00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:13.800 my father's only fear. Dad bought a fine slaughter beef and our deep freeze 39 00:03:13.879 --> 00:03:17.159 was running low and it was time to fill it back up. Once loaded 40 00:03:17.159 --> 00:03:22.639 in the trailer, we started for the slaughter house in West Columbia. We 41 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:28.159 traveled on Highway thirty five between Angleton and West Columbia hundreds of times, but 42 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:32.360 on this day the auction ran long and it was after dark. As we 43 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:38.439 made the turn onto Highway thirty five at Bailey's Prairie, my dad gasped as 44 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:42.639 if he had seen something that scared him. I asked if he was okay. 45 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:46.439 I was afraid he was having a heart attack, and the suddenness and 46 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:52.680 intensity of the gasp surprised me. His eyes were wide but distant, as 47 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:55.280 if he were seeing a memory, and he barked at me loudly to turn 48 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:01.240 back to FM five twenty one. If Farm to Market five twenty one travels 49 00:04:01.319 --> 00:04:08.599 south from Angleton Auction Barn to Brazoria Highway thirty five west. From there, 50 00:04:09.240 --> 00:04:13.919 the two roads don't exactly cross. You have to turn onto Highway thirty five 51 00:04:13.960 --> 00:04:18.519 and then travel two hundred yards to continue on FM five twenty one. I 52 00:04:18.600 --> 00:04:23.560 made the turn west, and Dad panicked and he had me make the turn 53 00:04:23.720 --> 00:04:28.680 south. It all happened so fast that after making a quick turn and pulling 54 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.240 my heart back out of my throat, I started to pull over to check 55 00:04:31.319 --> 00:04:35.120 on Dad. Well, this seemed to really set him off, and he 56 00:04:35.160 --> 00:04:41.639 angrily yelled at me drive God damn it. I never questioned my father. 57 00:04:42.199 --> 00:04:46.399 He seemed to always be exact and right, but on this one I was 58 00:04:46.439 --> 00:04:50.800 completely perplexed. I asked him why we were going away from the slaughterhouse. 59 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:56.800 Were we going to take the beef to the slaughterhouse tomorrow? He cut me 60 00:04:56.879 --> 00:05:00.639 off and he said that we're going to the slaughterhouse by way Brazoria. Well, 61 00:05:00.680 --> 00:05:04.839 this was ridiculous. That was adding an hour to our trip home. 62 00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:11.720 We delivered the beef and then made the now much longer trip home in silence, 63 00:05:11.759 --> 00:05:15.079 and I just drove, not knowing what was wrong or how to ask. 64 00:05:15.040 --> 00:05:18.800 And once inside the house, I sat silently at the dining table, 65 00:05:19.000 --> 00:05:25.199 which was where all business and talks took place. Dad broke the silence. 66 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.759 He said, tea, I'm real sorry. I yelled at you back there, 67 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:32.839 but I got scared. My jaw hit the floor and he took notice 68 00:05:32.839 --> 00:05:39.680 of my gas being expression to me that was like Superman saying I'm not strong 69 00:05:39.800 --> 00:05:44.519 enough. It was then that he told me a story, and it explained 70 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:50.240 everything. In late nineteen thirty nine, my older and younger brother and I 71 00:05:50.279 --> 00:05:55.920 made a deal with a cafe in West Columbia to provide them with bullfrogs. 72 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:01.839 They were adding frog legs to their menu. Halfway between West Columbia and Angleton 73 00:06:01.879 --> 00:06:06.279 on Highway thirty five is a big slew that the area of Folk called Middle 74 00:06:06.360 --> 00:06:11.639 Bayou. Our plan was to walk up the slough a mile or so and 75 00:06:11.680 --> 00:06:16.160 then fill our tote sacks with frogs. We had car byed headlamps that gave 76 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:20.319 very basic dim light, but enough to see where you were stepping, but 77 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:26.879 the dim light made frogs and snake eyes shine. They were enough. My 78 00:06:26.959 --> 00:06:30.800 older brother pulled his car off thirty five into the ditch and we got our 79 00:06:30.839 --> 00:06:33.959 gear ready. He left his keys in the ignition, and I asked him 80 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:38.319 about it, and he said, there probably wouldn't be a car coming by 81 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:41.480 the rest of the night, and did we really want to risk losing the 82 00:06:41.560 --> 00:06:45.399 keys and trying to find them out there in the swamp. He had a 83 00:06:45.399 --> 00:06:48.360 good point, so we left the car windows down and proceeded down the slough. 84 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:54.839 We crossed three barbed wire fences and were hearing frogs croaking everywhere, along 85 00:06:54.879 --> 00:07:00.800 with crickets and locusts. Just as we approached a fourth fence, maybe ten 86 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:04.639 or fifteen yards from it, my older brother froze in step and my younger 87 00:07:04.680 --> 00:07:10.639 brother ran into me as I stopped suddenly. I asked my older brother, 88 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:15.120 Isaac, why he stopped, and he just pointed silently up ahead of us. 89 00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:20.199 In the low moonlight, I could see a wide silhouette of shoulders and 90 00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:27.879 a head slightly swaying across that fourth fence. The carbyed light made this thing's 91 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:32.199 eyes glow the color of amber. The eyes were ten inches apart, and 92 00:07:32.240 --> 00:07:36.240 they had to be eight feet off the ground. It was then that I 93 00:07:36.399 --> 00:07:42.240 noticed that the slew had gone silent. Hoyt, my younger brother, said, 94 00:07:42.279 --> 00:07:46.560 what the hell is that. Isaac turned to us and said, sh 95 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:51.920 this is something real bad. It seemed like we were in a stair down 96 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:58.279 with this thing, and Isaac started pushing us back real slow. It kept 97 00:07:58.279 --> 00:08:01.720 slowly swaying back and forth until we had moved far enough back that the glow 98 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:07.040 of its eyes were a faint glimmer. Isaac told hoy to turn around and 99 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:11.079 slowly start walking back to the car, and then he told me to do 100 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:16.399 the same slowly. But just as I turned this thing let out a roar 101 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.439 that scared us to death. If you mix the high trumpet of an elephant, 102 00:08:20.759 --> 00:08:24.600 the deep rumble of a male line, and the bellow of a bull 103 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:30.519 all at the same time, that's what it sounded like. I felt that 104 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:35.360 sound all the way through my body panicked. As we were we continued to 105 00:08:35.399 --> 00:08:41.440 slowly walk back, it yelled at us again, and we heard the heavy 106 00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.679 thud and the sound of a barbed wire fence being stomped down, and at 107 00:08:45.679 --> 00:08:48.639 that time a second yell came from the opposite side of the slough, and 108 00:08:48.679 --> 00:08:52.919 that one was crashing towards us, and Isaac yelled for us to run. 109 00:08:54.559 --> 00:09:00.159 The creatures moved parallel to each other down both sides of the slough, and 110 00:09:00.200 --> 00:09:05.240 now they were screaming non stop. I never ran that hard in my life. 111 00:09:05.360 --> 00:09:09.519 Te Isaac kept a hand on my back as he got to the third 112 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.440 fence. We hurried through the wires and got back to a hard run. 113 00:09:13.200 --> 00:09:18.320 That thing behind us had closed the distance quite a bit. When we got 114 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:22.600 to the second fence, we could hear the one on the opposite bank moving 115 00:09:22.679 --> 00:09:28.519 closer, and the footfalls behind us were approaching. We got past that fence 116 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:31.240 and the brush had opened up, and we could finally run at full speed, 117 00:09:31.679 --> 00:09:37.080 but so could the creatures. The first fence came into view this time 118 00:09:37.159 --> 00:09:43.360 there was no stopping and pulling wires apart. White ran through it, tearing 119 00:09:43.399 --> 00:09:46.159 his shirt off, and Isaac and I dove over it. We all came 120 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:50.919 up running in a mad sprint to the last tree line, trying to get 121 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:54.879 to the car. We crashed through the last bit of brush and we dove 122 00:09:54.919 --> 00:10:01.240 into the car. Whatever that thing was, it stopped inside the tree line 123 00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:07.360 and it let out one final screen. Isaac had started the car. It 124 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:11.480 was in gear and moving in seconds, and he floored it back to Highway 125 00:10:11.559 --> 00:10:16.919 thirty five. None of us spoke a word about this until we got home. 126 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:20.960 We dropped off shirtless and scratched up Hoyt, and then Isaac dropped me 127 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:26.080 at home, and it was still not a word spoken by anyone. It 128 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:30.440 was a long time before the three of us talked about any of it. 129 00:10:31.080 --> 00:10:33.679 In fact, to you're the first person I've ever told the whole story to. 130 00:10:35.720 --> 00:10:41.000 As I wrote earlier, my dad wasn't afraid of the dark or anything 131 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:45.519 else, but that night put a fear in him that lasted until he died 132 00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:52.000 many years later. In nineteen eighty eight, my group of friends loved to 133 00:10:52.039 --> 00:10:54.679 go out at night and get a good scare. It was a pastime for 134 00:10:54.759 --> 00:10:58.919 us. One of the kids had come home from basic training and was ready 135 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:03.279 for for a fun night out. I had an idea. There was a 136 00:11:03.279 --> 00:11:09.000 new residential development under construction near where my father and his brothers had their experience. 137 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:16.720 The new subdivision was called the bar X. A story had been told 138 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:20.039 that when the bar X was first being developed, there was a construction trailer 139 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:24.120 sitting in the back of the property, and they were having a hard time 140 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:28.519 keeping night watchmen hired to stay there late at night. Something would come up 141 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:35.120 and bang on the trailer and turn things over. After several night watchmen had 142 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:39.120 quit and the story had gotten around enough that they couldn't hire anyone to do 143 00:11:39.240 --> 00:11:43.799 the job, they closed off that section and removed the equipment, and it 144 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:48.639 stayed closed for many years. This was all I needed to hear to put 145 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:52.720 together my best scare ever for my friends. I would take my buddy and 146 00:11:52.759 --> 00:11:56.919 his girlfriend there and I'd tell them the story my dad had relayed to me, 147 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:01.080 and then I'd get them to walk down that dirt road and scare them. 148 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:05.399 But Jesus out of them, no one knew where we were going except 149 00:12:05.399 --> 00:12:11.240 me. We piled into my mother's nineteen seventy seven Ford Ltd. Which actually 150 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:18.240 could sit six people comfortably, and I began to tell the tale. Within 151 00:12:18.320 --> 00:12:22.519 minutes, all their eyes were huge and their mouths gaped open, and not 152 00:12:22.600 --> 00:12:28.200 a sound being made as they listened. I pulled onto the road and announced 153 00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:33.320 somberly that we had just crossed over middle By you. Yep, it was 154 00:12:33.360 --> 00:12:37.720 the same middle By you that Dad had been run out of fifty years before. 155 00:12:39.480 --> 00:12:41.879 We pulled in and circled to the right and stopped at the opening of 156 00:12:41.879 --> 00:12:46.519 the dirt road. The guys jumped out, and they wanted to show they 157 00:12:46.519 --> 00:12:50.279 weren't scared. They were showing off for the girls. Reluctantly, the girls 158 00:12:50.320 --> 00:12:56.840 followed along and we headed for the gate back into those woods. The moonlight 159 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:01.200 gave the area an eerie feeling, and I remember a strong wind at my 160 00:13:01.399 --> 00:13:05.759 back. I was in the back of the group, and I would blast 161 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:11.039 out a horrible screen as they walked to the gate. Everything was working great 162 00:13:11.720 --> 00:13:16.480 until as I inhaled to get out that roar, I became aware that there 163 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:20.960 was something beside me, just off the road, in the darkness. In 164 00:13:22.000 --> 00:13:26.919 my peripheral I saw movement in black on black. I froze in step and 165 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.200 I turned to face the blackness, straining my eyes to see what had moved. 166 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.080 The two brothers saw that I had stopped and came back to join me. 167 00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:41.840 I didn't notice them. I was leaning over, looking hard into that 168 00:13:41.879 --> 00:13:46.720 blackness, trying to make out whatever had moved. They asked me what I 169 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.919 saw, and I told them something wasn't right and to go get the girls 170 00:13:50.919 --> 00:13:54.360 that we needed to leave. They could hear in my tone that the gag 171 00:13:54.480 --> 00:14:00.480 was over and something really was wrong. I heard the girls of approaching. 172 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:03.240 My buddy was leaning over my shoulder, looking into the dark with me. 173 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:09.399 There's something right there, I said, lifting my hand to point at the 174 00:14:09.480 --> 00:14:13.639 thing I was looking at. And the wind that had been blowing stopped, 175 00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:20.120 like someone had turned off a fan. Everything went silent, and it was 176 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:26.759 as if the earth stood still as death. A stale odor came out of 177 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:31.000 those trees. Could have been a skunk, but it was worse. All 178 00:14:31.039 --> 00:14:35.000 of us smelled it, and the girls showed their hands across their clenched noses, 179 00:14:35.080 --> 00:14:41.480 trying to wave the odor away. A black shape rose to its feet 180 00:14:41.679 --> 00:14:46.279 in a fluid motion. It hid its head on a limb, raising it 181 00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:50.519 up in the moonlight for a second. It went still again, and we 182 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:54.960 could all now see its shape, and then it turned and crashed away into 183 00:14:54.960 --> 00:15:01.279 the woods. We dashed for the car, and as we ran we could 184 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:05.879 hear it crashing through the brush behind the new cult a sack. As fast 185 00:15:05.919 --> 00:15:09.519 as I could, I got the car started and I fish tailed into the 186 00:15:09.600 --> 00:15:13.600 curve, heading out over Middle Value crossing, my headlights picked up the back 187 00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:18.919 half of this thing, having already crossed the road and heading back into the 188 00:15:18.919 --> 00:15:22.559 brush on our side. We saw its back covered in hair as it ran, 189 00:15:24.039 --> 00:15:26.639 and as we got parallel with it, it turned its head and roared 190 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:33.480 at us. It was the same roar my father had described. We raced 191 00:15:33.519 --> 00:15:37.120 away and turned on to FM five twenty one, and everyone started to whoop 192 00:15:37.120 --> 00:15:41.519 and holler at the great scare that is what we had gone there for, 193 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:46.679 But not me. I was thinking about my father and the real terror he 194 00:15:46.799 --> 00:15:52.720 must have felt that night, all those years ago. We went back there 195 00:15:52.759 --> 00:15:56.679 the next morning, and the limb that the creature bumped his head on was 196 00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:02.679 seven feet eight inches off the ground measured it. The creature was taller than 197 00:16:02.720 --> 00:16:06.799 eight feet, but there were no tracks due to the leaves covering the ground, 198 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:11.559 and we didn't think to look for anything else. While we looked around. 199 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:15.759 A thought was running through my mind. I had been so close to 200 00:16:15.840 --> 00:16:18.799 this thing while peering into the darkness the night before, trying to make out 201 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:23.759 what I knew had caught my eye. It was so close, only a 202 00:16:23.879 --> 00:16:27.919 short reach, and it would have had me. I'm a big man, 203 00:16:29.399 --> 00:16:33.399 and this thing was three times my size. I would have not had a 204 00:16:33.519 --> 00:16:37.240 chance. When we got home, I told my father of the story. 205 00:16:38.039 --> 00:16:41.519 He leaned back in his chair and took a long drag off a cigarette. 206 00:16:42.120 --> 00:16:45.559 I'm sorry you had to go through that, he said. It scared me 207 00:16:45.720 --> 00:16:49.399 enough to make me sick to my stomach when I think about it. How 208 00:16:49.480 --> 00:16:53.200 do you feel right now, same as you, dad, I said, 209 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:59.480 t Roy, you saw a wood burger. Don't ever talk about it to 210 00:16:59.559 --> 00:17:03.759 people. Folks will think you lost your mind. Just keep it to yourself. 211 00:17:03.799 --> 00:17:10.000 That was the last time we ever talked about it. These days, 212 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:14.240 I don't care what people think about me. I know what I saw, 213 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:19.279 and I know what my father and his brothers saw. You can believe whatever 214 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:22.920 you want.