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Speaker 1: Here's a short story from Chris. My story begins in

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nineteen eighty two, or somewhere close to that year. My

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husband and I lived in the middle of seventeen hundred

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acres in northwestern Sonoma County, California. We managed a horse

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boarding operation with one hundred head of horses and a

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few head of cattle. The driveway was about a mile

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and a half long from the pavement to the gate

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of the ranch. There were locks on all outer gates

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and some inner gates as well. One night, I had

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gone into town for something and I arrived back at

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the main gate. I got out of the truck to

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unlock and open the gate. I drove through, and then

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exited the truck to close the gate and relock it.

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As I approached the gate to close it, I heard

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the most god awful scream I've ever heard. It sounded

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like a woman being terrorized by something. You have to

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remember this is out in the middle of nowhere. It

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was also really dark out and the only lights were

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from my truck. I thought about this event for a

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long time, looking for an answer as to what that

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scream was made by. I had no clue, but the

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hair on the back of my neck stood at attention,

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and I ran closing and locking the gate, and I

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sprinted to the open door of the truck and I

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tailed it out of there. I continued to think about

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that sound, and I could not find an answer. I

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knew just about every sound by critters in the area,

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but this one stumped me for sure. In twenty and sixteen,

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my oldest son and I were in an apartment living

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room watching shows that were all about Bigfoot. I was

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at my desk multitasking when I heard a scream from

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the television. The hair on the back of my neck

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stood up all over again, and major goosebumps popped up

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all over my body. There was a soundtrack playing on

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the program of Bigfoot Sounds, and what gave me this

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reaction was exactly what I heard thirty four years ago.

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There was absolutely no doubt about it. It had to

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have been Bigfoot on the hill above the gate. I

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was totally amazed to learn of this, and oh, yes,

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I do believe in Bigfoot. While I was in elementary

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school in nineteen seventy one, I saw the legend of

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Boggy Creek, and I later read Peter Burns's little paperback

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book on Bigfoot. The North Georgia Mountains, especially the Apple Acchians,

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are rich with legends and strange stories about buggers. Parents

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and adults would say, don't go out at night, that's

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where the booger bears come out, or don't go there,

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the boogers will get you. The problem was is that

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nobody would ever tell you what a booger was or

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how it looked, so we thought it was only a

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scary story. In the spring of nineteen seventy three, a

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game warden went missing overnight and was found on a

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rural road walking the next morning by a passing car.

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He was exhausted and confused, with his clothes torn, and

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he couldn't remember what had happened. It was later said

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that he claimed to have seen a tall, hairy creature

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with a big head and a face like a bull.

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This story was buzzing around for about two weeks, and

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suddenly all talk of it went quiet. We think he

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either quit or the state relocated him. In March of

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nineteen seventy four, I was fifteen years old. I didn't

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drink or smoke or anything like that. I was a

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straight arrow football player and not the type to tell stories.

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About eight thirty PM. I was riding in a car

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with three other guys and the driver was about two

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years older than us. We were spotlighting deer illegally, but

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not for the purpose of shooting one. We were just

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checking them out. We were going down the main road

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and it was barely paved and it was full of potholes.

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As we rolled along about ten to fifteen miles an hour,

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we spotted a buck and two doughs up on a

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chest high red clay bank with bushes and overgrowth partially

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blocking our view. This was at a four way crossroads

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where the very narrow, dirt right hand road led off

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into a completely deserted forest with no houses. On the

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left was another dirt gravel road with an old church

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on the corner. Further down that road were a couple

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of farms. A river runs down one side that is

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fed by the Amicalola Falls, which is located at the

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head of the Appalachian Trail. Ironically, there is an area

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of the river known as the Devil's Elbow where moonshiners,

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car thieves, pot growers, and hunters were alleged to have

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gone missing over the years. This is the same area

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where the game warden went missing in nineteen seventy three.

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I was a passenger in the rear seat and I

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couldn't really see the deer. We stopped and the guy

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in front of me got out with a spotlight. It

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was an old Deeese cell, and he shined the deer.

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Apparently the deer had been running and were tired because

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they did in the haul, but when we lit them up.

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About three or four seconds after exiting the back seat,

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I heard a crack or a pop forty five degrees

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to my right in the forest. My friend, who was

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sitting next to me heard it and said, oh, man,

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I bet that's a game warden. I said, that's one

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noisy game warden. He then began urging the driver to

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get us ode of there. About that time came some

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more noises, like something large moving through the woods. I

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instantly thought it was a bear because a five hundred

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pounder was killed in our area, but bears are known

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to be very quiet when walking, so I started saying

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let's go, and the hare started standing up on my

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arms and neck, and I began to feel sick with fear.

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About that time, about seventy five or eighty feet to

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my right, at a fifteen to twenty degree angle, I

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watched a huge hooking figure cross that road from bank

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to bank in three forward leading large steps while swinging

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its arms. From the sound it was making, it appeared

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to be approaching the deer, and at the moment they

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bolted out of there. Now let's pause for a moment,

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as I'm frozen with fear and it seems like time

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has slowed down. My friend to the left says, what

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the hell was that? And now we're both saying let's go.

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Let's go and have one foot in the car. And

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then as I look up on the top of the embankment,

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I see the outline of a figure move slowly to

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get behind a tree where its face was obscured. My friend,

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with a spotlight starts slowly getting in the car while

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me and the other dude dive in the back seat.

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At this time, my older and more stubborn friend pulls

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out a twenty two pistol and says, who are you

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talk to me or I'm going to shoot. Now we're

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screaming let's go, as he again says tell me who

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you are. I'm gonna shoot. I think my friend in

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front of me still has the light pointed at it

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over the door, even though he is now back in

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the car. At that instant, we hear a bang bang

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as the driver shoots up in the air. He immediately

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throws the pistol down and jumps in the car as

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we spin out of their sideways. Now I'm shaking all

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over so bad that my feet are actually tapping, and

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everybody but the driver is talking at once. I don't

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remember who asks first. I think the guy in front,

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but he said, what did you see? The driver is

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silent as we drove until we found a closed gas

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station and we pulled over. He got out and went

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to the drink machine and down to coke, but he

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still wouldn't talk. Now my friend is driving us all home,

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and it's about ten pm, and we're planning to go

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back the next day to look around in the daylight.

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We also agreed to tell our families, minus the part

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about the gunfire. Of course. After we drop off my

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friend in the back, we're headed to my house. My

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friend in front says to the driver, hey, man, what

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did you see? Nothing but silence until we got to

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my house, where my friend in the front says, you

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saw its face, didn't you, he very quietly said. I

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sat there for a minute waiting for more, but it

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was obvious he wasn't talking, and it was getting late

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on that school night. I then had to get out

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and walk up the long path to the dark backside

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of a house which sat at the foot of the mountain.

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When I got inside, my mom noticed that there was

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something wrong and her first question was has somebody been drinking? Now?

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That was all I needed, so as I finally managed

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to tell my story, my mom replied, huh, it's probably

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the devil. But my dad, who grew up on a

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farm only a few miles from this incident, sat silent

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looking at the TV. It was his older generation on

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both sides of the family who used the term booger.

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Growing up on a farm, he knew all too well

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about booger stories and later said that he used to

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hear the strange screaming sounds in the woods. They always

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blamed it on the panthers, but they were all hunted

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and killed by the nineteen hundreds. The few other people

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that I shared this story with laughed and ridiculed me,

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so I shut my mouth until nineteen eighty. The following day,

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We all headed back, and our driver still wasn't going

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to talk. We got to the location and we couldn't

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find footprints, but we did. We'd find broken branches and

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impressions in the ground. Then we got to the tree

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where its face was hidden. A prominent, crooked limb stuck

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out and bent upward. I could stand flat footed and

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reach the limb with my arm almost extended, and that

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put the creature at about seven foot ten inches or

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possibly more. We went back two times at night to

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look stupid and heavily armed, but found nothing, thank God.

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About two months later, I was in church and I

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saw a girl that lived on that same road, but

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closer to the main highway. I told her what had happened,

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and a very serious expression overtook her face. She informed

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me that it had run across the road in front

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of her one night while coming home from a football game.

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She also said that her uncle saw it coming out

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of his chicken house about a year ago. I sat

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there silently, thinking, Oh God, why have you allowed such

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things to exist. In nineteen eighty, a new subdivision was

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being built near our encounter. A story started circulating that

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the first resident of the subdivision came home one night

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to find his back door broken down and his kitchen ransacked.

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Nothing was stolen, everything was just destroyed. I didn't know

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the man, but of all things, he was related to

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my friend who drove the night of iron encounter before

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church one morning. I again asked him, six years later

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if he had seen its face that night, and he

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nodded yes, and then he looked away. My opinion is

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that the sight of it really scrambled his eggs and

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he didn't want to deal with it. As far as

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I know, nothing ever came of the vandalized house incident,

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as that story died quickly, just like the game warden story.

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For some reason, I told my dad a story that

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a very peculiar aunt told me at the age of

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five or six. She and my uncle lived in a

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house on top of a big hill at the foot

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of a mountain about seven miles from this incident. She

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claimed that while rocking on her front porch one night,

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a large, hairy man with a very ugly face came

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around the corner and stood motionless looking at her about

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eight feet away. She said that she felt paralyzed with

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fear and could only cut her eyes to look at it,

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she was unable to call out to my uncle sitting

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in the living room behind only a foot away. She

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claimed that she closed her eyes very tight and began praying,

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and in a few seconds she opened her eyes and

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the creature was gone. I remember her saying his face

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looked like it was hit by a hammer. I asked

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my dad if she was crazy, to which he replied,

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folks thought so well, being able to share this as therapeutic. Thankfully,

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we now have a bigfit museum about an hour north

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of me. I correspond regularly with the owner and the staff,

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and they say every week at least one person comes

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in to share a story. I was honored to have

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met both Scott Carpenter and David Polattis there. I hope

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my story wasn't too boring. I just wonder how many

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people from my area have even better stories to tell,

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but they fear the ridicule. Back in nineteen eighty, I

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worked second shift at one of those factories where they

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work you like a dog, treat you like dirt, and

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they pay you very little for it. We had two bosses.

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One was a drunk and the other was a jerk.

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I hadn't worked there long when they hired Gary. We

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were about the same age, and we both had a

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wife and child to care for. Many nights after work

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we'd sit out in the parking lot and talk about

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our wives and complain about work. And when Gary talked

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about his wife, his eyes lit up and a smile

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came over his face. I never met his wife, but

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she must have been really something special. Most Friday nights

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into Saturday mornings, someone would bring a cooler of beer.

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When you get off work at two in the morning,

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you just can't go straight home and go right to sleep.

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Most of the time, you'd have to unwine when you

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got home, so kicking back in the parking lot for

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a while help. On one of those nights, Gary said

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he needed some help putting brakes on his truck. I said, yeah,

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come on over Saturday afternoon be there about too. That way,

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if we need something in town, we'll have time to

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go get it. Saturday rolled around and Gary showed up

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at my house and I took one look at him,

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and I knew immediately that something was wrong. I didn't

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push the issue, but I did let him know that

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if there was anything I could do for him, all

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he had to do was let me know, and then

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I made sure he wasn't angry with me. I didn't

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want to be working under his t if he was

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pissed off at me. An hour and a half later,

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with the brakes installed and the truck ready to go,

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I asked Gary if he wanted a beer. We went

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out to the backyard and we chugged down a few.

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After a while, he told me that his wife was

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leaving him. He was heartbroken. I really didn't know what

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to say, but I kept talking, installing him as long

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as I could. I didn't want him to leave and

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drive drunk and then wind up in jail. He was

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a cheap drunk, three beers in and he was seeing

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two of me. Damn, that sounds like me. I decided

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what better way to distract him than to do a

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little target practice. It probably wasn't the best idea, but

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it worked. I got my twenty two and I set

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up some targets, and a couple hours later he seemed

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to be okay. And that's when he went out to

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his truck and he pulled out a pistol. I don't

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remember if it was a thirty or three point fifty seven.

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He unlocked the toolbox on the back and got out

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a box of shells, and we shot half the box.

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We were real crack shots. If we hit a target,

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it was by accident. Another hour went by and he

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said he wanted to get on home. He was still upset,

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but in a lot better shape than he had been,

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so I figured he'd be okay. As he drove away,

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I sat a little prayer for him that he and

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his wife would somehow work things out. And I was

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cleaning up and I happened to notice that Gary had

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left that half a box of shells on the table.

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So I put him in the plastic bag and stuck

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them in my truck so I could give him back

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to him on Monday. And when Monday came around, there

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was no Gary at work. At lunchtime, I called him,

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but he didn't answer. Well. I was worried, so I

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drove over to his house after work. His truck was there,

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but it was so late I decided not to stop.

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On Tuesday, Gary showed up for work and it was

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apparent that things hadn't gotten any better if it wasn't

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work related. He didn't speak. After work. We went out

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to the parking lot and once everybody else left, he

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opened up and he started talking. When Gary had gotten

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home Saturday, the whole house was empty. His wife was gone,

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he said. He went after her, but he realized there

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was nothing he could do. He was full of rage

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and hatred and just started driving around. Pretty soon he

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found himself out on some old logging road. He didn't

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really know where. He just kept driving, and then it

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started raining and the road got slick. Well, he was

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driving too fast and he wound up in a ditch.

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There was no way that he was going to get

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himself out of there without any help. He was looking

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around and he noticed a pond down by an embankment.

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He grabbed his pistol and he walked down and he

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sat on a stump by the water. Then he started crying.

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He decided to end his life right there. He let

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out a loud, agonizing scream, and he put the pistol

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in his mouth and he pulled the trigger. Click. He

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realized he left the shells in the truck, so he

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went back up, opened the toolbox and grabbed a box

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of shells, and then he went back down to the

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pond and sat back down on the stump and raised

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the pistol up to his mouth. Just then a rock

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about the size of a basketball splashed into the water

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and it soaked him. He turned around, but no one

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was there. There was no sound at all, just in

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eerie silence. Suddenly something ripped through the silence with a

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scream as loud as a freight train. That was followed

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by rumbling in the bush. And at this point Gary

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was halfway back to the truck and he could hear

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something closing in on him. In a panic, he jumped

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into the truck that was now sitting back on the

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road and facing the direction from whence he came. He

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got a glimpse of the creature before he tore off

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down the road. He said, it was a bigfoot. I

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walked over to my truck and I pulled out the

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plastic bag with a half a box of shells in it,

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the ones he'd left at my house, and I handed

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them to him. The look on his face was priceless.

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He went over and got the box of shells that

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he'd had at the pond. The boxes looked the same,

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but the shells he had were for a forty five,

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No way they would fit in a thirty eight or

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a three point fifty seven. Gary looked up at me

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and he said, Bigfoot saved my life. Perhaps, I said,

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or maybe he just didn't want you messing up as

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water in hole. Gary said he'd never been so scared

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in his life. He couldn't understand why the thing let

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him go. It could have had him anytime it wanted.

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He told me how he'd gone some ten miles before

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it sank in, that his truck had been pulled out

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of the ditch and was facing back the way he

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had come. Well, I took a look at his truck.

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00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,880
It did have mud on it. There were smears of

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mud on the bumper, but no real damage. Thinking back,

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I realized that those mud smears were right where you'd

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hook the chains if you were pulling it out of

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a ditch. Maybe not chains, but maybe some massive hands.

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Gary wasn't the kind of guy to make up stories.

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I never remember us ever talking about Bigfoot or ghosts

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or anything like that. Back then, Bigfoot was not a

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00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:57,559
big deal. We never really took that stuff seriously. But

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now Gary is a believer and I'm a bit more

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open minded. Two weeks before Christmas, there was a big

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layoff and we both lost our jobs. I lost contact

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with Gary, but I heard his wife went through with

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a divorce and he moved back to Tennessee.