1
00:00:08,080 --> 00:00:10,480
Speaker 1: I have one story in this podcast that I think

2
00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:14,080
it's going to blow you away. And I've said before

3
00:00:14,400 --> 00:00:17,079
on this podcast over and over, there's no way for

4
00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:22,239
me to verify that any story I've ever done is true.

5
00:00:22,359 --> 00:00:25,679
There's no way I could verify it. There's no way

6
00:00:25,719 --> 00:00:28,000
that you know if it's true. These are emails that

7
00:00:28,079 --> 00:00:30,960
people send me, and we just have to trust that

8
00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,119
they're telling the truth. But I have no way to

9
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,200
verify it, and you can't verify it either. I've had

10
00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:38,439
a lot of people say, oh, story wasn't true. Well,

11
00:00:38,439 --> 00:00:40,920
you don't know that. There's no way you can know that.

12
00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:43,880
But this story was so good I'm putting it in

13
00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:47,960
a podcast by itself. Again. I think it's gonna blow

14
00:00:48,039 --> 00:00:50,479
your weave off. You might spit your dentures out in

15
00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:52,679
your lap. If you do, just pick them up, stick

16
00:00:52,719 --> 00:00:55,200
them back in your mouth, you'd be all right. All right,

17
00:00:55,280 --> 00:01:05,040
here we go. My grandfather's brother, my great uncle, saved

18
00:01:05,079 --> 00:01:09,239
a clan of sasquatch by killing a rogue of mail.

19
00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:15,640
This is his story. I never met my uncle. I

20
00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:17,560
may have seen him, but I was too young to

21
00:01:17,640 --> 00:01:22,239
remember him. My grandfather only saw him twice after they

22
00:01:22,280 --> 00:01:26,480
all left home. Granddaddy went into the timber business, and

23
00:01:26,560 --> 00:01:29,439
his brother left the next year to go south to Texas.

24
00:01:30,159 --> 00:01:32,680
He had heard there was good work in the oil fields,

25
00:01:32,719 --> 00:01:36,680
and I suppose he was after an adventure. That is

26
00:01:36,719 --> 00:01:39,280
the way people did in those days, and if a

27
00:01:39,359 --> 00:01:42,400
child left the house and moved across the country, they

28
00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:47,400
might not see their families again. Ever, these two men

29
00:01:47,480 --> 00:01:50,200
and the rest of their brothers and sisters left home

30
00:01:50,239 --> 00:01:53,200
around the time of the depression or sometime in the

31
00:01:53,280 --> 00:01:58,120
nineteen thirties. Out of eight children, only one stayed home

32
00:01:58,159 --> 00:02:00,280
to live on the family farm and help with the

33
00:02:00,280 --> 00:02:06,079
small operation. The other seven went their own way. Uncle

34
00:02:06,159 --> 00:02:09,879
John came home once, eight years after he left. He

35
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:12,479
stayed with his mother and father for a month, and

36
00:02:12,520 --> 00:02:15,919
then he took a bus back to Texas. The Second

37
00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:19,120
World War broke out, he joined the military, and after

38
00:02:19,159 --> 00:02:22,319
the war he went straight back to Texas to resume

39
00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:25,800
his job in the oil fields. My uncle stayed gone

40
00:02:25,840 --> 00:02:29,120
another three decades until one day a car pulled in

41
00:02:29,159 --> 00:02:32,840
front of the home place and he was back. He

42
00:02:32,879 --> 00:02:36,000
had been injured doing whatever he was doing, and at

43
00:02:36,039 --> 00:02:39,639
his age and with no wife or children, he needed

44
00:02:39,639 --> 00:02:43,439
a place to stay while he recovered it was a

45
00:02:43,479 --> 00:02:47,520
back injury, because Granddaddy told me that his brother probably

46
00:02:47,639 --> 00:02:51,479
walked crooked the rest of his life. My uncle stayed

47
00:02:51,479 --> 00:02:54,479
with my grandparents for several months until he was well

48
00:02:54,599 --> 00:02:57,039
enough to leave and do office work for the company

49
00:02:57,080 --> 00:03:01,919
he worked for. Andy had left the timber business and

50
00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,639
built a house on the family land his parents, my

51
00:03:05,759 --> 00:03:10,280
great grandparents, had passed on. There was one brother left

52
00:03:10,319 --> 00:03:12,080
to take care of the farm, and he was my

53
00:03:12,159 --> 00:03:15,719
grandfather's twin, and that would be Granddaddy's job for the

54
00:03:15,759 --> 00:03:20,080
rest of his life. For the first three months, Uncle

55
00:03:20,159 --> 00:03:23,039
John would not leave the house. He was in enough

56
00:03:23,080 --> 00:03:26,159
pain just from the drive back to Tennessee that he

57
00:03:26,199 --> 00:03:28,360
would just sit on the back porch and a rocking

58
00:03:28,479 --> 00:03:31,360
chair my grandmother had bought for him, and it was

59
00:03:31,439 --> 00:03:35,479
more comfortable than any chair they had. John would sit

60
00:03:35,599 --> 00:03:38,080
and rock in that chair and read or woodle on

61
00:03:38,159 --> 00:03:41,400
a stick of wood all day. He'd eat, and then

62
00:03:41,439 --> 00:03:45,560
he'd go to his bedroom. My grandmother knew he was

63
00:03:45,639 --> 00:03:48,080
bored out of his mind, and she knew if there

64
00:03:48,159 --> 00:03:50,400
was any way he could, he would be out helping

65
00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:54,080
his brothers with the farm work. She saw the guilt

66
00:03:54,159 --> 00:03:56,439
and shame in his face every day, but he never

67
00:03:56,479 --> 00:04:00,719
said anything. He just sat on that porch, rocking and healing.

68
00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:06,000
Sometime around the first week of that fourth month, he

69
00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:10,439
got up and walked off the porch. My grandmother watched

70
00:04:10,479 --> 00:04:13,919
him from the big window. John walked down under the

71
00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:17,120
canopy of maple trees that shaded the back porch, and

72
00:04:17,199 --> 00:04:20,560
she washed him begin to stretch his back. The first day,

73
00:04:20,639 --> 00:04:23,399
she said he couldn't hardly reach his knees bending over,

74
00:04:23,879 --> 00:04:26,759
but by the week's in he was touching his toes.

75
00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:30,319
He did a little walking too. He was trying to

76
00:04:30,319 --> 00:04:34,600
build a strength back. There was a conversation at the

77
00:04:34,639 --> 00:04:37,959
supper table about him starting to help around the farm,

78
00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:40,800
but my grandfather refused to allow him to do any

79
00:04:40,800 --> 00:04:43,279
of the heavy work because he was afraid that he

80
00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:48,160
would aggravate his back. To meet Uncle John halfway, my

81
00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,240
grandfather gave him an axe, a saw, and a kaiser

82
00:04:51,319 --> 00:04:54,040
blade and put him to work clearing the edge of

83
00:04:54,079 --> 00:04:57,920
a field not far from the barn. The summer had

84
00:04:57,959 --> 00:04:59,959
been hot and they had had a lot of rain,

85
00:05:00,040 --> 00:05:02,519
and my grandfather had not had time to keep up

86
00:05:02,560 --> 00:05:05,879
with it. Uncle John was happy to have something to do,

87
00:05:05,959 --> 00:05:09,519
and he took to that field the next morning. He

88
00:05:09,560 --> 00:05:12,480
would make it until around dinner, which is what we

89
00:05:12,560 --> 00:05:16,240
call lunch nowadays, and he would come back and eat

90
00:05:16,319 --> 00:05:18,439
and quit for the day because he was still having

91
00:05:18,519 --> 00:05:22,040
problems with his back. But after two weeks he was

92
00:05:22,079 --> 00:05:25,639
working full days. My grandmother was glad to see him

93
00:05:25,639 --> 00:05:30,079
feeling like a man again. One evening, while they ate,

94
00:05:30,439 --> 00:05:34,879
a discussion started that alarm to my grandmother. Uncle John

95
00:05:34,959 --> 00:05:38,839
started asking questions about strange animals in the woods behind

96
00:05:38,879 --> 00:05:42,040
the barn. There were shadows that he could see in

97
00:05:42,079 --> 00:05:45,360
the timber when the sun was right, and at first

98
00:05:45,439 --> 00:05:47,920
he thought he was seeing things, but every day they

99
00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:52,199
moved in those woods. Uncle John told my grandparents that

100
00:05:52,279 --> 00:05:56,360
he thought these animals were watching him work. My grandfather

101
00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:59,879
had seen them too, but the animals had never bothered him,

102
00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:02,639
and he knew if he told anyone about it, they

103
00:06:02,680 --> 00:06:05,759
would say that he was crazy. But now that Uncle

104
00:06:05,839 --> 00:06:08,800
John was talking about it, he felt free to discuss it.

105
00:06:09,279 --> 00:06:11,759
And this is how the truth came to my grandmother.

106
00:06:13,319 --> 00:06:15,879
She had never seen anything like the animals they were

107
00:06:15,879 --> 00:06:19,000
talking about, but she didn't spend any time on the land.

108
00:06:19,480 --> 00:06:21,959
The kitchen in the house and the children had been

109
00:06:22,000 --> 00:06:27,439
her responsibility. She told me shortly before she died that

110
00:06:27,519 --> 00:06:30,600
she had never seen her husband so relieved to tell

111
00:06:30,639 --> 00:06:33,800
her anything, and that he had wanted to tell her,

112
00:06:34,399 --> 00:06:37,480
but like everyone else, he was afraid she would think

113
00:06:37,519 --> 00:06:40,839
that he had a screw loose. She accepted what the

114
00:06:40,879 --> 00:06:43,639
brothers had told her, and then she moved on with

115
00:06:43,759 --> 00:06:48,480
her life. Have you ever had one come close, asked

116
00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,480
my granddaddy. Now there's a distance they keep and they

117
00:06:52,519 --> 00:06:56,160
never get any closer. Uncle John seemed at peace with

118
00:06:56,199 --> 00:07:00,480
these things, I think, and I'm just guessing that he

119
00:07:00,639 --> 00:07:03,879
enjoyed these things that lived on the family land, and

120
00:07:03,920 --> 00:07:07,959
they were peaceful and had never been a threat to anyone.

121
00:07:08,079 --> 00:07:10,519
Well after that night, there were many discussions on the

122
00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:14,920
back porch after they had finished supper. Sometimes Grandmother would

123
00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:17,560
sit out there with them and listen, and the more

124
00:07:17,639 --> 00:07:22,000
she heard, the more she became interested. Granddaddy told them

125
00:07:22,199 --> 00:07:24,519
of as many times as he could remember that he

126
00:07:24,560 --> 00:07:27,360
had seen them, and he went as far as saying

127
00:07:27,439 --> 00:07:30,079
that the more time passed, the more the animals would

128
00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:33,160
trust Uncle John, and if it was anything like he

129
00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:37,160
had experienced, they would come closer. And day after day,

130
00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:40,240
the men worked the farm and Uncle John cleared a

131
00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:45,319
good section of brush. The leaves had turned and were

132
00:07:45,360 --> 00:07:48,240
falling from the trees, and the men were not wearing

133
00:07:48,319 --> 00:07:51,959
jacket chip. But it wouldn't be long. Whatever they grew

134
00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,879
had been harvested, so now the only chores they had

135
00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,240
were maintaining the few pieces of farm equipment and taking

136
00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,199
care of the cows that they read. And this would

137
00:08:01,279 --> 00:08:04,800
go on all winter until spring broke and they planted again.

138
00:08:06,319 --> 00:08:10,279
Uncle John had cleared most of the brush by this time. Grandaddy,

139
00:08:10,319 --> 00:08:13,160
without much to do, started helping him gather the brush

140
00:08:13,199 --> 00:08:16,439
that had been cut, and they started building burn piles.

141
00:08:17,399 --> 00:08:19,759
They would stop a couple of hours before dark and

142
00:08:19,839 --> 00:08:22,000
stand at the edge of the woods trying to see

143
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:25,519
these animals. And there were times where the animals would

144
00:08:25,519 --> 00:08:28,079
come close enough that they could see them, and they

145
00:08:28,120 --> 00:08:31,000
would assemble in a ragged order and look at the men.

146
00:08:31,879 --> 00:08:35,080
And Grandaddy said that once Uncle John raised his hand

147
00:08:35,080 --> 00:08:36,960
to wave at them, and it scared them and they

148
00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:40,159
ran back into the woods, but they would be back

149
00:08:40,159 --> 00:08:43,360
the next day. And in all this time Uncle John

150
00:08:43,399 --> 00:08:46,320
would throw apple cores from his dinner pail and the

151
00:08:46,360 --> 00:08:49,320
young ones would come close and grab it, and after

152
00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,039
that he would bring an extra apple, and he'd cut

153
00:08:52,080 --> 00:08:54,279
it in halves or quarters and throw it into the

154
00:08:54,279 --> 00:08:58,559
woods to watch the young ones come close. Granddaddy said

155
00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:03,960
that these creatures gave uncle John peace. A front had

156
00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:06,600
come through and it had rained for a full day

157
00:09:06,639 --> 00:09:10,639
and the temperature dropped several degrees. With the dry brush

158
00:09:10,720 --> 00:09:13,639
now damp, it was time to burn the piles of trash,

159
00:09:14,159 --> 00:09:16,799
and Granddaddy was not there that day when Uncle John

160
00:09:16,879 --> 00:09:20,360
lit the fire, so he didn't see what happened. But

161
00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:24,120
as the fires burned and smoked the woods, animals came

162
00:09:24,279 --> 00:09:26,840
all the way in, almost into the field to watch

163
00:09:26,879 --> 00:09:31,840
the piles of brush burn. It was early November and

164
00:09:31,919 --> 00:09:34,360
Uncle John had been in this field for a few months,

165
00:09:34,360 --> 00:09:37,559
and he knew by sight all the animals, and they're young.

166
00:09:38,879 --> 00:09:41,360
He never saw any males and assumed that they were

167
00:09:41,360 --> 00:09:44,480
more shy than the females, or they were out gathering

168
00:09:44,600 --> 00:09:48,120
stores for their winter. We'll never know, but he thought

169
00:09:48,159 --> 00:09:53,440
it was odd that no males ever showed themselves toward dark.

170
00:09:53,759 --> 00:09:57,600
John heard something he had never heard just inside the woods.

171
00:09:58,240 --> 00:10:01,559
His curiosity overcame him and he walked into the trees

172
00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:04,480
and he found a female squatted holding on to a

173
00:10:04,519 --> 00:10:08,639
tree and giving birth. Well, that settled it about the males.

174
00:10:09,360 --> 00:10:11,679
She wouldn't be able to have a baby without a

175
00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:17,240
male's contribution. He watched the baby slide out into the leaves,

176
00:10:17,279 --> 00:10:19,879
and two other females came in beside the mother and

177
00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:22,320
picked the baby up and they shook it, and he

178
00:10:22,360 --> 00:10:24,639
assumed it was to get it breathing, and they helped

179
00:10:24,679 --> 00:10:28,320
the mother down onto her back so that she could rest.

180
00:10:29,320 --> 00:10:32,200
John was surprised to see this mother still in pain

181
00:10:32,320 --> 00:10:35,600
after all that, because she was pushing and he thought

182
00:10:35,639 --> 00:10:39,720
he'd see another baby appear, But then a large mass

183
00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:43,279
exited the female and that wasn't a baby creature. We

184
00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:45,840
know now that that was the afterbirth that she needed

185
00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:48,720
to expel, but at the time he thought this mother

186
00:10:48,919 --> 00:10:53,759
was dying, and so he moved closer. Another female stood

187
00:10:53,840 --> 00:10:56,120
up between him and the female, and he knew he

188
00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:59,080
needed to back away, and that's what he did, and

189
00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:01,960
eventually the mother got up and took the baby, who

190
00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:05,279
wasn't crying like a human child, it was just making

191
00:11:05,399 --> 00:11:10,679
noises and they headed into the dark woods. The odor

192
00:11:10,799 --> 00:11:14,240
of blood filled the air and he could smell it

193
00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:16,440
all the way into the field, and he thought about

194
00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:20,639
bears and wildcats, and that mass would probably be gone

195
00:11:20,679 --> 00:11:23,799
by the next day, and he walked together as tools.

196
00:11:25,320 --> 00:11:27,840
A scream came from the woods, and there was a commotion,

197
00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,879
and then more screams from other animals, and John returned

198
00:11:31,879 --> 00:11:33,720
to the edge of the trees, and he could see

199
00:11:33,759 --> 00:11:37,000
that a big male had come into the group. It

200
00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,799
was dark enough that he only saw shadows, but from

201
00:11:39,840 --> 00:11:42,600
the sounds and the violence he heard, there was no

202
00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:47,159
doubt that a male had come in. I remember my

203
00:11:47,279 --> 00:11:51,600
granddaddy telling me this whole story. I sat across from

204
00:11:51,639 --> 00:11:54,879
Granddaddy's chair, and a dark mood swept into the room

205
00:11:54,919 --> 00:11:57,879
when he stopped telling me the story. At this point,

206
00:11:58,759 --> 00:12:01,639
minutes passed, and I thought he had had a stroke,

207
00:12:01,759 --> 00:12:04,039
because he stared out of the window and he didn't

208
00:12:04,039 --> 00:12:07,679
even twitch. I wanted to ask if he was all right,

209
00:12:07,759 --> 00:12:09,799
but I had a feeling that he was reflecting on

210
00:12:09,879 --> 00:12:12,159
what he was about to tell me, so I sat

211
00:12:12,200 --> 00:12:16,320
in silence with him. Finally, he raised himself out of

212
00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:18,279
the chair and he went into the kitchen, and he

213
00:12:18,320 --> 00:12:20,679
came back with a glass of water for both of us,

214
00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:23,720
but he drank most of it. I think his mouth

215
00:12:23,840 --> 00:12:27,759
was dry. What did you all do At that point, Granddaddy,

216
00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:31,840
I asked. The silence was making me uncomfortable, so I

217
00:12:31,879 --> 00:12:34,759
had to say something. So he took a deep breath

218
00:12:34,799 --> 00:12:36,559
and he sat back in his chair and he told

219
00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:40,960
me the rest of the story. He said, my brother

220
00:12:41,120 --> 00:12:43,960
was not a big man, but he was strong, even

221
00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:47,639
with his back broken like it was. He had a

222
00:12:47,679 --> 00:12:50,679
temper though. Growing up we had to fight. It was

223
00:12:50,799 --> 00:12:53,000
just a way of life up here in these mountains.

224
00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,720
John never backed down from any fight. I think he

225
00:12:56,919 --> 00:13:00,559
liked it a little, even when he was whipped. When

226
00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,519
he moved off to Texas, something must have changed him.

227
00:13:04,159 --> 00:13:06,799
Maybe it was the war. Maybe he just grew up

228
00:13:06,919 --> 00:13:08,720
like the rest of us. But he had become a

229
00:13:08,799 --> 00:13:13,279
gentle soul. While his back was mending and he sat

230
00:13:13,320 --> 00:13:16,440
out on that porch, he'd feed hummingbirds from his hand.

231
00:13:17,039 --> 00:13:19,679
He'd fill his hand with sugar from the kitchen and

232
00:13:19,720 --> 00:13:21,919
cup his hand and put water in it and hold

233
00:13:21,919 --> 00:13:24,399
it out when there was a burden near, and it

234
00:13:24,399 --> 00:13:26,919
wouldn't be long before the tiny birds were lighting on

235
00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:31,440
his thumb and drinking. He even fed squirrels and chipmunks

236
00:13:31,440 --> 00:13:34,559
that lived behind the house. Those rodents would sit in

237
00:13:34,600 --> 00:13:37,759
his lap and eat seeds and nuts. Your grandmother would

238
00:13:37,759 --> 00:13:40,519
get frustrated with John for taking dinner scraps in a

239
00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:44,320
napkin and throwing them out for animals. And while he

240
00:13:44,399 --> 00:13:46,600
worked in the fields clearing the brush for me, that

241
00:13:46,639 --> 00:13:49,639
field was full of cows, and that's where we kept him.

242
00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:52,679
And one day my big old bull broke in there

243
00:13:52,759 --> 00:13:55,519
to get to a heifer that was in heat. I

244
00:13:55,519 --> 00:13:57,720
had never been able to get close to that bull,

245
00:13:57,799 --> 00:14:00,840
and neither had anyone that I knew, but John made

246
00:14:00,879 --> 00:14:04,039
friends with him. I walked out there one evening to

247
00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:06,279
call him in for supper, and that big bull and

248
00:14:06,399 --> 00:14:09,000
John stood in that field and John just to scratching

249
00:14:09,080 --> 00:14:13,000
that bull's neck, and that big old bull followed John around.

250
00:14:13,080 --> 00:14:16,200
It was the damnedest thing I've ever seen. Well, what

251
00:14:16,279 --> 00:14:18,519
I'm saying is that he had a way of making

252
00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:22,559
animals trust him. He was patient, I suppose, because he

253
00:14:22,600 --> 00:14:24,399
had a lot of time on his hands while he

254
00:14:24,519 --> 00:14:27,879
was hurt. He wasn't that way when we grew up.

255
00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:31,279
But it was really something to see. But on the

256
00:14:31,360 --> 00:14:34,080
day he saw that baby creature born and that male

257
00:14:34,200 --> 00:14:40,240
come in, something changed. Granddaddy stopped again, but only for

258
00:14:40,360 --> 00:14:44,840
a minute, and then he finished the story. My uncle

259
00:14:44,919 --> 00:14:48,159
John was walking away from the woods at Efting. I

260
00:14:48,200 --> 00:14:50,159
think in his mind there was nothing he could do

261
00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,519
about that mean old male creature that was raising havoc

262
00:14:53,679 --> 00:14:57,200
among the females. It was the way things were in nature,

263
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,840
and who was he to interfere? Eye from my mother

264
00:15:00,960 --> 00:15:03,519
made him turn around and walk back into the trees.

265
00:15:04,679 --> 00:15:10,080
Uncle John must have seen something terrifying or horrific. Granddaddy

266
00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:12,840
says that that big Mail must have been a stranger

267
00:15:12,919 --> 00:15:15,919
to this bunch of creatures, because there's no way he

268
00:15:16,039 --> 00:15:18,559
was a daddy or one of the daddies to these

269
00:15:18,639 --> 00:15:22,080
young ones. Because just like a lion'll do in Africa

270
00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:24,919
to kill all the cubs and a pride that aren't

271
00:15:24,919 --> 00:15:29,320
its bloodline, that Mail was walking through and killing all

272
00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:34,120
the young creatures. John watched them chase down and snatch

273
00:15:34,200 --> 00:15:36,120
up if you, and he cracked their necks and he

274
00:15:36,279 --> 00:15:39,279
tossed them to the ground. But when John watched him

275
00:15:39,360 --> 00:15:42,480
catch up to the new mother holding that small newborn

276
00:15:42,559 --> 00:15:47,080
and kill that baby, John couldn't take it anymore. He

277
00:15:47,159 --> 00:15:49,480
walked back to the field and he grabbed that long

278
00:15:49,639 --> 00:15:53,360
handled kaiser blade that he had used for weeks chopping brush,

279
00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:58,399
and he turned back into the woods. Now we don't

280
00:15:58,440 --> 00:16:01,600
know what happened in those woods because no one was

281
00:16:01,679 --> 00:16:05,559
there to see it. Grandaddy and grandmother had sat down

282
00:16:05,559 --> 00:16:07,759
to eat, and we're waiting for John to join them

283
00:16:07,799 --> 00:16:11,200
after work. It was not unusual that he would be

284
00:16:11,240 --> 00:16:14,799
a few minutes late. Granddaddy had walked out into the

285
00:16:14,799 --> 00:16:17,440
field with a light, thinking John may have been hurt

286
00:16:17,679 --> 00:16:20,720
and couldn't get back to the house. But instead he

287
00:16:20,759 --> 00:16:23,240
found his brother sitting by the barn with that bull

288
00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:27,120
standing next to him, licking the back of John's head. John,

289
00:16:27,279 --> 00:16:32,279
you okay there, Grandaddy said, y'all, I'm okay. Are you hurt?

290
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,320
Then the doll like Grandaddy could see blood on John's

291
00:16:36,399 --> 00:16:40,120
hands and clothes, looked like he'd been slaughtering a pig

292
00:16:40,200 --> 00:16:43,799
and hadn't stood back when he bled him out. I said,

293
00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:46,080
I'm all right, I'll be to the house in a bit,

294
00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:50,200
John said, John, walk that bull into the barn and

295
00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:52,120
lock him up, so I'm come in there and check

296
00:16:52,200 --> 00:16:56,159
on you. Well. John stood and that bull followed him

297
00:16:56,200 --> 00:16:58,799
into the mainstall. And John came out of the wire

298
00:16:58,919 --> 00:17:02,679
fence and he was covered in blood. And now Granddaddy

299
00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:05,839
could see him in the good light. What in the

300
00:17:05,839 --> 00:17:10,319
world happened, John, Grandaddy said, I'll show you in the morning.

301
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:12,960
It's too dark to see now. I had to kill

302
00:17:12,960 --> 00:17:15,880
one of those hairy animals. I had to Jesse, I

303
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:20,960
had to well. Granddaddy didn't ask questions, and they walked

304
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:24,119
back to the house and John used a washpail on

305
00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:26,480
the porch to clean the blood away, and he stripped

306
00:17:26,519 --> 00:17:29,440
down to his underclothes and went to his room. And

307
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:32,319
he never spoke to anyone, and they didn't see him

308
00:17:32,400 --> 00:17:37,160
until breakfast the next day. With a new light, John

309
00:17:37,200 --> 00:17:40,440
walked his brother into the thick patch of woods, and

310
00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:45,119
Granddaddy said he'd never seen anything like it. Scattered about

311
00:17:45,119 --> 00:17:50,839
were several young creatures, dead and misshapen forms. One female

312
00:17:50,880 --> 00:17:55,200
mother was dead holding her little newborn baby. They walked

313
00:17:55,200 --> 00:17:58,960
further and found an enormous creature with several wounds, laying

314
00:17:59,039 --> 00:18:02,759
dead in the leaves. Rain started to fall and they

315
00:18:02,759 --> 00:18:05,200
both bundled their collars up to their ears in the

316
00:18:05,200 --> 00:18:10,599
cool mountain air. I've never seen one this close, Granddaddy

317
00:18:10,640 --> 00:18:13,279
said to John. In all the years he had been

318
00:18:13,319 --> 00:18:15,720
seeing these things, he had never gotten close enough to

319
00:18:15,759 --> 00:18:19,039
know what they really look like. I hadn't either until

320
00:18:19,119 --> 00:18:22,680
last night. They almost look like people, don't they, said John?

321
00:18:23,920 --> 00:18:28,200
Why'd you kill all these creatures? Asked Grandaddy. I only

322
00:18:28,319 --> 00:18:31,480
killed him, said John. He pointed at the big one

323
00:18:31,559 --> 00:18:34,960
laying on the ground. He killed the babies, and I

324
00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:40,079
couldn't let him keep killing them. I understand, said Grandaddy.

325
00:18:41,039 --> 00:18:43,680
I think Granddaddy must have put his hand on John's

326
00:18:43,680 --> 00:18:45,880
back or something to let him know that he did

327
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:49,599
believe him. We need to do something with these things,

328
00:18:49,759 --> 00:18:53,599
said John. They'll be stinking in a day or so. Well,

329
00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:55,920
my horses lame right now. We don't have a way

330
00:18:55,960 --> 00:18:59,440
to move this big one. Let's let the scavengers take him.

331
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:02,599
Should be cool enough to keep the smell down. And

332
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:05,599
they started back out of the woods, and John had

333
00:19:05,640 --> 00:19:08,319
the Kaiser blade over his shoulder after picking it up

334
00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:12,640
from where he dropped it. A brief noisee behind them

335
00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:15,079
made them turn in look and a few of the

336
00:19:15,119 --> 00:19:18,400
creatures stood barely in view in the woods, and that

337
00:19:18,559 --> 00:19:21,759
was the first time John ever saw males in the group.

338
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,480
Granddaddy and Uncle John watched from a distance as the

339
00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,880
group gathered the dead from their clan and disappeared back

340
00:19:28,920 --> 00:19:33,480
into the forest. You killed that monster with that kaiser blade,

341
00:19:33,799 --> 00:19:37,839
Granddaddy said as they walked. It's all I had said John.

342
00:19:38,119 --> 00:19:41,000
Now I keep wondering where the males were. Where were

343
00:19:41,039 --> 00:19:47,559
they Jesse? Thanksgiving came and went, and the days got colder.

344
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,480
There was not much work to do other than feeding

345
00:19:50,519 --> 00:19:53,720
the animals, and Uncle John and Granddaddy and some of

346
00:19:53,720 --> 00:19:57,759
the brothers hunted and took a few deer. John would

347
00:19:57,759 --> 00:20:00,759
see ghostly shadows just at dark at the edge of

348
00:20:00,759 --> 00:20:03,119
the woods now and then, and they always came for

349
00:20:03,200 --> 00:20:06,119
the deer scraps after one had been dressed and butchered,

350
00:20:06,480 --> 00:20:10,759
but he never got close to them again. Christmas Day

351
00:20:10,880 --> 00:20:13,720
was nice, with the whole family gathering at Granddaddy and

352
00:20:13,759 --> 00:20:18,400
Grandmother's house. We drove from North Carolina that year. I

353
00:20:18,440 --> 00:20:21,240
don't remember it because I was so young, but Grandaddy

354
00:20:21,279 --> 00:20:23,920
says I talked Gibberish to Uncle John for a long

355
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,079
time while he held me in his lap. I wish

356
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:30,799
I could remember this man, but so much information leaves

357
00:20:30,880 --> 00:20:34,720
us as we grow old. We spent several Christmases at

358
00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,799
Grandaddy and Grandmother's place, and I remember some of those,

359
00:20:37,839 --> 00:20:42,599
but John was not there. On New Year's Day, John

360
00:20:42,640 --> 00:20:46,200
packed his car. Granddaddy said he headed back to Texas.

361
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:49,240
He said that one or two of the brothers and

362
00:20:49,279 --> 00:20:52,240
the sister came to see him off, and he left

363
00:20:52,279 --> 00:20:56,160
that day, and they never saw Uncle John again. He

364
00:20:56,240 --> 00:20:59,039
went back to Texas and he never came back. And

365
00:20:59,079 --> 00:21:03,599
that is the way things were in those days. A

366
00:21:03,680 --> 00:21:07,279
grandmother died more than thirty years ago, and two years

367
00:21:07,319 --> 00:21:10,720
after that, Granddaddy came to live with us, and this

368
00:21:10,799 --> 00:21:14,759
is when he told me this story. A granddaddy read

369
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:18,319
books all the time, book after book, sitting in that

370
00:21:18,440 --> 00:21:21,559
chair that we'd brought from his house. We had great

371
00:21:21,599 --> 00:21:24,920
conversations when i'd go to mom and Daddy's to see him.

372
00:21:25,759 --> 00:21:28,079
His mind was sound, and he could hear good, and

373
00:21:28,119 --> 00:21:31,559
he could talk in coherent sentences, just like anyone else.

374
00:21:31,920 --> 00:21:36,680
He wasn't crazy. It's pretty good for a man his age.

375
00:21:36,759 --> 00:21:40,119
I believe his story about Uncle John. He had no

376
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:43,720
reason to make something like that up at his age.

377
00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:47,000
He never used the word bigfoot or sosquatch. He just

378
00:21:47,079 --> 00:21:50,839
called them animals or creatures. He said those things didn't

379
00:21:50,880 --> 00:21:55,920
have a name that he knew of. Eventually, Granddaddy would

380
00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:00,039
succumb to slight dementia in the last years of his life,

381
00:22:00,119 --> 00:22:02,000
and when he left the house one day and walked

382
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:05,839
two miles in his drawers looking for grandmother, my parents

383
00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:08,039
figured it would be better if he were in a

384
00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:12,680
nursing home. Well, he didn't. Objeck and his family members

385
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,160
that lived near us were with him when he died.

386
00:22:15,839 --> 00:22:19,720
He was a good man and he lived a good life.

387
00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,319
As of today. This is all I know about my

388
00:22:23,400 --> 00:22:27,400
granddaddy's brother John, other than what you've read in this story.

389
00:22:28,279 --> 00:22:30,319
I know that he never married, and I know he

390
00:22:30,359 --> 00:22:33,279
had no children. I guess he built a life in

391
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,319
Texas that he liked and that's where he stayed. Now

392
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,279
I'm old and my husband and I don't travel anymore.

393
00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:44,279
We were in Texas several years ago and we thought

394
00:22:44,319 --> 00:22:47,359
about going to see Uncle John's grave, but it was

395
00:22:47,519 --> 00:22:50,200
hours out of our way, and we agreed that we

396
00:22:50,240 --> 00:22:52,160
would look for it the next time we were back

397
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:56,119
down that way. But we never did go back to Texas.

398
00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:58,559
And if I could, I would make a special trip

399
00:22:58,599 --> 00:23:02,200
to Texas and leave some flys. A grave should be

400
00:23:02,319 --> 00:23:07,000
visited by family. I doubt that anyone visits Uncle John's

401
00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:10,960
grave though, and I don't suppose there's anything that anyone

402
00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:15,839
can do about that. The land that my granddaddy inherited

403
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:19,079
from his family stayed in our family for many years.

404
00:23:19,799 --> 00:23:23,039
Each time a generation would die off, the land would

405
00:23:23,079 --> 00:23:26,799
be equally divided among the heirs. And at some point

406
00:23:26,799 --> 00:23:30,000
the parcels got so small that the family decided to

407
00:23:30,039 --> 00:23:34,079
sell it all in one shot, and that's what we did. Now,

408
00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:37,799
I have wonderful memories of Granddaddy's farm. I never knew

409
00:23:37,839 --> 00:23:40,319
about the animals that lived there while my husband and

410
00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:43,599
I owned a small piece of it. Our family sold

411
00:23:43,640 --> 00:23:46,960
the land before Granddaddy ever told me this story, and

412
00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:49,359
I have no access or permission to go see if

413
00:23:49,359 --> 00:23:53,799
the creatures still live there. And I wonder how many

414
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:59,039
generations of Tennessee ssquatch have been born since my uncle

415
00:23:59,119 --> 00:24:03,559
John say that klan. I doubt anyone will ever know