WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.050 --> 00:00:06.100 align:middle line:90% [SIDE CONVERSATION] 00:00:06.100 --> 00:00:08.800 align:middle line:84% I want to thank everybody for coming. 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.860 align:middle line:84% I'm Mark Wunderlich, and I'm the acting director 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:90% of the Poetry Center. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:16.590 align:middle line:84% And one announcement-- copies of David Lee's book 00:00:16.590 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:84% are for sale compliments of ASUA Bookstore. 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:23.550 align:middle line:84% And I'm sure he'd be happy to sign copies for you 00:00:23.550 --> 00:00:26.370 align:middle line:90% after the reading. 00:00:26.370 --> 00:00:28.290 align:middle line:84% David Lee is the author of seven volumes 00:00:28.290 --> 00:00:31.620 align:middle line:84% of poetry, the most recent of which, the book My Town, 00:00:31.620 --> 00:00:36.180 align:middle line:84% received the 1995 Western States Book Award for poetry. 00:00:36.180 --> 00:00:38.580 align:middle line:84% Lee has received numerous awards, including fellowships 00:00:38.580 --> 00:00:40.590 align:middle line:84% from the National Endowment for the Arts 00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:43.890 align:middle line:84% and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Utah State 00:00:43.890 --> 00:00:45.690 align:middle line:84% Governor's Award, and was recently 00:00:45.690 --> 00:00:49.950 align:middle line:84% named one of the top 12 writers throughout the history of Utah. 00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:53.250 align:middle line:84% His books, which chronicle the life of a small farming town, 00:00:53.250 --> 00:00:55.440 align:middle line:84% have earned him the title of "pig poet" 00:00:55.440 --> 00:00:58.440 align:middle line:84% and made him the subject of a recent PBS documentary 00:00:58.440 --> 00:00:59.970 align:middle line:90% of the same name. 00:00:59.970 --> 00:01:02.550 align:middle line:84% He currently serves as chairman of the Department of Language 00:01:02.550 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:84% and Literature at Southern Utah University 00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:07.830 align:middle line:90% and lives in St. George, Utah. 00:01:07.830 --> 00:01:11.880 align:middle line:84% When speaking of David Lee, one is led inevitably to livestock 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:14.850 align:middle line:84% in general and hogs specifically. 00:01:14.850 --> 00:01:18.510 align:middle line:84% As the nation's pig poet, he has proved himself the master 00:01:18.510 --> 00:01:21.690 align:middle line:84% of the self-created genre, adding to the world 00:01:21.690 --> 00:01:24.870 align:middle line:84% of contemporary poetry a vocabulary familiar to any 00:01:24.870 --> 00:01:28.650 align:middle line:84% former FFA or 4-H member but largely unknown to the rest 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:32.430 align:middle line:84% of the world and therefore sometimes mysterious and even 00:01:32.430 --> 00:01:33.540 align:middle line:90% Baroque. 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:38.370 align:middle line:84% Durocs, Hampshires, spotted Poland Chinas, shoats, barrows, 00:01:38.370 --> 00:01:41.820 align:middle line:84% and the lovely verb "to farrow" are all invoked within 00:01:41.820 --> 00:01:44.970 align:middle line:84% Lee's poetry about animal husbandry. 00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:47.770 align:middle line:84% David Lee is also a master of vernacular, 00:01:47.770 --> 00:01:50.400 align:middle line:84% spending more than a decade crafting four linked 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:53.310 align:middle line:84% books of poems mapping the lives of the inhabitants 00:01:53.310 --> 00:01:56.100 align:middle line:84% of a rural farming town in the West. 00:01:56.100 --> 00:01:58.470 align:middle line:84% As a writer of monologue, he has definitely 00:01:58.470 --> 00:02:02.400 align:middle line:84% captured the cadences of speech of his town's inhabitants, 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:04.560 align:middle line:84% proving himself the kind of poet who 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:06.600 align:middle line:84% listens to the voices around him, 00:02:06.600 --> 00:02:10.380 align:middle line:84% going outward for the strands and scraps of voice that inspire 00:02:10.380 --> 00:02:13.560 align:middle line:84% his poems, making him a poet of the community 00:02:13.560 --> 00:02:16.720 align:middle line:84% rather than a poet of the interior. 00:02:16.720 --> 00:02:20.010 align:middle line:84% This is not to say David Lee's work 00:02:20.010 --> 00:02:23.070 align:middle line:84% lacks depth or, because of its hard-bitten humor, 00:02:23.070 --> 00:02:25.200 align:middle line:90% is not serious. 00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:28.410 align:middle line:84% On the contrary, and to quote Woody Allen, 00:02:28.410 --> 00:02:31.620 align:middle line:90% "beneath all comedy is tragedy." 00:02:31.620 --> 00:02:34.440 align:middle line:84% Lee succeeds in creating a lasting document 00:02:34.440 --> 00:02:39.180 align:middle line:84% of a way of life that fewer people will know and experience. 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:41.507 align:middle line:84% I am pleased to introduce David Lee. 00:02:41.507 --> 00:02:44.776 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:44.776 --> 00:02:47.955 align:middle line:90% 00:02:47.955 --> 00:02:48.990 align:middle line:90% I don't want to read. 00:02:48.990 --> 00:02:50.340 align:middle line:90% I want to listen to that. 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:54.090 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:54.090 --> 00:02:56.280 align:middle line:84% That's the best introduction I have ever received. 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:57.298 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:02:57.298 --> 00:02:59.340 align:middle line:84% I don't listen to introductions because they just 00:02:59.340 --> 00:03:00.460 align:middle line:90% scare the shit out of me. 00:03:00.460 --> 00:03:05.160 align:middle line:90% And thank you. 00:03:05.160 --> 00:03:06.360 align:middle line:90% Hi, Jane. 00:03:06.360 --> 00:03:07.080 align:middle line:90% Hi. 00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:09.180 align:middle line:84% She came to our campus last year. 00:03:09.180 --> 00:03:09.840 align:middle line:90% Wow. 00:03:09.840 --> 00:03:12.570 align:middle line:84% And you said then, you have to come to ours someday. 00:03:12.570 --> 00:03:15.000 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't know if you had anything to do with this. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:17.490 align:middle line:90% But if you did, thank you. 00:03:17.490 --> 00:03:19.350 align:middle line:90% And I'm very pleased to be here. 00:03:19.350 --> 00:03:20.580 align:middle line:90% Am I doing this right? 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.130 align:middle line:90% 00:03:23.130 --> 00:03:26.040 align:middle line:84% If I put it on that way, it's upside down. 00:03:26.040 --> 00:03:27.053 align:middle line:90% How about there? 00:03:27.053 --> 00:03:27.880 align:middle line:90% That'll work. 00:03:27.880 --> 00:03:29.080 align:middle line:90% Is that going to be OK? 00:03:29.080 --> 00:03:29.580 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:03:29.580 --> 00:03:30.570 align:middle line:90% OK, I'll pick it up. 00:03:30.570 --> 00:03:33.810 align:middle line:90% 00:03:33.810 --> 00:03:36.092 align:middle line:84% I really am delighted to be here. 00:03:36.092 --> 00:03:36.800 align:middle line:90% How's the volume? 00:03:36.800 --> 00:03:39.600 align:middle line:90% Is that OK? 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:40.620 align:middle line:90% More? 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:42.180 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:43.260 align:middle line:90% I don't think it's a mic. 00:03:43.260 --> 00:03:45.720 align:middle line:84% I think it's just a tape recorder. 00:03:45.720 --> 00:03:48.870 align:middle line:84% So let's play like I do when I go to junior high schools. 00:03:48.870 --> 00:03:50.567 align:middle line:84% If you can't hear me, raise one hand. 00:03:50.567 --> 00:03:53.150 align:middle line:84% And if you get through listening before I get through talking, 00:03:53.150 --> 00:03:54.300 align:middle line:90% raise to then wave them. 00:03:54.300 --> 00:03:55.095 align:middle line:90% And that'll be OK. 00:03:55.095 --> 00:03:57.360 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:59.312 align:middle line:90% 00:03:59.312 --> 00:04:01.690 align:middle line:84% I am very, very pleased to be here. 00:04:01.690 --> 00:04:04.920 align:middle line:84% This is my first trip ever to Tucson. 00:04:04.920 --> 00:04:09.300 align:middle line:84% I've wanted to visit Dick's digs for a long, long, long time. 00:04:09.300 --> 00:04:13.440 align:middle line:90% He's a big brother since 1952. 00:04:13.440 --> 00:04:14.340 align:middle line:90% Can you believe that? 00:04:14.340 --> 00:04:17.070 align:middle line:84% I used to go down to a gymnasium in Abilene, Texas, 00:04:17.070 --> 00:04:20.250 align:middle line:84% and watch this guy who was captain of the Flying Cats 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:23.520 align:middle line:84% gymnastic team at Abilene Christian College. 00:04:23.520 --> 00:04:26.340 align:middle line:84% First person I ever knew in my life who jumped on a trampoline 00:04:26.340 --> 00:04:27.540 align:middle line:90% and could do flips on it. 00:04:27.540 --> 00:04:29.640 align:middle line:84% And I thought that was just spectacular. 00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:32.070 align:middle line:84% Now that I'm fat, I think it's even more spectacular. 00:04:32.070 --> 00:04:33.758 align:middle line:84% But I don't think he can do it anymore. 00:04:33.758 --> 00:04:36.300 align:middle line:84% And now that I've said that, he'll take me out this afternoon 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:36.840 align:middle line:90% and show me. 00:04:36.840 --> 00:04:37.840 align:middle line:90% I know better than that. 00:04:37.840 --> 00:04:41.160 align:middle line:84% But I'm really pleased to be here. 00:04:41.160 --> 00:04:43.290 align:middle line:84% And I'm going to start with a new poem that's 00:04:43.290 --> 00:04:46.050 align:middle line:90% not in the oral tradition. 00:04:46.050 --> 00:04:48.120 align:middle line:90% And I think it's a poem of joy. 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:49.410 align:middle line:90% At least, I hope so. 00:04:49.410 --> 00:04:51.780 align:middle line:90% It's a psalm. 00:04:51.780 --> 00:04:55.050 align:middle line:84% Dick came to our house this summer. 00:04:55.050 --> 00:04:57.840 align:middle line:84% We spent a week talking a million things, including 00:04:57.840 --> 00:04:58.980 align:middle line:90% Cormac McCarthy. 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:02.310 align:middle line:84% And he told me I was wrong and I had to go back 00:05:02.310 --> 00:05:06.060 align:middle line:84% and reread Cormac McCarthy and that All the Pretty 00:05:06.060 --> 00:05:09.480 align:middle line:84% Horses really wasn't a very good book and Blood Meridian was. 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:12.300 align:middle line:84% And I read them, and I found out he was right. 00:05:12.300 --> 00:05:14.520 align:middle line:90% And so I wrote a poem about it. 00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:17.700 align:middle line:84% And I also, in late summer, I was trying to prove 00:05:17.700 --> 00:05:18.810 align:middle line:90% I wasn't pregnant. 00:05:18.810 --> 00:05:20.740 align:middle line:90% I wanted to get 15 pounds off. 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:23.910 align:middle line:84% So I went on a Marine Corps diet. 00:05:23.910 --> 00:05:27.360 align:middle line:84% And I also started climbing to the top of Pine Valley Mountain 00:05:27.360 --> 00:05:28.200 align:middle line:90% every afternoon. 00:05:28.200 --> 00:05:29.910 align:middle line:90% It was a three-hour round trip. 00:05:29.910 --> 00:05:31.590 align:middle line:84% And I wrote this after the first trip 00:05:31.590 --> 00:05:33.810 align:middle line:84% up when I discovered it would have 00:05:33.810 --> 00:05:36.060 align:middle line:84% been best if I had done this in increments-- you know, 00:05:36.060 --> 00:05:38.310 align:middle line:84% one hour, one day, and an hour and 10 minutes. 00:05:38.310 --> 00:05:39.840 align:middle line:90% I did it all the first day. 00:05:39.840 --> 00:05:41.700 align:middle line:90% And of course, I died. 00:05:41.700 --> 00:05:47.100 align:middle line:84% So this is a psalm written after reading Cormac McCarthy 00:05:47.100 --> 00:05:51.420 align:middle line:84% and taking a three-hour climb to the top of Pine Valley Mountain. 00:05:51.420 --> 00:05:52.860 align:middle line:90% And it has an epigraph. 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:55.320 align:middle line:84% "Laughter is also a form of prayer." 00:05:55.320 --> 00:05:56.490 align:middle line:90% Soren Kierkegaard. 00:05:56.490 --> 00:05:59.110 align:middle line:90% 00:05:59.110 --> 00:06:04.180 align:middle line:84% "Right here, Lord, tether me to my shadow 00:06:04.180 --> 00:06:09.250 align:middle line:84% like a fat, stabbing mule stuck sideways in tank mud, 00:06:09.250 --> 00:06:12.220 align:middle line:90% bawling for eternity. 00:06:12.220 --> 00:06:14.800 align:middle line:84% At midnight, when the stars slip their traces 00:06:14.800 --> 00:06:17.230 align:middle line:84% and race the moon like wild horses 00:06:17.230 --> 00:06:21.100 align:middle line:84% to their death in the darkness, let my hoarse song twine 00:06:21.100 --> 00:06:23.350 align:middle line:90% with the night wind. 00:06:23.350 --> 00:06:28.780 align:middle line:84% May the bray of today's laughter fall like a pitchy top branch 00:06:28.780 --> 00:06:35.320 align:middle line:84% from a tall yellow pine straight down like winter sleet 00:06:35.320 --> 00:06:38.650 align:middle line:84% to the mountains' bent and trembling knees." 00:06:38.650 --> 00:06:39.850 align:middle line:90% Well, joy. 00:06:39.850 --> 00:06:41.860 align:middle line:90% There it is. 00:06:41.860 --> 00:06:43.510 align:middle line:84% I do want to spend most of the time 00:06:43.510 --> 00:06:46.220 align:middle line:90% this afternoon on the new book. 00:06:46.220 --> 00:06:48.820 align:middle line:90% It's just out. 00:06:48.820 --> 00:06:50.260 align:middle line:90% Came out October 1. 00:06:50.260 --> 00:06:53.200 align:middle line:84% So I've had about, what, a month and a half, 00:06:53.200 --> 00:06:56.050 align:middle line:84% I suppose, looking at the book, touring the book, 00:06:56.050 --> 00:06:57.130 align:middle line:90% reading from the book. 00:06:57.130 --> 00:07:00.657 align:middle line:84% And that's what Copper Canyon asked me to do on the tour 00:07:00.657 --> 00:07:01.990 align:middle line:90% was feature the book everywhere. 00:07:01.990 --> 00:07:04.180 align:middle line:90% So here we go with My Town. 00:07:04.180 --> 00:07:06.610 align:middle line:84% I've picked several of the poems to read. 00:07:06.610 --> 00:07:09.130 align:middle line:84% I was told before I came out here, 00:07:09.130 --> 00:07:13.480 align:middle line:84% feel free to talk about the poems as I'm reading from them. 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:17.860 align:middle line:84% Well, when I leave home, I get two pieces of advice 00:07:17.860 --> 00:07:19.360 align:middle line:90% from my wife and daughter. 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:20.680 align:middle line:90% First, I better check now. 00:07:20.680 --> 00:07:24.580 align:middle line:84% Jodi always says, stand behind the podium and check your fly. 00:07:24.580 --> 00:07:27.340 align:middle line:84% All right, I can't, because it doesn't show. 00:07:27.340 --> 00:07:30.490 align:middle line:84% And then Jen always says, as I'm going out the door-- she really 00:07:30.490 --> 00:07:31.210 align:middle line:90% says two things. 00:07:31.210 --> 00:07:34.060 align:middle line:84% She says, remember, you're out there to work, not have fun. 00:07:34.060 --> 00:07:35.260 align:middle line:90% So don't enjoy yourself. 00:07:35.260 --> 00:07:38.020 align:middle line:84% But number two, she said, and remember, 00:07:38.020 --> 00:07:40.720 align:middle line:90% don't talk between the poems. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:41.890 align:middle line:90% They're not dull. 00:07:41.890 --> 00:07:42.430 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:07:42.430 --> 00:07:45.583 align:middle line:84% So I want to talk about My Town a little bit. 00:07:45.583 --> 00:07:47.500 align:middle line:84% And then I'm not going to talk about the poems 00:07:47.500 --> 00:07:50.220 align:middle line:90% anymore about it. 00:07:50.220 --> 00:07:53.700 align:middle line:84% My Town began when I was finishing up 00:07:53.700 --> 00:07:54.840 align:middle line:90% the Day's Work book. 00:07:54.840 --> 00:07:57.450 align:middle line:84% I don't like to finish one book without starting another one, 00:07:57.450 --> 00:07:59.200 align:middle line:84% so you have to hear this again, don't you? 00:07:59.200 --> 00:08:00.190 align:middle line:90% Sorry, Jennifer. 00:08:00.190 --> 00:08:04.020 align:middle line:84% But I was searching around looking for a new book, 00:08:04.020 --> 00:08:07.710 align:middle line:84% looking for a [AUDIO OUT] And Jen suggested an Ellis Britton 00:08:07.710 --> 00:08:08.640 align:middle line:90% book. 00:08:08.640 --> 00:08:10.290 align:middle line:84% Ellis Britton is in my old books. 00:08:10.290 --> 00:08:13.275 align:middle line:84% I describe him as the meanest man who ever lived. 00:08:13.275 --> 00:08:14.400 align:middle line:90% And she's always liked him. 00:08:14.400 --> 00:08:17.520 align:middle line:84% And I tell her it's because he reminds me of her. 00:08:17.520 --> 00:08:19.050 align:middle line:90% She said, write one about him. 00:08:19.050 --> 00:08:21.840 align:middle line:84% And I said, I don't know enough about him to write a book. 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:24.810 align:middle line:84% And then she said, well, what about minor characters 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:25.750 align:middle line:90% in the other books? 00:08:25.750 --> 00:08:26.790 align:middle line:90% And that was the click. 00:08:26.790 --> 00:08:30.060 align:middle line:84% That's what started the whole process of My Town. 00:08:30.060 --> 00:08:33.270 align:middle line:84% Then in a phone conversation with a friend about a year 00:08:33.270 --> 00:08:35.820 align:middle line:84% later, I discovered the structure 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:39.480 align:middle line:84% while I was talking of a journey through a cemetery or a ghost 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:40.409 align:middle line:90% town. 00:08:40.409 --> 00:08:42.539 align:middle line:84% And then the idea fell on me to go back 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:44.640 align:middle line:84% on my theological background and structure 00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:46.080 align:middle line:90% this as a formal requiem. 00:08:46.080 --> 00:08:48.840 align:middle line:84% So the book has a prelude, an interlude, a postlude, 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:50.813 align:middle line:90% a benediction as I work through. 00:08:50.813 --> 00:08:52.230 align:middle line:84% And maybe that's all I really want 00:08:52.230 --> 00:08:55.773 align:middle line:84% to say for now, although again, you can't offend me 00:08:55.773 --> 00:08:57.690 align:middle line:84% if you want to stop me in the reading anywhere 00:08:57.690 --> 00:09:00.060 align:middle line:90% and ask questions or whatever. 00:09:00.060 --> 00:09:03.390 align:middle line:84% As I like to say, I have two living teenage children. 00:09:03.390 --> 00:09:06.480 align:middle line:84% And that proves I can be interrupted on a regular basis. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:07.560 align:middle line:90% I can be argued with. 00:09:07.560 --> 00:09:08.790 align:middle line:90% I can be criticized. 00:09:08.790 --> 00:09:10.380 align:middle line:90% It doesn't bother me. 00:09:10.380 --> 00:09:12.870 align:middle line:84% I'm going to start with the prelude poem 00:09:12.870 --> 00:09:14.970 align:middle line:90% just because it's first. 00:09:14.970 --> 00:09:16.680 align:middle line:90% It has two epigraphs. 00:09:16.680 --> 00:09:19.410 align:middle line:84% The first, I have been told on numerous occasions, 00:09:19.410 --> 00:09:22.740 align:middle line:84% is the most immediately identifiable line in American 00:09:22.740 --> 00:09:25.300 align:middle line:84% literature in the second half of the 20th century. 00:09:25.300 --> 00:09:26.730 align:middle line:90% I think that's probably right. 00:09:26.730 --> 00:09:28.680 align:middle line:84% I've never gone into a junior high school 00:09:28.680 --> 00:09:31.770 align:middle line:84% restroom where I haven't seen this written on a bathroom wall. 00:09:31.770 --> 00:09:33.630 align:middle line:90% "You can't go home again." 00:09:33.630 --> 00:09:35.190 align:middle line:90% Thomas Wolfe. 00:09:35.190 --> 00:09:38.250 align:middle line:84% And then the second epigraph is from one of my favorite poets, 00:09:38.250 --> 00:09:40.830 align:middle line:84% the Minnesota poet, the Viking Bill Holm, 00:09:40.830 --> 00:09:44.890 align:middle line:84% 6'6" by 300 pound with his bushy red hair and his bulging 00:09:44.890 --> 00:09:45.960 align:middle line:90% eyeballs. 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:48.990 align:middle line:84% And he once upon a time told me he 00:09:48.990 --> 00:09:52.230 align:middle line:84% thought this was the best line he had ever written. 00:09:52.230 --> 00:09:53.760 align:middle line:90% So I scooped it. 00:09:53.760 --> 00:09:55.920 align:middle line:90% "You can't go home again." 00:09:55.920 --> 00:09:57.990 align:middle line:90% Thomas Wolfe. 00:09:57.990 --> 00:09:59.130 align:middle line:90% "But shit." 00:09:59.130 --> 00:09:59.850 align:middle line:90% Bill Holm. 00:09:59.850 --> 00:10:01.630 align:middle line:90% All right. 00:10:01.630 --> 00:10:03.860 align:middle line:90% "Who said that? 00:10:03.860 --> 00:10:06.140 align:middle line:90% Did somebody say that? 00:10:06.140 --> 00:10:10.540 align:middle line:84% Or was that in one of them damn books you read? 00:10:10.540 --> 00:10:11.800 align:middle line:90% Better. 00:10:11.800 --> 00:10:15.010 align:middle line:90% It's a pile of crap. 00:10:15.010 --> 00:10:17.440 align:middle line:90% I go home every day. 00:10:17.440 --> 00:10:18.670 align:middle line:90% Don't matter where I am. 00:10:18.670 --> 00:10:21.270 align:middle line:90% I'm the prodigal son. 00:10:21.270 --> 00:10:24.720 align:middle line:84% I don't need a Greyhound bus to get me there. 00:10:24.720 --> 00:10:30.360 align:middle line:84% I can go to my town right now, right here, 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:38.520 align:middle line:84% talking to you because this is everywhere I've ever been." 00:10:38.520 --> 00:10:40.920 align:middle line:84% Then from that, I go into a poem called "Terrace Mound." 00:10:40.920 --> 00:10:42.120 align:middle line:90% It's really not a poem. 00:10:42.120 --> 00:10:43.470 align:middle line:90% It's an incompletion. 00:10:43.470 --> 00:10:46.290 align:middle line:84% It's just Virgil giving the directions through hell 00:10:46.290 --> 00:10:48.030 align:middle line:90% to Dante, I suppose. 00:10:48.030 --> 00:10:50.610 align:middle line:84% It's getting us into the cemetery. 00:10:50.610 --> 00:10:52.650 align:middle line:84% I'll just read it just for the background, 00:10:52.650 --> 00:10:54.720 align:middle line:84% and then I'll move into the poems themselves. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:57.990 align:middle line:84% "Go through them gates and turn left. 00:10:57.990 --> 00:11:00.660 align:middle line:90% Now, them's the Rushings. 00:11:00.660 --> 00:11:04.290 align:middle line:84% Had the little grocery store after he quit farming. 00:11:04.290 --> 00:11:07.550 align:middle line:84% And there's Maloufs, these immigrants. 00:11:07.550 --> 00:11:08.960 align:middle line:90% I suppose most of us are. 00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:10.790 align:middle line:90% They took a later boat. 00:11:10.790 --> 00:11:14.150 align:middle line:84% Had this boy Tommy with the cancer in high school 00:11:14.150 --> 00:11:15.200 align:middle line:90% that played football. 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:17.750 align:middle line:84% Chopped him off a part at a time till he only 00:11:17.750 --> 00:11:21.470 align:middle line:84% had a thumb and a little finger left on that hand. 00:11:21.470 --> 00:11:24.800 align:middle line:84% Then they took his thumb and a leg. 00:11:24.800 --> 00:11:26.930 align:middle line:90% He'd give it up. 00:11:26.930 --> 00:11:30.260 align:middle line:84% Kay Stokes down there with the big fence and the Patricks 00:11:30.260 --> 00:11:33.470 align:middle line:84% next door, them's the expensive people. 00:11:33.470 --> 00:11:36.380 align:middle line:84% Bryant Williams a little further down there, turn. 00:11:36.380 --> 00:11:39.320 align:middle line:84% Here's Edna Mae and Rufus Garner. 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:41.930 align:middle line:84% Way down there at the end with the white picket fence is 00:11:41.930 --> 00:11:43.430 align:middle line:90% Lela's. 00:11:43.430 --> 00:11:46.430 align:middle line:84% And over there in that flat place in the sun 00:11:46.430 --> 00:11:48.680 align:middle line:90% is Ellis Britton. 00:11:48.680 --> 00:11:50.900 align:middle line:84% Should have planted a tree there. 00:11:50.900 --> 00:11:53.810 align:middle line:90% Be shade for the whole block. 00:11:53.810 --> 00:11:57.050 align:middle line:84% My Lord, I couldn't have told you 00:11:57.050 --> 00:11:59.630 align:middle line:84% what Buck Gossip's name was if I'd have 00:11:59.630 --> 00:12:02.120 align:middle line:90% thought of him two minutes ago. 00:12:02.120 --> 00:12:06.830 align:middle line:84% And down to the left at the end of that street, a gypsy come 00:12:06.830 --> 00:12:09.770 align:middle line:84% in with the carnival, got in a knife fight 00:12:09.770 --> 00:12:11.340 align:middle line:90% over one of the women. 00:12:11.340 --> 00:12:13.190 align:middle line:90% So he stayed. 00:12:13.190 --> 00:12:15.770 align:middle line:84% And across that street right down there, see, was a man 00:12:15.770 --> 00:12:16.490 align:middle line:90% I love. 00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:18.110 align:middle line:90% That's Mr. Cummings' place. 00:12:18.110 --> 00:12:19.160 align:middle line:90% And then up from him-- 00:12:19.160 --> 00:12:23.380 align:middle line:90% 00:12:23.380 --> 00:12:30.310 align:middle line:84% in 1956, the Baptists got a new preacher, the Reverend Pastor 00:12:30.310 --> 00:12:34.600 align:middle line:84% Brother Strayhan from the Southern Tennessee Preacher 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:36.760 align:middle line:90% School Seminary. 00:12:36.760 --> 00:12:39.520 align:middle line:84% He had a Bible they'd give him for graduating, 00:12:39.520 --> 00:12:43.540 align:middle line:84% had about 40 ribbons marking his page numbers hanging out 00:12:43.540 --> 00:12:46.480 align:middle line:84% the back, every color you could imagine. 00:12:46.480 --> 00:12:48.730 align:middle line:84% After he'd been there about a year, 00:12:48.730 --> 00:12:52.180 align:middle line:84% he'd still tell them how they didn't appreciate 00:12:52.180 --> 00:12:56.830 align:middle line:84% him enough because he was awarded them ribbons for being 00:12:56.830 --> 00:13:00.220 align:middle line:90% outstanding in his field. 00:13:00.220 --> 00:13:02.470 align:middle line:84% One day, Mizrez Bouchier, who was old enough 00:13:02.470 --> 00:13:05.050 align:middle line:84% to not care no more, said after church she 00:13:05.050 --> 00:13:07.690 align:middle line:84% wished to hell he'd go out and stand in his field some more. 00:13:07.690 --> 00:13:10.700 align:middle line:90% She'd had enough of him already. 00:13:10.700 --> 00:13:14.860 align:middle line:84% He'd preach swinging that thing around like a Chinaman's cat. 00:13:14.860 --> 00:13:17.440 align:middle line:84% By the end of the sermon, he'd took out 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:19.930 align:middle line:84% the ribbons marking spots, all worked up 00:13:19.930 --> 00:13:23.980 align:middle line:84% to give the invitation, swung it so hard once he chopped off 00:13:23.980 --> 00:13:28.270 align:middle line:84% the top of an incarnation in the pulpit flower pot. 00:13:28.270 --> 00:13:32.170 align:middle line:84% He loved to preach on how he got called by the Lord 00:13:32.170 --> 00:13:37.630 align:middle line:84% to be his servant when he's only 16, met his lovely wife 00:13:37.630 --> 00:13:39.760 align:middle line:90% that same summer. 00:13:39.760 --> 00:13:42.400 align:middle line:84% My mama says she figured he's right. 00:13:42.400 --> 00:13:45.040 align:middle line:84% All boys that age get called, some of them 00:13:45.040 --> 00:13:46.930 align:middle line:90% even on the telephone. 00:13:46.930 --> 00:13:50.980 align:middle line:84% But she thought the Lord got a wrong number that time. 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:54.430 align:middle line:90% We all screwed up now and then. 00:13:54.430 --> 00:13:59.380 align:middle line:84% He had about nine kids, said it was the Lord's will. 00:13:59.380 --> 00:14:01.960 align:middle line:90% Oldest one, not even 12. 00:14:01.960 --> 00:14:06.040 align:middle line:84% His wife looked like an inner tube with about half its air. 00:14:06.040 --> 00:14:09.010 align:middle line:84% You'd hear her in the grocery store two aisles over, 00:14:09.010 --> 00:14:10.630 align:middle line:90% her feet drug so. 00:14:10.630 --> 00:14:12.370 align:middle line:90% She's wore out. 00:14:12.370 --> 00:14:17.950 align:middle line:84% Not even 30 and known it was her by the sound. 00:14:17.950 --> 00:14:23.740 align:middle line:84% Even if he got his preacher pay and a house 00:14:23.740 --> 00:14:30.770 align:middle line:84% and a car and his electric and the water, with all them kids, 00:14:30.770 --> 00:14:33.940 align:middle line:84% he thought it wasn't enough to get by on. 00:14:33.940 --> 00:14:38.380 align:middle line:84% Every third Sunday, the sermon was on the collection plate 00:14:38.380 --> 00:14:40.750 align:middle line:90% and the bread on the water. 00:14:40.750 --> 00:14:43.870 align:middle line:84% He'd go around town asking all the business 00:14:43.870 --> 00:14:46.150 align:middle line:90% for a preacher discount. 00:14:46.150 --> 00:14:48.670 align:middle line:84% Wouldn't buy nothing in a store if they didn't mark it down 00:14:48.670 --> 00:14:49.870 align:middle line:90% for him. 00:14:49.870 --> 00:14:54.040 align:middle line:84% When they didn't, he could make them sorry for it. 00:14:54.040 --> 00:14:56.170 align:middle line:84% He'd find some way to get it in one of his sermons, 00:14:56.170 --> 00:14:58.630 align:middle line:84% and the whole congregation would go somewheres else 00:14:58.630 --> 00:15:01.780 align:middle line:84% after that whether they believed it or not. 00:15:01.780 --> 00:15:06.100 align:middle line:84% His kids got in the picture show half price and free meals 00:15:06.100 --> 00:15:08.920 align:middle line:84% at the school lunchroom and the ball games 00:15:08.920 --> 00:15:14.440 align:middle line:84% without paying because it was the Lord's will. 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:20.630 align:middle line:90% So once, he went to Lela's cafe. 00:15:20.630 --> 00:15:23.630 align:middle line:84% Stood there at the counter before he had sat down 00:15:23.630 --> 00:15:28.830 align:middle line:84% with his whole family, said, how much is your minister 00:15:28.830 --> 00:15:31.170 align:middle line:90% discount to eat there? 00:15:31.170 --> 00:15:34.320 align:middle line:84% Customers listening, too, waiting to pay. 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:38.820 align:middle line:90% Says, I need at least 20%. 00:15:38.820 --> 00:15:41.010 align:middle line:90% Lela says, why? 00:15:41.010 --> 00:15:44.850 align:middle line:84% She wasn't even a Baptist but a Presbyter. 00:15:44.850 --> 00:15:48.450 align:middle line:84% Says, my family and I get discounts 00:15:48.450 --> 00:15:52.620 align:middle line:84% of up to one half at most places because of I 00:15:52.620 --> 00:15:55.630 align:middle line:90% am the Baptist Reverend. 00:15:55.630 --> 00:15:57.730 align:middle line:84% One of the people eating there, Clovis Robinson, 00:15:57.730 --> 00:15:59.710 align:middle line:84% I think back then, said, yes, ma'am. 00:15:59.710 --> 00:16:00.460 align:middle line:90% That's a fact. 00:16:00.460 --> 00:16:01.690 align:middle line:90% He's a Baptist deacon. 00:16:01.690 --> 00:16:04.630 align:middle line:84% Had to back him up without no choice. 00:16:04.630 --> 00:16:06.250 align:middle line:90% Wasn't nothing she could do. 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:08.890 align:middle line:84% Everybody watching, listening, waiting 00:16:08.890 --> 00:16:11.590 align:middle line:84% to see whether they'd all walk out. 00:16:11.590 --> 00:16:15.870 align:middle line:90% Lela said, sit down. 00:16:15.870 --> 00:16:20.280 align:middle line:90% I will do my 20% one time. 00:16:20.280 --> 00:16:23.700 align:middle line:84% All them kids standing there with their mouths hanging open, 00:16:23.700 --> 00:16:27.450 align:middle line:84% three of them didn't even have their britches zipped up. 00:16:27.450 --> 00:16:33.470 align:middle line:84% He ordered tuna fish sandwiches and a glass of water 00:16:33.470 --> 00:16:39.140 align:middle line:84% for all them kids because that was the cheapest, fried chicken 00:16:39.140 --> 00:16:43.730 align:middle line:84% for his wife because that was the most for the money, 00:16:43.730 --> 00:16:48.720 align:middle line:84% and told this waitress to bring him a steak to eat. 00:16:48.720 --> 00:16:51.620 align:middle line:84% How you want that cooked, she said. 00:16:51.620 --> 00:16:55.100 align:middle line:90% Scriptural, he said. 00:16:55.100 --> 00:16:56.870 align:middle line:90% She said, what? 00:16:56.870 --> 00:17:03.350 align:middle line:84% He said, well done, my good and faithful servant, leaned back 00:17:03.350 --> 00:17:05.839 align:middle line:84% and grinned, proud of himself like 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:08.510 align:middle line:84% he thought she ought to bring him a dish of ice cream for free 00:17:08.510 --> 00:17:11.960 align:middle line:90% for thinking that one up. 00:17:11.960 --> 00:17:15.230 align:middle line:84% Lela heard it, hollered through the window 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:19.460 align:middle line:84% from the cash register to the cook, whole cafe listening. 00:17:19.460 --> 00:17:25.819 align:middle line:84% Fix that preacher's kids hamburgers and French fries. 00:17:25.819 --> 00:17:29.120 align:middle line:84% Make his wife shrimps and white fish. 00:17:29.120 --> 00:17:31.460 align:middle line:84% Put him on a steak from bottom of the pile. 00:17:31.460 --> 00:17:34.440 align:middle line:90% I'll pay the difference. 00:17:34.440 --> 00:17:39.040 align:middle line:84% Cook says, how you want that steak? 00:17:39.040 --> 00:17:42.900 align:middle line:90% She says, scriptural. 00:17:42.900 --> 00:17:47.230 align:middle line:84% Burn that son of a bitch to hell. 00:17:47.230 --> 00:17:50.020 align:middle line:84% He never did come back there to eat again after that. 00:17:50.020 --> 00:17:53.350 align:middle line:84% And it never hurt Lela's business, not even one bit." 00:17:53.350 --> 00:18:00.560 align:middle line:90% 00:18:00.560 --> 00:18:03.770 align:middle line:84% This is a poem that has an allusion in it. 00:18:03.770 --> 00:18:09.650 align:middle line:84% I wrote it for one of my classes in 17th-century British 00:18:09.650 --> 00:18:11.660 align:middle line:90% literature. 00:18:11.660 --> 00:18:14.090 align:middle line:84% We had been looking at the Puritan writers. 00:18:14.090 --> 00:18:18.830 align:middle line:84% And I had made them read any one of their choice of four works 00:18:18.830 --> 00:18:20.942 align:middle line:90% by John Bunyan. 00:18:20.942 --> 00:18:22.400 align:middle line:84% And if you've read John Bunyan, you 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:25.010 align:middle line:84% can see that was an ordeal in terror. 00:18:25.010 --> 00:18:27.200 align:middle line:84% Most of them picked The Pilgrim's Progress 00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:29.810 align:middle line:90% because it had a CliffsNotes. 00:18:29.810 --> 00:18:34.100 align:middle line:84% One of them actually read The Death and Life of Mr Badman. 00:18:34.100 --> 00:18:39.020 align:middle line:84% One of them started The Holy War between Diabolus and El Shaddai. 00:18:39.020 --> 00:18:42.080 align:middle line:84% And several of them read Grace Abounding 00:18:42.080 --> 00:18:45.290 align:middle line:84% to the Chief of Sinners because it did say in one work somewhere 00:18:45.290 --> 00:18:47.390 align:middle line:84% that that was the finest prose allegory 00:18:47.390 --> 00:18:48.440 align:middle line:90% in the English language. 00:18:48.440 --> 00:18:50.340 align:middle line:90% So I wrote this for them. 00:18:50.340 --> 00:18:51.230 align:middle line:90% It's called "Fast." 00:18:51.230 --> 00:18:52.800 align:middle line:84% And it has an allusion at the end, 00:18:52.800 --> 00:18:55.520 align:middle line:90% which you'll pick up on now. 00:18:55.520 --> 00:19:00.410 align:middle line:84% "Janie Grace Gosset could outrun anybody in the high school 00:19:00.410 --> 00:19:04.390 align:middle line:84% back then before she had that car wreck. 00:19:04.390 --> 00:19:07.113 align:middle line:84% If she had been born a boy, she could 00:19:07.113 --> 00:19:09.280 align:middle line:84% have been on the football team except she's probably 00:19:09.280 --> 00:19:11.200 align:middle line:90% too little. 00:19:11.200 --> 00:19:15.640 align:middle line:84% Her whole body was one piece of muscle, 00:19:15.640 --> 00:19:21.460 align:middle line:84% like a carpenter's crowbar welded together without a joint. 00:19:21.460 --> 00:19:25.000 align:middle line:84% You could have struck a match on her anywhere. 00:19:25.000 --> 00:19:28.270 align:middle line:84% You don't believe me, go for a match. 00:19:28.270 --> 00:19:30.040 align:middle line:84% She'd wear blue jeans to the school 00:19:30.040 --> 00:19:32.710 align:middle line:84% on Fridays, like all the girls did once. 00:19:32.710 --> 00:19:35.200 align:middle line:84% It looked like two boar hogs in there, 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:37.660 align:middle line:84% fighting it out-- in a chicken coop when she walked 00:19:37.660 --> 00:19:40.090 align:middle line:90% past you with them britches on. 00:19:40.090 --> 00:19:42.190 align:middle line:84% Edgar McMahon down to the gym said 00:19:42.190 --> 00:19:44.380 align:middle line:84% if he could get cotton that tight, he'd 00:19:44.380 --> 00:19:51.010 align:middle line:90% get 800 pounds in a toe sack. 00:19:51.010 --> 00:19:52.210 align:middle line:90% Then she took up with-- 00:19:52.210 --> 00:19:56.560 align:middle line:84% sorry-- Harold Wayne Johnson before he went blind 00:19:56.560 --> 00:19:59.140 align:middle line:84% and started being a gospel preacher. 00:19:59.140 --> 00:20:01.540 align:middle line:84% He slobbered all over her for about half 00:20:01.540 --> 00:20:04.480 align:middle line:84% a year until he ruined her reputation 00:20:04.480 --> 00:20:08.350 align:middle line:84% so he'd have an excuse to move on to another one. 00:20:08.350 --> 00:20:10.570 align:middle line:84% They said she's going 80 miles an hour 00:20:10.570 --> 00:20:14.170 align:middle line:84% at least when she went off the cap rock after he'd done it all 00:20:14.170 --> 00:20:17.200 align:middle line:90% and told. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:21.100 align:middle line:84% There was one springtime they was having the high school 00:20:21.100 --> 00:20:23.230 align:middle line:90% track meet. 00:20:23.230 --> 00:20:27.190 align:middle line:84% Whole town come out to see if she could outrun Jimmy Ray 00:20:27.190 --> 00:20:31.600 align:middle line:84% Gary, who was going to graduate and go to the college, 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:34.330 align:middle line:90% be on the team there. 00:20:34.330 --> 00:20:36.070 align:middle line:84% They had all the other races first 00:20:36.070 --> 00:20:38.140 align:middle line:90% so we'd have to wait and see. 00:20:38.140 --> 00:20:40.240 align:middle line:84% Finally, come to the last one, and there she 00:20:40.240 --> 00:20:45.160 align:middle line:84% was in it, wearing this tight pink running outfit. 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:47.440 align:middle line:90% That gun went off. 00:20:47.440 --> 00:20:50.740 align:middle line:84% First half, she was out in front, good. 00:20:50.740 --> 00:20:55.300 align:middle line:84% And then he pulled up, all the other ones left behind by then, 00:20:55.300 --> 00:20:59.470 align:middle line:84% them two right beside each other the last part. 00:20:59.470 --> 00:21:02.740 align:middle line:84% Everybody there was struck deaf and dumb, 00:21:02.740 --> 00:21:06.850 align:middle line:84% like they was on the road to Damascus, their mouths hanging 00:21:06.850 --> 00:21:10.000 align:middle line:90% open like it was a vision. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:18.200 align:middle line:84% For just a second or two, that day turned into pear jelly. 00:21:18.200 --> 00:21:21.770 align:middle line:84% Her body melted into that running suit 00:21:21.770 --> 00:21:27.560 align:middle line:84% looked like she was bald naked, running wide open. 00:21:27.560 --> 00:21:31.640 align:middle line:84% Only one other one besides them that was moving 00:21:31.640 --> 00:21:35.930 align:middle line:84% was Harold Wayne Johnson, running down to the finish line 00:21:35.930 --> 00:21:38.990 align:middle line:84% to grab her just like she was a Holstein cow 00:21:38.990 --> 00:21:40.430 align:middle line:90% right in front of everybody. 00:21:40.430 --> 00:21:45.410 align:middle line:84% Probably thought she let just for him. 00:21:45.410 --> 00:21:49.700 align:middle line:84% I don't think anybody could tell you who won that foot race. 00:21:49.700 --> 00:21:52.250 align:middle line:90% We lost that in the watching. 00:21:52.250 --> 00:21:56.390 align:middle line:84% But we all had words for it that we'd known by heart. 00:21:56.390 --> 00:22:01.280 align:middle line:84% I heard my mouth say, Amazing Grace. 00:22:01.280 --> 00:22:06.620 align:middle line:84% R.B. Mcravey said, that there is poetry in motion. 00:22:06.620 --> 00:22:11.990 align:middle line:84% Ollie McDugald said, oh, no, that is a religious experience. 00:22:11.990 --> 00:22:16.670 align:middle line:84% But Leonard Tittle, who was already preaching on weekends 00:22:16.670 --> 00:22:21.380 align:middle line:84% and had both of them in his class of algebra, said, no, sir, 00:22:21.380 --> 00:22:22.940 align:middle line:90% gentlemen. 00:22:22.940 --> 00:22:26.480 align:middle line:84% Right out loud, you are all wrong. 00:22:26.480 --> 00:22:30.665 align:middle line:84% That there was Grace abounding to the chief of sinners." 00:22:30.665 --> 00:22:37.100 align:middle line:90% 00:22:37.100 --> 00:22:40.970 align:middle line:84% Well, halfway through the poem, halfway through the book, 00:22:40.970 --> 00:22:42.110 align:middle line:90% I come to Interlude. 00:22:42.110 --> 00:22:44.510 align:middle line:84% And it does mark the halfway point. 00:22:44.510 --> 00:22:46.850 align:middle line:84% And with this poem, I guess I try 00:22:46.850 --> 00:22:49.340 align:middle line:84% to change the tenor of the book a little bit, 00:22:49.340 --> 00:22:50.270 align:middle line:90% change the tension. 00:22:50.270 --> 00:22:53.630 align:middle line:90% 00:22:53.630 --> 00:22:55.310 align:middle line:84% And the voice will shift a little bit. 00:22:55.310 --> 00:22:59.270 align:middle line:90% 00:22:59.270 --> 00:23:03.410 align:middle line:90% "Help me right here, said John. 00:23:03.410 --> 00:23:06.650 align:middle line:90% And I grasped the bottom rim. 00:23:06.650 --> 00:23:10.400 align:middle line:84% We lifted that barrel into the pickup 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:15.290 align:middle line:84% and then sat down on the tailgate, hot. 00:23:15.290 --> 00:23:19.190 align:middle line:84% A warm canyon breeze spilled across the yellow grass. 00:23:19.190 --> 00:23:24.630 align:middle line:90% 00:23:24.630 --> 00:23:29.070 align:middle line:84% It was this one summer back home. 00:23:29.070 --> 00:23:33.210 align:middle line:84% I was young, about the time most kids getting out of school, 00:23:33.210 --> 00:23:35.610 align:middle line:90% but I'd done quit. 00:23:35.610 --> 00:23:38.460 align:middle line:84% Old man Cummings had me helping him, 00:23:38.460 --> 00:23:42.510 align:middle line:84% lifting all this heavy weight on a wagon load. 00:23:42.510 --> 00:23:47.040 align:middle line:84% We made a tote and sat in the shade to rest. 00:23:47.040 --> 00:23:52.710 align:middle line:84% He started remembering, commenced to talking, says, 00:23:52.710 --> 00:23:54.990 align:middle line:90% summer clover. 00:23:54.990 --> 00:23:55.965 align:middle line:90% Jingle, jangle. 00:23:55.965 --> 00:23:58.900 align:middle line:90% 00:23:58.900 --> 00:24:03.820 align:middle line:84% He'd done taken and put his hand in his pocket, pulled 00:24:03.820 --> 00:24:07.090 align:middle line:90% out this silver dollar. 00:24:07.090 --> 00:24:10.660 align:middle line:84% He looked at it like he'd never seen it before. 00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:13.780 align:middle line:84% Smooth, so you couldn't even tell the man on the side, 00:24:13.780 --> 00:24:18.280 align:middle line:84% all the words rubbed off from being carried so long. 00:24:18.280 --> 00:24:24.700 align:middle line:84% It was meadow clover all over, stretching out green and yellow. 00:24:24.700 --> 00:24:27.340 align:middle line:90% 00:24:27.340 --> 00:24:29.710 align:middle line:90% I didn't say nothing. 00:24:29.710 --> 00:24:38.080 align:middle line:90% He talked, said, I was 17. 00:24:38.080 --> 00:24:43.450 align:middle line:84% They come in wagons, putting on gypsy carnivals. 00:24:43.450 --> 00:24:45.430 align:middle line:84% Whole town wanted them to go on and on. 00:24:45.430 --> 00:24:48.580 align:middle line:90% They'd steal what all was loose. 00:24:48.580 --> 00:24:52.540 align:middle line:84% Everybody went to the tent anyway. 00:24:52.540 --> 00:24:57.880 align:middle line:90% They paid me $1 to water horses. 00:24:57.880 --> 00:25:02.920 align:middle line:90% I worked all afternoon, hard-- 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:06.130 align:middle line:90% I was 17-- for $1. 00:25:06.130 --> 00:25:09.960 align:middle line:90% 00:25:09.960 --> 00:25:18.390 align:middle line:84% She had eyes that laughed, same color as them fancy shoes, 00:25:18.390 --> 00:25:27.060 align:middle line:84% laugh like silver baubles on a red and blue velvet dress. 00:25:27.060 --> 00:25:27.840 align:middle line:90% Color of midnight. 00:25:27.840 --> 00:25:30.700 align:middle line:90% 00:25:30.700 --> 00:25:35.190 align:middle line:84% Even in the dark, I seen me looking back 00:25:35.190 --> 00:25:36.480 align:middle line:90% from those black eyes. 00:25:36.480 --> 00:25:39.240 align:middle line:90% 00:25:39.240 --> 00:25:41.640 align:middle line:90% I wasn't scared. 00:25:41.640 --> 00:25:50.700 align:middle line:84% She showed me slow, easy, a whole field of yellow clover. 00:25:50.700 --> 00:25:53.580 align:middle line:90% Bells on her shoes, real soft. 00:25:53.580 --> 00:25:55.620 align:middle line:90% Jingle, jangle. 00:25:55.620 --> 00:25:58.470 align:middle line:90% 00:25:58.470 --> 00:26:03.150 align:middle line:84% So many nights I can't sleep, a smell comes in the window 00:26:03.150 --> 00:26:05.070 align:middle line:90% after me. 00:26:05.070 --> 00:26:09.720 align:middle line:84% When my wife's alive, times I laid there the whole night 00:26:09.720 --> 00:26:17.460 align:middle line:84% beside her, shaken, awake, all that dark tearing holes in me. 00:26:17.460 --> 00:26:22.830 align:middle line:84% Nothing I could do but stay there, listen, 00:26:22.830 --> 00:26:26.250 align:middle line:90% the sound of silver wind bells. 00:26:26.250 --> 00:26:30.450 align:middle line:90% Kids in the next room sleeping. 00:26:30.450 --> 00:26:36.390 align:middle line:84% Nobody could smell it or hear it but me. 00:26:36.390 --> 00:26:38.730 align:middle line:90% Summer clover. 00:26:38.730 --> 00:26:39.600 align:middle line:90% Jingle, jangle. 00:26:39.600 --> 00:26:42.660 align:middle line:90% 00:26:42.660 --> 00:26:46.500 align:middle line:84% He sat there staring at that money in his hand, 00:26:46.500 --> 00:26:49.000 align:middle line:84% almost like he's talking to it, like he'd 00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:55.251 align:middle line:84% done forgotten I was there, and never said no more. 00:26:55.251 --> 00:27:01.530 align:middle line:90% In his pocket, closed his eyes. 00:27:01.530 --> 00:27:06.690 align:middle line:84% I could tell he was smelling summer clover. 00:27:06.690 --> 00:27:10.170 align:middle line:90% It was all over for then. 00:27:10.170 --> 00:27:15.550 align:middle line:84% So let's take this pig feed out to the pig pens, 00:27:15.550 --> 00:27:17.800 align:middle line:90% and then we'll be done. 00:27:17.800 --> 00:27:20.950 align:middle line:84% Lifting it down won't be as hard as getting it in. 00:27:20.950 --> 00:27:24.175 align:middle line:84% Second half of anything's always easier than the first." 00:27:24.175 --> 00:27:33.620 align:middle line:90% 00:27:33.620 --> 00:27:35.480 align:middle line:90% "What time is it? 00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:37.470 align:middle line:90% Is it time for supper yet?" 00:27:37.470 --> 00:27:38.720 align:middle line:90% I love to read the first line. 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:40.490 align:middle line:84% Everybody checks their wristwatch, don't they? 00:27:40.490 --> 00:27:40.990 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:27:40.990 --> 00:27:41.780 align:middle line:90% I like that now. 00:27:41.780 --> 00:27:42.920 align:middle line:90% "Time for supper yet? 00:27:42.920 --> 00:27:44.960 align:middle line:84% Go up and tell Laverne to get some supper ready. 00:27:44.960 --> 00:27:46.190 align:middle line:90% I'm hungry. 00:27:46.190 --> 00:27:46.840 align:middle line:90% No, no, no, no. 00:27:46.840 --> 00:27:47.340 align:middle line:90% Don't. 00:27:47.340 --> 00:27:48.080 align:middle line:90% Goddamn, don't. 00:27:48.080 --> 00:27:50.360 align:middle line:90% Get on back down here right now. 00:27:50.360 --> 00:27:52.250 align:middle line:84% Don't go messing with her about no supper. 00:27:52.250 --> 00:27:54.920 align:middle line:84% She's in the wrong moon turn this week. 00:27:54.920 --> 00:27:56.960 align:middle line:84% Don't say nothing at all right now. 00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:58.820 align:middle line:90% She'll do it her way or not. 00:27:58.820 --> 00:28:01.790 align:middle line:84% And piss her off, it could mess up the rest of your life 00:28:01.790 --> 00:28:03.800 align:middle line:90% and ruin the whole evening. 00:28:03.800 --> 00:28:08.100 align:middle line:84% Your goose and mine'd both be cooked. 00:28:08.100 --> 00:28:11.800 align:middle line:84% You know, I known a man named Goose once. 00:28:11.800 --> 00:28:14.650 align:middle line:90% I'd grown up with Goose Landrum. 00:28:14.650 --> 00:28:16.300 align:middle line:90% That's what we called him. 00:28:16.300 --> 00:28:19.212 align:middle line:84% And his daddy and his granddaddy, too. 00:28:19.212 --> 00:28:20.170 align:middle line:90% I never known that one. 00:28:20.170 --> 00:28:21.280 align:middle line:90% That wasn't their real names. 00:28:21.280 --> 00:28:22.300 align:middle line:90% They had Christian ones. 00:28:22.300 --> 00:28:24.220 align:middle line:90% His daddy was Harold. 00:28:24.220 --> 00:28:26.470 align:middle line:84% And I don't know his granddaddy, but it was something, 00:28:26.470 --> 00:28:29.410 align:middle line:84% Leon or Albert, like that, I imagine. 00:28:29.410 --> 00:28:32.530 align:middle line:84% His was George, and we never called that to him. 00:28:32.530 --> 00:28:34.990 align:middle line:84% It started with his granddaddy, which 00:28:34.990 --> 00:28:39.430 align:middle line:84% had this wife and this new baby, which later on would have been 00:28:39.430 --> 00:28:43.150 align:middle line:84% his daddy, out to take a ride in the wagon 00:28:43.150 --> 00:28:47.290 align:middle line:84% with this new team of horses he was breaking in on a Sunday. 00:28:47.290 --> 00:28:49.900 align:middle line:84% So them horses spooked up a rabbit, 00:28:49.900 --> 00:28:52.720 align:middle line:84% scared themselves to death, and took off 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:55.240 align:middle line:90% like a slobbering whirlwind. 00:28:55.240 --> 00:29:00.820 align:middle line:84% He thrown her the reins, grabbed that baby up, and jumped off. 00:29:00.820 --> 00:29:04.250 align:middle line:84% Tried to-- her to keep them headed on the road 00:29:04.250 --> 00:29:07.990 align:middle line:84% best she could till they given out. 00:29:07.990 --> 00:29:09.730 align:middle line:90% It's too late. 00:29:09.730 --> 00:29:11.680 align:middle line:84% Said her dress blown up in her face. 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:13.960 align:middle line:84% She couldn't have heard him if she tried. 00:29:13.960 --> 00:29:16.570 align:middle line:84% Screeching too loud by then, them horses 00:29:16.570 --> 00:29:19.570 align:middle line:84% sounded like a thunderbolt farting. 00:29:19.570 --> 00:29:21.640 align:middle line:84% She'd have to figure it out without his help. 00:29:21.640 --> 00:29:24.280 align:middle line:90% 00:29:24.280 --> 00:29:25.340 align:middle line:90% She's a schoolteacher." 00:29:25.340 --> 00:29:28.626 align:middle line:90% [LOUD AIRPLANE] 00:29:28.626 --> 00:29:37.060 align:middle line:90% 00:29:37.060 --> 00:29:40.190 align:middle line:84% I had a terrific experience yesterday 00:29:40.190 --> 00:29:43.190 align:middle line:90% morning in a restaurant. 00:29:43.190 --> 00:29:45.950 align:middle line:84% Here I was, having a very nice conversation 00:29:45.950 --> 00:29:48.770 align:middle line:84% and a nice breakfast with a very good friend of mine 00:29:48.770 --> 00:29:50.030 align:middle line:90% I haven't seen in two years. 00:29:50.030 --> 00:29:51.950 align:middle line:84% And right over here are four people 00:29:51.950 --> 00:29:55.162 align:middle line:84% who look like low-level junior high school administrators. 00:29:55.162 --> 00:29:57.620 align:middle line:84% Now, I only say that because my wife's a junior high school 00:29:57.620 --> 00:29:58.220 align:middle line:90% teacher. 00:29:58.220 --> 00:30:01.790 align:middle line:84% And they were engaged in a wonderful conversation that had 00:30:01.790 --> 00:30:03.860 align:middle line:90% wonderful educational jargon. 00:30:03.860 --> 00:30:06.500 align:middle line:84% One of them got up, walked away from his table, 00:30:06.500 --> 00:30:09.680 align:middle line:84% stood right behind me, and blew his nose that loud. 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.427 align:middle line:84% And the only thing I could think of to say was, why, thank you. 00:30:12.427 --> 00:30:13.760 align:middle line:90% And he said, oh, you're welcome. 00:30:13.760 --> 00:30:15.230 align:middle line:90% And well, thanks. 00:30:15.230 --> 00:30:16.400 align:middle line:90% Anyway, here we are. 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.660 align:middle line:90% "She's a schoolteacher. 00:30:17.660 --> 00:30:20.540 align:middle line:90% 00:30:20.540 --> 00:30:21.290 align:middle line:90% He wasn't worried. 00:30:21.290 --> 00:30:24.050 align:middle line:84% It's her job to think of something to do. 00:30:24.050 --> 00:30:26.420 align:middle line:84% He had to carry that baby all the way home walking. 00:30:26.420 --> 00:30:28.100 align:middle line:84% We didn't have no hitchhiking back then. 00:30:28.100 --> 00:30:32.780 align:middle line:84% Most people had other things to do on a Sunday afternoon. 00:30:32.780 --> 00:30:37.880 align:middle line:84% She got back that afternoon by 4 o'clock. 00:30:37.880 --> 00:30:42.740 align:middle line:84% He was sitting on the furniture, rocking. 00:30:42.740 --> 00:30:48.380 align:middle line:84% When she come in the door, he said, by God, I'm hungry. 00:30:48.380 --> 00:30:51.290 align:middle line:90% What we having for supper? 00:30:51.290 --> 00:30:55.280 align:middle line:90% She said, where's the baby? 00:30:55.280 --> 00:30:59.960 align:middle line:84% He said, it's in its bed, asleep. 00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:02.450 align:middle line:90% You sure are nasty. 00:31:02.450 --> 00:31:08.090 align:middle line:84% You better take you a bath today after we have something to eat. 00:31:08.090 --> 00:31:10.520 align:middle line:90% She never said nothing. 00:31:10.520 --> 00:31:14.390 align:middle line:84% Walked in that room to look at the baby, he thought. 00:31:14.390 --> 00:31:20.420 align:middle line:84% Started humming hisself a tune, got lost how it went, 00:31:20.420 --> 00:31:23.870 align:middle line:90% steady until he heard the cock. 00:31:23.870 --> 00:31:28.790 align:middle line:84% Looked up, and she had the rifle pointed right at him 00:31:28.790 --> 00:31:30.860 align:middle line:90% out of the closet. 00:31:30.860 --> 00:31:34.520 align:middle line:84% He jumped, and she shot the middle rafter right out 00:31:34.520 --> 00:31:36.620 align:middle line:90% of that rocking chair. 00:31:36.620 --> 00:31:38.960 align:middle line:84% He run to the window and tried to pull it up. 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:40.700 align:middle line:90% It was froze. 00:31:40.700 --> 00:31:44.690 align:middle line:84% He heard the gun go clock, ducked down on the floor. 00:31:44.690 --> 00:31:48.320 align:middle line:84% She shot that window right on the crossbar. 00:31:48.320 --> 00:31:50.275 align:middle line:84% All four pieces of glass fell out. 00:31:50.275 --> 00:31:52.400 align:middle line:84% One of them didn't even break, and another one only 00:31:52.400 --> 00:31:55.070 align:middle line:90% busted in half. 00:31:55.070 --> 00:31:59.060 align:middle line:84% He crawled to the door until he heard it again, come up running 00:31:59.060 --> 00:32:04.220 align:middle line:84% and hit that door, turned down the porch and saved his life. 00:32:04.220 --> 00:32:08.870 align:middle line:84% She shot that door right through the heart and lungs 00:32:08.870 --> 00:32:11.360 align:middle line:84% where he would have been stopped on the other side 00:32:11.360 --> 00:32:13.790 align:middle line:90% or gone straight. 00:32:13.790 --> 00:32:16.970 align:middle line:84% He run as far as he could back behind the barn, 00:32:16.970 --> 00:32:18.740 align:middle line:84% where he could look through the board gaps 00:32:18.740 --> 00:32:21.260 align:middle line:84% to see if she was coming after him. 00:32:21.260 --> 00:32:23.150 align:middle line:90% But she never. 00:32:23.150 --> 00:32:25.730 align:middle line:84% He waited the rest of the day out there by hisself 00:32:25.730 --> 00:32:30.110 align:middle line:84% to see if she'd leave or burn the house down. 00:32:30.110 --> 00:32:32.240 align:middle line:90% Nothing else happened. 00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:34.940 align:middle line:84% Said his dog wouldn't even come out for company, 00:32:34.940 --> 00:32:37.190 align:middle line:90% it was so ascared too. 00:32:37.190 --> 00:32:40.610 align:middle line:84% Stayed under the porch the whole time. 00:32:40.610 --> 00:32:42.870 align:middle line:84% He waited until after dark for something to happen. 00:32:42.870 --> 00:32:45.660 align:middle line:84% Finally, when it didn't, he snuck back up 00:32:45.660 --> 00:32:50.960 align:middle line:84% to see if she'd hung herself or was hiding with that gun. 00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:58.220 align:middle line:84% Got to the window, and she was sitting in his chair, rocking. 00:32:58.220 --> 00:33:03.290 align:middle line:84% Never even looked round, staring at that bedroom door, said, 00:33:03.290 --> 00:33:08.900 align:middle line:84% your supper's on the table if you want it. 00:33:08.900 --> 00:33:13.970 align:middle line:84% Got up and walked in and closed the door. 00:33:13.970 --> 00:33:17.090 align:middle line:84% He'd never made a sound, so he couldn't 00:33:17.090 --> 00:33:20.210 align:middle line:84% suppose to know how she knew he was there. 00:33:20.210 --> 00:33:24.140 align:middle line:84% That one friend of yours says all women can see in the dark. 00:33:24.140 --> 00:33:27.710 align:middle line:84% I suppose they can hear through it, too. 00:33:27.710 --> 00:33:31.580 align:middle line:84% It was catfish and mashed potatoes 00:33:31.580 --> 00:33:37.070 align:middle line:84% and fish gravy with the head on, looking at him 00:33:37.070 --> 00:33:40.820 align:middle line:90% all in a bunch cold grease. 00:33:40.820 --> 00:33:44.060 align:middle line:90% But he ate every bite of it. 00:33:44.060 --> 00:33:48.830 align:middle line:84% He didn't think it was a good idea not to that time. 00:33:48.830 --> 00:33:50.330 align:middle line:84% She never offered to talk about it, 00:33:50.330 --> 00:33:52.880 align:middle line:84% and he had a story made up to explain 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:55.520 align:middle line:84% how she got free wagon driving lessons that 00:33:55.520 --> 00:33:58.760 align:middle line:90% could have costed upward of $4. 00:33:58.760 --> 00:34:03.950 align:middle line:84% And that baby was the only one they ever had. 00:34:03.950 --> 00:34:06.290 align:middle line:84% From then on after that, you could walk up behind him 00:34:06.290 --> 00:34:08.449 align:middle line:84% and goose him or clap your hands. 00:34:08.449 --> 00:34:12.110 align:middle line:84% He would turn inside out with a spasm. 00:34:12.110 --> 00:34:15.860 align:middle line:84% Once, these boys blown up this blasting cap [AUDIO OUT] grocery 00:34:15.860 --> 00:34:16.400 align:middle line:90% store. 00:34:16.400 --> 00:34:19.219 align:middle line:84% He fainted right by the meat counter 00:34:19.219 --> 00:34:23.540 align:middle line:84% talking to Jim Kennedy about baloney and Vienna sausage. 00:34:23.540 --> 00:34:26.420 align:middle line:84% If he'd seen a gun, he'd go white as a Yorkshire hog. 00:34:26.420 --> 00:34:28.790 align:middle line:84% You couldn't have paid him enough to come to town 00:34:28.790 --> 00:34:29.960 align:middle line:90% on the 4th of July. 00:34:29.960 --> 00:34:32.870 align:middle line:84% They'd have had to given him a transfusion. 00:34:32.870 --> 00:34:37.699 align:middle line:84% And everybody called him Goosey from then on. 00:34:37.699 --> 00:34:41.630 align:middle line:84% Well, that baby grown up the same way. 00:34:41.630 --> 00:34:44.090 align:middle line:90% He was Little Goose in town. 00:34:44.090 --> 00:34:47.420 align:middle line:84% And him and this woman had this baby 00:34:47.420 --> 00:34:50.929 align:middle line:84% they named George, which was my friend, before she run off 00:34:50.929 --> 00:34:52.790 align:middle line:90% to Oklahoma with a well digger. 00:34:52.790 --> 00:34:55.219 align:middle line:84% And his daddy was a Campbellite, didn't believe 00:34:55.219 --> 00:34:57.290 align:middle line:90% in divorce or piano music. 00:34:57.290 --> 00:34:59.210 align:middle line:84% He waited for her to come back someday. 00:34:59.210 --> 00:35:03.570 align:middle line:84% But it was too late, and she didn't. 00:35:03.570 --> 00:35:07.460 align:middle line:84% So what they called him then was Poor Goose. 00:35:07.460 --> 00:35:09.740 align:middle line:90% He was run all over town. 00:35:09.740 --> 00:35:12.950 align:middle line:84% They'd even pray for him with the sick and the afflicted. 00:35:12.950 --> 00:35:16.220 align:middle line:84% Even the Lord known who Poor Goose was. 00:35:16.220 --> 00:35:20.165 align:middle line:90% But she was gone for-- 00:35:20.165 --> 00:35:24.680 align:middle line:84% before that, before they dug all them dry holes on their place, 00:35:24.680 --> 00:35:27.950 align:middle line:84% before Goosey the granddaddy hung and killed hisself 00:35:27.950 --> 00:35:31.610 align:middle line:84% after his wife took off when Poor Goose grown up, 00:35:31.610 --> 00:35:33.950 align:middle line:84% even before he got behind on the taxes 00:35:33.950 --> 00:35:37.310 align:middle line:84% and lost part of the farm and Kay Stokes picked it up, 00:35:37.310 --> 00:35:40.340 align:middle line:84% somebody give that grandbaby they 00:35:40.340 --> 00:35:44.030 align:middle line:84% called Baby George these two gooses for a birthday 00:35:44.030 --> 00:35:46.820 align:middle line:84% present to be funny about it all. 00:35:46.820 --> 00:35:49.910 align:middle line:84% But he raised them for pets around the house. 00:35:49.910 --> 00:35:54.230 align:middle line:84% So one day eating supper, they seen them two going off 00:35:54.230 --> 00:35:56.840 align:middle line:90% down the road through the gate. 00:35:56.840 --> 00:35:59.360 align:middle line:90% Poor Goose said, there they go. 00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:01.250 align:middle line:84% You better get them back inside the fence 00:36:01.250 --> 00:36:03.870 align:middle line:84% and close that gate if you want to keep them. 00:36:03.870 --> 00:36:06.363 align:middle line:90% That boy run out to do it. 00:36:06.363 --> 00:36:08.030 align:middle line:84% In a minute, they looked out the window, 00:36:08.030 --> 00:36:12.552 align:middle line:84% and he had one goose under both his arms, jumping up and down. 00:36:12.552 --> 00:36:14.510 align:middle line:84% They could hear him hollering through the wall. 00:36:14.510 --> 00:36:15.590 align:middle line:90% Let go! 00:36:15.590 --> 00:36:18.050 align:middle line:90% Let go of me, goose! 00:36:18.050 --> 00:36:21.560 align:middle line:84% Went out on the porch and said, what's going on? 00:36:21.560 --> 00:36:23.330 align:middle line:90% Boy turned round, still jumping. 00:36:23.330 --> 00:36:26.810 align:middle line:84% Both them long-necked gooses had leaned over 00:36:26.810 --> 00:36:31.640 align:middle line:84% and bit him on his pecker till he squoze so hard, 00:36:31.640 --> 00:36:32.810 align:middle line:90% one passed out. 00:36:32.810 --> 00:36:35.330 align:middle line:84% And they thought it was dead, its head down, 00:36:35.330 --> 00:36:37.880 align:middle line:84% flopping like a well bucket, and they'd have to eat it. 00:36:37.880 --> 00:36:38.690 align:middle line:90% But it wasn't. 00:36:38.690 --> 00:36:41.420 align:middle line:84% Other one hung on until his daddy jerked it loose. 00:36:41.420 --> 00:36:42.950 align:middle line:90% But it was a tragedy. 00:36:42.950 --> 00:36:46.970 align:middle line:84% That goose flopped its wings and given him a bloody nose. 00:36:46.970 --> 00:36:51.110 align:middle line:84% And it broke that little boy's pecker. 00:36:51.110 --> 00:36:53.180 align:middle line:84% Must have busted something in there. 00:36:53.180 --> 00:36:57.800 align:middle line:84% Turned off to the east, almost like the letter L, ruint. 00:36:57.800 --> 00:37:01.400 align:middle line:84% Took him both hands to pee from then on. 00:37:01.400 --> 00:37:03.440 align:middle line:84% He never did get married by choice, 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:06.050 align:middle line:84% said he never had no inclinations or otherwise. 00:37:06.050 --> 00:37:10.220 align:middle line:84% And being married was just too much pain for being worth it. 00:37:10.220 --> 00:37:13.790 align:middle line:84% So after that, after all the women left and Goosey 00:37:13.790 --> 00:37:17.750 align:middle line:84% hung hisself and Poor Goose and Gooseneck, which 00:37:17.750 --> 00:37:20.420 align:middle line:84% is what they called him at first because it looked like one, 00:37:20.420 --> 00:37:22.490 align:middle line:84% was living alone out there together 00:37:22.490 --> 00:37:24.440 align:middle line:84% for the rest of their lives, about to farm 00:37:24.440 --> 00:37:26.480 align:middle line:84% during the drought with no money coming in 00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:28.520 align:middle line:84% to nobody, before they noticed it, them 00:37:28.520 --> 00:37:32.090 align:middle line:90% two geese turned into over 100. 00:37:32.090 --> 00:37:34.130 align:middle line:84% You couldn't come up to their gate, even. 00:37:34.130 --> 00:37:37.340 align:middle line:84% Them gooses would run up with their wings and their, [HISSES],, 00:37:37.340 --> 00:37:40.310 align:middle line:84% tongues out, hissing like an oil well fire. 00:37:40.310 --> 00:37:44.030 align:middle line:84% Even the Jehovah Witnesses couldn't get up to their porch. 00:37:44.030 --> 00:37:46.880 align:middle line:84% They'd have busted your, knees flopping their arms. 00:37:46.880 --> 00:37:49.910 align:middle line:84% And then you'd slip on goose crap and fall down. 00:37:49.910 --> 00:37:52.280 align:middle line:84% They'd bite off your private parts and ears 00:37:52.280 --> 00:37:54.050 align:middle line:84% before you could crawl off and get away. 00:37:54.050 --> 00:37:57.770 align:middle line:84% And that is what saved their farm. 00:37:57.770 --> 00:38:01.640 align:middle line:84% M.L. Basinger come in with the machinery and the oil well 00:38:01.640 --> 00:38:05.150 align:middle line:84% drilling supply, had his parts spread out 00:38:05.150 --> 00:38:07.610 align:middle line:90% all across his property. 00:38:07.610 --> 00:38:11.240 align:middle line:84% Well, people started breaking in and stealing at night. 00:38:11.240 --> 00:38:12.320 align:middle line:90% Dogs didn't help. 00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:14.780 align:middle line:84% They'd bring dead meat and feed them. 00:38:14.780 --> 00:38:16.610 align:middle line:84% Walk around, take what all they wanted. 00:38:16.610 --> 00:38:20.630 align:middle line:84% He was about to lose everything when he heard about the Landrum 00:38:20.630 --> 00:38:22.100 align:middle line:90% geese. 00:38:22.100 --> 00:38:25.010 align:middle line:84% Went out and offered them $5 apiece for as many 00:38:25.010 --> 00:38:26.540 align:middle line:90% as they'd sell him. 00:38:26.540 --> 00:38:29.300 align:middle line:84% They'd pay the taxes and keep the rest of the land, 00:38:29.300 --> 00:38:32.570 align:middle line:84% and it stopped the stealing right now. 00:38:32.570 --> 00:38:35.300 align:middle line:84% Bunch of field hands cut across Basinger's one evening 00:38:35.300 --> 00:38:40.070 align:middle line:84% after work, singing out loud, just got the gate closed. 00:38:40.070 --> 00:38:43.730 align:middle line:90% And there was all them geese. 00:38:43.730 --> 00:38:48.950 align:middle line:84% If they'd have kept on singing, it might have been all right. 00:38:48.950 --> 00:38:53.360 align:middle line:84% But they turned around and went quiet, 00:38:53.360 --> 00:38:56.360 align:middle line:90% like something was the matter. 00:38:56.360 --> 00:38:59.330 align:middle line:84% And that was what them gooses was looking for. 00:38:59.330 --> 00:39:03.410 align:middle line:84% It was like a bale of cotton busted in a hurricane. 00:39:03.410 --> 00:39:06.620 align:middle line:84% Scared them so bad, they couldn't get the gate back open. 00:39:06.620 --> 00:39:08.630 align:middle line:90% Tried to run, couldn't get away. 00:39:08.630 --> 00:39:11.150 align:middle line:84% One fell down and about drowned hisself 00:39:11.150 --> 00:39:13.430 align:middle line:84% holding his face down in dry ground 00:39:13.430 --> 00:39:16.520 align:middle line:84% so them geese wouldn't get his eyeballs and nose. 00:39:16.520 --> 00:39:19.550 align:middle line:84% Tried to climb that fence with the barbed wire on top, 00:39:19.550 --> 00:39:22.700 align:middle line:84% cut their hands up like it got caught in a gin grinder. 00:39:22.700 --> 00:39:25.070 align:middle line:84% Tore their britches almost off going over. 00:39:25.070 --> 00:39:29.275 align:middle line:84% One got tangled up and his foot stuck, hunging head down 00:39:29.275 --> 00:39:30.650 align:middle line:84% on the [AUDIO OUT] But them geese 00:39:30.650 --> 00:39:34.220 align:middle line:84% couldn't get to him on the other side, his face an inch away. 00:39:34.220 --> 00:39:36.830 align:middle line:84% This one goose, trying to get its head through the fence, 00:39:36.830 --> 00:39:41.420 align:middle line:84% hissed so loud he had goose spit all down one side of his face. 00:39:41.420 --> 00:39:43.880 align:middle line:84% Screamed so loud they thought it was a fire truck, 00:39:43.880 --> 00:39:45.470 align:middle line:84% but all of it in Spanish, couldn't 00:39:45.470 --> 00:39:47.240 align:middle line:90% understand a word of it. 00:39:47.240 --> 00:39:50.960 align:middle line:84% But them geese seemed to know exactly what he wanted. 00:39:50.960 --> 00:39:54.980 align:middle line:84% Made them so excited, you could hear it four miles away. 00:39:54.980 --> 00:39:57.020 align:middle line:84% Had to cut him down with some pliers. 00:39:57.020 --> 00:39:58.790 align:middle line:84% They thought his ankle was busted. 00:39:58.790 --> 00:40:00.500 align:middle line:90% Never found out. 00:40:00.500 --> 00:40:02.750 align:middle line:84% He hit on his head and come up running. 00:40:02.750 --> 00:40:06.710 align:middle line:84% None of them field hands said they didn't never see him again. 00:40:06.710 --> 00:40:08.180 align:middle line:90% He was gone. 00:40:08.180 --> 00:40:10.310 align:middle line:84% Them geese chased him down the fence 00:40:10.310 --> 00:40:12.710 align:middle line:84% trying to get to him heading straight south. 00:40:12.710 --> 00:40:16.070 align:middle line:84% They had them some plans worked out for him. 00:40:16.070 --> 00:40:20.360 align:middle line:84% M.L. Basinger after that put up a sign that said, keep out. 00:40:20.360 --> 00:40:25.280 align:middle line:84% This property is protected by Landrum attack geese. 00:40:25.280 --> 00:40:29.900 align:middle line:84% You come through this gate, you will probably die. 00:40:29.900 --> 00:40:31.070 align:middle line:90% It's such a good idea. 00:40:31.070 --> 00:40:32.990 align:middle line:84% Everybody wanted to buy [AUDIO OUT] 00:40:32.990 --> 00:40:35.130 align:middle line:84% Even Charlie Baker for his junkyard 00:40:35.130 --> 00:40:38.810 align:middle line:84% had tied up that son of a bitch dog with a chain. 00:40:38.810 --> 00:40:41.000 align:middle line:84% But somebody told them idiot kids of his 00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:44.330 align:middle line:84% they could populate with a goose, so he had to let them go. 00:40:44.330 --> 00:40:46.190 align:middle line:90% But it was worth a try, he said. 00:40:46.190 --> 00:40:47.900 align:middle line:84% That dog was too mean even for him. 00:40:47.900 --> 00:40:51.590 align:middle line:84% But it never bit one of them idiots even once. 00:40:51.590 --> 00:40:57.740 align:middle line:84% And that's how the Landrums got by and held onto their land, 00:40:57.740 --> 00:41:03.590 align:middle line:84% selling geese for all them years till they give it up. 00:41:03.590 --> 00:41:07.640 align:middle line:84% But now you know something most folks don't who 00:41:07.640 --> 00:41:10.760 align:middle line:90% lived here all their lives. 00:41:10.760 --> 00:41:14.330 align:middle line:84% They think them people was called Goose 00:41:14.330 --> 00:41:17.060 align:middle line:90% because of what they raised. 00:41:17.060 --> 00:41:22.370 align:middle line:84% And that's how come nobody can pass a history test no more. 00:41:22.370 --> 00:41:25.220 align:middle line:84% They don't know before from after. 00:41:25.220 --> 00:41:28.610 align:middle line:84% And most don't give a damn either way, just, 00:41:28.610 --> 00:41:30.830 align:middle line:84% what's on television, and supper gonna 00:41:30.830 --> 00:41:35.930 align:middle line:84% be ready on time, which can get you in a whole lot of-- 00:41:35.930 --> 00:41:38.310 align:middle line:90% when she ain't in the mood. 00:41:38.310 --> 00:41:43.370 align:middle line:84% Start that whole thing going all over again, 00:41:43.370 --> 00:41:47.490 align:middle line:84% like how it happens when you don't pay attention. 00:41:47.490 --> 00:41:51.620 align:middle line:84% Sometimes your goose don't get cooked. 00:41:51.620 --> 00:41:53.930 align:middle line:90% You have to live with it. 00:41:53.930 --> 00:41:58.250 align:middle line:84% And that can last a real long time. 00:41:58.250 --> 00:41:59.960 align:middle line:90% Get in. 00:41:59.960 --> 00:42:01.640 align:middle line:90% Turn the crunk over. 00:42:01.640 --> 00:42:04.220 align:middle line:84% Let's see if this son of a bitch will start yet. 00:42:04.220 --> 00:42:07.520 align:middle line:84% We'll drive to town and buy something to eat if you need 00:42:07.520 --> 00:42:09.620 align:middle line:84% supper that bad before it's ready." 00:42:09.620 --> 00:42:13.980 align:middle line:90% 00:42:13.980 --> 00:42:14.480 align:middle line:90% Let's see. 00:42:14.480 --> 00:42:16.160 align:middle line:84% Here's a poem I haven't read in ages. 00:42:16.160 --> 00:42:20.000 align:middle line:90% 00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:21.710 align:middle line:90% This was my hero in Paragonah. 00:42:21.710 --> 00:42:24.470 align:middle line:90% 00:42:24.470 --> 00:42:27.110 align:middle line:84% And this poem has an epigraph from John Donne. 00:42:27.110 --> 00:42:29.460 align:middle line:84% "Then you have done a braver thing than all the worthies 00:42:29.460 --> 00:42:29.960 align:middle line:90% did." 00:42:29.960 --> 00:42:33.900 align:middle line:90% 00:42:33.900 --> 00:42:38.700 align:middle line:84% "Willie Dalton would have laughed if he had been there 00:42:38.700 --> 00:42:41.730 align:middle line:90% for his own funeral. 00:42:41.730 --> 00:42:44.580 align:middle line:90% Eight men carrying his box. 00:42:44.580 --> 00:42:48.090 align:middle line:84% Anyone could have carried him off like a flour sack. 00:42:48.090 --> 00:42:50.520 align:middle line:84% He never weighed 100 pounds or stood 00:42:50.520 --> 00:42:54.990 align:middle line:84% 5 foot tall in cowboy boots a day in his life. 00:42:54.990 --> 00:42:58.920 align:middle line:84% His own family said they thought that doctor must have throwed 00:42:58.920 --> 00:43:04.290 align:middle line:84% out the baby and got the other part to grow, he was so runty. 00:43:04.290 --> 00:43:05.850 align:middle line:90% He's a horse jockey. 00:43:05.850 --> 00:43:08.970 align:middle line:90% Didn't have much choice of it. 00:43:08.970 --> 00:43:11.040 align:middle line:84% Broke hard three-year-olds every spring 00:43:11.040 --> 00:43:12.600 align:middle line:90% to all the ranches around. 00:43:12.600 --> 00:43:15.090 align:middle line:84% One time, a man said in front of him, 00:43:15.090 --> 00:43:19.410 align:middle line:84% never was a horse Willie Dalton couldn't ride. 00:43:19.410 --> 00:43:23.550 align:middle line:84% And he said, well, that's a pile of crap. 00:43:23.550 --> 00:43:25.440 align:middle line:84% Any horse could have thrown him off on a day. 00:43:25.440 --> 00:43:26.550 align:middle line:90% He'd try and get back on. 00:43:26.550 --> 00:43:29.370 align:middle line:84% Most of them throw him right back off again. 00:43:29.370 --> 00:43:33.520 align:middle line:84% Busted every bone in his body one time or another. 00:43:33.520 --> 00:43:35.940 align:middle line:90% But he made good money at it. 00:43:35.940 --> 00:43:38.640 align:middle line:84% There was a 4th of July picnic we had for the whole town back 00:43:38.640 --> 00:43:42.730 align:middle line:84% then every year, had running and wrestling in it. 00:43:42.730 --> 00:43:45.540 align:middle line:84% So this one year, Leon Bilberry whooped 00:43:45.540 --> 00:43:47.670 align:middle line:90% everybody that tried him. 00:43:47.670 --> 00:43:53.230 align:middle line:84% He said, it ain't no man in this town I can't kick his ass. 00:43:53.230 --> 00:43:55.150 align:middle line:84% Them words wasn't even hit the ground 00:43:55.150 --> 00:43:58.570 align:middle line:90% before Willie Dalton was at him. 00:43:58.570 --> 00:44:02.110 align:middle line:84% Wrapped him up right on his head, one leg under his neck 00:44:02.110 --> 00:44:05.140 align:middle line:84% and the other one under his armpit and elbow, 00:44:05.140 --> 00:44:07.270 align:middle line:84% hollering like a strangled bobcat. 00:44:07.270 --> 00:44:09.070 align:middle line:90% He'd pry something loose. 00:44:09.070 --> 00:44:10.840 align:middle line:84% Willie would grab him another way. 00:44:10.840 --> 00:44:12.040 align:middle line:90% Couldn't shake him off. 00:44:12.040 --> 00:44:15.490 align:middle line:84% Leon said it was like an octopus had his testicles wrapped 00:44:15.490 --> 00:44:16.240 align:middle line:90% around his head. 00:44:16.240 --> 00:44:17.780 align:middle line:90% And finally, he fell down. 00:44:17.780 --> 00:44:20.140 align:middle line:84% Whichever way he rode, Willie went the other one, 00:44:20.140 --> 00:44:22.060 align:middle line:84% riding him like he's breaking a mule. 00:44:22.060 --> 00:44:26.080 align:middle line:84% Kicked his side so hard he thought nine ribs was broken, 00:44:26.080 --> 00:44:28.270 align:middle line:84% it was only two, till he give up. 00:44:28.270 --> 00:44:30.670 align:middle line:90% Willie said, say calf rope. 00:44:30.670 --> 00:44:32.260 align:middle line:90% He did. 00:44:32.260 --> 00:44:33.670 align:middle line:90% Say, I give. 00:44:33.670 --> 00:44:34.990 align:middle line:90% He did. 00:44:34.990 --> 00:44:38.710 align:middle line:84% Say, I won't never wrestle Willie Dalton again ever. 00:44:38.710 --> 00:44:41.290 align:middle line:84% He did on his mother's white butt, 00:44:41.290 --> 00:44:42.640 align:middle line:90% her standing there watching him. 00:44:42.640 --> 00:44:44.380 align:middle line:90% Anything to get him off of him. 00:44:44.380 --> 00:44:49.210 align:middle line:84% He wouldn't never wrestle nobody again after that. 00:44:49.210 --> 00:44:52.900 align:middle line:84% But what Willie done that nobody else 00:44:52.900 --> 00:44:57.020 align:middle line:84% in our town ever done before or since 00:44:57.020 --> 00:45:00.310 align:middle line:90% was clean out the water pipe. 00:45:00.310 --> 00:45:02.860 align:middle line:84% Our town water come from the mountain, 00:45:02.860 --> 00:45:08.140 align:middle line:84% seven miles for ditch water and for drinking. 00:45:08.140 --> 00:45:11.500 align:middle line:84% So one spring, both pipes clogged up. 00:45:11.500 --> 00:45:14.350 align:middle line:84% They fixed the drinking by geography. 00:45:14.350 --> 00:45:17.170 align:middle line:90% Went halfway down and cut. 00:45:17.170 --> 00:45:19.630 align:middle line:84% Wasn't no water, so half that back up, 00:45:19.630 --> 00:45:22.960 align:middle line:84% found the water, third cut, and got it out. 00:45:22.960 --> 00:45:26.020 align:middle line:84% But the ditch water was different, not 00:45:26.020 --> 00:45:27.820 align:middle line:90% plugged off, just partly. 00:45:27.820 --> 00:45:31.390 align:middle line:84% Couldn't get no full stream of pressure. 00:45:31.390 --> 00:45:33.800 align:middle line:90% They didn't know what to do. 00:45:33.800 --> 00:45:37.450 align:middle line:84% So at the town board meeting, Willie Dalton 00:45:37.450 --> 00:45:41.890 align:middle line:84% said, for two bottles of whiskey, 00:45:41.890 --> 00:45:45.580 align:middle line:90% I'll clean that pipe out. 00:45:45.580 --> 00:45:46.740 align:middle line:90% They shut off the water. 00:45:46.740 --> 00:45:48.490 align:middle line:90% Bam. 00:45:48.490 --> 00:45:52.989 align:middle line:84% And he come in the next day crawl-- 00:45:52.989 --> 00:45:53.489 align:middle line:90%