<TITLE>16. Par 53-56</TITLE>L-53 So we got back there in that sassafras hollow, you know, and the big old hats hanging down. We stopped, and Brother Wood got out, went around. Was two old men setting there, and he walked up to one them. And he called him, said, "How do you do?"
And he said, "How do you do, sir?" And he said, "I am... My name is Wood. I'm Banks Wood." He said, "I wonder... We've been hunting over here on Dutton..." They name their places by the creeks. Said, "We've been hunting over on Dutton, and we wondered if we could hunt on your place."
He said, "What Wood are you?"
He said, "I'm Jim Wood's boy."
Said, "Anything them..." That was one bunch of Jehovah Witness that was genuine people. He said, "Anything that Jim Wood, any of his people, is welcome to anything I got on this place." He said, "Old man Jim, is he still living?"
He said, "Yes. He's out in Indiana now," and said, "I'm living out there too." He said, "And I come down squirrel hunting each fall."

L-54 Well he said, "Help yourself. I got five hundred acres, and plenty of hollows and things. Just help yourself."
He said, "Well, thank you, very much." He said, "I brought my pastor along." He said, "You wouldn't mind him hunting too?"
He said, "Wood, do you mean to tell me you've got so low down till you have to carry a preacher with you wherever you go?" And he said...
So I thought it was about time for me to get out of the car. So I gets out of the car, you know, and walks over there, and I said, "How do you do?"
He said, "Howdy." And he said... Before they could introduce me, he butted right in. He said, "Well, I ain't got much use for you guys."
I said, "Well, I admire your honesty."
And--and he said, "The reason it is, is this one thing." He said, "The first place, you don't look like a preacher." Squirrel blood and whiskers, and hadn't had a bath for two weeks, I... Hmm. So I said, "Well, I guess that's right too."

L-55 And he said, "The thing that I got against you fellows; you are barking up a tree that there's nothing in."
Now, I don't know whether you know what that is. That's another "Kentucky," David. Don't try to find that in the dictionary. When a coon dog is a liar, he will run to a tree. And a coon's got a trick: He will run, jump up on a tree, and then jump off. You see? And if a dog ain't well trained, he will run to this tree where he seen the coon, smell where he tracked around the tree, and stand there and bark. And there's nothing in the tree. So they usually shoot that dog.
So he said, "You guys... That's what you need, a good load of buckshot," he said. "because you're barking up a tree that there's nothing there." You know what I mean, preaching. He said, "I'm considered an infidel."
I said, "Well, every man to his own opinion. But to me, that's nothing to brag about."

L-56 He--he said... Well, said... "Well," he said, "the thing of it is," said, "you're--you're talking about something there--that there isn't such a thing."
Said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Of course, that's to opinion."
And he said, "Well," he said, "you guys talking about a God, and there is no such a thing." And he said, "If there was one I could see Him." And said, "I've lived all these years. I'm seventy something years old," and said, "I ain't seen nothing of Him yet." And he said, "There's just no such a thing, and you guys are barking up the wrong tree. And you're taking the people's money for your livelihood, and things like that, and you're nothing but a bunch of cheaters."
I thought, "Oh, my." I said, "Yes, sir. 'Course that's opinion." I thought, "O God, if You don't help me..." So I--I said, "Yes, sir. That's--that's 'course, opinion." I said.


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