<TITLE>11. Par 42-45</TITLE>L-42 Then down--we was hunting down in Kentucky, and was squirrel hunting. I like to squirrel hunt, just the sport of squirrel hunting. We love them to eat. I trained my rifle at fifty yards for an eye shot (See?), just--just at fifty yards. So we had a... Hunting is very--if you ever hunted gray squirrel, you have, I guess, in Oklahoma up there. They're... You talk about Houdini being an escape artist, he isn't an escape artist at all, side one of them, how quickly he can get away like that.
So it was real dry. We couldn't get close to them, so he said, "There's a place down in here. And here a old man that we could hunt down in the hollows where it's damp." You know what a hollow is? What we call a hollow, it's a valley where the hills come down. And then, you walk up through this place, you watch both sides of the hill. It's damp where the water flows.

L-43 He said, "But he's an infidel, and one of the roughest in the country." And said, "Oh, he's awful." He said, "He know you being a preacher," he said, "hm."
I said, "Well, let's go try it."
So we went down through ridges, and over hollows, and everything, till we got back, way back in the field. There set a nice little house back there; an old fellow with a big old flop-down hat: two setting there, you know, under the tree. Said, "There he is."
So I said, "You do the talking." So we drove up close. He got out. He spoke to him.
Said, "Come in." You know how the Kentuckians, southerners... Said, "Come in."

L-44 Set down there a little bit, and said, "My name is Wood." Said, "I'm Banks Wood." Said, "I wonder if we could hunt." Said, "A friend of mine is down here." Said, "We've been hunting over here on the other creek." Said, "It's so dry, we thought maybe...
He said, "What Wood are you? Are you Jim Wood's boy?"
He said, "Yes."
He said, "Jim Wood was an honest person in this country. " Said, "Any of him or his people, I got hundreds of acres here. Help yourself."
Said, "Thank you, sir." Said, "Is it all right for my pastor (Didn't aim to say that. See?), my pastor to go with me?"
He said, "You don't tell me that a Wood has got low down enough to have to carry a preacher with him wherever he goes."
Said, "Yes." Said.
I thought it was time for me to get out, so I got out of the truck, walked around. I said, "How do you do?"
He said, "And you're the preacher?"
Hadn't took a bath in two weeks, you know, and squirrel blood, and whiskers that long. I said, "Yes, sir." I said, "I guess I don't look like one."

L-45 He said, "Well, that part's all right." But said, "You know, I'm supposed to be an infidel."
I said, "That's not much to brag about, is it, sir?"
He said--he said, "I reckon not." He said, "But the only thing that I'm--I'm thinking is..."
I thought, "Lord, if You ever helped me, You do it now, 'cause I got... Something must happen."
He said, "Well, the only thing I got against you fellows, you're just barking up the wrong tree." Does anybody know what that means? A lying dog, you know, one barking up this tree, and 'coon's in another tree, you know. So he said, "You're barking up the wrong tree." He said, "You're talking about something, there's just nothing up there."
I said, "Well, maybe that's to opinion. See?" I said, "Maybe the dog sees something that you don't see."
He said, "Well, there ain't nothing up there to begin with." He said, "There ain't no such a thing as God."
I said, "Well 'course that's your American privilege to believe that."


<A HREF="P12">Next Page</A>