Turtle eggs and snake doctors

TURTLE EGGS AND SNAKE DOCTORS

Just down the road from our house there was a spot where my Uncle used
to take me fishing
It was called the chute. A chute is a narrow waterway between an island
and the shore. It had sand bars. Thats where the turtles lay their
eggs. You can tell when this happens by looking for the tracks in the
sand, and following them until they stop.

To get to the eggs you need a stick to dig them up with. these eggs
were real small and looked like dented ping pong balls. Now what he did
with these eggs was anybodys guess. He told me he was going to eat em.
knowing him he would.

I learned a lot from my Uncle things like, If you see snake doctors
flying around don't fish there that's where the snakes are. You can't
catch a fish if the wind is blowing out of the East. Most important you
had to keep and clean what you caught.

He said that you fish because you are hungry and only if your hungry.
Thats why I always catch a stringer full he said. God knows I don't
want to hurt em any, I just want to eat em.

Once I caught an eel, I was so afraid of that thing that I almost wet
my pants. Your Dad will eat that eel he said, he likes em. He knocked
that eel in the head, put it in a tow sack, tied the top, handed it to
me and said your eel you carry it. I sure didn't want to but I
did.

My dad got a nail and a hammer then nailed the eel to the wall out
back, cut a circle all the way round his neck, took the pliers and
skinned it all the way down. Mama breaded and fried it for dinner. He
loved it.

On Sunday morning my Uncle would listen to gospel music on the radio.
Find me some music on the radio he would say and don't put it on them
Blackwood Brothers either they tore up my last radio and I ain't liked
them since.

He was a very special person to me. He lived in a house right beside us
and I was there almost all the time. When he got really sick, I used to
go over there early every morning and build a fire in his coal stove
and make sure he had water carried in from the pump outside. Mom cooked
for him and I would cart it over there twice a day.

He would tell me stories about the war. Said he was in France in world
War 1. He had a photo of him in his uniform on the dresser and was very
proud of it. He told me they put soap in the beans that they ate to
keep them regular, and about eating the horses when they ran out of
food. Said his feet froze inside his boots, and said how lucky he was
to have had boots.

He has been gone a long time now, oh how I wish I had been old enough
to find his stories interesting . I was nine years old and that stuff
just went in one ear and out the other. Now as hard as I try the
memories come and go. I still miss him. To me he was the best of the
best