My brother Gerald and I grew up together. We went fishing together, we went hunting together, we loafed together. Some say Gerald, as he was growing up, was meaner than a rattlesnake. Others say: Don’t piss off the rattlesnake by comparing him to Gerald. Now our wives would say we are still in the stage of growing up because they often tell us to grow up.
Gerald and I spent a lot of time in the woods squirrel hunting, ginseng hunting, raccoon hunting and just camping out. We always loved to go deep into the canebrake and fish and just hang out. We had old beat up cars converted into what we called strip downs.
The strip down was mostly a car frame with a motor, occasionally with some body parts.
The good thing about a stripdown is that you don’t have to worry about scratching the paint job or bending a fender. If we bent a fender by running into a stump or tree, we just tore it off and continued on our way.
Gerald used to catch blacksnakes and garter snakes and chase his sisters with them. Some of our sisters could have qualified for the Olympics track events as they poured on the speed to escape Gerald. He would drop spiders down their necks as they performed exquisite gymnastic moves to get rid of the spiders or frogs or whatever.
We used to have corncob fights and I always wanted to be on Gerald’s team because he didn’t just stand off at a distance and lob corncobs at the opposing team, he attacked.
He waded straight into a flurry of corncobs and I waded right in behind him. He did make a good shield.
We turned it up a notch when we started rock fights. We would gather a pile of rocks and use old washtubs to hide behind. When people talk about getting knots on their heads, we can relate. We stuck chicken feathers in corn cobs and a nail in the other end and made our own darts. We cut long poles to knock bats out of the sky.
We carried tons of sugar and gallon jugs into Daddy’s many still places and packed white lightning out. I remember once we stopped at Camp Sky Top with a gallon of Daddy’s best and visited with Norris Free, the caretaker. That was the night when Norris was trying to light the gas cooking stove to warm us up. He turned the gas on and started striking matches. Well, to make a long story short, we started smelling gas real strong right before a big ball of flame knocked us all across the room. Gerald grabbed the jug of whiskey to keep it from toppling over as I hit the wall. The next few days everyone asked me why my hair was singed and what happened to my eyebrows and eyelashes. At the time of the explosion I was playing my guitar and singing Thunder Road. That is the name we unofficially named Frozen Creek Road. Gerald was just glad the whiskey did not catch fire. Being 100 proof it would have exploded like a hand grenade.
Gerald always looked out for me and my younger brother Michael. You couldn’t ask for a better partner than Gerald in a fight. He would fight like a wildcat with no stopping sense. I remember in school one day a bully was heckling me on the playground. Gerald called me aside and told me to tap the boy on the shoulder and as he turned around to land a haymaker on his nose. He said if that doesn’t get his attention, then sock him in the stomach and repeat the nose punch. He said a nose punch would take the fight out of him. I explained to Gerald that the boy outweighed me by close to 73 pounds and that he was a foot taller than me with arms that hung down with knuckles dragging the ground. Gerald told me that I was to beat the crap out of the bully or he would beat the crap out of me. He meant it too. I did as Gerald said. I punched the bully in the nose. Blood squirted all over his Big Ben overalls and he hit the ground like a felled timber. I would have fought Goliath to keep Gerald from beating the crap out of me.
Even though Gerald cheated me out of some of my best collector marbles including the famous soup bean marble, I forgive him.
Even though Gerald stole my bottle of Vodka when he married Mary Grace and has never replaced it, I forgive him.
Even though Gerald held my head under the bedcovers and farted, I forgive him.
I forgive him because I don’t think I could beat him in a fight just yet.
Some of my favorite memories are the times I spent with my brothers Gerald and Edgar.
Now that Edgar is gone I admire Gerald for stepping up to the plate and promising Ed that his brothers would not stop until Justice was done. Together we have double no stopping sense and we do not fear the obstacles before us. We will find out what happened to Edgar and when we see Edgar again, he will say: “I appreciate it”.
Now as to Gerald being compared to a rattlesnake, you really have to get to know Gerald.
After you strip away the big tough front he puts up and his tough talk. Once you look past that; you will see the gentle loving side of Gerald. Once you hang out with him awhile and see him in action, you will have no doubt in your mind that way down deep…………… He truly is much meaner than any rattlesnake you might come across.
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