Howdy-do; hope all is well with you and
yours, and the fall weather has everyone excited. October has always been a magical month for
me; bow season, the tail-end of the bull-red spawn and Halloween are just a few
of my favorites for this time of the year!
Even though I haven’t yet bow-hunted ‘cause of that government shut-down, I’ve
been shootin’ my recurve in the evenin’s for “therapy”. Ever since OPERATION: Pull-Out I’ve been gettin’ pretty-dang stir-crazy as far
as my lack-of sloughstalkin’ goes. I
really wanted to post a cool story about a buddy of mine from Arkansas … but today is a very special day if you’re a “Bigfoot”
enthusiast. October 20th, 2013 marks the 46th
anniversary of the Patterson-Gimlin film.
Yes, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin saw and filmed an animal that them skeptics
have not been able to prove is
a hoax. I have always thought that the PG
film was legit; and unless you can prove to me otherwise, I ain’t changin’ my tune … period.
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| Bob Gimlin tells-it like it was at the 2009 TBRC conference! |
I was five years old, but remember seein’
the PG film on the national news. I ain’t sh¡ttin’ y’all … I have an
incredible memory. I remember all kinds of stuff on the news; from bombin' North Viet Nam to NASA missions, so I'll rank the filmin' of an unknown biped pretty-dang high. Hell, when I was five I even remember
watchin’ Jonny Quest durin' prime-time, ‘cause it was deemed too violent for
Saturday mornin’ cartoons! I’ve always
been a science fiction buff and started collectin’ Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine in the first grade. I was 6 years-old and saw 2001: A Space Odyssey in a theater. The “Dawn of Man” scene was my favorite, but
those Hollywood primates didn’t look anywhere as authentic as “Patty”. I really hadn’t thought much about it ‘til my
son and I had our encounter in 2009 and I started readin’ and watchin’
everything I could find on the subject. If y'all pay close attention to nature, Hollywood ain't really come close to gettin' a man in a costume to look like an "authentic" anything! And explain to me how someone in a costume and mask is goin' to traverse that kind of terrain without trippin'? Does anyone out there have the stones to call Bob Gimlin a liar? I’ve had the privilege of meetin’ Bob
twice, and I honestly don’t think he’s tryin’ to bluff anyone about
Bluff Creek!
I’m old school, and was one of them kids
that mowed yards for extra money. I
spent most of my allowance at the Western Auto on Heddon & Fred Arbogast
fishin’ lures, Daisy BB’s, Benjamin pellets & darts and Remington .22 cal. bullets. If we got to go to a Sears or a Woolworth’s,
I’d make a b-line for the Fred Bear bows, Daisy & Benjamin air-guns, the slot-cars
and Aurora monster models. But I always
saved enough for Warren magazines and movie tickets; Hell, I prob’ly saw two
movies a week … anything from James Bond to Hammer horror Films. Somewhere in-between ‘72 and ‘73 was a memorable
time for me at them theaters; I saw Big Foot:
Man or Beast and then The Legend of
Boggy Creek. The latter film made my
trips into the woods a little intense, but over the years … maturity blinded me. Once a boy starts gettin’ a little hair on him,
he starts feelin’ invincible. As a teen,
I figured that if somethin’ like “Bigfoot” existed around my neck of the woods,
some Coonass would’ve done had a recipe for it!
Ahhh, to be young and stupid …
 |
| My man-cave "Wall of Fame" ... my poor wife wants us to have a one of them yard-sales real-dang soon! |
In my teens, I could remember huntin’ with
my first cousin in the Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge, just off the Little
River outside of Jonesville, LA. I stalked
around into some pretty thick stuff … and started gettin’ that feelin’ that I
wasn’t alone. We used to call that the
“doo-doo chills” … and wanderin’ around through the kudzu, I definitely got
spooked. I started to parallel the bank of
the river to try and get back to our entrance point and meet-up with my
cousin. I can remember hearin’ somethin’
fairly large move off to my right, and as I swung around … caught a glimpse of
somethin’ large and brown movin’ up the bank.
I remember it bein’ muscular and looked kinda like the shoulder of a
horse, but it was really too-dang thick to tell what kinda animal it was. This incident has always stuck in my mind
‘cause it had startled me; but I never gave it too much thought … that is,
until after our 2009 encounter. I really
don’t think a horse would be out in the middle of nowhere walkin’ up a blanket
of kudzu-covered riverbank, but stranger things have happened. Now I ain’t sayin’ that it was one of them
mystery bipeds, but that incident still has me wonderin’ …
I used to bow-hunt every season until a little over a year
after my son was born. I would walk
through them woods alone at 3:30 a.m. and not have a worry in the world. Neither thoughts of spiders nor big cats concerned
me, and never once thought of lookin’-out for any bipedal mystery-critters! But as much as I loved bein’ out there … it
just didn’t seem fair that my beautiful wife was stuck at the house every
weekend from October through January with two toddlers. I think the last straw was one mornin' up in my tree stand,
waitin’ for first light ... hearin’ the sounds of wrens, squirrels and other critters
startin’ to stir; then, my ADD kicked-in.
I sh¡t-y’all not … I couldn’t get the friggin’ theme from Barney to stop playin’ in my head! Now if that wasn’t a sign … tell me what was? Guilt-trippin’ … I decided to do somethin’
that would keep me closer to the house, so I got myself a boat and started to fish
more. At least I could get home in time
enough to be a better father and husband.
I’ve stalked through woods, swamps &
flooded timber all over Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas for over forty some-odd
years. And until June 8,
2009 … I’d never thought that I shared the woods with somethin’ like the Fouke
monster or the Caddo Critter. I’ve never
been scared of anything out there, except for big cats and poisonous
spiders. Yeah, you pull a gun or a knife
on me … and we’ll talk about it; but, if
you show me a black widow or a brown recluse … I’ll get into a raggin’-friggin’ sprint and scream like a woman! No offense, ladies … I got a fairly deep
voice; but if you show me a spider, I’ll give you a high-pitched yell that’ll
curl your hair! We got these big brown
spiders ‘round our place that build their webs in the evenin’s and drop outta
the tree-line. I’m pretty-dang sure that
they’re harmless, but I’ve been known to leap off a movin’ ridin’ mower while screamin’
and make it clear-across the back of our property in just a few strides!
I’m also old school as far as my readin’
materials go, and I’ve accumulated quite a library of “Bigfoot” and Sasquatch related
books … the majority of them since our encounter. I do have a few of my original, vintage paperback
books from the 70’s such as Sasquatch
by Don Hunter and Rene Dahinden; Bigfoot:
On The Track Of The Sasquatch by John Green and The Search For Bigfoot, Monster, Myth Or Man by Peter Byrne. I ain’t much on readin’ fiction lately, but I
did thoroughly enjoy No Return by
Pete Travers, and would highly recommend a true southern gem called Ol’ Scratch by Cracker Irvin. My books keep me both occupied and amused so
I’m off that-there internet as far as the world of “Bigfootery” goes. I’m also a documentary freak, and have
collected quite a cache of DVD’s on the “Bigfoot” and Sasquatch phenomena. The only thing I haven’t found for my
personal collection is Bigfootville,
which I watch in re-run from time to time.
I’d add MonsterQuest to my DVD
collection if they offered only the
episodes on our hairy friend. My son
makes fun of me every I watch the Creature
from Black Lake or The Legend of
Boggy Creek. “Dad … that’s so lame!” Really?
This comin’ from the kid who was scared to friggin’ death of the “bug
man” from the first Men in Black or
those mummies in them Brendan Fraser movies.
And the martians from Mars Attacks!
had both our kids runnin’ for their rooms and under them covers.
Y’all must think I’m some sort of
couch-potato with all this talk of movies, model kits and books; but, this
October is the month that I decided to really go old school. I’m shootin’ my recurve more, I quit smokin’,
laid-down the beer & the booze and decided that I was goin’ to get my
fat-ass into some shape. I realized this
past summer that carryin’ around a 45 lb. hydration-pack full of gear, cameras, castin’ equipment, a machete, a side-arm, extra magazines, back-up pistol
and knife as well as my 40 lb. “beer-tumor” was gettin’ to be quite a bit
cumbersome. I saw some pictures of myself
that my wife took at that weddin’ in Jigger, and I looked like some sort-of bipedal,
grayin’ boar-hog with saggy teets. I’d
actually say that I was lookin’ a lot more like “Patty”, but she was taller and
her gut wasn’t as big as mine! It’s now
been 20-days without carbs, sugar or alcohol and I’ve lightened my load by 12
lbs.! It’ll damn-sure make paddlin’ a
kayak through giant salvinia a whole lot easier, and I bet I’ll cover a lot
more ground scoutin’ new terrain for my cams.
So this huntin’ season, if
y’all see somethin’ large and orange easin’ through the brush while y’all are
out there in them woods, it ain’t The Great
Pumpkin; it’s just Oldsloughstalker!
Until next time, be safe … and y’all come back now, you hear?
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