Sport 's only son , J . D . , was right in the middle of everything with him . And , J . D . carries his genes . He 's a lot like him . Once , Sport had loaned Albert , his nephew , his shotgun to hunt with . He handed Sport his gun back just as a Game Warden pulled into the yard behind him . He started ragging Sport pretty good about loaning his gun to that kid . Sport had enough . " Did he hurt anybody with it ? Did he damage anyone 's property with it ? " " No , but - " " Then get in your truck and get off my property . " The shotgun , still in Sport 's hands , added emphasis . He left . Barbara , as a little girl , witnessed this exchange , a rare event . She was scared they were just going to come and arrest the lot of them . Sport would just not allow any man to take anything from him . Or push him . If you pushed Sport , there would only be a small number of possible outcomes . Sport would get hurt , you would get hurt , or he would stop you . And Sport always handled that option in such a way that it never happened again . The humiliation prevented that . . That is best illustrated by this little example - - - - Once , a very cranky old neighbor had two large dogs . They were very bad at chasing and killing livestock . They struck Sport 's livestock , and Sport went to visit the man . " That has to stop . " The old man said , " You mess with my dogs , and there will be some killing going on . " A few days later , they struck again . Sport had J . D . bring the gun . Sport gave the word as the dog ran by , chasing a calf . J . D . , a dead shot like his father , took him out . Soon the other was dead too . Sport loaded them up , and they went to visit the neighbor . Sport threw both the dogs up on the porch , and pounded on the porch with his shotgun . When the old man emerged , saying , " What 's going on here ? " Sport said , " You told me , if I messed with your dogs , there would be some killin ' . I 'm here to start it . " Well , the old man wilted . " Now , don 't you worry none about those dogs ! " They left . J . D . was puzzled . " Why did we not just take the dogs down and throw them in the Bayou ? He would never have found them . " Sport answered , " If we had done that , that old man would have been bad mouthing us all over the country . This way , there will never be another word said about it . " And there wasn 't . One of Sport 's cows wandered off into a neighbor 's pasture . He sent J . D . , a young boy , to get it . The neighbor man told J . D . , " It 's in my pasture now . It 's mine . " When J . D . told Sport , Sport said , " Let 's go get it . " Sport started up toward the man 's house . J . D . said , " We could cut the fence in the back and get it out . " . Sport shook his head . " I 'll get it . " . He walked up by his front door , into the pasture , got behind it , and drove it through the man 's front yard . Nothing was ever said . The road grader man started making his turn through Sport 's bean field , taking out more and more of Sport 's beans . Sport stopped the man , told him to stop doing that . Well , before long , he did it again . Sport ran him off , this time with a shotgun . A short while later , the County Judge found the road grader man a new place to turn around . A rich , big landowner bought up some land next to Sport . Told Sport , " The old survey is wrong . You 'll have to move your fence back 50 feet . " Sport replied , " That fence has been there since 1927 . It stays there . " Well , a while later a couple of surveyors showed up , started setting up their equipment . Sport and J . D . walked down . Sport : " Nothing is going to be changed down here . " The surveyor started explaining , " We 're doing the job we were hired to do , check these old lines . " Sport said , " I 've got a shotgun here that says you 're not going to survey anything here . " The younger man wanted to get bad , but JD stopped him . " You just really don 't understand the situation . If that old man says you don 't , you don 't . For your own sake , you best go home . " The older man toned the younger one down , and they went home . They never came back . The girls , for the most part , never knew about any of this . Their sweet Daddy could just never have said any of those words . And that fits right in with my daughter Kinley 's memories of sitting in his lap , putting rollers in his hair , and painting his fingernails . But in the " wild west " of the early delta country , a man had to stand his ground or just move . Sport never moved . I fully believe all of this for two very good reasons . First , J . D . is just like him . Second , I 've seen those strong genes of Sport 's in every one of those girls , cropping up from time to time . They call it " Dunnahoe Nerve . " They are all very strong women , always ready to stand up to whatever life throws at them . All us inlaws were very fortunate to find a member of this family to scoop up and marry . Sport just had that unique ability to be a fun loving , lovable person , always loved dearly by all those around him . But he had rather die than allow himself to be pushed . If Sport Dunnahoe had been my father , I could never have loved or respected him more . When I fished with Sports grandson 's , and great grandson 's , I came to realize , some of them only know Sport Dunnahoe by his name . I hope , in writing this , they will come to realize what a great man he was . On my " Great men I have known " list , Sport Dunnahoe stands right up there with the best of em ' . An ancestor to be proud of . Later in life , Sport was diagnosed with dementia , but he never lost his sense of humor . A doctor was interviewing him in his office to determine the extent . " Mr . Dunnahoe , what is today 's date ? " " Thursday , August 4 . " Very good , Mr . Dunnahoe . How did you do that so easily ? " With a little grin on his lips , Sport replied . " Its on the calendar , right behind you . " Another time , he was in another doctor 's office with a daughter . The doctor came in . She immediately started giving instructions to the daughter , ignoring him . She was saying , " Take one tablet , four times a day , and - " Sport was pulling on the daughter 's sleeve , with that little grin . . " What is it , Mr . Dunnahoe ? " " Well , that just looks like it would be sorta hard - taking the same pill , 4 times a day . " " Point well taken , Mr . Dunnahoe . The next time I will talk to YOU about your medicine . " Barbara was taking Sport home from the Hospital . At the door , she instructed , " Stay right here while I go get the car . Don 't move . " Sport was getting around pretty slow by now , and said , " I could start right now and not get outta ' sight by the time you get back . " Sport left us all with a vast array of " Sport - isms . " . My favorite is , " being right won 't help yore ' old haid ' none . " After Verla Mae died , Sport just couldn 't go on without her . He gently explained to all his girls , " I just can 't live without her . " Just a few months later , Phyllis found him dead in his bed one morning . The Paramedics said it must have been a heart attack , there was a blue spot on his chest . But we all knew . A broken heart is just one kind of heart attack . Verla Mae 's death had pushed Sport to the point of no tomorrow . When Verla Mae 's children got married , they always stayed married . None of that messing about stuff . The world needs a lot more mothers like Verla Mae Dunnahoe . Verla Mae had a very hard time in her last years . Congestive heart failure dogged her for a long time . Once , in the hospital , daughter Patsy was helping her across the room . She just totally collapsed . Patsy ran to the hall , and there just happened to be a team of doctors with a defibrillator walking by . They hurried in . One doctor got to her side , while the other got the machine ready . Right after the first doctor pronounced her dead , the second doctor kicked a can out of the way to get the machine in place . After awhile , the machine brought her back to life . Later , she took Patsy aside . " You should have let me go . I was floating above that room . I saw the doctor kick something aside . I saw a bright warm light . It was pulling me to it . I wanted to go . Then I was pulled back , slowly , into my body . I wish I had been able to go . " A year later , she did . August Dillard " Sport " Dunnahoe was a one of a kind . A man I will never forget . He was always ready for a fishing , hunting , or camping trip when we got to Watson . Even as an old man , it never bothered him a bit to sleep on the hard ground . If a catfishing trip was in the offing , he hooked up the middle buster , plowed up a strip across the old hog pen , and we picked up a gallon or two of huge buckshot worms . Then we headed for the river . If there were games to be played by the children , Sport was always the ringleader . Even in his older years , with arthritis in his knees from so many years of following a mule and a plow , he could always keep up . Once , when he was about 65 , we were playing touch football . I was just a few years from running college track , and I thought I was a runner . I went out for a pass . Sport was covering me . I just could not shake him ! He stuck to me like glue . When the children and grandchildren got rowdy in the house , Sport just looked at the rowdiest one , stuck out his hand , and said , " Come round ' by me , boy ! " They never " came round by him , " they knew the danger in that . But they all exited the room pronto . Mission accomplished . There were always plenty of rowdy kids . I 've seen 10 crawling babies on the floor at once in his house . . And that was just in the living room . Once , when Barbara and I were in California , we visited her cousin Albert , who grew up nearby . He said , " When I was a child , every weekend , all us kids showed up at Sport 's house . Our own fathers were too tired to play , but Sport never was . He demonstrated to us all how a father should play with his children , and I am a much better father myself because of Sport . He influenced an entire generation of boys , and they are all better fathers because of it . " Although Sport was always loving and protective of his girls , He also taught them to take care of their own problems . Once , just after Barbara started driving , she ran out of gas a quarter mile from home . She walked home , saw Sport in the yard , and told him the truck was out of gas , and started walking in the house . Sport said , " Hey , wait a minute ! Go out to the tank , get some gas , and go get the truck . You ran out of gas , not me . Next time , be sure there 's plenty of gas in the truck before you head to town . " The one time Barbara remembers disobeying Sport , he had told her she could take the truck to Watson . Well , when she got together with her girl friends , they wanted to go to Dumas , so she took them . The next day , she was torn by guilt , and she told him . He said , " Well , you shouldn 't have . " That was the end of that . Sport was endlessly curious . If I showed up at Watson with some minor car problem , the first thing Sport would say would be , " I wonder why a feller couldn 't - " and then , he would proceed to tear into the motor to see , stopping when he found out . Or maybe , when the car wouldn 't run at all . I soon learned to keep my car problems to myself at Watson ! Watson , in the old days , not that long ago , was a lot like the old west . A man had to look out for himself , and his family . Nobody else would . Sport had a side to him that I never saw , or heard about , until after his death . Sport protected his six girls from the ugly things in life . They never knew about most of what I 'm about to tell . CONTINUED Forever A Hillbilly : Post 53 : Goodbye , Saint Paul ! : Back to St . Paul . The mountains around there are nearly all hardwood , and they look pretty bland in the winter . But when spring co . . . Back to St . Paul . The mountains around there are nearly all hardwood , and they look pretty bland in the winter . But when spring comes , they are awesome . The bright fresh leaves ! Barb and I roamed the mountains a lot in the spring , going to a new place to picnic regularly . We decided not to return to St . Paul , and we moved to Fayetteville . I worked at a factory while looking for a new coaching job . The Viet Nam war was raging . I knew if I didn 't get a teaching job soon , I would be drafted . Well , if it happens , it happens . The war would probably be over by the time I finished basic training , I reasoned . Little did I know , it would go on for six more years . I applied to Officer Candidate School . If I was going , I preferred to be in the air above it . I did pretty well on my tests , I thought , then I got to the part where you look at a map , then recognize the target from a photo . I was lost as a goose on that part . But , unbelievably , I qualified as a navigator , not a pilot . Me , a navigator ? Get real . I decided to take my chances with the draft . Well , the draft struck . I loaded Barb and all our stuff up and headed for Watson . She would stay there for the duration . We stopped at Pine Bluff and spent the night with her sister , Sugar , on the way . Somehow , the superintendent at Fayetteville traced me down , and called me there . He asked me if I wanted to coach at Woodland Junior High . I explained I had been drafted and was now on my way to the induction station . He asked if he could check about a deferment . With no real hopes of that happening , I said " Sure . " Ten minutes later he called me back . " Be at Fayetteville at 8 o ' clock Monday . You will be the head basketball coach , assistant track and football . " I knew basketball and track . But I had never had anything to do with football . It didn 't exist at Fourche Valley High . Football came first . I struggled through , pretending I knew what I was doing . Just to give you an insight into my football prowness at that point , My first 8th grade game was with Rogers . We were ahePat Gillum It seems that , in St . Paul , a long way from any town , the coach was just naturally the one who took care of the medical emergencies . Two of my boys burst into my house one day . I was asleep . They woke me up screaming at me . It seems they were playing touch football , and one of my players fell through a shed window , cutting an artery . After I managed to come to my senses and got there , his arm was spurting blood . I managed to get him in the back of a car , held pressure on it while someone , I don 't remember who , drove us to Huntsville . He came out OK . I made a number of fast trips to Huntsville that year . Once , two of my players were thrown through the car windshield in a wreck on a Saturday night , and I loaded them into my Corvair . They were totally covered in blood . Crossing the steep curvy mountains , I checked my speedometer . 95 MPH ! Adrenalin can really get a person carried away ! Turns out , a lot of superficial cuts causing a lot of blood . But the boy died a couple of years later in Viet Nam . To try to build my basketball program up after season , I started having night practices on a voluntary basis . Well , there was not much ( no ) night time social places for the kids in St . Paul , so they flocked in . Trouble was , some of the local hoodlums wanted to come also , and when some of them started causing trouble , I banned them . One night , a couple of the worst wouldn 't leave . I finally bluffed them out into their car , but once in , they wouldn 't leave . I knew I had to get rid of them , or just cancel the night thing . If not , the hoodlums would eventually take over . I explained to them if they didn 't leave , I would call the law . They laughed and told me to go ahead . The law was 20 miles away , and I had never seen " the law " in St . Paul . I started walking to the gym , to play out my bluff , and one of them hollered , " - - - - you ! " Well , I am afraid I lost my professionalism that night . I walked back to the car , they locked the doors . I walked around it , kicking dents in it , daring them to get out and say that to my face . Posted by I had inherited a senior boys team that didn 't win a game last year , and my task was cut out for me . However , we had a nice crop of sophomores . I started all sophomores , the tallest being 5 ' 10 " . They worked hard , and we won the first three games . I was the town hero . But that cooled quickly when we started losing one game after another . We won only three more . My senior girls , and my junior teams , were fair . They won enough that all told , the teams won one or two more than they lost , enough for me to proclaim a winning year . Frank Broyles flung a major insult at me that year , though we had never met . After a particularly bad Razorback practice , he was so mad he told the press , " We looked like St . Paul out there today . " Well , I was the only coach St . Paul had , and as I looked around to see if maybe he was insulting someone else , I didn 't see anyone but me . Barbara wrote me a letter . She said she was in her dorm room , having just walked in after talking a minute to a construction worker outside . Then she interrupted herself with a new post . " You will never believe what just happened ! That guy I was talking to just walked right in my room ! I couldn 't get him to leave ! I had to threaten to scream before he finally did leave ! " He seemed to have taken her friendly talk as a positive sign , and was there to collect . That letter worried me some . Barbara was always just a little too friendly and chatty to be so pretty ! Was I destined to be constantly defending her honor ? Well , as it has turned out , I shouldn 't have worried . She was young , still 17 , and she quickly learned about such things , and mastered the art of the one line turnoff , when necessary . That sort of thing has never happened again . We decided to marry during Christmas break . I brought her up in the fall to show her the housing prospects . The first one was right in the middle of downtown , all 3 or 4 buildings of it . It was pretty much a small box . She nixed that quick . For the other one , I drove her way back in the mountains near the Orval Faubus biPat Gillum But we had both moved on , the magic had gone , and I took her home early . My job on the pipeline involved setting the hook thingie , the caliper , on the pipe , to lift it in place with the side boom . The side boom driver was fairly new , too , and he was slow . This gave me plenty of time to set the caliper on the pipe perfectly . Late in the afternoon , the foreman got tired of our slow pace , so he took over the side boom . I saw the caliper was a little crooked , so I reached down to adjust , just like I had been doing all day . Too late . The foreman was already lifting the boom . My glove got caught in the block and tackle , and when it came loose , half an inch of my left thumb stayed in the glove . I walked over to the foreman and told him I had lost a thumb . He started cussing me good , for messing up his safety record ! Well , the net result was , my Oklahoma adventure was over . I was headed home to Arkansas . Little did I realize , as I drove home , how losing that thumb would affect the course of my life - for the better ! I drove down to see Barbara , at summer school at A & M . As I expected , she was making a big splash . Pretty , personable new girls tend to do that . Well , she was dating the son of the new head football coach , who was making his own splash , and she still had ties to the Air Force dude , but she seemed , in talking with me , to be leaving the door open for us just a little bit , and I suddenly decided I had best go back to school the second summer term , pick up some chemistry . I signed up and went back to Wing a few days to collect my stuff . I wrote Barb . Told her I met her football jock , and he seemed to me to think he was pretty wonderful . Well , she wrote back and turned my words right against me . She told me she had become convinced he was wonderful too , and another thing or two along that same line of thought . That bout ' slapped me down . Here I was , already paid my tuition money , and I was getting the royal shaft ! After thinking it over a couple of days , two very hard days , I decided to go to school anyway , as haPosted by I saw Jim Roberson . He had such a strong handshake , It made me feel a little better about what happened to me 47 years ago . I was in the sixth grade , tallest boy in grade school , I could run longer , if not faster , than anyone else , Just generally , one of the big boys . A couple of the younger , shorter guys got in a tussle at recess one day . I just sorta felt it was my obligation , as a big boy , to straighten these little guys out . I started pulling them apart . Well , Jim already had his adrenalin flowing , and he turned all his attention on me . It didn 't take long to realize I should have minded my own business . Jim got me in some sort of hold that was just squeezing all the air out of me , and as a crowd gathered around us , he said , " Are you going to leave me alone ? " I didn 't want anyone else to hear , and my wind was gone anyway , so I whispered , in his ear , " Yes . " He let me up . The next day , he brought a bunch of his friends around , pointed to me , and said , " There . Thats the guy I whipped yesterday . " I told them I didn 't remember that at all . Life lesson # 1 : Being older , and taller , don 't necessarily mean you won 't get your butt whupped ' . And being able to run farther is no help at all . Although It might help you put some distance between you and him , Minimize the damage , and put some distance between you and all those kids laughing at you . A funny thing about memory . I didn 't remember a thing about it the next day , only to have it crop back up , 47 years later , when that strong hand started squeezing me again . A REALLY young kid got really mad at me one day , I don 't even remember why , but he just waded in on me with both fists flying , hitting me about the waist . He just kept on , wouldn 't quit . Well , again a crowd was gathering , and I was not about to be seen hitting a really little kid . I was getting real embarrassed . Finally , Monty said , " Pat , just get him in a wrestling hold . " I did , and I had to hold him until recess was over . Life lesson # two : Looking at the size of the kid tells you nothing about the size of his heart . And he may come after you tomorrow . And the next day . I had a friend that was dirt pore ' , wore ragged , old patched clothes , the kind of guy a lot of kids shied away from . Lived over at Scrougeout . I went home with him one night . His mom was tickled , saying no one had ever done that before . She wrung the neck of her best hen , and we ate it for supper . All their beds were filled with hay , but they gave me the best one . In the middle of the night , car lights hit the house . The whole family ran to the front window , yelling , " Company ! company ! " Car was just turning around . That kid had needed glasses for a long , long time . One day he came to school with a brand new pair . We were wrestling , as kids do , at recess . I threw him down . As he got up , he reached in his pocket and pulled out his new , now broken , glasses . He just turned , put his head down , and headed back to the classroom . A really great thing happened to me that day . A nice , pretty lady I had never seen before looked at my name tag , and recognized me ! She was not from Fourche Valley , but she married in . I recognized her from my blog , one of my first followers to sign up ! Trinity , her name was . It made me realize , I actually had readers other than family and friends ! I 've been high as a kite ever since ! Her husband left her all alone all the time , while he was out chasing other women . She was all alone , there every night , she was very lonely , and just didn 't know what she was going to do . Well , I WAS very young and inexperienced , but even I could tell where this was going . I sympathized with her a little bit , told her I was sorry for what was happening to her , finished my coke , and told her I had to go eat supper . She walked me to my car , waved goodbye as I drove off . Goodbye forever , it turned out . The waitress at the restaurant was about my age , cute , and came over and sat at my table . Said she got off at eleven , and though I was interested , I was too shy to say the right things , and anyway , I had to get up early and go to work . By the end of the week , I had reached the McAlister office . The Boss told me I had really done well , made some money , and next week he had a good route for me , out from the Oklahoma City office toward Lawton . " Alright now . You have made some money . You 're set . We have been off this route awhile , and I want you to build it back up . " He offered to ride up to Oklahoma city with me . I could sleep in the office there that weekend , if I wanted . Always ready to save money , I accepted . Hanging around the office Saturday , I began to see that strange things were going on . Many women worked there , constantly on the phones . Other women were constantly coming in , asking if they had a check for them . " No , it 's not been processed yet . " or , " It 's in the mail . " seemed to be the stock answer . Out on the new route Monday , I saw right off I was into trouble . Most all regular customers refused to let me spray , " No , you were supposed to be here a month ago . " or some such . Finally , I called the boss and told him the situation . " Tell them we 're back on the route regular now , and we will never be late again . Settle them down . " Well , I tried . But I just never did have a very good line of BS . I finally got to Lawton , and one customer , a bar , which was a " blacks only " joint , did let me sprPosted by I headed out . When I got to Tulsa , after getting lost trying to get out of Arkansas , I decided to rent a room for a few days and check out the possibilities . It didn 't take me long to realize that corporate headquarters was not the place to get these jobs . Out in the field , on location was where it was at . But I did stumble onto a sales thing that sounded OK on the front end . Go to Oklahoma City to train . So I headed out , accompanied by an Indian and a sorta wild dude . The company put us up in a hotel . We went to the first training session . It was selling aluminum siding . The sales line they wanted us to memorize went like this : " Hello , are you the property owner ? Blah , blah , blah . " We went back to the hotel . I had pretty much realized that wasn 't for me . Just sleep on their dime tonight , head out to look for something else tomorrow . The wild guy was talking . " Hey , I know a couple of girls . Want me to set up a double date ? " . I quizzed him a little . " Well , they 're not really the kind you want to take home to mama . And if one of them is busy , the other can " date " both of us . " Well , I was seeing the big picture by then . He wanted me to drive him around for a wild night in my car . " Not interested , " I told him . Well , the next day , I left him and the Indian to their own devices early , and soon found a pest control job opening in the paper . I checked it out . They wanted to send me and an older applicant out with a trained man through small towns for a few days , get trained up , then we would have our own route . I went to Joe , the older man 's house . He had a nice family , and a beautiful daughter a year or so older than me . His family was full of hope for Joe 's prospects for a job . I began to get the feeling they had been through all this before . But the daughter WAS awfully pretty . Billy , the trained man , our teacher , came by . Joe and I followed him in Joe 's truck . I left my car at Joe 's house . Here 's the plan . While Billy worked his route , Joe and I went to all the houses surrounding . " We 're spraying Posted by St . Paul is a long way from Watson . Almost all the way across the state . But I went to see Barbara every weekend I could , which means every weekend I was invited . I began to realize , her daddy didn 't have any rules for this 17 year old girl . She was on her own . I didn 't understand that at all , because my Dad was very strict . My sisters didn 't date at all in high school . Over a period of time I learned why . One weekend , her parents and all the rest of her family still at home , except Barbara , were going to her sister Frances ' house for the weekend . But , Barbara invited me down anyway . No problem , Daddy won 't mind . Well , like I said , this sounds like I 'm laying the groundwork for a really good part of my story here . But , when we got back to her house after the movie , she soon let me know it was time for me to head out . I didn 't have any arrangements made , so I drove over on the levee , crawled into the back seat , and me and the Delta mosquitoes had a big party . Enjoyed more by them than me , I 'm sure . Put simply , her Daddy and Mama just trusted this girl completely . And she never gave them reason not to . Time for the senior play was coming up , and I was the man . When we started having practice at night , I soon realized I had my hands full . Sometimes , some of them would just not show up . Those that did had not been studying their lines . I knew a disaster was in the works , and I was right . When the big night came , I posted several prompters around behind the curtains . It really was not a matter of prompting , often they just had to read the whole line to them . And sometimes , the wrong actor grabbed onto a line and just ran with it . Halfway through , a very loud alarm clock that some junior had hidden in the couch on stage went off . I still have that clock . You just can 't believe how loud that clock was . Oh well , all 's well that ends well . When it was over , they called me out on the stage , told me how much they appreciated my hard work , and presented me with a brand new fly rod . The end of the school year rolled around . TPosted by Following her directions , I headed for Watson on Saturday night . It was a well known fact at A & M , 25 miles away , that a young man just did not venture into Watson , alone , after dark . Watson had 3 or 4 really bad young dudes , they loved to fight , and they were good at it . I slunk down in the seat as I drove down Main street , well , actually , THE street , It was dark , but not nearly dark enough . Watson was like an old western town . In fact , at least one old western was made there . I couldn 't help but remember all the men I had seen die in the dust in the street of just such a place , in the movies . Well , I made it through town , breathing easier , and headed for her house , out a winding gravel road three miles out through the cotton fields . When I arrived , Barbara invited me in . I thought the whole family must be there , but no . I just barely scratched the surface of the Dunnahoe clan that night . Her little sisters , two squirmy little girls , whispered and laughed to each other about how tall I was , how big my hands were , and would you just look at those feet ! Her brother , about my age , was there with his wife and baby . The brother , JD , shook my hand and all , but the look in his eyes was anything but friendly . It wasn 't until years later , I began to piece it all together by his stories . I began to realize , JD was actually the one I had heard stories about at A & M . He was not real big , but he had mastered the art of getting three running steps in and throwing the first punch in a one punch fight . Little did I know , the real danger was not on the streets of Watson , but here , in this house , looking at me hard . Barbara 's dad , I liked immediately . But her mom quickly found things to do in another part of the house when I came in , so I really didn 't get a chance to really know her that night . Barbara and I got to date a few times , but then student teaching was over , and I was headed to the hills of St . Paul , Arkansas in my 55 Chevy to begin my teaching career . The job started in the middle of the year . It wasn 't until later , I rPosted by I met the woman of my dreams early in 1966 . I married her late in 1966 . Sounds real simple , huh ? Yeah , that sounds real simple . We met and married in 1966 . But just let me tell you about the ups and downs in between . There was nothing simple about it . I worked hard at it . I like to think I earned it . But , truth be told , I probably didn 't deserve it . So many firsts , for me , occurred during that year . Lots of ups and downs , lots of negatives thrown in . But that union , on December 26 , 1966 , has proven over the course of my life , to be the single most positive event of my life . I started my first real job at 21 . I was a teacher . I sponsored my first senior class in 1966 . I directed the senior play in 1966 . I took that class , 20 or so backwoods mountain kids on their senior trip that year , me and some woman from the community I didn 't know , many for their first real trip out of the hills , to the bright lights of Little Rock and Hot Springs . Some of them were older than me . Barbara invited me down to her house for the weekend once , early in 1966 , when the rest of the family were gone . Sounds like the makings of a very good story , huh ? I thought so too . Little did I know . I spent my one and only night in a very active house of ill repute , yet emerged untouched and a virgin , in mid 1966 . I left a body part , crushed and bloody , on the sand dunes of western Oklahoma , in 1966 . A very important body part . I bought Barb 's engagement and wedding ring from the proceeds of that loss . I saw houses that had millions of cockroaches that year . I stayed in hotels that cost $ 1 . 81 per night that year . Are you sure you are up to reading this story ? Hey , this is a tell all story . I cut no corners here . Time to get down to the nuts and bolts of this story . It was an early January night . I was finishing up my student teaching in Dumas , I was at the Delta Dip , home of the Ding Dong Daddy ( I didn 't make that stuff up , its just what they say down there in the delta ) . I had just got my order , and was walking back to my car . I saw a kid I knew fPosted by Neal invited me along on his fishing / floating / turkey hunting trip on the Buffalo river with him , his dad , Travis , and Scott Jackson . Neal is the Baptist Collegiate Ministries Director at Henderson State University . Scott is my pastor , and a professor at Ouachita Baptist University . Travis is retired , as am I . We planned a five day trip , floating the last 17 miles of the river . The thing about the lower buffalo . It is relatively calm . Kinda gets a couple of old guys , like Travis and me , over confident . Neal sent out instructions telling us all we could and could not take . But nobody took it serious enough . We wound up at Rush with enough food and gear to keep an army comfortable for five days . I was traveling with Travis . We loaded our boat down good . Too good . It was packed to the gills . Hard to find a place for us to get in . The thing about Neal , is , he is an all around outdoors man of the first order . The best I 've ever seen . He scouted the first rapid . He said , " Stay hard left " on the L shaped rapid . Travis and I went first . Me in back , him in front . I was hugging left . Travis said , " Pull right ! We have to go right of that bush . " I did . When we got to the bend , I knew we were too close to the middle . The thing about a rapid is , the largest waves are often thrown up at the end . In the middle . We hit the big waves , smack dab in the middle , expecting the front of the boat to ride right up on top of them . This heavy boat went under them . Neal was watching from above . " Hey , they made it . " then later , " but they sure do look awful short ! " Our boat floated , just under the water . Our gear was washing out . Our motor was under water . . Fortunately for us , although I would not have wished it upon them , two boats of turkey hunters were ahead of us . One of them swamped also . They were in position , gathering up their gear . They started picking up ours , also . Neal and Scott quickly crossed the rapids uneventfully , and started helping . One of the other boats approached us , turning over to us our gear they had coPat Gillum This is a continuing story , starting before my time , when my Grandfather 's family arrived in Fourche Valley in 1898 , and follows my growing up in Wing . During our productive years , ( work and children ) my wife , Barbara , and I bought up rental property . We currently have 18 front doors : apartments , houses , duplexes . This enabled us to retire at 49 and 54 , and see the world . We love to go . We travel the world alone , on a very thin shoestring . I carry the bags , she is the brains that gets us there and back again . We fly on bonus flyer miles , saved up on our credit card . While we are at home , building up miles , I like to catfish , hang out with my children and grandchildren , and tell Barbara how pretty she is . Two years ago , I set out to write a book , " The Gillums were not like other people , " and in this project I discovered my love for writing . I have written several other short stories since . This blog is taken from my book , which is 93 pages of stories about my family and my life growing up at Wing . You can take a boy out of the hills , but I am forever a hillbilly .