00:00:05 Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves from coon hunting to trotlining and just in general country living. I want you to stay a while as I share my. 00:00:14 Speaker 2: Experiences in life lessons. 00:00:17 Speaker 1: This Country Life is presented by Case Knives from the Store More Studio on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast that airways have to offer. 00:00:29 Speaker 2: All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share. 00:00:39 Speaker 1: Service serving others can be a lifelong calling or can be a moment of compassion. Either way, our service to others is important and necessary. I'm going to give you my thoughts on it, but first I'm gonna tell you this story. This story is from This Country Life listener Ryan Noss. Ryan is a genetic counselor in Bay Village, Ohio. 00:01:11 Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't know what that was either, but my pile. 00:01:14 Speaker 1: Ryan explains it as helping identify folks with cancer or a strong family history of it in ways to fight it or prevent it from starting. Ryan's wife is an occupational therapist, both of them serving their patients and community in very important ways. 00:01:34 Speaker 2: Now. 00:01:34 Speaker 1: Ryan sent this story back in September of twenty twenty four. I read them all, folks, and I keep them all waiting for the right time. So y'all just keep sending them in. And remember they don't have to be about hunting or fishing. Ryan's community was hit by a storm, and in his words, in my voice, this is how they handled it. Ten rooftops. As I look over my eighth acre lot in the Cleveland suburb, I can count the rooftops of ten neighbors homes. Now this may seem a surprising setting to wax poetic on the virtues of country living, but his brand has been suggesting all along, where you find a country way of life might surprise you. It's three pm on Tuesday afternoon, and I finished at my clinic early, and I'm driving home. As I drive, I begin to consider my options with this extra free time before picking up the kids at daycare. Maybe I can get a workout in or tackle a house project. And then I'm interrupted by a call from my wife. 00:02:45 Speaker 2: Now, let me be. 00:02:46 Speaker 1: Clear, I dearly loved my wife and welcome an impromptu phone call. However, history has told me that if my wife is interrupting her clinic and potentially my own, it's not just a chit chat. Reagan, our youngest, has what daycare fears is the beginning of hand, foot and mouth disease. For those with our children, It's hard to describe the flood of emotions and ensuing logical gymnastics you encounter with these unexpected but inevitable calls from the daycare concern for her health, Which one of us is going to cancel their patience tomorrow? And however many other days won't she be able to go to daycare, let alone, fear of if any of our other kids will catch it. I tell my wife, I'm on my way home. I'll change and head over to get Reagan and get her to the doctor. And as I walk in my house, my phone alarm goes off. There's been a tornado warning issued for your area. Seek shelter. I find myself looking out our front one to trying to figure out if I have time to go get the cares from school or not. The rapidly dark in the sky and increasingly intensifying wind answers that question. However, while looking out the window, I noticed Tom, the mailman. 00:04:08 Speaker 2: Making his rounds now. 00:04:10 Speaker 1: I wait for him to reach our door, and it takes a moment or two to figure out who exactly of us was warning the other about the tornado, And with that sordid he makes a beeline to his truck and high tells it back to the post office. 00:04:23 Speaker 2: And I retreated to the basement. 00:04:26 Speaker 1: The electricity blinked on and off several times, and then boom. A few minutes later, I discovered that the boom was a tree crashing onto the roof of our garage. At this point I left to go to my children's daycare in school ragging and Barrett picked up first, and at two and four years of age, they found hanging around the windowless room of the daycare center, armed with flashlights a great adventure throw the tree top on the house next door ruined the four year old's move. Now we make the drive to give my old the sun of this summer camp, and our commuter is a typically serpentine due to the down traffic lights and trees blocking the roads. 00:05:07 Speaker 2: Eventually we make it. 00:05:09 Speaker 1: And old and wide eyed, excitedly tells me about his adventure. Hunkering in the basement with all his friends. We surveyed the storm damage from the cars with meander our way past streets closed off due to falling trees and down power lines. 00:05:25 Speaker 2: That house is broken, Bear points out as. 00:05:27 Speaker 1: We pass the house, its front room has a large tree serving us a coffee table after crashing through the roof. Next week, went to our driveway and owen stairs at a garage which is now totally draped by branches and limbs, and comments, well, at least my bike is okay. It's good to know he has his priority street. But as the dust settles, text from our friends on our street trickle in and fortunately everyone has made it back home safely and outside of a garage. No major damage has occurred, though most of the city is without power. 00:06:05 Speaker 2: Good news. 00:06:06 Speaker 1: The doctor confirms that Reagan doesn't have hand foot in mouth disease, and I have a smaller clinic schedule than my wife, so I decided to stay home with the kids. First order of business storm clean up. It's hard to describe the satisfaction associated with working alongside my seven, four and two year old to clean up the branches in the limbs. Growing up, I spent my time sitting behind home plate playing catcher versus sitting in a tree stand deer honey. Though I'm increasingly enamored with the outdoors and do my best to foster that in my children. Sit comes no surprise. I felt a great sense of joy and pride. Is my seven year old explain to me how the tree in our yard is a white oak and our neighbor has a red oak based on the rounded versus pointed edges with their leaves. It's the first twenty four hours without power, come and go. My mind is increasingly drawn to our fridge and our freezer. I don't need to explain the treasured commodity that is six pounds of bluegill cropping and hybrid basphilelets thawing in our non functioning freezer. So I send an invitation to our family of friends on our street that we will be having a fish fright, because I'll be darned if I'm gonna let those fish go to waste. One family had their power restored and insists we come there for supper and charge whatever electronics that we needed to. Another neighbor who is a brewer, assures us that there'll be plenty of cold beer, and others quickly volunteer to round out a feast. That evening, we are all able to gather and enjoy the laughter of good company and the deliciousness of fish bathed in hot oil. Another morning comes with no power from my family and the others. It's my turn to go to work as my wife and neighbors coordinate who can the kids as daycare remain closed in between patients. My spirit is lifted when I catch up on text messagees to discover the husband of the soul house with power is asking what we are all having for dinner at their place tonight. That evening, while slicing tomatoes in my neighbor's kitchen, one of their daughters comes up to me, asking are you making fish again tonight? 00:08:25 Speaker 2: And I said, oh, did you like it? 00:08:28 Speaker 1: A big smile and enthusiastic headshake answered the affirmative, well not tonight, mister Clark and mister Nate brought over steak and chicken. That answer must have sufficed that she happily scared it off to join the rest of the kids, and the pride from that interaction rejuvenates the soul in a way only surpassed from the smiles and laughs us us parents got watching the log jam of twelve neighborhood kids all trying to go down the backyard slide in rapid fire succession, Conversations of the upcoming weekend unfolding, and an unspoken agreement develops. If we can all make it through tomorrow, and we can strip our professional responsibilities, then we can all go our separate ways for the weekend. Should we still be without power. Saturday afternoon, we are enjoying the company of my sister, her husband, and they're newborn twins at my parents' house. 00:09:24 Speaker 2: An hour and a half away from the tornado's destruction. 00:09:29 Speaker 1: We finally get worried. After four full days power has been restored. Now, I wouldn't have traded meeting my nieces for the first time for anything, though it would have been something to hear firsthand the cheers of joy that reportedly echoed up and down our street when the lights came on. It is not lost on me that we are very fortunate not to have faced the loss of home or life that others face during the tornado, though in that physic and mentally exhausting time, the outstretched helping hands from trusted friends was a welcome all the same. Now could be pride of looking at riping the tomatoes and I raised bed gardens that must be pretty good, considering how few seem to make it back into the house when I ask the kids to go pick them. Or maybe maybe it's the joy of knowing this year's buffer crop really is social capital, and the amount of social capital being reserved isn't only for towns and country songs with a single traffic light. We look after each other. We take pride in one another's success, and don't hesitate to offer help where we see need. Now, if that ain't country living, can someone help me with my woo picked suey and point me in the direction of the nearest pig farm. And according to Ryan Noss, that's just how that happened. Well riding, my friend, and that's as country as cornbread. And your woo pick sue is well received and on point. But more importantly, your story is a perfect example of service, and I thank. 00:11:13 Speaker 2: You for sending it in. 00:11:24 Speaker 1: I come from a family of service members, both in the military and in law enforcement. My dad and my brother, and my uncles, nephews and cousins, from the president all. 00:11:32 Speaker 2: The way back to the War between the States. 00:11:35 Speaker 1: Duty has been a common thread in our family, just as it has been for many others. But I was reminded of it a few days ago on a fishing trip of all things. My brother Tim and I were running our nets in the Arkansas River and we had our longtime family friend Jeff Childress with us. Jeff's more than a longtime friend, He's a cousin of TAM's wife, Barbara, the lady who's case knife collection ri I was my own, Not that I'm jealous or anything like that, but anyway, I was running the motor at a slow island and Jeff was sitting in the back with me talking and Tim was sitting on the back of the boat holding a rope with a net drag attached, scarring the bottom of the river for a barrel net. 00:12:19 Speaker 2: That we couldn't find for fifteen minutes. 00:12:22 Speaker 1: As we slowly trolled back and forth, we talked about everything under the sun while making fun of Tim's less than fruitful of temps. 00:12:29 Speaker 2: At finding our net. 00:12:33 Speaker 1: One good thing about having three retired folks in the boat on the river. None of us was in a hurry to be anyplace else, mainly because we didn't have anyplace. 00:12:42 Speaker 2: Else to be. 00:12:44 Speaker 1: So there we were three retired folks adrift on the open sea. Well the Arkansas River anyway, just cruising, killing time. Just a retired logger and a trapper, and a good one. He's been catching a fire out of kyots, coons and bobcats. What Jeff really excelled at, especially when he was a younger man, was sending turkeys across the river. Jordan, I don't know how many turkeys Jeff's killed in his six and a half decades on this spending orbit we all called home, but you can rest assured it is a number unequaled in many circles. Some folks are natural athletes, some are natural musicians. Jeff is a natural born turkey killer and has turned the wood solid in more states than not. He's good at it. But we weren't talking about turkey hunting right then. We were talking about trapping and nest predators. We were talking about how much we enjoyed trapping in the sets he was making and how he was making them, And as if prodded by some unseen force, he spontaneously said, Brent, I've been taken from the woods for a long long time, and it's time I gave back. 00:14:04 Speaker 2: Now. 00:14:04 Speaker 1: That didn't catch me off guard or even surprised me. Really just's a good man, and I actually don't remember a time when I didn't know him. The real community that we're both from is small and close knit, and it's the kind of place where families are friends. Generationally, his word is good. What I did take notice of was how he said it. It was as much a testimonial as it was an oath, the creation to be a better steward, to leave it better than he found it, and to give more than take. All those turkeys over all those years that brought him so much pleasure, had come full circle in his appreciation. They had served him well, and now it was his turn to serve them, and he was going to do it, one coon and coo at a time. Now, that's service, and to me, the very definition of it, taking on a task for the betterment of some anything else, regardless of what stage of life it comes to you called the service to work for the betterment of the collective above the individual, even when it's aimed at turkeys, it's a good thing. I remember the day I decided that I wanted to be a soldier. We were on a family vacation in Washington, d C. I'd walked in some of the Smithsonian Institution's museums Along the National Mall, I stood below that iconic African elephant known as Henry, that stood watching the rotunda of the National Museum on Natural History since nineteen fifty nine, and I looked up at the massive fourteen foot tall eleven ton icon of the Dark Continent. I climbed the eighty seven steps from the reflecting pool up to the Lincoln Memorial, and after reaching the central chamber in the steamy, hot d C. Summer, I realized why Lincoln was sitting down. I saw the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Eternal Flame that marks the grave of President John F. Kennedy, all wondrous works of art and fitting memorials to America's leaders in the past. Then, after a half mile ride south it seemed to take forever in the bumper to bumper traffic. We got out of the car and I stood beside my mama and watched the changing of the guard in the Tomb of the Unknowns. A six year old boy who had never seen so many people in one place or building so big, but recognized the immediate reverence of the place I was in, even though I didn't understand all that I was seeing. I remember the silence the first time. There hadn't been any rackets since we got there, no cars, no horns, no sirens, not even a whisper of words, just the rhythmic cadence of the soldier steps as they gracefully moved from one point to the next on their tour, twenty one steps across a sixty three foot black mat, with a twenty one second pause at each point, honoring the fallen who made the ultimate sacrifice of service. Each time they clicked the metal place together on the hills that echoed across the plaza like a bolt of lightning. I was mesmerized by their uniforms, the inspection of the soldier and his weapon that was standing in relief, of the scent and along guard, and the relief commander making sure he had his uniform and his weapon were worthy of such an important duty. My mama cried silently as she watched. I remember a lot of folks wiping tears, and I've shed a bunch of my own since then. When watching now as an adult with a clear understanding of what that ceremony stands for, all the soldiers looked the same, their uniforms, their haircuts, their movements. I couldn't tell one from the other, and through the years, as I grew older, I realized they all looked that way because it wasn't about them. Their uniformity has been on display, just as we see it now twenty four hours a day, and has been continually since July the second, nineteen thirty seven, up to the very second, regardless. 00:18:17 Speaker 2: Of when you listen to this. 00:18:20 Speaker 1: I was six when I saw it, and from that moment I knew I wanted to be a part of something bigger than I was. It was team sports for me all through school, and the bond that was formed with my teammates surpassed practice in games that we shared the hardships of discipline and the brutal suburb practices, along with the relentless bereate but of our performances by our coaches. If one made a mistake, we all paid the penance. I didn't know it, but what those coaches were showing us was that the actions of one can have an effect on everyone. In that case, it was next, but more times than not, the actions of one can be positive. I spent half my life in the service of my community, state, and nation in official capacities, and it was all sparked from a visit to the nation's capital in nineteen seventy two. I seriously doubt those soldiers had any idea that their dedication to profession would have such an impact on a first grader, but it did. Inspiration to serve comes from so many different places, and it doesn't have to be in the military or in a role as a first responder. I think about the teachers I've had all through school, and the professors and administrators I met over at the University of Tennessee a couple of weeks ago. I think about the man that drives the garbage truck that comes by every Monday morning, and my wife, who works two jobs, one at the state capital that as are at her desk every day before six am, and the other job as Bailey's personal uber driver that runs late into the night for dance practices. Service doesn't have to come from a uniform. Sometimes it's trying to bring normalcy to a storm ravage neighborhood like Ryan's story he sent in, or helping turkeys and other prest species like what Jeff's doing, or can be picking up trash on a daily walk like my neighbor does without bragging about it, but I see you, mister Mooney. Service should arise when the opportunity presents itself, and it's hard. It's hard to know what's right these days. With so much information coming in from every direction. It can be confusing to pick a path with much certainty. But by focusing on the folks around us with a servant's heart, we can be the example of someone else is waiting to see. Thank you so much for listening to all of us here on the Bear Grease Channel, Clay Lake and I really appreciate it. Tomorrow's March the seventh, and it's the Black Bear Bonanza in Bentonville, Arkansas. Hit up Google for all the info, and y'all don't. 00:21:18 Speaker 2: Worry about the rain. 00:21:19 Speaker 1: We're gonna be inside with plenty of room, brain your young and let's have. 00:21:24 Speaker 2: Fun until next week. This is Brent Reeves, sign it off. Y'all be careful