A Few Uncle Eddie Memories
Spencer
Eddie set 2 traps in pond. When he came back, one of the
traps was gone. His rat terrier dog start barking at a bush. He found a large
mink had pulled the trap out of the water.
Went hunting for foxes and saw a fox going in a hole. He
took some barbed wire and made it into a loop and poked it down the hole and
then twisted it. He pulled out and got the tail from a fox. So he put it back
down in the hole and did it again. This time he came up with a fox, which he
killed and took it home. Grandma said she would sew the tail back on the fox
for the pelt. Come to find out, the fox he had already had a tail.
There were a lot of foxes, but not coyotes. When coyotes
came into territory the foxes moved out.
In fall, he used to take a stick and poke into ground. When
stick would go into a hole, he would dig it up and find hazelnuts that
squirrels had buried.
He would watch for bee hives. In late fall, when bees were
not active, he would raid the hives for honey.
Grandma would take blue gill and scrape off scales. She
would cook them that way. When eating you would take off the skin.
When Eddie was 17 he wanted to join military. He had to get
parent’s permission. Grandma didn’t want to give it. But Grandpa told her, he
could as easily get killed driving the car.
Grandpa always farmed with horses. Uncle Urban did until he
bought a Ford tractor. This was fine until he decided to back up. When he got
close to a ditch, he yelled ‘Whoa, whoa’, but the tractor did not understand
and he ended up in the ditch.