Page 177 - a-columbia-county-boys-recollections-and-memories-of-columbia-county-florida-(2012)-lenvil-h-dicks

A Columbia County Boy's Recollections and Memories of Columbia County Florida (2012) Lenvil H. Dicks

The family that I remember the most was O1 Sam and Rosa Jones, and they had no small children except
a grandson who lived with them, and who was about my age, named Rufus. Rufus and I got to be very
close friends, and played, and went hunting together, and were just simply close companions a lot of the
lime. My mother was never able to get used to the idea that my best friend was a colored boy, but 1 think
she eventually accepted it, since Rufus was really a good fella. I understand that Rufus has been dead
now for many, many years, as I lost track of him after Sam and Rosa moved away.

01 Sam had an old dog which 1 believe was part Airedale and part collie, since he had long hair like a
collie, but he was a black dog. That dog loved to squirrel hunt better than a hog loves slop. I could go
out in front of my house and shoot my 22 rifle into the air, and it would not be 2 minutes until that old
dog was down there jumping up on me ready to go squirrel hunting. We would go off into the woods
hunting squirrels, and quite frequently we would not see a squirrel for some time, but suddenly the old
dog (whose name 1 cannot remember to save my life) would suddenly run over to a tree and rear up on it
and start barking. I knew he did not give false alarms, and if I stood there and looked up in to the tree
long enough, eventually I would see it moving up there somewhere, and be able to take my 22 and put
that squirrel on the ground. The old dog would run over and pick up the squirrel and bring him to me.
We never failed to carry home at least a half a dozen squirrels, which 1 would skin, and dress, and mama
would fry them for supper.

In all my days of growing up on the farm, I never remember eating a rabbit, although I killed a lot of
them eating mama’s flowers in her flower garden at night, but she said they had something in them that
was bad if you ate them, so we left the rabbits alone. But it is a wonder that I do not look like a squirrel
today, because we ate untold numbers of squirrels. That does not sound too appetizing today, and it has
probably been 60 years since I tasted squirrel, and now do not think much of the idea, but back in those
days that was some good eating and we all enjoyed it immensely.

O1 Sam and Rosa also loved to fish. There was a small lake about 200 yards behind my daddy’s house,
which al that lime was owned by my grandpa Dicks, and was known as the Hagen Lake. That name
came from a family named Hagen who at one time years before my birth owned about a thousand acres
of land in that vicinity, much of which was acquired by my grandpa Dicks and my great Uncle Joe
Dicks, and my daddy’s first cousin George Dicks.

O1 Sam and 1 had an old ram shackled boat, and we would get gallon jugs of the type that has a small
handle on the neck of the jug, and tie good stout fishing lines to the jug, put a good tight cork in it, and
attach a fish hook which we would bait with something and throw the jug out in to the lake and let
maybe a dozen jugs stay in the lake all night. We would go back the next morning to see if we had
caught anything on our jugs. We always took a 22 rifle with us, since it was not uncommon to see a
moccasin, and we liked to do away with as many moccasins as we could.

When we would go out into the lake in our old boat, if we saw a jug bobbling around, we would know
we had a fish on it, and would pull the jug up out of the water and put it in the boat, pull the hook up and
take the fish off. Sometimes we would put the jug back in the water after we had re-baited the hook and
leave it until the next morning, and if our schedule did not permit that, we would just load all of the jugs
after we had removed the fish and take them and hide them somewhere up on the shore until we needed
them again.

I recall one morning that one of the jugs was bobbing around quite furiously and 01 Sam said “we got us
a big fish on there.” We paddled over and took the jug out of the water and we had something all right,
but it was not a big fish. It was a 4 foot alligator. O1 Sam told me “I’ll hold the line up and get his head
up above the boat and you take that rifle and put a bullet right through his brain and I’ll skin him and eat
him”.

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