Pete went hunting last night! Down there on Big Caston Creek at the slough. We crossed that slough and went over to the big tree. We killed more squirrels out of that big tree. You either had to go out in the rain or you didn't get to go squirrel hunting. So mom would get up and I would dressed and take off hunting and trapping. There was a big Persimmon tree on the bank of the creek, nearly every day I would catch a opossum right at the foot of that persimmon tree. Oh, I had fun! But that meant wadding that cold water, it didn't hurt me. There was a little water fall there and I walk right along just above the water fall. I caught the biggest Owl you ever saw. It was the first Owl I ever caught it had one foot in a steel trap. I caught skunks, you had to kill them to get them out of the traps. One time I was hunting and somebody had already pried a big rock up and stuck a rock under it. You could see back under it. I dad a carbide light on my head you know, like a miner's light. I was down looking under the rock and a skunk sprayed me. Oh shit! I thought I was going blind! I never had any thing that hurt so bad in all my life. On my god, I'll never do that again in a hundred years. If it was now I wouldn't do it!! I had to go to school in the mornings and if I'd have killed a skunk or something the teacher, Mrs. Borba would say, "Pete you went hunting last night didn't you?" If it had been in California they would have run me out of school. That what she would say "Pete you went hunting last night didn't you?" ha ha ha!!! Lunch Anyone? I would trap a opossum and bring it home, mom would put it under a tub to fatten it out. You know, she would throw everything to it to fatten it out. We would put a wooden floor on the bottom and then set this tub on top put the opossum under there, I don't know how long she would keep the opossum before she would kill it. She would say "well you can skin your opossum now and we'll have it." So I would skin the opossum out and, oh god, he would be fat. Cleaned him out that's what she would call it. "We'll put him under the tub and clean him out," she never would cook one unless she put it under the tub. You know catch him, bring him in, put him under that and feeding him. She said she was cleaning him out, you know, getting all of what ever they eat out. Clarence, I can remember going to your dad's house and they had opossum on the table. I didn't eat none of it. I don't remember ever eating a bite of them, I couldn't stand to eat them, I knew what they looked like and everything. But, I don't know who all eat it. But, I guess most of them did eat it because there was always no opossum left. Dad didn't eat it. When dad would kill a chicken hawk, he never did eat a chicken hawk I'll bet either. But we would clean that chicken hawk and it would taste just like a chicken. Those chicken hawk, Red Tail or what ever they were then, I don't know what they were. He would kill a chicken hawk pretty often. He had that old muzzle loading shotgun, you know, if one came sailing around the house making noise, if it was within reach he would shoot it. And we would always cook that chicken hawk, just pick them like a chicken, scald them, pick'em, they taste just like a chicken! opossum (e-p•s em), name for several MARSUPIALS of the family Didelphidae, native to Central and South America, with one species in the U.S. Mostly arboreal and nocturnal animals, opossums have long noses, naked ears, prehensile tails, and black-and-white fur. They eat small animals, eggs, insects, and fruit. When frightened they collapse as if dead. Opossums are hunted as pests as well as for food and sport. chicken hawk noun 1. Any of various hawks that prey on or have the reputation of preying on chickens. William "Pete" Evans & Clarence Evans talking about good things to eat when they were growing up in OK. Story told at Clarence's house in Fort Smith AR. 1995. The Twins When we lived there on the Shippy place going out on Wild Horse Hollow road. Now where is the Shippy place? It a mile off the highway up there where Elmer Wilson use to live. Wild Horse Hollow road goes up to Wild Horse Hollow. Right this side of Big Caston Creek bridge, up there where Richard Hall use to live. We lived up just past the Magness Place about a 1/4 mile on Goat Ridge. That where I was raised in 1913. The twins were born up there and Dad was in town when Mom had the twins. She had them on a pallet on the floor and no one was with her. The way I understood it dad was go to town when the babies were born. After the doctor? He wasn't gone after no doctor, no he just went into town to have a good time. Pitching dollars, they pitched dollars in them days. No he and a bunch of guys his age I guess. He would ride a mule into town on Saturday when he was young. I don't know how old he was he had already been married twice. But, any way I heard that's the way it was, he was gone to town, and the babies were born and she had a pallet on the floor. That was the story I heard all my life, but Joyce or someone might have a different story. This story of child birth was told by William E. "Pete" Evans, August 1995. The reference to a different story is because some believe Lona Bandy Evans may have had a child before she married John Wesley Evans. I have not been able to prove that. Wes Evans 1995. Boot Leg Whisky Dad had a saddle on the porch and horses in the lot and Almond Brannon had a saddle and horses in the lot so I told Almond I know where we can steal some whisky. It was over by where Sib lived. I had been there to buy a pint with Nathan Hall and saw where Bob had it hid in a brush pile. Then I told Almond Brannon about it and we took off over there. Oh, that Bob he chased us all over the county you know. Instead of going back like we come, I packed the whiskey on my shoulder, across the creek up the road and Almond went east of where we turned to go west at the old Rockford place. Almond went with the horses east till he came out by the Hallman place, you know where Elmer lived on the hill. I was standing there waiting by the highway where you turn to go to Sib's place. We then loaded the whisky on the horses. Bob tracked the horses to the highway but was unable to follow the trail after that. That was Bob Baldwin. Old, Bob run all over the country trying to find out who done that! He got suspicious of me some way or another, Him and his wife and Norman Clark come up to Fanshawe to church that night and was trying to buy a pint of whisky off of me. I said the Guin boys, down on the corner they might have some. I'll go in halves with you if you want to buy a pint. So we went and talk to them about it, they said no we just have enough for ourselves tonight. He didn't tell me what he was up to, but later on he told me that he got some whisky stolen and he though I had taken it. Did the whisky get burned in the wood pile? No, Dad was going to burn the pumice pile. There was a big stump in the middle of the pumice pile, out there, on the old Butler place, across the road from Rodney Brannon's on the highway up by Caston switch. We was out there plowing all day, getting ready to start a crop you know, We were plowing away, we saw, I saw Dad down by the house going toward the pumice pile. I got down to the end, I said, Elmer, Dad's going to burn that pumice pile. I said, we got the 2 « gallon of whisky in that stump in the middle of the pumice pile. Elmer said, well I'm not going down there, by joe, he always used" by joe". I give him half of it and I shouldn't give a bit of it. So we watched him, finally he got that whole thing burning, it didn't blaze up, pumice wouldn't blaze it would lay there and smolder for a week. I said well, I'm not going to let him burn it up, I'm going to go get it. I saw him going back to the house. When we got down to the end I went over there and run through the smoke and flame and got that whisky out of that stomp and took it out of there. Bottled it up after that and put it in the cotton seed ben and we didn't think nothing about it. Before cotton planting time, we would empty a bottle and stick it back in the cotton seed. Ever time we came in from work we would take a big shot of whisky and go get our bath in the bath tub, you know, well we didn't have a bath tub just a big wash tub. So when cotton planting time came, Dad went to sack up the cotton seed, he ran on to all these empty bottles in the cotton seed. He goes out, and he always called mom, "mammie", do you know anything about then whiskey bottles that's hid out there in the cotton seed? She didn't know nothing about it. She didn't know where the whiskey was hid. Mom would take a drink with me once in a while, but the girls would raise hell with her because she would take a little nip. But, before that we went to a dance one night, we come in, all of us had been working in the field. We un-harnessed the horses, drew water for the horses and mules and watered them. Then we went to the cotton seed bin and we just had a big drink. Elmer and I were going to a dance that night so we didn't eat any supper. But when they went to the supper table, old Aud, he just got to dam much, anyway he was popping off his big mouth and talking when he should have been listening, Dad said young man what a matter with you tonight? Audie answered "boy I'm a feeling good tonight". The old man didn't know what was wrong with him. Aud says, I'm feeling good tonight, after working all day, he's feeling good, well I guess he was , oh that was funny, boy I'll never forget that! Tale told by William Everett "Pete" Evans 8-95, Pete was about 16 or 17 and Audie was about 12 at that time. The Fight You know Dad left home after a fight with his father. The following is that story as told by Pete to Clarence Evans 1995. We lived up there on the road going to Fanshawe, on the Butler place, across from the Brannon's. Well you know when we lived over there, that's where I left home. That's where me and dad had a fight and I left home. He pulled a knife on me and I walked out. I was laying in the floor in a cane back chair with a pillow on it. We had waited on lunch for him. He was down a Jones' filling station with old Red Gideon and he stayed and stayed. That was on a Saturday, and Elmer and I came in, we fed and watered the team. We came to the house took a bath and had to wait dinner on him. We never eat dinner without papa. So, when he came in we went to the table and ate and then I got in the straight back chair and laid a pillow on the back of it. Well, I was lying there reading the old Kansas City Star, the only paper in the house, that's the only thing we ever had, the Kansas City Star. He walked up there and he said, "brother when that shade gets down just a little further there in that tree I want you and Virgle to build a good fire and we'll shrink the wagon tires". I just looked up from the paper and said dad I'm not shrinking no dam wagon tires. I said you and Claud and Aud could have done that, they were about fourteen of fifteen years old, while Elmer and I had been working all the week. Boy, he just got mad all of a sudden and run up there kicked me between the legs, talk about hurting it hurt more than jumping up on a saddle horn. So, I wasn't taken that off nobody, I jumped up and hit him on the right arm and knocked him about half way across the floor. When I done that, well he always carried a big knife. He grabbed that knife out of his pocked and he come at me with that knife. Elmer stepped between us and stopped it. Then he ordered me out of the house, that's when I left home. Almond and I, after I left, we chased around a lot. We went to Ratlet, Oklahoma in the fall to pick cotton. I don't know where all we went. We went to Shawnee, we would catch a freight train and go to Shawnee, we would go see Almond's aunt, her husband was a conductor on the Rock Island Rail Road. I thought Shawnee was the prettiest little town I ever saw, really clean. We had a good time. Yeah, we would walk into Wister, and have a little bag of stuff that we was going to take with us and catch a freight train out. The Trip You know, there was an Indian that worked there at the mill or somewhere around there (Pine Valley}, his wife was pregnant. He wanted someone to take her to the State Sanatorium over there, he was a Indian so he would get it done for nothing. So I took him over there. It had been raining and that darn Billy Creek didn't have a bridge at the time, you know. I drove into that and I made through going, but when I come back the water had come up quite a bit, so I got it almost all the way out and the engine stalled. I thought how in the heck am I going to get out of here? I just stood on the starter and the starter just pulled me out. After I got out I set there a few minutes and the thing started, by the time I got into Pine Valley all the oil in the ring gear had clabbered and went to the housing. Boy it was making a awful noise and I pulled in there at Rowen's garage. I told him what had happened, so he opened every thing up and cleaned it out, filled it full of oil. It worked alright. That was the little 1935 Chevy pick-up I had, the last time I worked there, it had a little cattle rack on it. I sold that to Floyd Spradlen. Floyd stacked lumber in the dry shed. Later he went to Mountain Pine. This was one of the good deeds done by William Everett (Pete) Evans, about 1938 or 39. Story told 1995 while talking to Clarence Evans. Pete's Bad Back You see, how come me down with my back, I come from California, we just come back. I had that old 35 Chev pickup that I left with Joe. When I moved, I made two trips that day and I got down with my back. Jerry, "When you lived in Pine Valley?" Then I was down so long I got a draft notice from the War Department. I didn't report and they come out after me. I wasn't able to go and so we went down to the big office. They explained, I wasn't able to do this and that and I'd been sick. They could see that I was hobbling along, barely getting along. Well I got out of it, so then they classified me what, 4F. But, I hurt my back in California. I lifted one of those old Comfort Stoves, you know those old big and heavy stoves. Elvis and I was taking it out of the house and we had about a five step stairs to go down to get on the ground with it. I was on the bottom end of it and I was carrying a hell of a load. After that I got down and I couldn't walk. I went to a Chiropractor and I don't know what all, an osteopath doctor. (Jerry) I know Sib got supper ready, you tried to come to the table and almost fainted and we all helped you back to bed. We all felt so bad. I lay on the bed once and the pain hit me in the back and I just felt like I had been shot and I screamed. I didn't know I was going to scream, but man, I let out a scream, that was bad. That old Osteopath said, He didn't know if I would ever be able to walk again. But, boy he worked me over from end to end. He put me up on the table and worked on my legs and every thing, back and forth and I was going in about every other day. Well it was in the disk, I don't know just what happened. William E. (Pete) Evans, talking about a back injury, he suffered in 1939, The conversation took place at Earl and Jerry Waldroop's place in Watts, OK. 1995. Gas Stamps Gas rationing, I was getting two and half or three gallons of gas a week. Sib was having all of her teeth out and I was wasn't getting enough gas to go in. I tried, Claud, he was getting a lot of gas stamps. I don't know how, he was over on another ranch and he had all kinds of gas stamps. I tried to buy gas stamps off of him, where I could take her to the Doctor and get her teeth fixed. He wouldn't sell me a gas stamp. You know what I done? The De Vries Ranch had gas pumps out there. I had a tractor there, a D4 that I was driving. I had to start it was a auxiliary engine so it took gas to start that. I would fill that auxiliary engine up and then I would go out at night and steal a gallon of gas out of that. That's the only way I could get enough gas to take her to the doctor. One time old John Shiner said, "Pete, you seem to be using a lot of gas on that tractor." I said, well maybe there is a leak or something, I don't know where the hell it's going, but I new were it was going. He was getting all the gas he wanted. He didn't have to have gas stamps, he was the little foreman of the ranch and they let him have all the gas he wanted. He had a brother that lived over in San Francisco. He would come over about every other week and they would just fill his car to the top and he didn't give no stamps. I couldn't get a gallon out of the pumps I had to steal it out of the tractor. Jerry and I was going to Houston, we had Earlene and Bill when they was little. I had this old car and I gather up all the gasoline stamps I could get and we got almost to Houston and we didn't have any more gas stamps. Well, I was down to about a quarter of a tank and I thought well I better start trying to find someway to get some gas. Dow Chemical Company was on the other side of Houston, that's where I worked, you know, right down on the Gulf. I drove in this place and a guy come out and I told him I run out of gas stamps and I'm trying to get to Freeport. I work down at the Dow Chemical Company and I got a sick baby here, Earlene was sick. Well, he said "I'm sorry, you can't get no gas here if you haven't got any stamps." So I drove on. Drove about three or four miles down the road, pulled off into a filling station, a lady come out. Well I give her the same story I give the guy up the road. She said, "don't worry about a stamp, I'll fill it up for you." She filled that car up for me, said just don't worry about no stamps! She give me a tank full of gas, didn't give it to me, I paid for it, but I've thought of that a lot. I don't know what I would of done if I couldn't got some gas. But I got it! Tales of Gas Rationing during WWII told by William E. Evans and Earl Waldroop at Watts OK. Aug. 1995.