Eating squirrel!

Man I love squirrel. They are my favorite. Fried, in dumplings, smothered down! It’s all good! As a boy we killed a lot of the little grey cat squirrels and a couple of the big red fox squirrels up on the hills on the way back. I haven’t seen a big fox squirrel in years.

My Maternal grandpaw was born old. Had old times ways and spoke little. Especially to us kids. But he loved us all and would watch us play in the yard while grandma did house chores. I caught him laughing I think once. He had gone Yonder before I turned 6 so my memories of him are few but here are 2.

I was in the yard throwing a stick like a spear. He called me over and took it from me, pulled out a BIG red handled pocket knife fro his overalls bib and gave it a nice sharp point so it would stick in whatever I threw it at! That is when I knew he liked me the most of all his grandsons!

My mamaw did the hunting by then and had just fried up a mess of squirrels and had served papaw. I was playing in the floor next to him with a little truck. He would hand me the big hind legs to eat beneath the table as I played. Then, he would poke the end of that big knife down there with the squirrel brains on it and grunt “careful Bryant”. My name is Brant but he pronounced it with a y added. That is ok, because right then I knew he loved me the most!