I could be off on the year but it was somewhere in the vicinity of 1978 and New Year's Eve was an old blue cold night. There was a little skiff of snow on and the temperature was hovering around in the single digits. It was a good night to sit inside, sip coffee and placidly watch the New Year come in.
Wrong! Somewhere around 10 PM, we decided this was entirely too tame!
First, I guess I need to explain who the "we" was. It was myself and my brother, Ralph and our pastor's two boys (who were about our ages), Gary Parks (my age) and Bill Parks (Ralph's age). And second, "we" finally decided that the best way to celebrate was to go varmint hunting.
For those not familiar with the term, let me briefly explain "varmint hunting". A varmint (in the Ozark sense of the word) is a wild animal that destroys helpless domestic or wild animals such as chickens, sheep, fawns, baby turkeys etc. Coyotes, Foxes, Bobcats and Panthers fall into the "varmint" category. Our mode of hunting varmints was pretty simple. Get situated in an area (after dark) where varmints are suspected of being. Start "calling" them with a varmint call that sounds like a dying rabbit. Every few minutes, shine a red-shaded flashlight around to see if there are any "eyes" visible. If not, shut the light off and keep calling. If eyes are seen, a split second decision is made as to what type of animal the eyes belong to and the person with the rifle tries to shoot the varmint between the eyes or pass because it is not a desirable target such as a rabbit or a deer.
A little explanation and edification: If you want to hear what a dying rabbit sounds like just click here. The call that we used way back then was a wooden mouth call that you blew into and made the dying rabbit sound.
The flashlight with a red lens wouldn't spook the varmints like a bright white light would. And let me also explain that this mode of hunting was highly illegal.....
We loaded up in one of the trucks, either Bill's or Ralph's, I disremember, and headed east down 160 highway toward Oregon County. We crossed over the county line and turned off north on JJ highway. When the highway curved to the west, we turned off east on a dirt trail and headed into the "Big Woods". This was also known as the "East Woods" and was a large tract of wild timber land that stretched from JJ highway east, almost to Thomasville.
We drove for a couple of miles on the trail until we dropped off into Mount Prairie Hollow. When we got to the bottom of the hollow, we shut off the truck and got ready to call up some varmints. This involved all of us climbing into the back of the truck, designating the "shooter", the "caller" and the "flashlight holder". After this was all settled, we got down to the business of "varmint hunting".
We called for a minute or so and then shined the light around for a minute or so. This was repeated several times until... a pair of ghostly white eyes appeared in the beam of light! The whispered consensus was that it was a fox and take a shot! But alas... before a sight could be put between the eyes and the trigger pulled, the eyes disappeared!
We were encouraged by this close "call" and kept on calling. A little while later, another set of eyes appeared and again it was determined they were fox eyes. This time, they stayed in place until the rifle was sighted and the shot was made. But the eyes stayed in place... Oops! When another shot was taken the eyes disappeared. We waited, listened and looked but it appeared that a kill had been made. We piled out of the truck and went to where the fox eyes had shone from and... found nothing. No blood. No hair. Nothing to indicate we had even got close to old foxey!
By this time, We were cold, tired and sleepy, and had lost all interest in varmint hunting so we loaded up and headed home. And besides... it was already January the 1st and we had to celebrate Bill's Birthday!
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