Good Ol' Boys, Ellie Mae, and Squeaky the Chicken
Back from McAlester.
Gary Shields, Greg Shields, Mike Dotson, and the Sojourning Pilgrim (aka. - Doc) made our way to beautiful southeastern Oklahoma this past Wednesday for the annual McAlester Traditional Archery Hunt. Traditional archery, as defined by Bill Starry (game biologist in that area) is a "stick and a string hunt" - and Starry was wearing a shirt that said "Traditional Archery - archery without training wheels".
We borrowed a pop-up camper, and pulled into the Army Ammunition Depot in McAlester. We camped next to a covered picnic area with two tables, and were joined on one side by a fellow named Mike, and on the other side by a fellow named Tom and his sister, Janis. Later her husband, Tracy, caught up with the group. I can only describe all these people as "good ole boys" (Not Janis).
That first evening, Greg was our chef, and we enjoyed a sumptous meal of pork chops and mixed veggies. While we were eating, Tom and Janis opened up their "Showtime Rotisseri" (I didn't know anyone actually bought those things - you know the infomercial - Ron Popeil - "set it, and forget it") Anyway, they put this chicken in the rotisseri, and set it, and it started cooking. After a bit, we heard this squeak - how do you say this in type - "int, innnnn". Over the next hour, that squeak got louder and longer with each occurrence. To the point that we named that chicken "squeaky."
And then later that evening, one of us commented to Tom about the unusualness of a woman who uses traditional archery gear to hunt, and Tom said, "Yeah, my brother-in-law definitely married Ellie Mae Clampett." The name rather stuck for the rest of the weekend - especially after she started talking about "eatin possum and armadillo."
I'd tell you more, but suffice it to say that there was much laughter over these five evenings.
posted by the sojourning pilgrim @ 2:47 PM
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