As a subscriber (named Jack!) pointed out to me in an email .... Every town has a Catfish ... and, probably, a Huck Finn type character. That's really who "Pickle Jack McCoy is" - the town's Huck Finn.
What a great All American kid!...right out of the mold of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer!
But...but...where is his cell phone to take selfies and text the adventure to everyone swallowed up by 5G, wifi, and other calamitous intrusions into the natural order of things?
How could he be running around with his friends out in nature without a trusty cell phone!
It is always best if kids can go about barefoot (as I did until I was 12).
I am sure that Pickle Jack McCoy was barefoot...no?
The new legend of PJM will live on in me this summer as I watch my wife grow cucumbers for pickling.
I will remember my days of barefoot adventures in Alabama with my barefoot friends.
It was easier in those days to be about in bare feet because there was less asphalt and cement covering the ground.
Thanks for the memories PJM!...you are a great kid!
What a story about PJM. The days before cells, laptops and battling 'furries' in middle school.
I've got one about a 'pet' raccoon being fed an onion if you want to include. Or catching fiddler crabs in the marsh while grubbing oysters. Or the ground tortoise that turned into a rattler.
You can email them to me in the body of the email. Some word attachments won't open on my old Mac computer. I might be able to run some as a guest column in the future.
I am old enough to remember when you could leave the house early on a summer morning and say you were going out with friends. Stay out all day, playing and eating wherever you could, either at kids parents houses or country stores in backwoods areas. Then be home at dusk when the lightning bugs started turning on and off. Those were the days of unknown dangers and not a care in the world, other than having fun with your buds. I remember when . . . .
Thank you for bringing me back to a time of searching for crawfish, swinging from a tree rope into the swimming hole and catching fireflies in a mason jar. Honestly, reading your story was like recreating my childhood minus the pickles - yuck 😅. I'm so used to reading what's going on in this crazy upside-down world that I forgot there is still some writers who can tug at my heart strings. Thank you Bill Rice Jr. for making me laugh
Thanks, Kim. I'll share this: I spent my "Opie Taylor" years in Opelika, Alabama. With some buddies standing around, I once threw a rock at a curb, it ricocheted, hit a car and busted out the passenger window. The driver, not suprisingly, was not amused. I ran home, got my piggy bank and poured out the contents on the grass, offering to pay for the damages. By that time, my 6-foot-5 father had arrived and the irate driver, suddenly, was not quite as bullying.
.... Dad had spent his own Opie Taylor years in Prattville, Alabama, which is not far from the Alabama River, which has several sandbars. Dad says Prattville had a man who hated children, had a straight razor and delivered groceries. Dad must have enjoyed living dangerously and was always messing with Catfish, who was always chasing my Dad.
So I grew up riveted by Dad's "Catfish stories." These events may or may not have influenced this story, which I think did actually happen.
Also, note that picture of the empty pickle jug. That photo was not staged. Pickle Jack eats all the pickles ... and then swigs all the pickle juice.
My late mother told a great story from her childhood about the time she and her friends let out jars of fire flies in the movie theater. She said it was mesmerizing. You don't see fire flies - or rolly pollies - like you used to.
“In my previous life” we lived in suburbia New Jersey in a hilly little hamlet, we lived on a flat street and had a large front and back yard... my “kids” 41 and 35 say playing outside for hours ending with flashlight tag in the dark was truly “ priceless.”
Liked for the mention of fireflies, Mrs. McFarland!
The other great bioluminescence from my past was swimming in the waters around the Gulf of Mexico at night to a magnificent phosphorescent luminosity of life. One could also enjoy this effect by watching the wake of a boat at night as the waters churned the light.
Aside from this kind of photonic light, there is another Luminosity which is not bound by time, dimensions, and such physics. Fortunately, this Luminosity will never fade or go away.
That was great, reminded me of the style of Rick Bragg, who I met in 2002 when he came to, then, Troy State. He got a literary award in the old gym, said it was the first time anyone from Jax State ever won anything in Surtain Hall
The narrator made some artistic embellishments to the story. This story, of course, happened in Troy, Alabama. However, Pickle Jack's big sister, Maggie, had the lead in a children's play ("Dear Edwina") that was set in Paw Paw, Michigan. The story perhaps works better if it was set in Paw Paw, Michigan. Plus, I don't think they have any gators in Michigan ... but we do in Troy!
It is at the end of the article, but even Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry would enjoy the video in the article regarding the Battle of Cowpens - without which neither you nor I Bill would be here now.
I'm not kidding - I just planted two paw-paws weary of the EV lights being they be babies young - damn I hope they live - I planted them in a shady place......
I said to my daughters, in a communication, and I will bleed for them....I said in 20 year maybe you make a pie for your old papa planted them paw-paws assuming they are alive and papa as well....I said it Bill - I ain't kidding - I'm not kidding around.
Mark Twain would appreciate this post and who the hell thought Huckleberry Finn and that other fella have a message in conflict with the place we reside? Tom was his name won't it - Tom Sawyer.....well - the time is upon us I reckon.
We had a blast playing our "low-stakes" game face-to-face with old friends longtime.
I decided not to tell them I was planning on inviting another friend of mine I've played poker with in different settings with higher stakes - I was having too much fun in the low stakes game!
As a subscriber (named Jack!) pointed out to me in an email .... Every town has a Catfish ... and, probably, a Huck Finn type character. That's really who "Pickle Jack McCoy is" - the town's Huck Finn.
What a great All American kid!...right out of the mold of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer!
But...but...where is his cell phone to take selfies and text the adventure to everyone swallowed up by 5G, wifi, and other calamitous intrusions into the natural order of things?
How could he be running around with his friends out in nature without a trusty cell phone!
It is always best if kids can go about barefoot (as I did until I was 12).
I am sure that Pickle Jack McCoy was barefoot...no?
The new legend of PJM will live on in me this summer as I watch my wife grow cucumbers for pickling.
I will remember my days of barefoot adventures in Alabama with my barefoot friends.
It was easier in those days to be about in bare feet because there was less asphalt and cement covering the ground.
Thanks for the memories PJM!...you are a great kid!
That's my other idea: A series of children's books - The Adventures of Pickle Jack McCoy!
Yes!
What a story about PJM. The days before cells, laptops and battling 'furries' in middle school.
I've got one about a 'pet' raccoon being fed an onion if you want to include. Or catching fiddler crabs in the marsh while grubbing oysters. Or the ground tortoise that turned into a rattler.
I'd love to see them.
All short stories, but true. From NE Florida (Ft George Island) in the mid-late sixties.
Just remembered my late night rides on my Stingray bike, to buddies camping out on an inlet. They really are short stories, recollections.
How to get the thoughts to you?
You can email them to me in the body of the email. Some word attachments won't open on my old Mac computer. I might be able to run some as a guest column in the future.
My email is:
wjricejunior@gmail.com
Me too!
I am old enough to remember when you could leave the house early on a summer morning and say you were going out with friends. Stay out all day, playing and eating wherever you could, either at kids parents houses or country stores in backwoods areas. Then be home at dusk when the lightning bugs started turning on and off. Those were the days of unknown dangers and not a care in the world, other than having fun with your buds. I remember when . . . .
I'm old enough to remember those day too. Just "be back by supper."
Thank you for bringing me back to a time of searching for crawfish, swinging from a tree rope into the swimming hole and catching fireflies in a mason jar. Honestly, reading your story was like recreating my childhood minus the pickles - yuck 😅. I'm so used to reading what's going on in this crazy upside-down world that I forgot there is still some writers who can tug at my heart strings. Thank you Bill Rice Jr. for making me laugh
Thanks, Kim. I'll share this: I spent my "Opie Taylor" years in Opelika, Alabama. With some buddies standing around, I once threw a rock at a curb, it ricocheted, hit a car and busted out the passenger window. The driver, not suprisingly, was not amused. I ran home, got my piggy bank and poured out the contents on the grass, offering to pay for the damages. By that time, my 6-foot-5 father had arrived and the irate driver, suddenly, was not quite as bullying.
.... Dad had spent his own Opie Taylor years in Prattville, Alabama, which is not far from the Alabama River, which has several sandbars. Dad says Prattville had a man who hated children, had a straight razor and delivered groceries. Dad must have enjoyed living dangerously and was always messing with Catfish, who was always chasing my Dad.
So I grew up riveted by Dad's "Catfish stories." These events may or may not have influenced this story, which I think did actually happen.
Also, note that picture of the empty pickle jug. That photo was not staged. Pickle Jack eats all the pickles ... and then swigs all the pickle juice.
Please finish this delightful tale with catching fire flies and a game of Manhunt and I’ll know not all is lost! Bravo on you Pickle Jack!!
My late mother told a great story from her childhood about the time she and her friends let out jars of fire flies in the movie theater. She said it was mesmerizing. You don't see fire flies - or rolly pollies - like you used to.
“In my previous life” we lived in suburbia New Jersey in a hilly little hamlet, we lived on a flat street and had a large front and back yard... my “kids” 41 and 35 say playing outside for hours ending with flashlight tag in the dark was truly “ priceless.”
Liked for the mention of fireflies, Mrs. McFarland!
The other great bioluminescence from my past was swimming in the waters around the Gulf of Mexico at night to a magnificent phosphorescent luminosity of life. One could also enjoy this effect by watching the wake of a boat at night as the waters churned the light.
Aside from this kind of photonic light, there is another Luminosity which is not bound by time, dimensions, and such physics. Fortunately, this Luminosity will never fade or go away.
Yup, I’ve seen it... isn’t it some form of plankton?
Exactly. Saw it growing up, but even more brilliantly when in the Navy, a dark night at sea.
That was great, reminded me of the style of Rick Bragg, who I met in 2002 when he came to, then, Troy State. He got a literary award in the old gym, said it was the first time anyone from Jax State ever won anything in Surtain Hall
That's a high compliment. Rick Bragg is great. I miss Sartain Hall!
All Over But the Shoutin' is hilarious, we are about the same age so I could relate to his stories of late 60s muscle cars.
Mark Twain has some competition.
Good story.
You picked up on what Twain character I based Pickle Jack on!
Great story! Oddly enough, I was watching a video yesterday about Paw Paw, Illinois. Why are there two towns called Paw Paw? Very odd.
I actually thought Paw Paw, Michigan was a fictional name, but I guess it's a real town. I definitely didn't know we had a Paw Paw, Illiniois.
We have a Smuteye, Alabama!
Thanks for the nice words.
Bill: And I've been to Gayville, South Dakota. It's a nice little town.
And a song, “way down yonder in the paw paw patch.” Truth!
Fred: I think I've heard that Paw Paw Song.
Paw Paw, Michigan. Always a soft spot for the home of Detroit Tiger pinch hitter extraordinaire, Charlie Maxwell.
The narrator made some artistic embellishments to the story. This story, of course, happened in Troy, Alabama. However, Pickle Jack's big sister, Maggie, had the lead in a children's play ("Dear Edwina") that was set in Paw Paw, Michigan. The story perhaps works better if it was set in Paw Paw, Michigan. Plus, I don't think they have any gators in Michigan ... but we do in Troy!
I'll prove it. The image will be here in moments.
https://buffaloken.substack.com/p/the-battle-of-cowpens
It is at the end of the article, but even Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry would enjoy the video in the article regarding the Battle of Cowpens - without which neither you nor I Bill would be here now.
Ken
I'm not kidding - I just planted two paw-paws weary of the EV lights being they be babies young - damn I hope they live - I planted them in a shady place......
I said to my daughters, in a communication, and I will bleed for them....I said in 20 year maybe you make a pie for your old papa planted them paw-paws assuming they are alive and papa as well....I said it Bill - I ain't kidding - I'm not kidding around.
Mark Twain would appreciate this post and who the hell thought Huckleberry Finn and that other fella have a message in conflict with the place we reside? Tom was his name won't it - Tom Sawyer.....well - the time is upon us I reckon.
I believe it happened - if you say it did - I believe it did...
I got a serious poker game tonight Bill - wish me some pickle luck!
Ken
Much Pickle Luck. You got to know when to hold them,
Know when to fold them ...
We had a blast playing our "low-stakes" game face-to-face with old friends longtime.
I decided not to tell them I was planning on inviting another friend of mine I've played poker with in different settings with higher stakes - I was having too much fun in the low stakes game!
Thanks Bill for your good journalism and council.
Ken