Forever A Hillbilly: Post 12 Dead eye Sam

Forever A Hillbilly: Post 12 Dead eye Sam:      Fat Bob showed up at his uncle’s door one day, carrying a letter from his papa for Clint. The Tennessee Dudley’s were not overly excit...

Post 12 Dead eye Sam

    Bob showed up at his uncle’s door one day, carrying a letter from his papa for Clint. The Tennessee Dudley’s were not overly excited about Bob living with them, but Clint owed it to his brother Ted to take him in. Blood was thicker than water. If Bob got to be too much trouble, Clint would just run him off.  After all, money was thicker than blood with all the Dudleys’.

    Bob loved to spend a lot of time in town, drinkin’ and Fightin’. And, talkin’ way too much. Soon he was telling all who would listen how tough his family was, how a Dudley never left any debt unpaid. At least, unless money was involved.  His cousins’, Clint’s three boys who were grown men now, starting their own families, seemed to look up to Bob, and before long they were bragging around, too, about the Dudley’s being so big and bad. Serenity sensed this; she could soon see a change in her boys. She needed to find a way of getting rid of Bob. She was smart enough to see that the Tennessee Dudley’s would soon have a reputation as bad as those scumbag relatives in Taladega County.

                                                  *

     The war just seemed to drag on forever. For everybody except the Dudley’s. During the first two years, the Dudley’s in Alabama had gotten rich. Slims’ plan had worked perfectly. The final two years had been slower for the clan, because most Southerners’ had less and less money for them to steal. And by then, the Yankees had already beaten them to most of it. But, still, just how much money did one family need in a lifetime? All in all, Slim was happy. At least, happy as a Dudley could be.

     Clint’s family in Tennessee had not been so fortunate. They were suffering almost as badly as most of the Southerners around them that they stole from.  Clint didn’t see any point in keeping his theft operation two long days ride away from his family. He hated those long boring horseback rides. And, he left too many victims who were beginning to have grave suspicions about their sneaky actions. For the Tennessee Dudley’s, life was hard.

     Bob wanted to go home. He didn’t like living the pore life. Clint just didn’t handle things right, to Bob’s way of thinking. And, more and more, this sorry bunch he was now forced to live with had a belly full of Bob.

     Someway, somehow, Bob had to find a way to get Slim to let him come back.

     Bob was putting together a plan. Mrs. Dolly, Slim’s wife, just loved little red-haired girls. The Thacker’s, who had a little farm just on the other side of the swamp, had a cute little girl, about the right age. He had seen her on one of his scouting trips, looking for something to come back and steal, some dark night. She had a really pretty head of red hair. If he could just get that pretty little girl, take her to Taladega to Mrs. Dolly, surely Slim would have to take him back. He would bide his time, and strike when the time was right, and then he could go back home. He smiled as he thought about it, and realized how smart he was, to come up with this clever plan.

     Actually, Bob was dumb as a doornail. Slim would never let him come back, no matter what. Slim, also, had a belly full of Bad Bob. But Bob was just too dumb to realize that.

    

                                                      *

Author’s note: LaFayette was my great grandfather. This segment about his war years is mostly true.

  

 Former Taladega Marshall LaFayette Gillum suffered greatly during the war. Early on, he was wounded, and spent several months in the hospital. Not long after he was back in action, he was captured by the Yankees, and had spent many months in a northern prison camp, far away from Taladega County. Eventually, he managed to escape, and he headed south. Ever south. He traveled by night, hid out by day. He had no food. This year did, however, have a bumper crop of White Oak acorns. Often, he was forced to live on the acorns. They are edible, but have a strong tannin content, giving them a bad aftertaste. He was forced to use the Indian method of gathering up a batch, cracking them, wrapping them in a cloth and leaching them out for a day or so in a running stream.

     He was slowly starving. During the last days of the war, he stumbled into a camp of Tennessee Volunteers. He was barely able to walk.  James Thacker and his son Tom, who had been fighting with the Volunteers for two years, found Lafayette one morning. In spite of the fact that the Volunteers were ragged and hungry themselves, James and Tom cared for him, and slowly began to save his life. 

Forever A Hillbilly: Post 11 - Dead Eye Sam

Forever A Hillbilly: Post 11 - Dead Eye Sam:      It galled Slim considerably that Sam was so weak and soft about even killing a squirrel, much less a man. He talked to Dolly and Mi...

Post 11 - Dead Eye Sam

OK  READERS, LISTEN UP. DEAD-EYE SAM IS BEGINNING TO GET A PRETTY GOOD RECEPTION, AND SO IT  LOOKS LIKE IT WILL SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AS A BOOK SOMEDAY. WANT TO HELP ME WRITE A BOOK?  THOUGH I'M ONLY A FEW POSTS AHEAD IN WRITING THIS BOOK, THIS IS AN OPEN MANUSCRIPT. I WILL MOST LIKELY MAKE SEVERAL CHANGES IN IT BEFORE IT SEES A PUBLISHER. IF YOU HAVE A GOOD IDEA ABOUT A CHANGE YOU THINK WOULD HELP THE BOOK, SEND IT TO ME. IF IT IS USED, AND IS A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE, I WILL GIVE YOU CREDIT AS A CO-WRITER.
barbandpat66@suddenlink.net   Pat      Thanks for your time, and your attention.

     It galled Slim considerably that Sam was so weak and soft about even killing a squirrel, much less a man. He talked to Dolly and Millie about it.

     “That dern Sam ain’t never even killed a squirrel. She’ll shoot at um and pretend, but I know what the trouble is. She’s chicken hearted through n’ through. Well, it takes some kids longer than others to get hardened up. I’ll just use her on guard duty awhile. She’s smart. She won’t never let a man coming up here get anywhere close. Shoot his hat off, shoot his gunstock, er somethin’ like that. She can scare ‘im off. Let her grow up a little. Give her a little time. She’ll be more valuable than gold to us after the war, when she comes around. Last resort, I may have to make a peddler outa her. She’d make a dandy one, way she likes people.”

     Under normal circumstances, Slim would probably not be so patient with Sam. But he was too busy right now finding new and creative places to hide all that money and other valuables that was coming in to be too worried about Sam.

     So, Sam spent most of the war years on guard duty. She had to shoot close enough to several men to scare them off, but she never hit a man. And she never would. She’d rather die. Or, at the very least, she’d rather not.

    

Chapter Two

     Bad Bob Dudley was always a trouble maker in the clan. He did not take bossing well from Slim, and he loved to go into town, get dog drunk, and talk too much. Bob was twenty-four years old. Even by Slim’s standards, he was far too rough and mean to younger members of the clan, and he was not overly smart. Truth be known, he was dumb as a rock. Slim knew stupidity and a mean, vindictive nature, on top of being a loudmouth and spouting off too much added up to make him a loose cannon in the clan, and Slim didn’t need a loose cannon. He was sick of Bad Bob. Slim took him aside one day.

    “ Bob, you’re a grown man now. You don’t seem to fit in well here. Pack up and leave. In two days, if you’re still here, we’ll have another talk. There are Dudley kinfolk in Tennessee, one of Ted Dudley’s brothers, Clint. They left here some years ago. Talk to Ted. Maybe you would fit in better with them. Hope you and I don’t talk again. You won’t like it if we do.” Slim had to smile to himself as he left Bad Bob in tears. He shut the door behind himself, thinking; Clint and that uppity wife of his got ta thankin’ they were jest a wee bit better than the rest of us Dudley’s. Let them deal with th’ likes of Bob awhile. Then we’ll see jest how good they really are. That Serenity was always crowin’ about comin’ direct from th’ founders of this whole outfit. Well, that ain’t really much ta’ be proud of.” Slim was clever, and he knew it.

     Bob knew full well what Slim had meant. Leave here, or pay a heavy price. The next day, Bob was well up the trail toward Tennessee at good daylight. He didn’t really know much about where he was going, but he was beginning to feel like, maybe,  he was riding there  in a handbasket.

                                                  *

     Clint Dudley and his wife Serenity had three young boys, back when they lived in Taledega County. Neither Clint nor his wife were happy with the direction the Dudley Clan was going. They saw little prospect that their boys would grow up to be anything other than killers and robbers, like the rest of the clan, if they stayed here.

     Clint’s wife, Serenity, brought the subject up one night, much like she had on a number of other occasions recently.

      “Clint, we got three boys. Right now, they ain’t been polluted by this bunch of scum here. Not too bad, anyways. But that won’t last. Tommy is almost old enough to start making these “business trips.” Is that the kind of life we want for our kids? We’ve got ta take them away. Anywhere away from this place. They say Tennessee is a really nice place. Come on, Clint, we’ve jest gotta get them outa here! If we don’t, I’m not too sure what’s gonna happen to our proud family.

     Over the last few months, Clint had begun to see his wife’s side of things. She had always had good judgement. She was a strong woman, always been the backbone of the family. Clint, though, was no angel. Though he never mentioned it to Serenity, he sorta liked these little business trips with the Dudley’s. Sure made life easier. But Slim didn’t handle things right, Clint decided. Even Clint could see that this was not a really good profession to drag their boys into, the way Slim insisted they handle things. Killing men, like Slim made them do, could get them hung. Clint was more of a sneak thief, himself. Slim’s ideas were just a bit too radical. No self-respectin’ sneak thief wants ta be a part of all that.

     Clint knew he had married a long way up when he got Serenity, and he planned to keep her. She often reminded him that she carried the name of one of the founders of the clan, generations ago, though the honor in that was questionable. “OK, Serenity, if that’s what you want. I’ve always had a hankerin’ to see Tennessee myself. Let’s jest do it.”

     So they did. The move was hard. But they had a good wagon and a good team of mules, thanks to some luckless farmer who had lived two days ride from Taladega. With emphasis on the word had lived. They had found a place to settle, a few miles out from a nice little town, back behind the Swamps. It was sort of a hidden location, where nobody would bother them, except maybe a few old wild hogs. He could free-lance on his on a little from here, along with having a little farm as his cover. Serenity need never know all the sordid details of their farming operation.

Forever A Hillbilly: Part Ten - Dead eye Sam

Forever A Hillbilly: Part Ten - Dead eye Sam:      The wind settled. Complete stillness. Sam quickly verified this with her wet thumb, then slowly squeezed off. The loud boom echoed ...

Part Ten - Dead eye Sam

     The wind settled. Complete stillness. Sam quickly verified this with her wet thumb, then slowly squeezed off. The loud boom echoed from the hills. The crowd held it’s breath. The judge looked at the target, shook his head, then looked again. “Dead center bullseye!!! The judge was laughing, and shaking his head slowly. “Looky here, folks! We have a tie! This little redhaired Dudley girl, eleven years old, has tied Fred! Who woulda believed this, folks!”

     Sam became a legend in Taledega County that day. These men would tell this story around a thousand campfires during the long war to come, giving a brief little respite during the dark days of the war.

    Sam made more friends before she went home that day. But most of the townspeople still avoided her. Everyone knew she was a Dudley girl, even though they had never seen a Dudley act so friendly and personable. But Sam had done what she had set out to do that day, let everybody in Taladega County know how she could shoot. She was proud of her brand-new .50 caliber buffalo gun she had just won, but mostly, she knew she would never have to use her gun to protect herself in Taladega County. And maybe, she had made some friends who could one day help her get away from the Dudley Clan. All was well in Sam’s world as she rode back to the land of the Dudley’s.

                                             *

     Within months, the War was in full swing. Just as Slim predicted, there were many farms, and even a few rich plantations, that had no or few men left at home to protect their property. And Slim had been right on another count.

      There were many of the men who tried to avoid the war, because they had bad feelings about it, or secretly favored the North.  But the winds of war were blowing like a gale in the South. At first, those who were neutral or secretly favored the North were threatened and shunned. Later, as more and more rebels were killed and reinforcements were sorely needed, rebel soldiers began to raid farms whose men were still at home, and have a hanging. One does not die by hanging quickly, unless the neck is broken by the initial shock. By simply lifting a man up slowly with a noose around his neck, it may take five minutes or more. Being hanged for two or three minutes, then surviving, caused many neutrals or Northern sympathizers to fight for the South. Some stubborn holdouts were hung several times.

     Though these harsh methods were used in Taladega County, none were interested in raiding the Dudley clan.

     “Now, listen here. If they all can shoot as good as that little red haired girl Sam, we’d lose more men goin up thare than we got. There must be twenty men up there. And no tellin’ how many young’en’s with a Buffalo gun!

 Others nodded their heads in agreement. Most all of the men in Taladega county with the guts to consider such a thing were away in the war, anyway. Even the Marshal was long gone. LaFayette Gillum was in the war all four years. Nobody bothered the Dudley Clan. They were free to conduct their business, while the young’uns guarded every trail in, night and day. With their buffalo guns. And by now, everyone knew how deadly a Dudley kid could be. With a Buffalo gun.

It was easier for the Dudley businessmen now. The farm machinery and other large items were of no use to them, because they could never be sold by the peddlers, anyway. So, they forgot the wagons, used only their fast horses, and specialized in money, jewels, silver, and other small items, along with taking the very fastest horses. With emphasis on the money. Other items were hidden away to sell long after the war was over. As the war moved into Alabama, most people blamed the farm raids on the dern Yankees. Everyone pretty well just forgot about the Dudley’s.

     The Dudley’s were getting rich. Hand over fist. And their fist could kill at three hundred yards.

Forever A Hillbilly: Part Nine - Dead eye Sam

Forever A Hillbilly: Part Nine - Dead eye Sam:      As Sam placed her gun on the post, the gasps turned to laughter. “A kid? Sam Dudley is a kid?”      Some men got mad. “Are we turn...