See You on the Lake
The ratting season should be a national holiday
Woody Cooper

If you have ever been to a rat eradication event you would more than likely help me get it on the national holiday agenda. There may be more excitement in many of our holidays but I have never seen or heard of one that gives more pure enjoyment to the participants than a rat killing. There may be many reasons for the fun but a couple would have to be an escape from the hard field work and the other would be getting rid of the pesky grain eating little boogers.

The events brought by a flood that hits northeastern Arkansas almost every spring or it did when I was a kid of five years. The houses and outbuildings are built on the highest ground to escape the "overflow of rivers." All of the rats have to move from the lowland to the barnyards that are on hills. The second event is always a giant fish fry. The fish have moved into the fields and the men and older boys get after them with pitchforks or bare hands. Most of the fish caught are Buffalo and catfish and make fine eating. The third thing that the adult men always managed to do was to bring a jug filled with fire- water and they must have been thirsty because they were sipping on the jug frequently. I guess that a good name for the gallon jugs would be "laughing jugs" because every few minutes one of the men would take a swig from his jug. Wipe the tears from his eyes and bellow with laughter. This went on all day and it must have been fun. Several wagons would appear at a farm house loaded with the parents and all the children. The women would bring food to help the host family feed the group for the day and night. The families also brought bedding to make the wagon bed more comfortable to sleep on during the night.

Most of the rats were in the barn or at least near the barn and the "ratters" would start a systematic search for the grain eaters. The chase, the shriek-sand the dull whacks of the clubs putting a rat out of this world was sometimes a scream of pain signaled that a club had missed a rat but had found a shinbone. This always brought a momentary halt to the activities while the men howled with laughter at the hurt ratter. It was also a good excuse to uncork the jugs and take another shot of fire called "red eye" from the jugs. I sometimes wonder if many of the bruised shins were not done on purpose so everyone could nip one. It gave everyone a chance to take another pull of "Giggle juice." The next event. The men would get their pitchforks and head for the flooded fields and animal lots. Most of the bigger boys had a system of their own. They would form a huge circle in the shallow water and start a slow movement to enclose the circle. The idea was to force the fish into a small space and hand grab the big ones. This was the part that I liked best because at five, I had already fallen in love with fishing. The men and the boys always had a goodnatured tourney on who caught most. During the time of men folk ratting and fishing the women and girls were on the porch or under a big shade tree. Sometimes they quilted while they visited.

They also cooked two huge meals for everyone, one at noon and the other one late cooking the fish. I can still remember the food piled high for those two meals. I don't believe that anyone could bake pies, cakes and biscuits like the country mom of yesteryear- and that cool glass of buttermilk was out of this world always. Of course the day was never complete without a few hours of fiddling. The fiddle banjo, guitar and bull fiddle were always within arms reach and i guess that even the boys who were ten years old or older could play something .They learned young I never knew exactly the time the fun was over because someo n e toted me to bed while the party was going strong. We kids were bedded down in the family wagon because it would be a "travel day" because it was our time to go to the next farm and go through the entire process once again- we kids absolutely loved all of it.

Even the spring floods were dangerous and sometimes played havoc with the crops the simple country made their own fun because of it. That may be an early lesson that taught me to look long and hard at all situations I find myself in- I have almost always found some good out of every situation. I also learned that a good turn was like a wheel, it always comes back to you. Those are two pretty good items to learn at age four and thank GOD they are still, a part of my daily living. The Saturday Lufkin Bass club held their may tournament on Toledo Bend with 15 members and 6 guests taking part, also one youth fished the event. Even though most of the lake was muddy and there was some wind to contend with, most caught fish. The winners were; MARK HOBBS, JAMES and WINDELL THOMASON tied for first wit an even 10 pounds. James Slack 9.3; Danny Massey 6.9; Jeff Mastro 6.4; Tom. Webb; 3.1 and the big bass caught by JAMES SLACK went 6.8 that's a nice fish to hit the net. Guests fishing were Gary Milam 9.8; Jacob Johnson 3.3; Jerry Jenkins 3.3; J C Burch 2.6; Adam Thomason was the youth fishing with the big boys for this one.

The May tournament is a draw for partner event and will be a roadrunner tourney with weigh in at Jackson Hill on Sam Rayburn. The top ten anglers for the year are

Mark Hobbs 52.5; Ken Gates 42.2; Bobby Baker 37.4; Andy James 37.2; Bill Cameron 34.5; Windell Thomason 34.5; Larry Franks 26.8; Danny Bebout 22.1; James Slack 21.8. Finishing out the top ten is Jack Jenkins with 20.2.

Buckle Up, Drive With Care, Put On A Life Jacket And I'll See You On The Lake.