Episode 36 - Pinewood Bros. Joey and Jon Smoak!

In this epsidoe the team travels to Pinewood, SC to the Smoak Shed where we enjoy some great stories with the Smoak Brothers. We also check out some old Mostly Legal former guests to make sure we are getting the whole story. Many thanks to Joey and Jon for taking the time to share with us, and yall!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:50

One of our albino turkeys, eh? And I go, what have I done? I mean I've done something wrong here. You know, those those books are thick, right?

SPEAKER_04 1:03

I'm an attorney. And uh immediate, immediately, his whole demeanor changed.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Say, hey, y'all boys go do the dishes. And I look at John and I go, cat bird. Torch.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

All right. Well, it's time for another episode of the Most Leat Legal Podcast. We want to say hello to all of the listeners out there in the Mostle Legal world. It's Billions and millions. Millions and millions. It's time to untangle a few more stories, and we think we have a got a great show, a great episode lined up. We got two special guests we're going to get to in just a second that have already been part of the podcast unknowingly and without volunteering themselves. They've already been a part of some stories, and they're going to get to come around in a little bit and share their perspective and share some fresh stories. But as always, this is Stephen Dinkins, the host of the Mostly Legal Podcast, and I'm here with my brother Scott Dinkins, who's driven down from Chapin, and of course uh Bubba Johnston, the Barracuda, he's here with me as well. Now, one of the neat things about this episode is we are uh on remote location. We're doing a lot we're not alive, but we're doing a recording down in Pinewood, South Carolina. These two guests that we have were so important that we're willing to drive anywhere to get a microphone attached to them and to hear these stories. So we're actually down here in Pinewood, but we're a little south of Pinewood on Smoke Farms, and we're sitting here in the Smoke Shop with Joey Smoke and his brother John Smoke. Now we're gonna get to you in a second, but before we get too much further, Bub, you had a listener of the week we were gonna recognize.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

Yeah, so this week's listener of the week. Um I a couple weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending one of our fellow former guests, Bynam Kelly. He got married, and I was out at his wedding, and and Dr. Burt Parker came up to me at the wedding, and he just started talking about the podcast and how he said that he just really enjoyed listening to it. Um Burt, just a good friend over the years, and he was just extremely encouraging to us. Um, I had the pleasure of coaching Burt's son Trey in B-Team football, Wilson Hall, just an amazing kid, would run through a brick wall for you and everything, very coachable. I'm sure what Woody Lathin would have said about Scott back in the day, just extremely coachable. Um, but no, Bert was just he just he just said he enjoyed it and just really enjoyed the podcast. So, Bert, we want to thank you for listening and and and really just um giving us encouragement and everything, and just hope you continue to to follow us and enjoy the the podcast and thank you again for your support.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

Awesome. I want to jump in here. He mentioned Woody, and it reminded me of the story that I told uh about Woody and uh and kind of threw our favorite former senator under the bus a little bit. I remember I wanted to apologize to Thomas McElvine publicly because here's the truth of it Thomas wasn't the focus of that story, but Thomas was a great athlete. He was actually a college athlete. He he ran um cross country at uh Davidson and um far excelled me in athletic accomplishments. And he was a he was a great track runner, he was a great uh cross-country runner. So, Thomas, I love you. I appreciate you, and uh and I appreciate your athletic accomplishments.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

While you're apologizing, Scott, you want to go ahead and apologize for last week and talk about what a great athlete I am and make up for some of that?

SPEAKER_03 4:11

You are you uh listen, uh, you're a fantastic athlete. You are what made me want to be good at everything. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Okay, let's move on. We gotta get to these guests. I'm so excited to have Joey and John on here. Uh, they are known by a lot of people and they've got a great family. Uh their brother Jim, uh their older brother Jim is not with us tonight, but they, these three brothers have done everything there is to do outside. Uh fishing, hunting, you name it, they've done it. I've heard some great stories, but I'm excited to hear even more. I know there's a lot of stories I haven't heard. Um, we're just so grateful for y'all making time uh to be here. I'd love if you just take a minute, maybe we'll start with Joey, and then John, you can follow him, but just share with our listeners a little bit of your own bio, maybe a little bit about your family and what's keeping you busy these days, what stage of life you're in, and then uh we'll jump into a few more questions.

SPEAKER_02 4:55

Okay, yeah, so uh I sold my company that which I ran for 38 years a couple years ago and retired. And uh it really is true when you retire that you're busier than when you work. Um, but I've got plenty of things to do. Um my wife, Chris, you know, we live here on the farm. Uh we have two sons, Chase and Andrew, who are grown and outside the house. Andrew actually lives on the farm and Chase lives in Sumter, and then I have two grandkids that uh they come and visit us a good bit. So we we live on the farm and uh we love it. And so I'm doing uh doing wildlife management, uh involved in the church a good bit, have another ministry that I help with, um and um and many other things, plant food plots, etc. Um get to hunt a little bit more. Um it's fun. It's a good season of life.

SPEAKER_01 5:50

Amen to that. I love it. And we'll get around to ducks later, but I joy, I know I love yours as ducks, and you do a lot of duck pond management and a lot of duck hunting, and you've had me down here to smoke farms to hunt before with you, and it's a it was a great time. So it's a special place down here, it's a beautiful place. But I appreciate you catching everybody up with your the retired life, living the life. I love it. John, speak to him a little bit, tell them about John Smith.

SPEAKER_04 6:12

Man, I am the youngest of uh six, so there were three boys and three girls, and uh as my mom and dad said, they saved the best for last.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Uh the youngest is always the best.

SPEAKER_04 6:23

That's exactly right. Exactly right. But I am uh I'm married to Lisa, um, she was Lisa Phillips, and we just celebrated our 30th anniversary.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

Congratulations, congratulations.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

Have two wonderful daughters and two really, really new granddaughters. As a matter of fact, uh Charlotte's six months old, and that's my daughter Haley's little girl. And then we have Blake, who is a week old as of yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 6:50

And uh so she's really, really new, and she is Morgan's daughter. So we are loving everything that we've got going on, and just um life's good, y'all. It really, really is. So we're excited to be here. I mean, I've been looking forward to this while.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Y'all just passed a test big time like this. The first time we ever recorded, we got together and we kind of did the same thing about us, like what we did and talked about our family and everything. Our good friend Scott over here is the only one of the group did not mention his wife at all. And then when he got home and she heard that episode, she noticed he was in the doghouse big time. So both of y'all did a good job, like saying your wife, and what a blessing, and that kind of stuff. Scott's completely just missed it. He went wide left on that. I've missed on that a lot.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

These are seasoned veterans, they know I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

Well, uh, I do appreciate that y'all mentioned them first. Family men, that's that's really what draws us together is is um you know, getting outside, but getting outside with family and enjoying the outdoors together with uh children, sons, daughters. I got a bunch of daughters, y'all may uh know that. But um, but really, you know, one of the driving forces to get y'all on here was to kind of give us the other side of the Dino Malinko, Stephen Lincoln story that he first told, you know, months ago on the podcast about uh John, I think it was you catching him on smoked property, if I'm right. Yeah. Uh it wasn't this farm, but it was it wasn't far from here. And um and so when he was scouting. Yeah, yeah. He was he that's all he was doing. He was just scouting. Um but uh you know Lincoln is a master storyteller, as y'all have probably figured out, and he has a way of planting a story in his favor. And so we knowing that would love to hear y'all's side of actually what went down that day and then subsequently, and I I know it ends well, but but don't pull any punches on how you how y'all see this happening.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

You got it. So I I'll start off because I am the one that caught him. Um so Joey and uh four other guys had a property down at the River Road that they called River Road Farms, and so me being the lucky guy that I am, I kind of had free run of all of this. And and so I went down to the property one day and um was riding back there and I see this truck. And so I went over to the truck and nobody was in it. So I backed up and hid. And of course.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

It was parked on our property. Yeah, it was it was on it was on that property. Well into the property.

SPEAKER_04 9:30

Yeah, we yeah, you had there wasn't any way to get to where, even when he was where he was going to be. No public access in this case. So no right. No, no, no. He's no public access.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

There you go.

SPEAKER_04 9:40

So I hid, I called Joey, and I and I I said, Man, there's somebody down here. You you know, you need to call the game warden and and we'll we'll do what we gotta do. And so Joey said, I'm on the way. And so I hid and I got where I could stand in the back of my truck and stand up on my toolbox where I could see his truck. I didn't want him to see me. And uh, and I waited. And um, after a while, here comes this guy out of the woods. And so I went over there and I confronted him and uh Stephen, I I know you're gonna be listening to this. So um this guy, I mean, he just was like, I man, I was scouting, and keep in mind this is before the days of Onex and cell phones and stuff like this. We have bag phones, I believe. And uh and so he had taken some aerial maps and had found this place that was on wildlife management land to go duck hunt, but the only way to get to it legally was to come from the lake, and it was probably a mile walk. Oh, yeah. Through swamp and yeah, I mean it it it was not easy. Um so he just drove across their property and parked in there to go in to look at this place. And um, so when he came out, he was pretty upset. I mean, he he fell on the ground, he was crying and begging me not to do anything. And uh no, I'm picking Stephen. He wasn't. He came out and I said, Man, you're not going anywhere. We got a game warden on the way, and uh my brother will be here in a minute, and I'm gonna let Joey handle it from there.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

So hey, what kind of expression was on his face, John, when he let my game warden?

SPEAKER_04 11:17

It was fear. Oh, I mean, big time fear, and and almost, I mean, honestly, this part's honest. It he was uh almost like, man, I I begging not to have the game warden come.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Now, did he uh make any uh excuses? Did he drop any names at that point? Did he tell you his daddy was a pastor in Columbia?

SPEAKER_04 11:34

No, he did not. Not to me, no. He uh he he told me his name, which I at that time I wouldn't have mattered to me. I mean, if the point is he was on the property and we were gonna we were gonna figure something out real quick, but since it was theirs, I I thought they needed to step in and do something.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

So um Well, you know, John, I I didn't get there before he left. Um and so you know, I had to check this guy out because I d I didn't know a uh Stephen Lincoln and had never heard of him. And I'm thinking, you know, this guy's coming across our property, you know. Um and so I uh he had left and um I didn't have a way to track him down and he kind of laid low for a while. So John let him go.

SPEAKER_01 12:25

John uh on your command it let him go.

SPEAKER_04 12:28

I did call Joey and and say, Hey, what do you want to do? And Joey said, Well, I got his name. I I got all that. And I th I know I had his license tag and all that stuff. I had that from the start.

SPEAKER_02 12:39

Gotcha. So we were going, I mean, I was to check him out. So he um, you know, in him I think talking with you, John, he he said that his father-in-law lived in um Somerton. And so he kind of told you his family and uh started trying to put that together. So my wife, she likes to investigate too, you know. She don't like yeah, she doesn't like people to come across that property. Uh I've seen her hound dog people around the farm here before. And so she said, let's go check it out. Let's uh we need to find out who this guy is. So we ride to Somerton, and um and and I won't mention his father-in-law's name, but his father-in-law is well known around Somerton. And so I said, you know what, we're gonna go to his father-in-law's house and put a little heat on him and find out who he is. And and well known for the right reasons, right?

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Well respected Somerton.

SPEAKER_02 13:29

Yeah, right. Well respected guy, well respected. Uh and so I knew him, and so I said, you know, we'll find out who he is and what this is all about. Um and so anyway, got there and his father-in-law wasn't home, and I'm kind of glad it wasn't because after that Stephen called me and got together. He said, I want to meet you, man. I I I need to apologize to you face to face. And he did, and um a friendship started. And and even beyond that, he suckered you into a friendship. And I understand his MO now, you know. Welcome to the party restaurant. What do y'all what do y'all call him? Armadillo? Okay. Um, but anyway, we uh we got to be friends. We actually went out west a couple couple years in a row and had a great time hunting together. And uh I didn't let him repeat that same scenario when we went out west. You know, we we did everything legal out there, mostly illegal. Yeah, I'm glad he was. As far as you can remember.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

Yeah, as far as I can remember. So, so the way this kind of, I don't know, I might have called, I can't remember what I called you. So last episode where we taught about Williams Porting Good that came up or whatever. And I remember sitting in Williams, John was was was pretty much a regular at Williams, Joey would come in somewhere, and I was at Williams, and Joey, I mean, John comes in, he's like, Call this guy named Stephen Lincoln. And I was like, really? And I knew Lincoln just through Stephen and that kind of stuff. Stephen, I didn't really know Lincoln a whole lot at that point, but just kind of knew it. And so, I mean, I couldn't get out of there fast enough to call Stephen. I was like, Stephen, we got a problem.

SPEAKER_01 15:07

He said, We got a problem. I think he's dropping names. We got to get out of here.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

It was pretty, pretty funny. So, so going back to that story a little bit too, and going back to William Sporting Goods or whatever. So they told a story, and I had forgotten about it, but I think like as I reflected on it, so Scott kicked the side of Stephen's car in in a in a kind of a rage in a middle school. In a middle school boys' rage. And so they can't they heard about William Sporting Goods, and I can't say that somebody had a suction cup thing that could pull dents out. And they came to Williams and walked in there, the whole group is in there. We probably were there. I'm not sure. So that would have been what year?

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Uh like 1980, uh 1990.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

1990.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

1991.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

So so and he's like, they go in there and they're like, we heard somebody here could fix a dent. And sure enough, they fixed a dent for him or whatever. Go in there and fix the dent. But I mean, I was like, pretty interesting they came to Williams. You can get everything done at Williams back in the day. You can buy a pack of worms, get your car, body shop work.

SPEAKER_02 16:12

Body shop. I guarantee you Jim Smoke was there.

SPEAKER_04 16:15

No doubt. Guns. He lived up there, didn't he? He did, he did. That um I talked to Jim one time and he said he would take his guys. Jim had a concrete company and he would take his guys and get them started and go to Williams. And I said, Don't go, Jim. I said, you know, what if you what if you stayed with him? He goes, I don't need to, he said, I'm not gonna do anything. So he said, I go up there to Williams, and then I'll go pick them up after they're done.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

So the other regular I I remember Jim. He didn't know me, he wouldn't know me today, I don't think, but he was up there all the time and I I knew of him, but Steve Howell was the other one that spent a lot of time up there, and he and John, I remember watching knowing where they would sit over in the corner when I would go in there. But we talked about this before, it's kind of an intimidating place if you weren't on the in-crowd and uh when you walked in.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

I've heard that same thing. And it and to us, everybody would come in and you were like, Man, you'd help them do whatever we weren't working there. I mean, because you go in and ask John Harvin something, and they'd say, John, you know, he'd have 40 blue boat cushions over in the corner, and somebody'd say, Do y'all have any red boat cushions? Nope. No, we got the blue one. No, I love John. Yeah, absolutely. John was like a second dad to me, so I love him to death. He uh really missed him, really him and William, you know. I fished a lot of tournaments with William, and both those guys were just really, really special. Really were. And had an unbelievable business, man. I mean, unbelievable business.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

What's amazing to me about that whole deal, too, and like so we'll go back, we'll get back on the story stuff too, is the fact that like when we stood around now, yeah, if we'd had podcasts back then and we could have mic'd everybody up in Williams. Oh, man. I mean, it'd have been we'd probably be all be living on plantations somewhere right now.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

You ought to be in the Duck Dynasty before the Duck Democrats.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

Absolutely amazing the stories that got told and the things that just I mean, and we still talk about it. It was a very unique place, pretty cool time back then. It was.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

So there would be at least two or three sessions on Lincoln. Yeah. Oh, absolutely about that.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

We can circle back around. But I do want to say, uh, so he he called you, Joey, to apologize, and he was contrite. He was um and you were gracious, as I know you to be, and y'all began this relationship. And and Lincoln sells crop insurance. I think he ended up selling you some crop insurance along the way because you did some farming too. Yeah. I made him I made him cut his price a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

That's good. That's awesome. So these wet outwest trips y'all took, um, you know, y'all aren't still taking them. It was it was a short season of Yeah, two years. Yeah, two or three years. Now, what you know, you mentioned everything was mostly legal. Did y'all run it into any game wardens out there?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Um I don't think he and I ran into any, they call them fishing game out there, but uh yeah, I have before, but uh I've never have seen a ticket book out there.

SPEAKER_03 19:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Um That's a win?

SPEAKER_03 19:32

Yeah, that's a that's a normal question.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

Unlike South Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 19:36

Well let's move let's move toward the yeah, that's that's a good segue.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

That's that's one of the things we always ask, as as we've Stephen always segues into that too, is you know, we are mostly legal, but I think we've all kind of been not quite all the way legal and actually been called on it before by the game warden. And we always always ask, like if there's a story where where you actually received a ticket or whatever, if you want to kind of talk about that, kind of you know, say, you know, you're trying to do right or whatever, but um we can ask Joey first. Joey, you have you have you ever had a ticket in South Carolina?

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Um I have. Okay. Yeah. And then I've had a big scare before. Big scare. Big scare, yeah. Um, even though I was legal or mostly legal on on the scare, it was I'll tell you about that in a minute. It had to do with uh albino turkey. But uh Good gracious. Um I I I uh I I have You sure it wasn't a peacock? I'm I still had the picture of that. Campbell soup turkey. Yeah, that's what they said. But anyway, um well Billy Downer. Billy's a good guy. I like Billy and uh good game warden. Yeah, he um and you know those game warnings, they're just doing their job. That's all they're doing.

SPEAKER_03 20:46

They do a great job.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

It's kind of like the highway patrol. You know, you're driving down the road, if you go over 55 and they pull you, I mean you get a ticket. Isn't it the same thing? Yeah. The game warden.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

I mean, well, before we get too much farther about Billy Downer or the story, I do want to take a quick joke, Joey. Do you know what the difference is between God and a game warden?

SPEAKER_02 21:04

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

What God doesn't think he's a game warden.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Well, one more thing as we're sitting here, I don't know if the camera can catch it. I'm sitting here looking at Joey Smoke's boat back in. I see that the the tick the the tricker expired in July of 2020. And y'all went to the lake the last time when we did the boat.

SPEAKER_02 21:25

Ed Laney knows about it.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

He knows about it.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

Ed Laney knows about everything. Before this boat left out of this shop to go fishing the other day. He knew about it. He knew about it. But uh but anyway, yeah, Billy Downer, you know, he uh is it's it's great how you can become a good friend to somebody after they write your ticket, you know. Um but anyway, I I host dove shoots every year. Um, and uh we get together as family and friends, and we'll we'll have a dove shoot, maybe 25 people, you know, have a great time. And so this particular shoot was right where y'all drove in through the farm, came through the gate, the field on the right, and we we had some dove there. I planted I plant I planted uh wheat, I planted millet, I planted corn, and sunflowers. Well, it was a it was off year, you know, all that money invested in that field for people to have fun, including children, and uh and the sunflowers just didn't make well. And Billy Downer educated me when him and uh two other agents came through the gate, which I didn't think they would come through, but uh Yeah, gates they don't they don't mind gates.

SPEAKER_03 22:35

We we've learned that too, Bubba and I have.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Yeah. Do you know, um Scott, that when you when you buy sunflower seed that have been processed, that you can tell the difference between them and one that that's grown.

SPEAKER_03 22:48

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

I don't know how you know that. Billy down or educated me over there. So I mean, just one bag, one 50-pound bag to supplement. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Black hole supplement. I mean, that's what I hear.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

So I'll just so what happens is um they come through and we're really not shooting a lot of dove because we didn't have much of a crop. And uh I had I had tendered the field and had it where I thought it needed to be. And uh two female game wardens and and Billy Downer, they come through and it's a real hot day. Really, really hot.

SPEAKER_04 23:22

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_02 23:23

Matter of fact, one of the female. And so we bring in a water and stuff, ice water, and we're cooling her down. Serving her. Yeah. Helping her. Trying. And uh and then the other ladies over kind of walking through the field and she goes, uh uh Captain Downer, can can you come here a minute? And man, I just knew it. I I said, God, they see something. What do they see? But uh anyway, they walk over there and they talk and and uh Billy waved me over and I came over. He said, Joey, he said, uh I want to ask you a question. Before I ask you, I need to let you know, you know when you buy when you buy sunflowers, black oil sunflowers that they have been processed and the the little fur on them have been is burnt off. They slick. Did you know that? Slick versus one that's been grown. And I said, Yeah, and I said, yeah. He said, Did you put some extra seed out here? And I said, Yeah, I told him the truth. I said, Yeah, I put I put some out. He said, Well, thank you for telling me the truth. He said, Because you told me the truth, you'll still get a ticket and you'll still be charged to save them out, but at least you told it.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

You can speak good tonight knowing you you told the truth.

SPEAKER_02 24:32

But let me tell you what, those guys, they worked that perfect. They, I mean, it was that was uh that was on me. Okay. Right. I had like three preachers in the field, and you know, my family, John all of us were there, brothers and stuff, and and uh I said, listen, honestly, none of these guys know anything about it. And we did have some sunflowers in the field, we just didn't make a lot. So that was that was my ticket.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Yeah. Black oil sunflowers got him.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Well, I so they were coming out there because they knew y'all had a hunt. They weren't they didn't know that you would put the seed out until they got there.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

They they didn't know. They were just coming to check and you just topsowing, you just topsowing sunflowers. I mean, that's standard agricultural practice, right?

SPEAKER_01 25:15

I thought so too, but they didn't think not so standard. That's great. Well, I got a feeling, and that's not the only time you've seen a ticket book in South Carolina, Joey. Is that right?

SPEAKER_04 25:24

I want to hear about his Alabama albino turkey. I do too. I do too now that I've I'm learning something new.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

So John and I were avid turkey hunters when they remember when the first time the season came in. I mean, John was a better turkey hunter than me, but even though he's younger and he's a city boy now, you know. He was a better turkey hunter than me. And um, we killed some turkeys those first couple years. They they weren't educated. You know, they had done a what a transplant program around us, and John and I knew where most of all the flocks were.

SPEAKER_04 25:58

And and you know who helped me locate most of those turkeys was Leo Morris. He was one of my favorite game ones, honestly. I still keep up with them to this day.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

When you tell that story, yep. And Leo, but did y'all ever kill a band in one? I mean, because I know all the ones they let go to start, we were banned. They hadn't they had bands on them and stuff. But y'all never killed a band in one out of that.

SPEAKER_02 26:15

So we I mean, we knew where these turkeys were, and and actually a friend of mine that went that that goes to church with us, he he he ran Milford Plantation. And he was telling me, he said, Joey, he said, um, he I heard him talking to somebody about these albino gobblers that were out there. He said there were two or three albino gobblers that were living around Milford Plantation. Well, Milford meets up with the State Forest, you know, Manchester State Forest, and um and so I couldn't get those albino gobblers. Well, I mean we had killed what several turkeys and so the next step was an albino gobbler, you know. And um, and so I said, man, that'd I I'd love to get one of those. And and um, and and so I kind of I knew a guy that owned 50 acres that touched Milford and that touched Manchester on two sides or three sides. And so I went to him and he let anybody hunt it. Okay. And I went to him and and I asked him, I said, Can I hunt turkeys here? He goes, Yeah. So I'm first time I go there, you know, and they had been seeing those albino turkeys in Manchester and on Milford and around this piece of property. I go there and I sit down, it's after lunch, and I just go sit down against a tree and I start calling. And I'm calling it's drizzling, barely drizzling rain, and uh I hear a distant gobble.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

And I said, Oh afternoon gobble, that's a good sign.

SPEAKER_02 28:25

And then I hear a little bit closer, a little bit closer. I said, These birds, this bird's coming to me. So I adjust to get right, and I kid you not, I can see those birds there were like seven male turkeys, and there were two mature gobblers, um, and then there was this albino gobbler, and I I I didn't even know what I was looking at first. I thought it was a a pillowcase blowing through the woods. I mean it was this solid white turkey, and all seven birds are coming to me, and I'm just sitting there, and they come up all the way. And I mean, there's a big one too, but here's this albino turkey that was kind of a couple of years old, you know. And I couldn't help it. I shot him. And so back then, you remember we had to check those birds in, Johnny?

SPEAKER_04 29:10

Yeah, you had to take them to a check station.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Yeah, you remember where we checked them in mostly? Um Batten's?

SPEAKER_04 29:15

At Batten's in Wedgefield, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

At Batten's. And so I I said, I kill that turkey, and I said, Oh yeah. And so I go to Batten's to check it in. And lo and behold, there's there's um about 15 guys up there that have been turkey hunting. And I bring this albino turkey in. It's got a solid black beard on it, okay? Everything else is white except for his head and stuff, solid black beard. And uh everybody just flocks over. And I'm like king of the show. You know, I kill albino the gobbler. And um, and so everybody flocks over and they want to hear the story, and I actually I'm out in the parking lot on the dirt, and um, and I've got the gobbler there, and everybody's looking at it, and they say, tell us a story and stuff. And um, they had me circled. I mean, by then they had called their friends, and there was probably 20 people. No, you were famous. 20 hunters circling me, and I'm like, this is yeah, this is boosting my career. I you know, uh John and Jim can never catch me now, you know. And and all of a sudden the circle parts on one end. And in wall, I first thing I see is the guy's jeans and they green, they green. Green, and I look up and it's Leo. Okay. And Leo comes in. And I I don't know, John, if you experience the same thing or if y'all do. I I don't care. Anytime I see a game warden, I get just a little bit nervous for some reason. Yeah, you can't help it.

SPEAKER_03 30:50

That's natural.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

Yeah, and so uh he comes up there and he said, Oh, Joe, he said, you kill, and he knew me by name, I knew him by name, and he he uh he said, You kill a kill uh one of our albino turkeys, eh? And I go, God, what have I done? I mean, I've done something wrong here. You know, those those books are thick, right? That's a lot of words. And and by the way, when I shot him, you know, he went straight into the throes of death. Oh, death throws. I mean, he he was plastic. But me some Joey Smoke.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

He got your back right there. Okay, that was good.

SPEAKER_02 31:29

So so I I'm there explaining to Leo. And Leo asked me the question that a couple people had already asked me, and I had avoided answering, and that is, where did you kill him? And so I didn't want to tell him, you know, on this guy's property. Because here's all these hunters surrounding me. And surely you can understand this, right? You know, hunters do this. And so the first thing that came to my mind was I killed her on Manchester. So I said, I kill him on Manchester. He goes, Oh, okay, good, good, good. And uh, and he actually slapped me on the back. I mean, I was looking for him and the group to put me up on their shoulders and walk around the corner. Like a rooty. I was there, yeah. And um, and so everything was great. I'm I go home and I make my phone calls to John and all, you know, Jim and my friends about this albino turkey and telling a story. I'm sitting in a recliner. Finally, I lay back and I just start reliving the hunt and all that. Uh, and the phone rings, and Chris said, There's a guy on the phone that I don't know. I'm thinking maybe it's WIS or you know, item is item, somebody like that. Yeah. And um, so the guy got on the phone, he said, uh, Mr. Smoke, is this Joey Smoke? Yes, sir. He said, uh, hey, uh, this is so-and-so. I'm director of Manchester State Forest. I said, Oh, okay. I had heard of him, but I didn't know him. And uh he said, I understand you kill one of our albino turkeys um today. I said, Yes, sir, I kill him, I kill him. He said, Well, um, the game board told me you killed it on Manchester. And he said, You're supposed to have a special permit to kill a turkey on Manchester. Which remember that? Yeah. You had to have you had to purchase. There's always a special permit. Yeah, and um, and and and I said, Oh, I said, let me tell you the story. And so I tell him, you know, about and he said, um he said, He he he didn't believe me. He didn't believe me. And he said, Oh, he said, uh, so you killed it uh right close to the line, eh? And I said, Yes, sir. And then I kind of saw where the conversation was going. He said, I bet you killed it right on the line, didn't you? I said, then then it kind of got me a little bit mad, you know. I said, Yeah, as a matter of fact, he was one foot over the line when I shot the door. That was the end of the conversation. But that was a albino turkey, and and it was a ragtag turkey. Remember, it was dirty, and it wasn't worth mounting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Um but it was an albino turkey. Yeah, but I mean uh Jim and John never killed an albino turkey. That's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 34:08

They can't they can't, and we all were very competitive about our hunting and fishing stuff.

SPEAKER_01 34:14

So well, naturally, John, it's your turn. We got about to take a book.

SPEAKER_04 34:20

Listen, I don't know that John's ever had a tick. I mean, you know John Lee week. Listen, y'all don't know how much I've been looking forward to this simply because um I mean y'all know Clay Louder's my best friend, and we do a lot together.

SPEAKER_05 34:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

And Clay and I have hunted and fished, and just the stories we could tell would just be outrageous. And I and so I heard Clay talking about my ticket in Arkansas, and there's a little bit more to it. Um Clay did a very accurate job. He did a very accurate job, and uh, but I've been I've been waiting on this day, and I'm gonna tell you about that that part because it's really good for all the listeners, I think. The the little tidbit that I'm gonna give you on it.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

I still don't know where this is going on.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

You you you you just wait-tie right in there next. And then I really, really want to jump into something because as y'all know, when we pulled up here tonight, Joey was having a prayer meeting and Bible study, yeah, um, which is awesome. And um, and so I talked to my brother Jim. I went up to see him in the hospital, and we were talking. I said, Hey man, we don't Joey and I are gonna be on this podcast, and it's called Barely Legal. He's yeah, he knew all about it. Totally legal. Totally legal. I'm barely, I'm barely talking. So, anyway, also I said, I've got this story that I'm gonna tell about Joey. And he said, So, right after the Bible study, and in front of all these guys and in front of everybody, after 40 years, we're gonna find out the truth about this story. So, I'm gonna question you about it in a minute. But first, I do want to tell you Noted. We'll hang on there. It's bragging on Joey some, but we're gonna get the the whole truth behind it. So, um, my ticket I got in Arkansas. It was my first trip out there, and Clay told y'all we were hunting Roger Reeves. Everybody went to Roger Reeves and hunted, and we and we shot our limited ducks, and we got through, and there was like 10 million geese, snow geese out in the field. I never killed a snow goose. And we got back up there and we were talking with Roger. He said, I said, Man, I'd love to kill one of those things. He said, Well, I didn't kill every one of them. Well, you're gonna tell a smoke that. You know, so I'm gonna do it. I'm over there loading the gun up. He said, You're gonna be. Taking the plug out, you'll have the plug in. He said, You'll never walk up on them. He said, Get in the back of the truck and y'all drive down there. We were on his property. And I did, I got in the back of the truck, went down there, and Clay's boys, Clayton and Coker, were in the truck. They were a lot younger. We drive out there, the geese jump up. I shot one and killed it. Fast forward a couple hours later, the game warden's knocking on the uh room where we were staying, and someone had told him I shot the goose with the rifle, and which I found out a whole story behind it. And so the game warden gets me in his truck and he's just grilling me about this. You know, where's the rifle? You know, you did this, and he's what really got me was he started listing off all of the fines associated with everything that he's gonna charge me with, which was um he says, shooting from a public road, which I was not. You had it, I had a rifle, that's this fine. And I mean, he starts getting up into thousands of dollars, and he said, and you did it in presence of these two miners, so everything's gonna be doubled.

SPEAKER_01 37:27

Great goodness.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

And I said, Man, you're wrong. I did not do that. I, yes, I got in the back of the truck, yes, I shot the snow goose, killed one, and I said, but we were on private property with land on the permission, and um I said, I I don't feel like I did anything. And he goes, Well, yeah, you you're gonna get all these fines. And I said, Well, then I'm gonna fight it. And this is the tidbit for everybody. So here's what you say to them. And uh the game board and said, You're gonna fight this thing? I said, Absolutely. And he goes, You're gonna take off work, come back out to Arkansas, and you're gonna lose several days of work, and this thing might go to a jury trial, and he's just going on and on and on. And then he turned and looked at me and he goes, What do you do for a living? And sorry, I'm gonna tell a little white lie when I said it to him. I said, I'm an attorney. And um immediate, immediately his whole demeanor changed. And he said, Well, I tell you what we're gonna do for. There's no need to go through all this. How about I just write you for not having such and such permit to hunt the WMA land or whatever you had to have? And I said, But I've got it. And he goes, Yeah, but um, you just how about did we just write it and uh and we'll say you didn't have it in possession, and man, it's it's$25 and we can just get it straight. And so it went from thousands of dollars in tickets to$25 because he thought I was an attorney. And so I immediately said, you know, the best thing to do is end this right now. And I said, Man, write it up. I got I hand you$25 right now, hand him$25, and we were done. We were done. So you might tell him what you do. Do you know who was the game one? I do not remember, but I do what I do remember was that there was a particular individual in Sumter that he did not like. And so when he found out we were from South Carolina, man, I'm telling you, he was on us hard and heavy. That's the only place I've had people strip waiters down to check for ducks and check for shells and count. Um, they're pretty serious out there, especially when they find out you're from Sumter, South Carolina.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

You know, you got guys sleeping in holes. I mean, you got no.

SPEAKER_04 39:32

I know about clay doing all that. And I'm gonna tell y'all, I mean, I I love clay to death, and and and there's a group of us, we shoot doves and everything, and and it's just such a good group of friends, and that's what's so special about all this. Y'all are great friends, and and we've got people that shoot dove with us that are, man, I'm talking about they are top of the line guys. When you got Clay Louder and Whip Player and Brian Kaufman and John Rivers and all those guys, and and Roby Kelly, and I could keep on naming a bunch of them. But I'm telling you, when you're I'm a numbers guy. When I get in the field, I'm gonna tell you, uh, and they'll all tell you the same thing about me, that if I kill my 15 doves, I'm gonna tell you how many shells I shot. I'm gonna tell you exactly how many shells I shot. And I like to keep up with that. And um, but you you get between Brian Kaufman and John Rivers, you better have your A game, because if anything makes it past them, then you better be right because them guys, they are they're some of the best wing shots that I've seen, I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

So it's not true. Freddie tells me he's the best shot out of the group. Is that not true?

SPEAKER_04 40:33

I'm gonna tell you this. Freddie will let you know the second the dove enters Sumter County, and he's gonna tell you. No, I love Freddie, he's great, but he's he's gonna it's it's funny. And and we have a great group. Winston Jewel comes out there with us, and we get through playing, we take turns cooking, and Winston plays music for us. Man, it's just uh it's a great, great group of guys. Sometimes have a great, great time.

SPEAKER_02 40:56

Okay, is that all you wanted to do?

SPEAKER_04 40:58

The only ticket no time.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Um one time he was poaching on some guys' property.

SPEAKER_04 41:08

I have not actually done anything. Well, not done anything. I've not done anything that I was called for. Um, but I did take a ticket for one of my friends one time because I'm just such a good guy.

SPEAKER_00 41:22

We'd love to hear a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

He inadvertently um got a couple of does out of season and uh the game were. Inadvertently. Inadvertently. And he got caught, and they were gonna they were gonna write him, and he would have lost his hunting license for the for an unforeseeable time.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

Now, why would that have been? Why weren't you gonna lose yours?

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Uh because we were on a point system back then, and I hope I don't say the points wrong, but let's say you had 15 points on your license and and shooting a doe or possession of a doe. That's what they got him with was possession. And um possession was like 12 points, so he'd had two possessions, so he'd have lost it.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Gotcha. So he already had some points where you were clean.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

No, no, no, he didn't have any, but if he'd had two deer, he would have lost it. I had them. We went Mr. Mickey Brewer. Uh Mr. Mickey was the magistrate down in Somerton, and we went in front of him and he coached us like little league baseball kind of when we played with the All-Stars down there, and he uh he's he he ran us through the mill with everything, and then he said, All right, so I'm gonna I'm gonna write y'all this and then we're done with it. And we did, so I do have a South Carolina ticket um that I got caught for. It wasn't your fault, huh?

SPEAKER_02 42:36

You know, none of this is ever his fault.

SPEAKER_04 42:38

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 42:42

Okay. No, we're not.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

So you weren't practicing law at that point. I wasn't practicing law. I wasn't a licensed attorney. Um I'm still a real estate appraiser, so uh we do that. But uh, can we get into this part now, Joey? Because we want to find out.

SPEAKER_02 42:57

You feel like you've already taken no quarter of this. I haven't.

SPEAKER_04 43:00

I didn't take 30 minutes to talk about shooting a white turkey. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Go ahead. Yeah. All right, so um you can tell they get along well. Like this was around a dinner table back when they were young.

SPEAKER_04 43:12

Joey and Jim and I, we were very competitive about things. Um and so we had deer dogs back in the day. And so the way Clarendon County was this was before all the land along the river and down at Hickory Top Mall was WMA. It was just any land below the high water mark you could hunt. And so we had our deer dogs, and we would take them down there and run it, and man, we would run deer and shoot deer. And so the way uh bow season came in in Clarendon County, August 15th, and then September 1st was gun season, and then September the 15th, with archery, you could shoot either sex. And so, man, we would take our bows and the shotguns when we would go dog driving. And so we had a little bet, and uh and and the bet was uh you know, if because Joey doesn't drink anything, and so the bet was if if Joey won the bet, he would get a case of grape drinks, and if Jim and I won, I mean we were I think we were gonna get a beer or something. Um and so we're on this dog drive down there, and all of a sudden we come out there and Joey's coming out, and he's got his bow in the woods with him, bow and a shotgun. And uh and so here's the part that I want to know after all these years. So he comes out and he's got two does, and it was legal. He and so we said, Joey, what happened? So you y'all can question him on this as well because he says that these deer came running, they all all deer hunting, you know how fast a deer can run. I mean hard enough to hit with a shotgun. And that they came running by him and together, and he shot both of them with his bow and got them. And uh, and so he brought them out, and so he said he won the bet. And so we had to buy him, you know, it's the we never could figure out and get the whole story as to, hey man, are you really that good that you shot these deer running full tilt and loaded the another arrow back in and shot another one? Or was it partly like as you said, the deer got caught in the mud? Now, I want to know this whole thing now that we're here.

SPEAKER_02 45:13

Is is this the only thing you have on me? No, no, that's not a good question to ask. Right, Scott. Uh yeah, I I mean the cut to the skinny, uh and you can bring a Bible over here if you want to, but to cut to the skinny, and and by the way, they weren't does, they were two young bucks.

SPEAKER_04 45:35

Uh maybe with spots on them. No, no, no, that was never big enough.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

Where are you going? He came out carrying one in each hand. Oh, uh-uh. I tell I mean, you know, I set up I sat up in there by Cocoa Slow. The war was low.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

And this is directly below the property that what you all called Lincoln advice. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 45:56

Yeah, but this was before.

SPEAKER_00 45:57

Way by yeah, way before. This is back when the cemetery of the all

SPEAKER_02 46:00

I went in by boat and went in there and um and and sure enough I set up the the Summerton's dogs ran out of the big bay they and they got over into that side um on the on the west side of the river road and they ran the first deer that came by me I was set up in the mud flat and I I uh the deer came by me at ten yards and I shot it with a bow and it went up on the bank and died. And and the second deer uh I wasn't as quite as lucky because the deer came straight to me, my little blind. I jumped up and the deer skidded and turned and I shot it in hind end, broke its back femur.

SPEAKER_04 46:38

Fred Bear has nothing on him, you know, nothing.

SPEAKER_02 46:42

And it went, I mean, I couldn't really miss these deer. They were so close. Um it went about a hundred yards, and um and I had to drag both. It took me a half a day to drag both those deer. You didn't get any help? No, I was by myself.

SPEAKER_04 46:56

We're not gonna help you, man. There was a bet on the line.

SPEAKER_02 46:59

Came out and all y'all were out on the river road. You remember that? I brought those deer. I I I just I was so uh I was so pleased, you know, that the day went that like it did.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

Did they put you on their shoulders like they did for the albino turkey?

SPEAKER_02 47:13

No, they were they were saying I did something, I picked them up off the road or something, you know. They accused you, yeah. They thought you were lying for 40 years. You know, the albino turkey, the two deal with dog driving.

SPEAKER_04 47:25

Dog driver running full tilt with a boat. I just, you know. And jumped up out of the blind and the deer skidded to a stop.

SPEAKER_02 47:32

And I They can't, I mean, I can't compete with them fishing now, but hunting, you know, they they've always been stepping in my footsteps. You know.

SPEAKER_04 47:42

I'll tell you how Joey is, and and and I you heard me say when we first got here asking about a beanie weenie book. Um, he was we were hunting in the swamp one time and and Joey was taking a break. He had this old double barrel that it snapped about every other shot. And it was laying, he had it laying across his lap, and uh he decided to eat him a can of beanie weenies, so he pops the top on it and he starts eating them and heard a splash, and the deer had swam one of the creeks up there and was swimming right to him, so he drops the beanie weenies, which I think upset him more than anything. He had a problem. Picks the gun up and uh did it snap on the first shot? Uh second. He was out in the water safety maybe. Absolutely on that one. Uh mostly out in the water. Um, but he he killed that big one, and then another time, and it's just luck, man. I'm telling you, he's got it. Um he called it. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

SPEAKER_00 48:39

Hold on, Joey, you hear this now? Hold on. You hear that one? Joey, I've heard uh I sat in Williams many times, okay, and listened to Jim and John talk about you killing these big well, that Joey the luck is, I'm I mean, I you weren't there to defend yourself, okay? Yeah. I'm sure I did defend you, but I mean multiple, multiple times I've listened to Jim and John talking about Joey, he's so lucky, he's got a horseshoe, this and that, he just got the best property, this and that. They always seem to discount the fact that you, as I said, you always got it done, it sounds like. And and they kind of they they they just they they give it a look. I don't think it was just luck. I think that you might truly be the best sportsman out of the group.

SPEAKER_02 49:20

I introduced them to boat bow hunting, right?

SPEAKER_04 49:22

No, no, no, no, no. That's the way I remember. No. Brick, Brick entered it. Our brother-in-law's name is Brick.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Um but you remember y'all would come around to the house in Pinewood and practice? Yeah, we're right. You and Jay Roland and Jim, you know, we would practice in my backyard right there in Pinewood. You remember that time we all pulled up there and there was a pear tree in the back, and and y'all were all there, and um I had a we had field points, of course, and the squirrel ran up the tree. You remember that? No. Let me remind you, the squirrel runs up the side and the squirrel runs up the tree, and I had my bow and stuff. I said, I'm gonna shoot this squirrel out of the tree. Okay. And uh I think maybe this was luck, because the first one I launched up missed the squirrel, just by a few inches. The second one stuck in the squirrel and stayed in the squirrel. The squirrel falls with this arrow. You know, he's in the middle part of the iron, he falls there, and I'm holding it up. My brothers are there, and Joe Rowland can confirm this. And so we go on practice, and the funny thing about that is the first arrow. Where did it go? You know, that we had houses around us and stuff. And so, I kid you not, about 10 years later, this old guy by the name of Mr. Joe Wells, you know, Mr. Joe, he's in his 90s now. Yeah, works at the Recycle on Pinewood Road. He's a great guy. And he knocks on my door and he goes, This is ten years later. And he goes, Joey, he said, Do you recognize this? And I said, I said, Yeah. I don't know. I said, It's an arrow. And he goes, This wouldn't happen to be yours, would it? And I looked at it and I said, I think it might be. And uh I said, Where'd you find it? Out in the field back there? He goes, No, it was stuck in the roof of my house. You re-roofed his house, and that arrow was stuck right behind the chimney where you couldn't see it. And the roofers found it.

SPEAKER_01 51:14

They were there for ten years.

SPEAKER_02 51:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

Uh my I'm not a bow hunter, but both my boys have wanted to try, so I've gotten them some bows, both of them a bow, the last year, and they've been practicing in the backyard, and I got them the big foam, you know, target. They're back there practicing. Well, it did it took about two weeks before one of them hit the top of that foam cube and it glanced off and went straight back to my neighbor's Mr. McQueg. He's got a wood shop back there, and it went straight and found which part of that wood shop do you think it found?

SPEAKER_03 51:47

A glass.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

The window and a glass, and it went right through it, but it did not shatter, it just made the hole just for that field tip, just boom, and it went through and stuck in the back. And we've asked Mr. McQueg, can we can we come fix the glass? He's like, Ah, it's a small hole. Don't worry about it. So it's still there. He's been very gracious. And then last week, but Benny went, I saw a squirrel on an oak tree in the front yard. And we're down on Salem Avenue. John knows the house. That's right. John appraised the house. And we're down there, and uh he said, you Salem Avenue house.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

I don't want you to meet not the Purdy Street now, the beach house.

SPEAKER_05 52:24

So we're there and he shoots up.

unknown 52:28

Don't laugh.

SPEAKER_06 52:29

I'm just right.

SPEAKER_00 52:32

I'm all female. I'm at the Purdy Street half a mile. Sailor Street now. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 52:38

On the other side of Sailor Street is some duplexes. And behind that is Grace Baptist Church.

SPEAKER_04 52:43

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

And Benny goes out there and tries to shoot a squirrel up in the tree, just like John. And he misses, and that arrow flies through the air. And he comes inside all worried and scared of who that could have hit. You know, did or that house or this or that, and none of us know. But uh he got up early the next morning. That was a Saturday night, late in the evening at dusk. So he got up early Sunday morning and went to that Grace Baptist parking lot and searched and searched. Now he has not found it yet, but maybe 10 years later, somebody will bring him the arrow back. But we hadn't we didn't see any ER reports or 911 calls, so hopefully we didn't hurt anybody too bad.

SPEAKER_04 53:17

Well, I'll I'll tell y'all, Joey and I we were really, really lucky. We had a dad that um took us and did a lot with us, took us hunting and fishing. And man, we grew up, his big thing he did was quail hunt and squirrel hunting. He took us, which was a great thing to take a kid to do. And we had squirrel dogs, and I I'm telling y'all, we just had a great We got to do it all.

SPEAKER_02 53:39

Yeah, we did. I mean, we did. Matter of fact, um, you know, a neat story about John and I love my brothers now. I'm gonna tell you, we we got a special bond. Um, but when John when we were little boys, um boy, we started off with the BB gun, right? Yeah, I mean we could have bird drives. Yeah, and the BB gun. Yeah, I would get on one end of the uh the canal ditch and John would be on the other with the BB gun, and I'd I'd walk down in the sparrows and stuff with flying. And so, John, I said, What'd you get, John? Did you get anything? Did you get anything? Yeah, he said, look at this. Look at what is this? And it was a catbird. Y'all know what a catbird is? Uh-huh. It's uh it's uh look it up, it's a unique bird, you don't see them much. And I know you shouldn't be shooting these songbirds, and we didn't kill many, you know, and daddy made us eat some of it. But John killed this catbird, and um and he goes, Look at this. He said, It's got a band on it. He killed a banded catbird. Wow. And I said, John, I'm a little bit older than John. I said, John, I said, you are in major trouble. I said, That is federally banded, and you're in trouble. He goes, Oh no, no. He was, I mean, he was really scared. And um, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 54:49

Yeah, like going to jail.

SPEAKER_02 54:52

And so um, I think it was probably at least I got at least three or four years out of it.

SPEAKER_04 54:58

Probably ten.

SPEAKER_02 55:00

I mean, mom would say, Hey, y'all boys go do the dishes, and I'd look at John and I go, catbird. He's torquing. Torquin. Yeah, catbird.

SPEAKER_03 55:08

That's what drove you to law school.

SPEAKER_04 55:11

Did you put a band on your lanyard? No, man, I think that thing's been gone. I was so scared of it. I I this is crazy, but I've killed a blackbird with a band, and and I've killed a catbird with a band. And uh, and that's I mean, you a lot of us have shot ducks and stuff, and you have a band on them, and that's pretty special. But um, I killed two birds you probably weren't supposed to shoot that had bands on. And then we used to trap them when we were.

SPEAKER_03 55:38

You might have killed more than two birds you weren't supposed to shoot.

SPEAKER_00 55:40

Yeah, I I'm telling y'all, we did you ever kill albino turkey? Never killed an albino turkey. I know. An albino turkey. You keep throwing that up.

SPEAKER_01 55:51

Yeah, that's right. Well, that's what brothers do, is we remember stuff, right? And we keep them on the hook. Uh, Smoke Brothers, this has been fantastic. We so appreciate y'all making time for us and letting us come down here to the smoke shop down in Pinewood. It's been great to be in a different location, uh recording and tells me.

SPEAKER_00 56:06

SM OK shop, not the SM OK E shot. It's all over the news right now. There's a lot of heat on the smoke shop, right? FMOK.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

Bubba went to A. Thank you, Bubba. That's a good word. Um, it's been fun being down here. It's been fun hearing y'all's stories, and uh, we want to have you back on next week. And I know there's gonna be some more stories we can tell, and I want to hear more about your childhood, more about these brothers and what you guys have done with Jim and um how y'all were raised. We were just getting into that, and I know there's some more stories there. So we want to thank you for having us. We want to thank our listeners for listening. Uh, we want to thank you for encouraging us. Uh, last week was a great episode. Lincoln had us laughing. He had a lot of people laughing. We got some great text. We ran into people at Wild Game Night at First Baptist. We had a lot of good feedback, and it means the world to us when y'all see us out in town or shoot us a text and let us know that you're enjoying the podcast. So uh keep doing that. It means a lot to us, but also keep sharing it. Keep telling about telling your friends and your family about the podcast and how they can get on. Um, it's it's really easy to find us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and let them know to look for mostly legal. And we look forward to being with you next Monday for another Mostly Legal Monday.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Thanks, guys. All right, well, I have a nugget for our word segment this week as we look to James chapter three. Perhaps this is a familiar verse to some of you, uh, but James is talking about the tongue and the power of our words. In James chapter three and verse uh three, he says, if we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at ships also. Though they are large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire. I just want to challenge you to think about your words, your tongue. The Bible describes our tongue as a very dangerous or very useful gift, a dangerous weapon or a useful gift. And so, you know, think about your words. If you have guns in your house, and if you're listening mostly legally, you probably do. My guess is you have a safe. You have a safe for a handgun, maybe it's in a lockbox in your bedroom somewhere, you have a safe for your long guns. Um you do those, you you do that to keep those safe from from fires and thieves, but you also do it to keep them safe from your children. Uh but we don't even think about how dangerous our tongues are to our wives or our children or our husbands, our spouses. Um we think about things like guns, uh, we keep knives in a safe place, we hand them to one another by the handle, but yet our words that we pass back and forth are much more damaging often to the hearts, the minds of those that we're speaking to. And we and we use them with such recklessness without any caution whatsoever. Um, I want you to start to think about your tongue as something that can be used to build up and encourage and give life, or something that can be used to tear down and kill and take life away. Um and may we each learn how to use our tongue for God's glory and for the good of our neighbor, our our family, our children, our spouses, um, those that we come into contact with on a regular basis. Uh may we endeavor to use our tongues for good and not evil. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.