Mostly Legal

Episode 50 - Shawn Matthews back with some great stories!

• Stephen Dinkins • Season 1 • Episode 50

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We are so glad to have Shawn back as we listen to some of his outdoor and indoor experiences! He and Simpson Hardware are great at what they do and we are so glad to be able to partner with them at Mostly Legal!

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SPEAKER_02

Something has gotten into our chickens. Now it wasn't audible, but I know my wife's voice and felt like I got it clean and I got it clean, but just not all the way. So the chicken not clean.

SPEAKER_01

Driving by the billboard. You get mesmerized by the billboard just running off the road stuff. I mean it became a liability for Bonam and Jerry. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_05

Hovers and fishermen and story lovers, welcome back to the Mostly Legal Podcast. I'm Stephen Dinkins, your host, and excited to be bringing another episode to you with my friend Bubba Jostin and my brother Scott Dinkins. We're back out here at Dinkins Mill together, and we're excited to have our guest Sean Matthews back with us again. We're going to get into some more stories with Sean in just a few minutes. But uh before we go too much farther, as you know, we like to give a shout out to a different listener each week. Bubba's got one that he's gonna shout out to right now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, our listener of the week this week is Chris Rye. Uh Chris is a friend of mine grew up with. He loves the outdoors, loves to hunt and fish, and he has listened to podcasts. Um, a regular listener, and comments a lot of times on on Facebook when we have it on there. Um some of the guests we've had, he's had good experiences hunting and fishing with them and that kind of stuff. But I know that Chris is out there listening and we love to see those comments and stuff. So we really appreciate it, Chris, and just thank you for your comments and just hope you'll keep listening and tell your friends to listen to. Thank you, man.

SPEAKER_05

Absolutely. Look forward to meeting you someday, Chris. We're gonna jump back into some more stories with our guest, Sean Matthews. As if you remember last week, uh, we welcomed Sean on the show for the first time. Sean is one of the owners and uh one of the team leaders there at Simpsons Hardware and Sporting Goods, our one of our two primary sponsors, and we would not be here without him. So we're Uber grateful for him and his sponsorship, but also excited for his time to come back and share some more stories with us. Sean, you let us know last week that you haven't done a ton of hunting and fishing yourself, but you did have a few stories that involve the wildlife encounters. So I thought maybe we could just jump in and start there.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, unfortunately, much many of my wildlife encounters don't end as well as I wish. Yeah, tell me about it. I know, but um I mean one involves of the domestic variety in the sense that my second daughter, Lucy, when she I think was in kindergarten, they do the little little chicks, you know, whatever. Biddies. And she gets all wrapped around, oh, she wants to bring two home. And and you know, it was kind of fun, popular to have um you know, chickens back in the day, and I maybe it is still now. I'm not as but you checked your local county ordinances. I did not. I mean, we can go into all sorts of how the chicken coop or whatever, but these little things they started. Well, what I will Molly and I did not realize is most of those little chicks are gamecocks, baby. They are roosters, and they're not laying eggs. And um, so we grew these suckers up, and I, you know, I did notice that those suckers like to eat, and then we had some big old chickens. And at some point we learned, I mean, these are probably male chickens. Crowing?

SPEAKER_05

That was usually a good chick.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it was a little before that. Okay. So we had got we'd gone to a comb, yeah. We'd gone to a real place that really knows how to sell you the right kind of chickens, and we got a few. I don't remember how many or what, but I think we had about six, maybe hopefully four females, and then the two.

SPEAKER_05

By chance, was that John Hyatt at Southern States? Is that where you went to to get the real chickens? Yes, that's right. Back in the day, John was uh John Hyatt. That's right. It's John up there in Greenville. Good to uh good shout out for you. But I remember he has a great chicken display.

SPEAKER_02

And we we got them, we brought them home, reliable female chickens, and they were laying eggs. Every everything good.

SPEAKER_05

Also known as hens.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you.

SPEAKER_05

My Palmer Brown over here. I'll tell you what. I'm a chicken guy, I'm married to a chicken lady, so come and meet. Yes, you are. Oh, you're also a peacock razor.

SPEAKER_01

I saw how well that turned out for you.

SPEAKER_05

Cut his mic off. It was tootie top. Oh, tootie top.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that makes it sound so much better. Tootie cock. No tootie top.

SPEAKER_05

Tootie knock.

SPEAKER_02

We got some chickens.

SPEAKER_05

Feeding those hens. Keep going, Sean.

SPEAKER_02

So we're we're feeding those bad boys, and um, one night I'm at a meeting, I think it was like a church meeting, and I get this text. Something has gotten into our chickens. Now it wasn't audible, but I know my wife's voice, and you need to take care of this when you get home. So something has attacked the chickens.

SPEAKER_04

Now you can't you can't inflect tone into a text message.

SPEAKER_02

But you're pretty certain you had tone. Can you not? Wow. I mean, this is my wife. I mean, I feel very confident that all is needed is she again wanted someone to come save the day. Yeah, yeah. That's right. That's what you're doing. The night is shining on her. That's right. That's right. So, I mean, and I kind of come with that attitude, right? It's like something's attacked my chickens. They better watch out. That's right. And sure enough, a couple of the hens were to the side and they had some gashes. And um, so I'm like looking, what is going on? Where, and then right along this fence line, my neighbor, nice fence line, appears to be a possum. And he's just hunkered on the fence, and he kind of is stuck, and and I need something to get him, right? And my son, my youngest son, my youngest son loved sticks and loved just playing, doing whatever. Well, he had this ginormous stick that had like a club on the end of it. So I go getting that stick. Of course, the possums just still staying there. He had these little beady eyes, and he literally would look at me and then look for it. Look at me and then look for it. And I had the club ready. And he basically, you know, looked at like I said, when he looks the next time, and I just, I mean, with all my might club that sucker, and just knocked him on the head. He somehow, I mean, I went to beating that possum. He's holding on, his little claws still on the fence. I go to beating the claws, and he finally scurries away. But I think that was the end of the possum attack. Our chicken survived. Everything saved. You save the day. You saved the day. That's right.

SPEAKER_04

Did you check the uh local county ordinances about possum seasons or anything like that before you went to whale it on this poor possum? Not at all.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, I how to know when fur bearer season is.

SPEAKER_04

You know, possums are good to have around, unless you have chickens.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, y'all. You know, I did forget something about possums. I did not intend to share this, and this related to Simpson hardware. And I'm a little concerned now. We might need to cut this because of how international the podcast is. There is a society of possum lovers. Lovers, we could say. They're called PETA. Well, no, I mean it's like possum specific. And at Simpsons, you could go right now, and on sale is a possum target. Like it's an archery target. And it's a cute-looking little possum that can hang from his tail. So we were advertising on the socials that you could do that, and it went nuts, semi-viral in the possum-loving world. And people came in person complaining, shocked that we would ever have a target because they are not, they do no harm to anyone.

SPEAKER_05

Tell me you're crazy without telling me you're crazy.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think that's I think the marsupials are us, is the name of that group, or something like that.

SPEAKER_05

Marsupials, look at Bubba. Bubba. Did you look that word up like during break? How did you come up with that?

SPEAKER_01

Uh you're gonna want to learn one day not to doubt me, okay? I'm just gonna tell you straight out. I'm not gonna, I'm not even gonna tackle that one. How about you throw it at the fourth phony?

SPEAKER_04

Go in, throw a little I wasn't a spelling contest winner back in the day. But you know, whether from Little Mountain, South Carolina, because just above Chapin is Little Mountain, and in Little Mountain, no, very few people know this, is the Possum Coffee Cafe. And you go into the Possum Coffee Cafe, and there is all kinds of possum paraphernalia in there.

SPEAKER_02

I think they traveled from Chapin. I mean, they came in person. I mean, it's like an international society, and it they were mad at us. So I I mean, I'm afraid now. So you took I've just given them some ammo.

SPEAKER_04

Well, you you probably took those possum targets down, and you didn't sell them anymore. No, we did not.

SPEAKER_05

So good assumptions to get your possum targets.

SPEAKER_02

And they are on sale. That was not one of our best buys.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, now I think did I hear you uh sharing a little bit of a story about some bees?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I get to that, but I there is a follow-up to the chicken. Follow up calls because um our game cocks, they were eaten and they were big, and they started being loud in the morning, and it was time we're done. And I think pretty much we were done with chickens. It didn't last long.

SPEAKER_04

They don't just crow in the morning, by the way.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's just some crowd. Well, they didn't crow much. So I have a good friend who is a good hunter, and um, you know, he Jonathan Smith might have across the street neighbor, and we decided let's kill the chicken, let's eat the chicken, let's do this. And so um, you know, I I've not really just chopped the head off of a chicken, but we had a game plan, we had an axe, our two oldest boys were present. And well ceremony, I think. That's right. And um what he told me, and because I think his dad, I think that was common when when he grew up, but if you lay a chicken down, they pretty much will just lay flat and let you go to town. So it was my job to take the axe, chicken laid down. So what was Jonathan's job in all this? I mean, he was definitely, I mean, like Mr. Miyagi, um Daniel's son. I mean, I I'm I'm okay with that. No, yeah, we just laid him down. He coached me pretty much, and so I wanted to do it, putting the chicken down, got the axe, yeah, it's a piece of you know, rock that we had. I felt comfortable. I felt like I got it clean, and I got it clean, but just not all the way. So the chicken not clean. Yeah. That's an SLD definition of clean. 80% clean. But there was some hanging. And he got up and imagine this walking around like a chicken with his head cut off. It was unbelievable, but not all the way off. So the head be flopping left and right, blood be squirting. Sorry to the family podcast. But I declare it was not, and so my youngest son. After two years of counseling it was filing up, he was young and it was not happy. Went inside. I do think it it was not a fun experience. I mean, this is also our pet chicken. Um what was his name? We didn't really name him, but we were about to eat him too. There was no problem. And I mean, Banks Smith, who now is graduated Wilson Hall, I mean, he was like, I've got a picture of this, but he's like giddy. Just looking at the blood squirting and the heads falling. And but then, you know, we cooked him, we plucked him, we did everything you need to do. And I mean, that big boy would not fit in a ginormous crock pot. He was that big. So your son's in counseling, Banks is in prison.

SPEAKER_00

Banks is a super nice guy. He is.

SPEAKER_01

He is great. We saw Banks, we were at Ocean Isle, and they were down at Ocean Isle at the same time. We saw him a couple times. He's a super good, super great kid. Good guy. We we got a good, I mean, the good picture with the axe, the bloody axe.

SPEAKER_02

It's a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_05

Scott, Jonathan Banks' dad, has got a nice big Bronco. Scott and I both drove OJ Broncos back in the day at which period of our lives. I'm very fond of those old school Broncos, and he's got a nice one he keeps fixed up and drives around town. I'm very jealous of it. It looks good.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, those things are awesome. Great neighbor.

SPEAKER_05

You know, it was the OJ Bronco that Lincoln was the hood ornament on to get that uh volleyball out of the Briars that day.

SPEAKER_01

Dell, y'all live together. What was the name of this place? Y'all live.

SPEAKER_05

This is Hampton Green apartments. That's in fact, I my when I first lived there, I was with Sean. I was in building that one up at the top of the hill.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, there were some stout volleyball matches. I mean, the bottom of the hill would not be impressive in volleyball. I mean, you won't admit much, but definitely not impressive volleyball players. And the top of the hill easily dominated, and the volleyball we would use would is this like Seneca. And I just remember all the time it was a Seneca burger. Just a heat coming at you, and it'd just be logos pins.

SPEAKER_05

I can envision it. It's just a weird form.

SPEAKER_02

I had Winning. I had Wayne there. Lincoln called it just like he would like to just punch it. Yeah, it was odd.

SPEAKER_04

Well, Steven is you know six three and a half, and the even with that, the mean on that team is probably like 5'8 at the best. Yeah, it was even with your 6'3.

SPEAKER_05

It was Steven and the Seven Dwarfs trying to play on the Bible.

SPEAKER_01

But I remember one time I bet it was like a traffic jam with the ladies coming to watch Steve Batman.

SPEAKER_02

I was just gonna comment. There was one day where it was a scene. I don't know what happened. Seneca Burgers were flying. It was like there were ladies that were there, music playing. I I don't know what I just remember Greg Thompson, who I'm sure was an athlete in his day.

SPEAKER_05

And I'm sure he's been a faithful listener to this podcast from the beginning.

SPEAKER_04

He needs to be a listener to the weekend.

SPEAKER_02

He can have a good time. But his knees are not the best. And he went out for a pass. Someone threw, I'm sure it was like our JV star, JV quarterback, threw a bomb. He caught it and was celebrating, just spite the football. And I guess to celebrate, was doing like the little Charleston dance where you do your hands and something. But oh my god, his knee and his celebration, his knee dislocated, and he went down. Oh, you know, it was awful looking at it. But I mean, just kind of sad that your knee's that bad.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, we had another uh friend who we keep up with a good bit. I still talked to Greg Amos from time to time, another attorney friend, and he had some joint issues on the volleyball card.

SPEAKER_02

His shoulder would pop out at least every third game. Yeah. And he'd just have to pop it right back in. He's back at it. I mean, now he was not the Syndical Burger deliverer, but he would throw it out. He was a good center. Yeah. He was a good center. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So speaking of traffic jams, um, you know, in yesteryear Bubba Johnson used to be at Bonham Insurance Company, uh selling insurance, and they had a billboard on Broad Street Extension at one point, uh uh, you know, twenty-five feet up in the air. Nice. And and Bubba was he was featured on this billboard. And he he said, he told me that they had to take that down because of all of the traffic accidents that women were having driving by that billboard.

SPEAKER_01

You get mesmerized by this billboard just running off the road and stuff. I mean, it became a liability for bottom insurance from coming. Sure it did. Terrible. It's a curse. It's a curse call. That's the story they tell you, huh? Why they're taking it down. Interesting. Truly a curse. I'll tell you right now. Sales well, much like when you partner with most illegal. That's right. Sales through the roof. Secret of our success.

SPEAKER_05

When we first started the podcast, we were introducing ourselves, and Bubba talked about his wife and how much he loved her. But he did tell her if something happened to him and she remarried, don't marry for sex appeal again. She's already tried that boy. That's right.

SPEAKER_01

She's already done it. It's all downhill, man. You go for the money next time. That's right. It's just what it is. It is what it is. We we need to have ladies on. We really do. We really got to have it. We're gonna have them on there. That would be fun.

SPEAKER_05

And uh honestly, uh Sandy Scott's wife is is very funny. She's got, I mean, she can tell a story, especially when it involves Scott. My wife's very funny. Uh, she she she will be a great asset to the conversation. But Kim Johnston would dominate. Will dominate this podcast if we can get her on here.

SPEAKER_01

Kim's big, quiet, and reserved. She'll hold back.

SPEAKER_05

I'll tell you what, Bubba, Bubba will, he will be so nervous he'll have his hand on that edit button the entire time.

SPEAKER_01

I can promise you I will coach her up before she comes to talk on the motorplace. And then I'll coach her down. Well, she'll come back.

SPEAKER_02

All of our probably worst stories and best stories are when we have our wives with us and we have a plan and it just doesn't work out. And I feel like so many of mine, unfortunately, like we used to camp back in the day, Molly and I with girls growing up before the boys. We loved going tent camping when it was just a kid or two. You were probably a boy scout in Spartanburg. And you know, I once I was we I got out quick. He was a weeblo. But one of our last camping trips, Molly reminded me, she was, I believe, around nine months pregnant with Shawn Michael. This was when we upgraded to a cabin because, you know, she was expecting. And I took us on a trail, and I mean, I literally, y'all talked about getting lost in the woods. And I mean, I well, I couldn't find it. And she told me um earlier, yeah, you were like quiet, worried. And I don't really remember all the details. I'm sure I wasn't really worried. But I know that wherever we came out, it was a long walk with my tired two daughters and pregnant wife to get back to the car. But all I mean, regularly, or the last time we were.

SPEAKER_05

Do you remember where you were camping? I'd be curious. I'd like to hear some of these campgrounds. You know, we've took apartment. No, it wasn't Zambia.

SPEAKER_02

We've done that. And I've, you know, I killed a turtle there. It didn't have a license or whatever. It was an accident. It was an accident, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_05

It could have been the delight car. Accidentally killed a turtle. Look at that. Let's come back to where you were camping when you got lost.

SPEAKER_02

You run over it. I mean, I think it was in um the North Carolina Mountains. The mountains somewhere. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Where they're bears and all.

SPEAKER_02

That's right. That's good. Where they're I know. Yeah. I mean, another time I I had all we had the six of us, all four kids, big trip. Remember where we were exactly. I don't think this was going out well. This was in the North Carolina Mountains again. And it was this great little swimming hole you had to get to. Well, apparently, like you know, going out in the woods, yeah. You just don't always know your surroundings. And so I passed the swimming hole. It wasn't quite as big as advertised, and I took us deep in the woods.

SPEAKER_05

You didn't hear the banjo playing, did you?

SPEAKER_02

And uh I felt like we needed to go up, get higher ground to head out, while basically took us over some ground bees. Yikes and it it tore us up. And Molly, it was awful. Molly on her way back had lost a foot-flop. We weren't going back, we were just running. I mean, kids crying. It was it was bloodstore. It was. And I mean, the kids decided to go, they're gonna hop in the river to get where we were going, and then it got rough. I'm with wife and youngest who were screaming. It was it was awful. And I just felt like a lot of a lot of my outdoors stories are inside guy. There you go. Inside guy.

SPEAKER_05

Sean, we've talked uh uh you you shared a few stories where you were the knight in shiny armor, uh where you you took care of things, you took your business. Um I there's a story that I've heard you tell before, and I really can't really mind.

SPEAKER_02

You know, another story where I'm the protector.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, is it who goes there? Yeah, tell us that story.

SPEAKER_02

I had that in mind. Well, this was early marriage, marriage. I don't think we had a kid yet. And um Molly had had a procedure, and so it was clear, you know, she was sensitive and not sleeping well. You know, I didn't have a problem sleeping that night. So I went straight to sleep. The middle of the night, she woke up, Sean, Sean. You know, I was like, what, you know what? Someone is in the house.

SPEAKER_04

So I'm like, That's not so bad.

SPEAKER_02

You know, and we had an old, we were living in Aiken, South Carolina, we had this old door where you just know if it's open. So she has heard someone open the door, it is on. And you know, I've already displayed, I'm not afraid to protect. You're not so immediately the temperature went up, and you know, I I I will say I may not handle the situations exactly how others might. And temperature went up. The way I get I guess stealth mode. I'm not going, I'm not gonna be loud. I'm gonna leave a little surprise. I'm gonna leave the lights down. And I mean, and I also have this uncanny ability to, I'm just locking out. So the constant shot. Just felt like a rhythmic I'm not necessarily responding to. I'm just and I'm up and that's Molly calling to me at you know, post procedure, right? At a fragile state, and um and I and I'm going and the temperature's now up, and I feel it's it's almost as if the air is heavier because I'm about to it's about to be on. You don't have the club with the I don't have a club or anything, just pops them in the face. There we go. But I you know I'm going and all of a sudden I see in the den about 15 feet away is a head looking at me this way and then back. At me and then back. So I decided it was a moment of truth, one way or the other. And so in a in a resounding voice, I'm sure it was who goes there was the right phrase for the moment, and this head, surely with that resounding voice, would go back out the door they came.

SPEAKER_01

And Jack responded from the beanstalk. Instead, the head kept going.

SPEAKER_02

And then the head just kept turning, and I realized, oh, that's not a head. That's the get well soon balloon that's weighted at the bottom and the air moving it. So this moment, it all happened within a span of a second or two. My wife is like shirt down, she's thinking someone's there. I'm screaming who goes there. I realize all of a sudden, oh, the temperature's okay now. There's no one there. And so then I go to her, she's freaked out, everything's okay, everything's okay. The entire time, you know, I just not said a word until I scream who goes there. And so the rest of the night she slept fine. I did not, because I'm still concerned who's in the house. Explain that. I'm wondering what happened. You I can't, I don't know the answer. You probably heed they are right. And they probably smoke out anything. To this day, I say it's not necessarily a worse. I mean, it's not the worst thing to yell in the middle of the night.

SPEAKER_04

You who goes there with a resounding. You probably scared him off and were the hero again. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01

I mean, that's your door, and you're sticking to it. That sounds good. That's right. That's very interesting.

SPEAKER_02

Some don't really like, you know, and then you know, there's I think Molly found a Halloween. There's like a owl, and it says, who goes there? That comes out Halloween. So the story regularly. Can we phone or something? We might just start selling those baby t-shirts. Um who goes there.

SPEAKER_05

Now, as some of our listeners that are local to Sumter. Uh, if you don't know Sean, but you've ever supported Young Life, you've probably seen Sean up on stage. He happens to be kind of one of their best skit guys. He is always in the Young Life.

SPEAKER_02

Well, Young Life, the key first phrase is important, young, and I don't know that I fit the bill anymore.

SPEAKER_05

Well, you were in the last one I went to like last year. You ended up in a skit. You were uh you were uh the the milking the cow or something.

SPEAKER_02

Oh yeah, bestie gift yeah, maybe he's gotta live.

SPEAKER_05

That was experienced life.

SPEAKER_01

I've had the pleasure of being in a young life skit with Sean Matthews. Please. And he spit a mouthful of water on me. It was ridiculous, y'all. He kind of went way, he he way and above the call of duty. That is true.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely true. It is true. I I was warned to be careful not to cross Bob. I think someone said he doesn't like you know uh you know bodily fluence. I mean who does? But he knew in his way beforehand made some rib about Carolina or Clemson, and I decided it was on. I part of the skit was I had water, and it was uh he says something funny, and I you think that's a big deal, you know, you just kind of go back and forth, and you're supposed to just out into the air. And I think I waited till the last one, and I mean I spit all over all over the leave for the Lord, okay?

SPEAKER_01

What did you do then, Bubba?

SPEAKER_04

I mean, it wasn't expected. How'd you handle it? It was all right, it was good.

SPEAKER_02

I felt like I felt like it was payback. I think at the time he kept people to make a swipe. He kept threatening that he would get me. I'm like Bubba to make a swipe.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. Very docile of him, very much like much like that possum hanging on the side of that cage, and I was attacked with a club. That's right. Just docile. Very docile. Uh me and the rest of the marsupials.

SPEAKER_05

So Bubba's a barracuda, and now he's a possum. Or marsupial, excuse me.

SPEAKER_01

I easy boxing one.

SPEAKER_05

So you guys have a you have a lot of guys that work with you at Simpsons in that hunting department. Wealth of inf a wealth of experience and information. Guys like me that don't know everything there is a know. I mean, most of it, but then there's a question, they're good to go to. I've certainly you've got some good stories from them that they've either told you firsthand or secondhand, because you get a ton of customers coming in bragging about hunts, this and that. You got any kind of secondhand stories from any of those guys?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, none that come to mind, but I'm telling you, and I know you've heard the name, but you have Michael Boozer on. I mean, Pal Boozer is a legendary storyteller and an excellent hunter and fisherman. And I mean, he tells a story like none other. Yeah. And um people know this about Pal. He can also play the piano.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yes. I did know that.

SPEAKER_00

He's in his underwear.

SPEAKER_04

He is a teddy bear of sorts. He is, he's he's he's great. Yeah. He's lost.

SPEAKER_01

Another one y'all have out there. Y'all, when William Davis closed, like left the store and everything, he came over there and helped in the sporting like the fishing thing and everything. William, always a good friend of mine and just a great guy, and everybody knew him around Sumter from the sporting goods industry and everything. So I'd go over and see him still when he was at Simpson. Super guy. A legend for sure.

SPEAKER_05

Uh Sean, real quick, uh, while while we're back on Simpsons for a minute, um you mentioned the two websites, uh kind of HuntSimpsons.com is if you're looking for hunting stuff, guns, even you can buy guns on the side.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's where we just keep it separate, the the guns. Because a lot of registration and there's a lot of legal stuff is and they gotta be all the way legal with that stuff. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Okay, but then you also you have multiple brick and mortar stores. So tell us about the stores and where they are. We've mentioned Liberty Street, the the original, the OG.

SPEAKER_02

That's right.

SPEAKER_05

But of course, Westmark, the Cabela's, um, or the Bass Pro, if you will. That's right. Tell me about the others.

SPEAKER_02

So, you know, in Sumter we have three stores. One is the the big one, Westmark. Then Liberty is your downtown original, and then Pinewood Road, and um, you know, is it a more of your traditional hardware store just like Liberty? That's right. So three stores in Sumter, and then one store that's like a small version of Westmark in Manning that's been around for over 30 years, and then a store in Lake City that's only been around since 2023. So brand new in Lake City, essentially. And a small version of Westmark as well.

SPEAKER_05

Okay. Now, you guys have owned the one in Manning for the whole 30 years, or did y'all recently move, or maybe in the last 10 or 15 years? Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02

In uh 2012, give or take, we moved across the street and built up our building there.

SPEAKER_05

So you've been there for a long time, but you've moved to a bigger building to more model your big store, your flagship.

SPEAKER_04

That's right.

SPEAKER_05

Okay.

SPEAKER_04

What's coming up in the summer or fall in the life of Simpsons that might be worthy of note?

unknown

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04

Any funny July stuff going on?

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Thank you for asking. Um, you know, we'll have a couple celebrations around the 250th anniversary and try to highlight that. And um, you know, we just got done with Father's Day sale. But, you know, in August, it's a big time with back to school, big time with back to getting in the woods, and we're gonna celebrate our 75th anniversary, the second um Saturday of August, August 8th. And they're gonna we're gonna have some lead up to that, but it also is tax-free weekend. It's gonna be a bucket sale weekend. It's um so we're just gonna really embrace that weekend and so we're we're gonna be talking about the 75th anniversary all year, but that's kind of a big deal, and we hope to have some some things reminiscing.

SPEAKER_05

Now, 75th, is that like a diamond anniversary? Like when you're married, you know, you have a silver and a gold. 75.

SPEAKER_04

I don't think they hit 75 very often.

SPEAKER_05

Not very often, but I think it's diamonds. I think that's maybe I remember.

SPEAKER_01

I think you had diamonds earlier. Bubba might know this. I I got another one for you. Yeah, we can have to check it for sure. So Sean, and and you may have been there during this time or whatever, and I know like Simpson now, they have sales throughout the whole year and that kind of stuff and everything. Yeah. But I remember it used to be a huge, huge deal, especially I can remember when that Westmark and everything. Like the after Christmas sale. Yeah. That was just, I mean, that was a huge, huge deal. Like everybody likes the after Christmas sale, because I don't think I had the warehouse space at that time and everything else, too. So it was after Christmas, we gotta we gotta sell the stuff and everything, and it was just that's a big deal. I remember pick people just lined up and pack pack up to go go to something for the big after Christmas sale.

SPEAKER_02

We still call it our biggest sale of the year because I mean we do the most cutting and we are wanting to get rid of stuff so we don't bring it into January of the next year. But I mean the the expo has become now we kind of embrace that as our Black Friday and that'll be in October again this year. It will, yes.

SPEAKER_05

Very good. Um, you know, we were talking about the fire earlier and when you moved and you hopped around before you landed at Westmark, but this will be a shout out to Browning as much as it is to Simpsons. But I bought a Gore-Tex duck hunting jacket, a Browning Gore-Tex jacket. It was on sale, but I bought it from Simpsons when you were in that Westmark Plaza over there where the Beacon Movie Theater is now. Right. And you're telling me that was in like 2002 or one? 2000 2000 when it burned. 2000 or 2000. So it's, I mean, I still wear that jacket. It's 25 years old. Yes. It is still warm, it is still waterproof. I've never had one problem with it. It is my go-to jacket if it's cold at all, and I need to be in camo, camo that works, that is. That's right. And so uh Brownie makes quality stuff. You guys have carried them as long as I can remember.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, do you have like an air tag on it that you've kept up with it for 25 years? It's amazing.

SPEAKER_05

It's one of the few things that I've actually kept up with for 25 years. That is a fair point, and somehow it is stuck around.

SPEAKER_02

It's impressive. What can I say? Yeah. They they may, you know, it that's one thing that's really remarkable. Just we talked, you know, about the new store in 2002 and how the the clothing was really just, you know, uh sweatsuits and it wasn't much, and getting the brands that matter back. Pony.

SPEAKER_05

They were the nylon, maybe color back to zen suits. I had to go to Savannah Plaza to get the right color one time. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You had a big selection out there on Ryan and if you if you got them lined for the wintertime, those things were nice.

SPEAKER_05

That was tightness there.

SPEAKER_02

Getting the right brands interacting. I mean, y'all would love it. Any of the the listeners would love to go to these markets where you interact with the vendors and um, you know, they'll have personalities there, but it's it is remarkable seeing the behind the scenes and and it sometimes is can be disappointing because a lot of your brands, I mean, they're making their stuff in places you don't really love, and they're just importing stuff, and it's almost like you know, facade, or they may it's just it can be disappointing at the same time. Yeah, I can say a lot of good quality brands for sure.

SPEAKER_05

Well, speaking of running into the vendors and and getting to see a little bit of the other side, that's kind of how the GOE is because you have all of your lines there, they bring in people. In fact, that's how we met uh the duck hunter. Uh Jimbo. Sorry, Jimbo. Yeah, brain freeze there for a second. Jimbo Ronquist, you introduced us to him. We got to interview him on the podcast. That was really cool. But you had several other vendors with different personalities, but other you know, marketing agents and stuff that were there. A funny story, this is this is kind of true to form for Steven. I had a gift certificate to Simpsons, somebody had to give me for like $50. Some somehow I ended up with a little bit of extra money in my pocket that I wasn't really counting on, and that's when you start justifying expenses that you shouldn't really make, is when you kind of had like found money. So I had the gift card, had a little bit of found money, and uh you had uh Costa Del Mar had a nice booth in the corner back there. Oh yeah. And they had a nice lady that was like their marketing person, she's selling everything, she's being sweet. And they had them on sale, you know, because of the GOE. And so a $200 pair of glasses were $150, you know. When I've got a $50 gift card, I got kind of $50 of found money. So this really only cost me like $50. And about once every eight years, I buy a nice pair of sunglasses. I usually lose them or break them in about two weeks. That I do that. So then, you know, then that they're gone, and then I have to go buy cheap ones for the next eight years until I get the courage up to try again. Well, it had been eight years, so I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna get a I'm gonna get a nice pair of coasters finally. This was this patchy. This is this patchy. I ain't told anybody the story's because it's embarrassing. So I so I buy the glasses. I'm looking good, you know. I mean, I was.

SPEAKER_04

Bob and I were there, we didn't know this story.

SPEAKER_05

I sweated over the right decision because they got lots of options, you know. So I spend the money, I get these nice set of glasses. I wear them about three days. I wear them home. My family notices and I was like, oh, those are nice glasses. I was like, well, I had to explain to her, of course, kind of found money, this and that. I didn't really spend a lot on them. It's a big sale, you know, on and on and on.

SPEAKER_01

You explained how much you saved, right?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, oh god, I saved a ton of money. I explained all that. So um about two days later, um, I take them, I walk inside, and I put them in my inside pocket of my coat that I'm wearing.

SPEAKER_04

Should have been the brownie coat that'd have been fine.

SPEAKER_05

And then one of my sons comes home, they hadn't seen him in a while, and I walked up behind him and I squeezed him, give him a big hug from behind. I was like, Hey buddy, I missed you. And those glasses were right here on my chest, and I gave him such a big hug, and he went, Greek. I had uh, you know, the arms or whatever the frames that you know go over your ear, they popped off. Oh no. And I was like, oh yeah. And Nason goes, What was that noise? And I was like, Was that your glasses? I was like, we'll look at later, don't worry. Don't worry about it. My shoulder pops. I think it was shoulder. I think it was something else. And so like later that night, I was like, I pull it out of there shattered. Uh and actually sent them off. And I made the mistake of telling them the truth of what happened. They're like, Yeah, don't do that. They're not made for however much you know, pressure. I'm sure the pressure was probably charts. I mean, can you imagine? Hundreds of pounds. So I'm back to my gas station glasses for another eight years. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Wow. We appreciate your purchase.

SPEAKER_05

Yes, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_01

That's funny.

SPEAKER_05

Uh Bubba, you've been a little bit quiet in this episode. You haven't been uh hurling any insults, no, no bombs over the table.

SPEAKER_01

You're being taking it all in, just just just in in the awe of greatness here, and I'm just taking it in.

SPEAKER_05

You probably didn't think about your boccee strategy. It's probably what you're working on.

SPEAKER_04

He's trying to figure out if marsupials has one P or two P's in it.

SPEAKER_01

I'm waiting on you to spell it for me, Dear. I think he can't spell it for you.

SPEAKER_04

I think I get to.

SPEAKER_01

Go for it.

SPEAKER_05

M-A-R-S-U-P-I-A-L.

SPEAKER_04

That's what I think it is. Marsupial.

SPEAKER_05

I think he's right.

SPEAKER_04

You didn't say it again, so you you're out.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

He did not do the spelling B. Only nerds do spelling bees. Could you use it in a sentence? Oh, goodness. Sean killed a marsupial.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I know I just harmed him. The chicken is who I killed. But you know, the other chicken, I haven't really told that that story. Um, I guess after our one killing of a chicken, and you know, I didn't mind eating the and and my youngest didn't mind eating the male chicken. Um, but no one else in the family, it was clear. We got away. He is also a chicken. Not all roosters are not all chickens are roosters, and you know, but all roosters are chickens, thank you. But I had the other rooster, and uh it was time to give him away. Just drove down 441, um, you know, Patriot Parkway, found found a couple potential spots, just asked some folks, some fellows, something, would you like a chicken? Oh, yeah, just you know, just put them right there. So we just kind of dumped her chicken to a random. I it's one of the houses up there, and I'm sure he's lived a good fine life for a couple days, and then someone else met a similar fate. Yes.

SPEAKER_05

Sean, when we lived out on the hill out this way, uh when Sarah and I moved out here, I've told the stories of us having chickens for the first time, and that story quickly gets to the peacock story, which Bubba likes to bring up that didn't last very long. But when Sarah first came home with those chickens, she came home with two ducks as well. So two little small white ducks, little farm ducks, with these chickens. And so we throw them all in this little coop I built them together.

SPEAKER_01

But the ducks Did you get a permit for that coop?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I got lots of permits. I get permits out of the wazoo. Steven likes to follow the rules. Love a permit. Let me fill that out for you. Stupid. So we got these two ducks. But I'm here to tell you like chickens make a mess, but ducks make double the mess. They poop twice as much. And they get a little bit more aggressive, and like even when they're young, they're always like nipping and sniffing. And Sarah decided Sean's got some shot collars if you want to. We could have helped that. So Sarah decides, seeing that I don't want these ducks anymore. I just want to keep the chickens. Can you get rid of the ducks? Well, my neighbor out there had a little pond, about a two-acre little round pond. Uh, and I was like, Yeah, I'll I'll just take them out to the pond, and I think they're big enough to maybe make it.

SPEAKER_04

I hope there's not like duck enthusiasts listening to the podcast. That's right. So there's ducks or us or whatever.

SPEAKER_05

So uh so I take them down there and I turn them loose. And they rang, rang, rang, rang, rang, and they go out there swimming around in the little pond, these little kind of you know, half-grown white farm ducks. And so um, about two days goes by, and Sarah now is feeling bad that I just turned these ducks loose. And she's like, I think you should go check on the ducks. And I was like, maybe you I mean, did you want me to get rid of them or not? I'm not certain you're gonna like what I find if I go down there. And she goes, just go check on the ducks. So I got on the floor, I rode down there, and uh as soon as I got there, I looked out in the middle of the pine, there's one duck. It's rank, rank, rank, swing around in a circle. And I rode around the whole pine, and sure enough, I found a pile of white feathers where something may grabbed the other duck, a bobcat or something, a possum maybe, uh, marsupial or other critter. And so uh I go back and I report to Sarah, there's only one duck left, but he seems to be hanging in there pretty good. I go back the next day, because she sends me back on an errand again to check on him, and he is sitting beside a like a stork or a crane or some bird, you know, a waiting type bird. And they're just sitting there together, side by side, like looking at the pond, talking about life, just you know, living up. I was like, that's weird. He's he's made a friend. So I went back and told Sarah, I was like, apparently he's made a friend. He's hanging out with this waiting bird. That's what it was like. What was that? Tumba and Simba, lion and uh warthog. And so uh so I go back the next day, I'm interested in hanging out, and they're at a different place around the pond, but sitting there together, just chilling. They really had to kind of become friends, and that's who he would go to. And then uh one day I went back and uh um that waiting bird was there by himself, and I found another pile of white feathers. So it turns out they weren't quite old enough to make it in the wild by themselves. It doesn't end well, doesn't end well. You gotta watch out for them ducks.

SPEAKER_04

You win some, you lose some. You can't win them all. You can't do it. That's what it is. This is true.

SPEAKER_05

This is true. Sean, I know when you when you were thinking about coming out out here to be with us, you had certainly probably thought of a few stories you wanted to tell. Have but have we knocked on all the ones that were you kind of itching to tell, or you got one or two more that you know are gonna be?

SPEAKER_02

I guess an angle I thought is I you know hear y'all telling so many stories and loving, reminiscing in its surrounding family. Um I had a special experience. I know y'all just got back from North Myrtle, and I have told um y'all that I grew up in North Myrtle, but really haven't been there in twenty years. It's changed a lot, do you say that? It has changed, but some things have not, and that's kind of where I'm going in that you know we stay at the furthest point of Cherry Grove, but yet We were vacationing, spending time, I mean thirty forty avenues more south. But you know, Molly and I took the time to go back where I grew up and just the memories that flooded the the place where I cut my foot on oyster bed shrimping or you know, where the um boat turned over when I'm growing up trying to catch, you know, crabs or you know, just all that outdoor stuff that you remember as a kid, going back there and reminiscing and doing it with your family, and just how y'all we are valuing the time that we have with our children. Something about going back to old places and and being able just my kids weren't with me, but my wife wasn't. She endured my talking about everything I remember. But it's just something special about that and including your kids in those stories that brings life.

SPEAKER_04

Well, that's why we do, I mean, that's why we started the podcast. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

To tell the stories and hopefully, like I said, one day be heard. And we enjoy them. I mean, it's just fun, you know, just sitting around and and like we talked about burning wood per se and um just telling these stories and everything. Uh you did you you said a while ago that I have been quiet. I'm I'm a little bit tired. Um, just I would throw this out there real quick. Um, we hadn't done a water segment in a while, but here we go. Real quick, uh Thomas and I went fishing today, and I just want to say something about Santee Cooper right now. Of course, they just had the elite series there and they caught them really good. But Santee has has really been amazing lately, especially Lake Moultrie. I don't know that anywhere on that lake you can stop out in the middle of the lake or anywhere else and just about not catch a bass. I mean, Thomas and I went today and we didn't get close to the bank anyway. We just went out just fishing grass, like out in the middle of the lake, literally, and we caught seven, and two of them were pretty daggum good ones. And just just fishing grass. I mean, it caught caught one on a jerkbait, caught one on a drop shot. I mean, Thomas caught one on a Nico rig. The the urchin? Were you throwing the urchin? We did urchin a little bit, but we were fishing a little bit deeper out there, and too much water displacement with the urchin in that depth of the bigger. There is a lot of water displacement. It does, it does move a lot of water. It does. It does.

SPEAKER_02

And so do you do that with like every facet of life, like speak, speak in with bubble heads. Okay. With my friends, it's the urchin. You do that with a water ball. I don't know what you what you it's always. It's the same look. It's like well, let me tell you a little something about anyway. I I mean all three.

SPEAKER_01

There's no doubt. I mean remarkable. Like, like, if if who wants to be a millionaire was still on, there's no doubt who my phone a friend will be, okay? Oh, just no doubt. Call him Stephen Dinkins. Call him Stephen Dickens. Woody answered that question. He's got something to share. He's good for it. Yes. But for sure. Going back to the water segments that we were trying to just finish up before we displaced the water. How deep of water were we fishing in with the water? We're probably fishing, I'm gonna be honest with you, we never turned a depth fine on them, but we're probably in eight foot of water, maybe nine, maybe ten, I don't know. Probably anywhere from might have been a little bit deeper than that. But we just kind of moved around and drifted with the wind. I mean, we really, we just let the wind blow us and we just fishing. Um I caught matter of fact, there's multiple times I had the drop shot that I threw out, and I had it sitting by me, and I was throwing the jerkbait with the other rod, and I caught two while I had to just dragging the drop shot, and I just out crossed the middle of the lake. And so it's just knee. It's a different time right now because they killed all the grass back at the end of the 90s and 2000 or whatever, and we thought all the grass would be gone. Well, there they turned a hydrilla back in the lake, a lot of eel grass, and it's kind of where truly like I grew up as far as all that grass fishing and everything and open water, and it's gotten back. It's fun. I mean, it's fun to go down there and just catch them. And it's it's neat. I mean, it's just a different kind of fishing.

SPEAKER_04

So it changes your game plan. Did you did you get out there and then think, let's just try the grass, or were y'all going?

SPEAKER_01

No, we went to do that. That was no other plan. We went to go fish grass.

SPEAKER_04

You had a you had a tip.

SPEAKER_01

Not really a tip. No, we just we just went, we just went, we've been catching them the whole year out there. We just haven't been back there. We had been fishing, um, we've been fishing in the swamp and we caught them pretty good in Falkerberry several Saturdays and and everything. We just said, let's go to the Lower Lake and try that today. And we didn't well, we only fished a few hours. I mean, my Kim and Arden were coming home from a trip, and so we wanted to get back home. So we only fished a few hours and we caught a couple pretty good ones, and I had a really big one come up behind the jerkbait when I went to pull out the water. It was a it was a big one. Thomas had just made a comment. He said, What do you think the biggest fish that actually has seen our bait? Did we actually drug our bait by the day? I said, eight plus. He said, You think so? I said, Yeah, I think so. And I mean, literally, I pulled a jerk bait out of the water, and I mean a massive one, boiled on it right when I pulled right when I pulled out the water and missed it.

SPEAKER_05

Bubba, you send us a picture and you had one really big fish. You caught a magnum carry.

SPEAKER_01

Thomas caught a giant um giant carp day. It was 42 pounds, six ounces. We weighed him um and let him go. Um he Thomas hooked him actually on the urchin, um, on the koike. Um happened, I run it, ran across the side, and he just set the hook and and snagged this fish in the side, and when it took off, he didn't know what he had. It was it was a big giant fish. And um I was like, hold him, this was this was a good one. And we we saw the carp. He did catch him and we netted him and put him in the boat, and he took a picture with him before we let him go, but he was a giant carp. 42 pounds, six ounces, he was massive. I don't believe they get much bigger than that. No, so I mean we figured our five biggest fish today weighed somewhere close to 55 to 50, 60 pounds. You've got to have an anchor, and when you got a 42, 426 anchor, that always helps things.

SPEAKER_05

So I could use that in the dig as well classic. I need one of the car out there. Oh goodness. Well, uh, the sun has set out here. It is time to probably wrap this this episode up as well. We'll be getting ready to hands hand it off to Scott for uh another segment from the Word. Uh, but you're gonna be listening to this episode. If you listen on Monday when it comes out, just a day or two after uh Father's Day. So happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there that are listening. And uh we want to uh thank you for listening, not just to fathers, but everybody. And uh we want to thank Sean again for being on with us. Thank you for his sponsorship and sentence, of course, again. Uh, but then look forward to seeing you all with another Monthly Legal Monday.

SPEAKER_03

Hey y'all, welcome back to our word segment. Uh, want to read from Psalm 34, one of the uh Psalms that I love. It's one of our uh theme verses at Shapin Presbyterian Church, and where we're going over it in our vacation Bible school this week. Um, it comes from Psalm 34. One of the things I love about it is the corporate nature of it. It's not just individual reflection on who God is and and what he does in the world. Um, although uh faith is very personal, there's a corporate nature that we see in Psalm 34. Uh, this is verses one through three. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. And verse three, oh magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. And I love verse three because it it reflects on you know, verses one and two, hey, I have made the Lord my God, I am gonna boast in him, I'm gonna uh continually praise him. Um, and then verse three is this invitation, hey, let's do this together. Let's exalt the name of the Lord together. And uh the reality of this corporate need that we have to join together with other Christians to worship the living God. Uh, you and I both uh need personal relationship with Christ. We've talked about this. Um, you desperately need to know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and verse three, you need to be with other Christians who are also pursuing relationship with Jesus Christ, who are also worshipers of the living God. And you do that, we do that in the context of a local church. You need the local church because the church is the bride of Christ, uh, it's the body of Christ. Multiple places in the New Testament, God uh points us to the reality that we are members of this body. We are hands, we are feet, um, we are eyes and ears. We have a role, a distinct uh body function uh that we need to play. We need to find out what that is, we need to be engaged in the life of the church, we need to be in relationship with other Christians. God has saved you through his son, uh, not only to uh reunite him with himself, but he's saved you on purpose. There's a reason why he has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. He wants to use you and connect you with the work of his church to expand his kingdom and grow the beauty of the bride of Christ. And you're to be a part of that. I'm to be a part of that. It's vital that we understand uh how the church needs us and how we need the church. So I just want to encourage you. I I'll be a clearinghouse if you have questions on where to go to church, uh, depending on where you live, um, find a local church that preaches God's word and holds fast to his commands and um that is faithful and uh trusting in Christ and then join with them. I would make this plea not only as a pastor but as a brother in Christ. You need the church. Um, and so I want to encourage you to lead your family in that way, um, put them in relationships with other Christians in the local church, and don't neglect uh the gathering together of God's people. Um again, if you have questions, if if you want advice, don't hesitate to reach out to me or us at Mostly Illegal. We would love to connect you with a local church in your area that would enrich your pursuit of Christ, that would uh bear your burdens and a place where you can also bear the burdens of others. Um we hope you have a great week. Uh, hope you have a great day of worship on the Lord's Day, and uh I just want to encourage you to be in church, to be a part, a member, um pursuing Jesus with other Christians. We'll talk to you soon. Have a great Monday.

Contributor

Stephen Dinkins

Host
Contributor

Bubba Johnston

Co-host
Contributor

Sandy Sanders

Co-host
Contributor

Scott Dinkins

Co-host