Fist Full of Dirt

FFOD330 : Fathers, Mentors & Heroes

Mossy Oak Season 1 Episode 330

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 1:01:22

Send us Fan Mail

This week’s episode is all about fathers. With Father’s Day upon us, we asked our listeners to share stories about the men who shaped their lives, and y’all delivered.

Some of these stories are about great dads. Others are about grandfathers, mentors & coaches who stepped in when they were needed most. Some take place in deer camps and dove fields..  others have nothing to do with hunting at all. But every one of them reminds us how powerful a good man’s influence can be.

Lauran and I read your stories and found ourselves laughing one minute and fighting back tears the next. This is one of the most heartfelt episodes we’ve ever done. To all the fathers, father figures and mentors out there.. thank you for the example you set. Happy Father’s Day.

Stay connected with Fist Full of Dirt: 

Instagram: @ffodpodcast

Instagram: @moplandforsale

Twitter: @FistDirt

TikTok: @originalturkeythug

Instagram : @CuzStrickland

Twitter: @CuzStrickland

Facebook: @CuzStrickland

YouTube: Cuz411

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to Fistful of Dirt, the official podcast of Monte Oak Properties. Whether you own a small farm, lease land, or just love hanging in your backyard. We're all about the outdoor lifestyle and how to get the most from your time in God's great outdoors. Now here's your host, Ronnie Cub Strickland.

SPEAKER_12

It's in my live from the Camo Cave North.

SPEAKER_03

I'm over here watching all my levels, making sure everything's hooked up right.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah, no feedback, no issues. I get I get comments all the time about man, I love listening to Fistful of Dirt because the audio's good.

SPEAKER_03

Aw.

SPEAKER_12

Doesn't go up and down, up and down, up and down. You know how that is.

SPEAKER_03

I spend a lot of time on that, but I listen to other podcasts, and so I'm real particular because there's some I can't even listen to when I'm mow because that it's not loud enough or clear enough. And I'm like, man, I don't ever want to be that podcast that people can't play in their truck or their tractor.

SPEAKER_12

I'll let you borrow my Tetris if you need to get it'll boost that sound for you.

SPEAKER_03

Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_12

Anyway, yeah, the the older you get, the more that's the issue. And a lot of the guys that comment are older guys, and it's hard for older guys to admit that they're not hearing as well, climbing as well, whatever. And I guess it's just human nature.

SPEAKER_03

But what's the Toby Key song about like don't let the old man in?

SPEAKER_12

Don't let the old man in. He coming in, or it's Charlie O'Brien's daddy slick, which they just keep living.

SPEAKER_03

Keep living.

SPEAKER_12

Check engine lights coming on. But keep uh keep moving. That's that's the key to that deal.

SPEAKER_03

I like it.

SPEAKER_12

Oh, absolutely. Well, Father's Day is next weekend.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_12

Next Sunday, I think. So I I did a post. I just went through and started grabbing photos. I didn't really grab buddies all in my phone. I didn't necessarily had a have a picture of them with their kids, but I was just throwing up pictures of dads, people I knew who were dads, and said Father's Day is coming up write in the down in the comments while your dad was your hero or something. And uh man, we got a lot. That's good.

SPEAKER_03

That is good. That's one of those that just feels good to listen to.

SPEAKER_12

And you know, being a dad today is I mean, I can tell you about my dad because it was way different back in the day. And I hey, I ain't getting stuck back in the day. But there's uh there's a lot of ways to be a good dad, mostly just being present. I'm not you know, and I got so many great comments, and we're gonna take turns. You and I are gonna read some of these.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

But I got a text from one of my good buddies talking about uh his dad wasn't. Yeah. And I didn't know all this. I've been knowing this dude forever. Oh man. And uh and he was talking about what what he he was liking in.

SPEAKER_03

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_12

And it made it inspired him to be none of that.

SPEAKER_03

Uh be the best.

SPEAKER_12

Yo, and he's one of the best ones ever.

SPEAKER_03

Do I know him?

SPEAKER_12

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_12

And uh I sa and my last comment was as man, I hope he lived long enough to watch you lead your family. Oh and uh because you never know. I mean, this you know, DNA and people blame stuff on I didn't have this, I didn't have that. And uh I was blessed. And 'cause my dad was a different kind of dad. You gotta you gotta remember now I was born in 1954. So I grew up in the late 50s and the 60s. Different world back then.

SPEAKER_03

Daddies were pretty tough.

SPEAKER_12

Oh I don't know if they were tough. It's just they coming out of, you know, whatever, World War II, Korea, they were raised that way, and I was kind of raised that way, my brother. And uh I, you know, I'll get to talking about back in the day sometime, and I'll tell stories, and people will look at me like that's there's no way that's true. It's true. I told a story, I forgot where we were. I took the boys fishing somewhere and was talking about uh one time, and my dad was a big fisherman, not a big hunter. Never never had a boat. If we were in a boat, we rented it. We could go over to Lake and Cordy to Sam's bait shop and rent a boat and put our Evan Root on it, and we would fish the whole lake. It was crazy. We were able to go down the levee and the bar pits, we called them bar pits, the proper terminations, borrow pits, but you cross the Mississippi River end of a day, you turn left and go way down. And you could fish from the bank. None of it was posted. And he was I'm gonna just tell you, he was hardcore, hardcore. You know, he would uh the little bit of hunting he did was we would he would go squirrel hunting because we could sell the tails to the MEPS company for a quarter. And he would sell the tail, the squirrel tails and all that. But we went fishing one time and it was around, I don't know, it was cold. It was probably deer season, but he didn't hunt that much. And it was it was so cold there was ice on the, you know, maybe a foot out. It wasn't frozen water, but along the bank where it was sl, you know, the ripples were coming out, it was ice everywhere. And I was kind of sitting in, he wouldn't let me leave the motor run, but I it was too cold for me. I was sitting in the 1964 Ford Fairland, which ended up being my first car. And he snagged, and I don't remember what he was fishing with, it was something slow. And he hooked a bass, and I saw I saw that old rod went down, and that thing took off. And anyway, it it got him hung up in a stump, and it was a treetop out there, broke off. It was about two feet high with some roots and stuff coming up, and he walked way around this way, got out in the water about a foot, and walked way around that way. He was the best at coming on a tangle, he couldn't get it loose, and he turned around and whistled me to come down there, and uh, I stripped down and swam out there and unhooked that fish. And I'm telling you, it was in the 30s.

SPEAKER_14

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_12

And uh anyway, by the time I got back, he'd started a little fire. Uh-huh. And uh I didn't uh you know, I was in my underwear. He said, take your underwear off, put them dry clothes back on, just sit by the fire, and he went right back to fishing. And about halfway home, we was an hour from the house or more, about half of him don't tell your mama any of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Uh uh, you get canceled if you do that nowadays.

SPEAKER_12

Oh, they put you in jail. We was fishing, he was fishing down the levee one time and he had Dr. Tom Talkington with him. I can't believe I remember all this. And they were fishing topwaters early in the morning. And uh we were uh they were throwing a devil horse. You old school people know what a devil horse was. Long topwater bait. I think his was purple or black, and it would it had a kind of a knuckle in the middle of it, and three barbed hooks on it, and a little propeller at the front, and you'd pull it in the water and go like that.

SPEAKER_14

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_12

And then fish were hitting at it, and they didn't always get anyway. He he saw a fish coming at it, and as soon as it hit, he he went to set that hook and came back, and it hooked in my ear all the way through. And uh he I walked up, man, it was hurting too. I wasn't crying. Didn't cry in front of him that much, but anyway, he got his uh needling loads pliers out, cut the bait out, left the treble hook in, put another treble hook on it, went right back to fishing. Are you kidding? Dr. Tom was on the other side of the bar pit over there, and when he came around, we went to his office and he cut it out about dinner time. It's traumatizing. I didn't think that you don't think nothing about it. I mean, it's that's just the way it was back in the day.

SPEAKER_03

Like everybody had relatable, similar stories.

SPEAKER_12

Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, out here, uh, I was, you know, the guy that farms out here. I was out here one day and I I let him cut hay out here. It saves me a lot of time, and they the cows get to eat. And I was out here one day and I went to flag him down. He was running a big tractor and and I flagged him down, walked up, and his it was his son. He's about nine.

SPEAKER_14

Tiny.

SPEAKER_12

Hey, Mr. Cuz. And the tractor, and I was like, that boy's gonna be something. He he is gonna be something. And uh anyway, there is no manual on it, but there's some great ones out there, and the ones that didn't have a great one, I feel, I feel for you. But uh that's just the way it is. But I thought we'd do a little something to honor the good dads and let you let y'all chime in.

SPEAKER_03

I love it when they chime in.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's your favorite podcast when people chime in. So we're gonna uh we're gonna read a few of these and uh hopefully you'll uh it'll help you celebrate your father's day. I hope he's still around. If he's not, God bless his soul.

SPEAKER_04

What do you love about your dad?

SPEAKER_00

So my dad is my superhero. He he gives me strength and hope.

SPEAKER_05

I love that you've never given up on me, no matter how much I was a difficult child. You just never gave up when a lot of people did.

SPEAKER_06

Um, what I love about my dad is the fact how selfless he is. He always puts everybody else first.

SPEAKER_09

I love that daddy, it's really daddy. You know exactly how to put a smile on my face when I'm in the worst of moods. You stay up late nights and um so I can talk to you when you're there with open arms and I can just talk to you about anything.

SPEAKER_04

Dad. There are tons of things I love about you. Um and you know a lot of them, but um, I think probably the thing that I have loved most about you is how intentional you are about spending time together.

SPEAKER_10

You're a hardworking man, and just your passion for all of us as a family is just it's just great. Thanks, bud.

SPEAKER_04

AJ, want you to ask your dad that question for me.

SPEAKER_10

Oh gosh, dad. Here you go. What about me makes you proud?

SPEAKER_06

What about me makes you proud? Oh boy. Um well for you, what makes you proud is that we can that we can actually work together and that um we actually get along.

SPEAKER_04

Dad. What about me makes you proud?

SPEAKER_07

Tons of stuff. Your wit, your beauty, uh inner and outer beauty, your your love for the Lord, love for people. Yeah, you're just an amazing young lady.

SPEAKER_10

What about me makes you proud?

SPEAKER_06

The way that you like to learn how to ride horses that makes me proud of you. How you found your way, your relationship with God, and that's what makes us proud.

SPEAKER_05

What about me makes you proud?

SPEAKER_08

You always have a strength, an inner strength in you that is is is addictive. And I just love the fact that even in the moments where I feel weak, Sarah, that you actually make me feel strong and you have made me a better person. Are you trying to make me cry? You're doing a good job? I know you.

SPEAKER_12

I'm gonna let you go first. How's that?

SPEAKER_03

Perfect. And I know this first one. That's Chris Matthews. All right.

SPEAKER_12

The pit master.

SPEAKER_03

But it says cuz my papa introduced me to squirrel hunting and fishing very early on. And I can remember the Saturdays over the levee fishing in the bar pits. His favorite lure was a yellow and black H H spinner bait and a devil horse. He instilled in me a lifetime of love and respect for the outdoors. He passed away when I was around 10 years old. And to this day, when I smell 3M1 oil, it reminds me of him. He had a little wooden box he kept it in along with his trusty pocket knife. I don't remember going hunting or fishing and not saying thank you, Papa, for the time we spent together in the great outdoors. I miss him so much to this day. Thank you, cuz, for listening.

SPEAKER_12

How cool is that?

SPEAKER_03

I love that.

SPEAKER_12

I promise you I didn't read that one and say devil horse because he put it in his own.

SPEAKER_03

I know. Well, d that's just like you can tell what men are nostalgic about. And it's like it's funny that y'all would have the same kind of that stuck out to you. And I can imagine as a little kid being like, it's called what? The devil's horse.

SPEAKER_12

I wished I had a dollar for every black and yellow H H that I saw in my lifetime. But yeah, those were the I still got some in my tackle box. Now there's it's gotten just like anything else in the the good old USA technology moves forward and all, but I still got some H H's and I I don't even know what happened to my dad's old tackle box, but it was full of devil horses and lucky 13s and uh Rapala's, all kind of cool stuff. MEPS and MEPS came in a number one, number two alt number, and uh man that was something.

SPEAKER_13

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_12

Here's one from Chris Moore. He says, Well, here goes. My words cannot do justice to the kind of a man my dad was. My dad always put God first. He taught Sunday school every Sunday for 45 years, and then my mom and I next, then others and himself last always. Never heard him say a crossword about any kind to my mom. They were married for 53 years until her death in 2012. Quite disciplined for me most of the time in parentheses. Korean War veteran, always wise advice and encouragement for me to make good decisions and be my own person growing up. We never had a lot of things when I was growing up, but we always had what we needed and an abundance of love at our house. The stories I hear on Fistful of Dirt, always about your dad, remind me of my dad every time I hear one. He took me hunting when I wanted to go, mostly dove, quail, and squirrel. He was an avid fisherman. Boy, this guy sounds just like my dad. The story about Mr. Fox and the phone bill was so my dad. I remember one time I was about 14 or 15. He and I wore the same size shoes. He and mom and I were eating supper talking about me needing new tennis shoes. The next day I came in from school, new tennis shoes just like I wanted on the kitchen table. I immediately put them on and threw the old ones away. He got the old ones out of the trash after I went to bed and had them on the next day and wore them for the next two years.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_12

That's a dad thing.

SPEAKER_03

That's gonna make me cry.

SPEAKER_12

Told my mom told my mom, don't spend any money on me for tennis shoes. I could go on and on about the acts of kindness from my dad. Robert S. Bobby Moore. That's cool stuff.

SPEAKER_13

I can't do that.

SPEAKER_12

Lauren's over there boo-hooing and saying, I'm gonna go on to my next one. She uh she's like that. I knew it was gonna be like that. People love her. Who don't? This is from Lisa Chandler. My daddy was a glass house builder. I was his only daughter, and he made sure I knew I was special. We didn't always have all the things, but we always had love, laughter, and hugs. Daddy took us to church, made sure we behaved wherever we went, and told us all about his childhood. He had a rough life with his dad passing away suddenly when he was only 13. My daddy was the best dad, and even better, Paw Paul. P A W P A W. He he went to all games the grands had and even put in a pool for them to use. He's been in heaven for a little over 20 years now. One day I know I will re reunite with him. Fortunately, he had such a good influence on me that I married a man just like him. We have been married almost 40 years now, and he's been the kind of dad I had, and the pawpaw he saw in my dad. Love your show, and thanks for the opportunity to share just a smidge about my precious daddy.

SPEAKER_02

This episode isn't gonna be I'll read it, no, let you dry your eyes. I'm gonna get a tissue.

SPEAKER_12

It's like I say all the time, everybody's got a story. Your podcast don't have to be you talking about yourself for 45 minutes or an hour about how good you do this and that. If you either love people and you see that or you don't, anyway, this is some Nelson Chandler. My daddy was a hard worker, farmer, and worked for 46 years in a cotton mill. I like to think of him as the first conservationist as he planted clover for the deer when no one was doing that. He loved my mom and my brother and sister and always made sure we were in church on Sunday morning. He encouraged me all the time in everything I did and was excited when I took when I took a turkey home from the spring hunt or a deer in the fall. He has been gone now since the year two thousand, but I miss him every day. He loved his grandchildren with all his heart. He was truly a southern gentleman.

SPEAKER_03

These are so good. Okay. I I'm about my life together. This is one from sixty sevenhunts.com outfitters. He said, I'll never forget that call. My daddy was invited to a very exclusive dove hunt. For many years, my brother and I were his retrievers on the same shoot. It was a big social event in my hometown. This year was different. I heard him ask if there was room for the boys to shoot. When he was told there wasn't, he told the gentleman that he appreciated the invite, but he thought he would just take us to our family farm and see if we could shoot a few birds come into the water. When he got off the phone, I asked why he turned down the invitation. I honestly couldn't believe it. He told me, quote, I promised myself that when I became a father, I will be the daddy that I never had.

SPEAKER_12

How cool is that.

SPEAKER_03

In the moment you can imagine these daddies just doing the right thing 'cause it was the right thing to do, not knowing that people were gonna be thinking about it for the rest of their lives and what a like a defining little moment it was.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah, and you never know when those are gonna come up.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_12

We uh you you just never know, man. It's people that act like that when nobody's watching.

SPEAKER_03

That's character.

SPEAKER_12

That's character. That's right.

SPEAKER_03

That's your character.

SPEAKER_12

Now this one I didn't print out, I'm gonna go ahead and read it. Because most of them I printed out because I have to make the letters bigger. But anyway, I didn't get a chance, this one came in late. This is from Tristan Canadal. From the Sheriff's The High Sheriff, Sheriff Mike from Arkansas.

SPEAKER_03

There we go.

SPEAKER_12

He says, Well, you know my dad, but here's my story. He taught me how to be a man, tough, dependable, strong, and be a leader. He has showed me how to face the ultimate fear with the utmost courage and to stand in the gap when no one else will. He's taught me to handle criticism and most of all how to serve others because I quote that's what we do and who we are. Not least of all, taught me about the great outdoors. More that I could say, but you know him well.

SPEAKER_03

How cool is that? That's special.

SPEAKER_12

He's a special dude. You talking about leading by example. Dude won the medal of freedom. We got a podcast with Sheriff Mike Connell. You just gotta scroll down and it was two parts.

SPEAKER_03

What a wild story.

SPEAKER_12

Oh my word. That's what I say. Everybody's got a story. You just gotta dig it out of them. And the dads ain't sending stuff in, it's their kids and grandkids. That's right, because they ain't gonna talk about it.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. This one's from Brandon Willingham, which he always sends us good stuff. He said my daddy taught me or I'm sorry, he said my dad. My dad taught me everything I need to know about bass, crappie, and brim fishing. If I have one person to choose to take fishing and we had two minutes to catch a largemouth bass to win a million dollars, there's no doubt I'm choosing him. He has been at every sporting event and is the first one I call after everything hunting success. If I'm at least half the man he is, I can say that I believe I'll be just fine in life. Thanks, Dad.

SPEAKER_12

I love it. This is uh Terry P. Lee. My dad, Bill Lee, was my hero in so many ways. He started taking my brothers and I hunting when I turned three years old. Dad hunted everything there was to hunt in the Mississippi Delta. He taught me so much more than hunting and fishing. He taught me about life. Dad's favorite critters to hunt were the wild turkey. He started hunting turkeys back in the late forties. He killed his first turkey with a sling. Slingshot. Yes, I said slingshot. I will stop here because I could talk forever about daddy. Love you, Miss Y Dad. You would be so proud of your grandson. Wow. Turkey was a slingshot. Now it takes, you know, TSS loads and a pain point. And I hey, I ain't denying it, it may be true. Who in the world? That's crazy.

SPEAKER_03

This one's from Brandon Hornsby. He said, My dad, Shelby, was a right leg amputee. My mom left us when I was four and he fought, scratched, and clawed to keep us kids together. He forfeited his disability and started a successful home satellite business that he sustained for over 17 years. He worked hard every day. He wasn't a perfect dad. He was a constant dad and always made sure we have what we needed and even some of what we wanted. He was a huge dove hunter because that's all they really ever had to hunt when he was growing up. As a kid, when he would take me on dove shoots, he always had ice cold mellow yellas, beanie weenies, potted meat, Viennas, and saltine peanut butter crackers for our lunch and snacks in the field. We lost him in May of 2010, but every opening day of dove season, I pay homage to the old man by packing my cooler with those same exact things for myself and my family to snack on. He was a great daddy and I miss him every day.

SPEAKER_12

That's what we're hearing on.

SPEAKER_03

It's just good, it just makes me feel good.

SPEAKER_12

Look, there's great people everywhere.

SPEAKER_03

And Amy and I were having that conversation. And I was like, you know, there's that book in psychology, or if you go through like marriage counseling before you get married, they make you read it called like it's like the five love languages or something, and it's how people tell you they love you. And she goes, Oh, our family was acts of a service, hands down. I said, Oh no, kidding. And she said, My car used to just get trashed because she was like, I would be busy, and it was just like the last thing on my mind. And she was like, Pop would get it and take it and clean it out and detail it and wash it. And she's like, the next time I got in it, it was just like, oh wow, my car. I said, I can remember, because I had big, thick, heavy Coke bottle glasses from the time I was really wanting.

SPEAKER_12

One of these days, I'm gonna go, hold up for me. One of these days I'm gonna post a picture of you when you were five without your permission because y'all would not, yeah, she turned into a flower. But when she was five, oh my goodness, bless her heart.

SPEAKER_03

Oh my goodness. I was so little when I took the eye exam. You couldn't, I didn't know my letters yet. I just had to look at pictures and they were like, it's bad. Yeah. But anyway, you were the one that would always come up to me and you'd squint and you'd look at me and be like, give me your glasses. And you would just walk off and you'd hit them with some Windex and your t-shirt and clean them off, and then you come put them back on my head, and I'm like, oh wow, like I could see again. I said, Nobody else ever thought to do that. And I didn't think to do it myself. I said, but he always was making sure I could see.

SPEAKER_12

You know, your mama bought me a soldering gun. Oh, I know, because we couldn't because you're you kept breaking your glasses.

SPEAKER_03

Right in the middle.

SPEAKER_12

And she said, we can't keep doing this. Can you fix them? I said, if I had a soldering gun, yeah, which there's no way we could back at the time.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

And she did she, I don't know how she did it. Sold coke balls or something, but she wouldn't find she bought me a really good soldering gun. I was able to keep your glasses because they'd get broke twice a week.

SPEAKER_03

They were so the prescription was so heavy that if they fell, boom, they would break in half every time.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah. Well, anyway. It's funny, it's funny the little things you remember.

SPEAKER_03

I know.

SPEAKER_12

One of the if I have any gifts and it ain't many, it's like I feel like, especially now, certainly not when I was young, I can recognize a defining moment. And it doesn't have to be for me, it can be when somebody's interacting with somebody else. I was like, wow, man, I hope they were listening to that.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_12

Because that was a defining moment.

SPEAKER_03

Yep.

SPEAKER_12

And uh I can remember back my dad was a pretty tough guy, wasn't big by any stretch of the imagination, 20-year military guy and all that. But I and but but he uh he he always had time for us and all this. But anyway, my deal was I didn't like school. And I'm talking about from the first grade. There was a million things I didn't like about it. Them stiff blue jeans I had to roll up way too high because they bought them where I could wear them for two years.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

I had a flat top and used to put this stuff on your hair called butchwax, and it was so stiff. If you if you went to ran run your hand over your hair, you could, you could, it'd stick a pinhole in the palm. I hated all that. And when it sweated out there at the playground, it would run and get you anyway. My dad knew I hated school, and he gave me a lot of leeway. And he asked me one time, well, what do you want to do? I said, I want to work. And he said, Well, you're too young. And I said, and I thought to myself, well, I'll show you. So I went up to Lewis's big star, put on my best white shirt and all that, and the manager's name was Jim Johnston. And boy, he was a no-nonsense kind of guy. And I didn't know about filling out application and all that. I just waited around until all he had his office, it was just a little island up there. And I watched him go in there and I he turned around, looked at me, and I said, I'd like to apply for a job. And uh so hey, how old are you? That's that's the whole point of the story.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_12

So he didn't say anything, he moved around, he handed me an application. Go home, fill that out, and he left the office. I said, Okay, I took it home, and you know, I was reading this thing, dad was reading it, and you had to be 15. Well, I was 14. And uh, I got to that question about when you were born, you know, and you had to feel this a little bit. And uh I looked at him uh at my dad and I said, You gotta be 15. I was crushed. And he reached down there and he filled in and put I was born in 55 or whatever, or 53.

SPEAKER_03

To make you a year older.

SPEAKER_12

And he looked me square in the eye and said, Well, act like you're 15.

SPEAKER_03

Oh?

SPEAKER_12

And I got the job the next day. Never knew. And I walked to work because it wasn't, you know, a 10-minute walk from my house. I didn't have a driver's loss or anything, but he looked me square in the eye, changed the date to 1953, and said, Well, act like you're 15. That was a defining moment. That's cool. One of them anyway. This is from uh Donnie Harrelson. He said, My dad was my hero. He started letting us tag along quail hunting. We did it all. Fishing, hunting, camping. He was so funny and never said anything bad about anyone. He used to sit on his dog box with a funnel stuck in his ear so he could hear this hound running the deer. I miss him so much. He he always said, a man is only as good as his word. You live by that. He also said, never give a man a bad dog. That's good words to live by. You will be known as a man with no good dogs. Bless his heart. What good advice is that?

SPEAKER_03

That's funny. This one's from our friend Anthony Crow. He said, What can I say about my dad? His name is William Crow, but everyone calls him Alfred. He was born September 15th, 1942. From my earliest memories, he was always working to provide for my mother, me, and my two brothers. Not the most educated man is he quit school in the ninth grade to go to work in the coal mines. See, my papa had black lung, he was a minor as well, and could only work half shift. My dad would work his shift and work the half shift, my papa couldn't. Without this, papa would not have been able to make his payment on their home place and it would have been lost. He married my mom in 1963, and in May of 1965, I was born, followed by my middle brother in January of 67, and then my baby brother in October of 68. He had a lot of mouths to feed, but I never heard him complain. My earliest memory is him taking me to an old farm pond when I was three to fish with cane poles. My first fish was caught there. I'm thinking it was a red-eared brim. He took me out to Arizona when I was four to tag along on his white wing dove hunts. Many days while I was in elementary school, he would whisper to me at breakfast not to get in the car with my brothers when they went to school. I always knew that meant we were gonna go crappie fishing, squirrel hunting, or some other adventure outside. He was mainly a rabbit hunter and always had a pack of beagles. He didn't hunt deer or turkey, so I had to learn that hunting on my own. But we always managed to sneak in a little small game hunting somewhere every year. His strong morals and beliefs molded me into what I am today and I'm forever grateful. This September he will turn eighty four and time is catching up to him. He can't rabbit hunt anymore, but we plant him a food plot and he will get out there and hunt most evenings during deer season. He's killed several deer, but would rather just watch him. As I write this, he's had a very serious health scare last week, and I've had to bring him to my house to stay while we get him better. He's making progress. I live on a lake, and yesterday he wanted to try and go fish, so I loaded him in the golf cart and we went. I had to bait his hook and take any fish he caught off for him, and the entire time I was thinking how life had come full circle.

SPEAKER_02

And now it was my turn to pay him back for all he's done for me. Not sure how much more time we have left together, but I cherish every moment. I love my dad dearly and would not be the man I am today without his guidance and love.

SPEAKER_12

You're a good man, Anthony, and you made Lauren cry again. See, you don't hear that kind of stuff on the news, you know, especially this past week, all this nonsense going on. It's like you know, if you have one thought when you wake up in the morning, it's just be grateful. If you can see the light, you can handle the darkness. But golly, some pe people some people just aren't grateful.

SPEAKER_03

And if you can't find a good guy, be the good guy or girl.

SPEAKER_12

There's so many, and it it's not just necessarily about having a great dad. Uh you know, it's it's just people have struggles. Your mom had struggles. She's a great person, and she just overcame it. And we were, of course, we got married when we were kids. We kind of grew up together, but uh there's ways to overcome it. It's like you said, if you didn't have a great person in your life, then be the great person. So and there's lots of sometimes the first one that pops in my mind is John Anone. You know, he didn't really have a I don't know if his dad was in the picture. Apparently it would he wasn't.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

And he went on black guy in Philadelphia and started Camp Compass. And look what all he accomplished.

SPEAKER_03

Taking inner city kids on every kind of outdoor adventure you can imagine.

SPEAKER_12

I think an uncle or something took him fishing one time and just lit that fire. Doesn't take much, but there's uh I get that's what aggravates me a lot of times about watching the news. It's like, golly, man, just do some human interest stories on good people because I'm telling you, they're out there. The majority of what you see on the news is a minority of the knuckleheads.

SPEAKER_03

That get all the playtime.

SPEAKER_11

Yep. Not fathers. But I want to talk about dads. Anybody can be a father. Take a real man to be a daddy, though. See, Father's Day changes as you get older. Sometimes being a father, just like being a mother, is a thankless job sometimes. You put your all in all into your kids, you don't know what you mean to them. And then uh, you know, as you get older, you know, when you're a kid, you don't necessarily understand or even appreciate what your dad is trying to do for you. But it's only when you get older, you step back, you move out the house, maybe even start a family on your own. You start to really realize, man, what that man meant to me, my dad, what he tried to teach me, all the lessons.

SPEAKER_12

You know, old timer builds knives with durability in mind. They also want it to be a tool that is comfortable enough to work with day after day. Since the beginning, old timers made knives for those who don't rely on others to get the job done. I love that. Old timer built for generations. You know, there's nothing I love more than teaching my grandkids how to be better woodsmen. The Onex app helps me do that in a way that makes sense to them. They're all about apps and that phone. Using Onex to set optimal wind on stands that should or shouldn't be hunted on certain winds makes it easy for them to understand that, hey, a north wind blows from the north, not to the north. Using that little slope angle layer when teaching them how to read topographical maps with the color-coded shading makes it a lot easier to explain to them what tightly stacked to fo lines mean. Bottom line, Onex Hunt makes learning fun for those young ones and still helps me find success in the field. It's an easy-to-use platform. Hey, even I can do it. I suggest it for any age outdoorsman.

SPEAKER_01

You're listening to Fistful of Dirt with Cunt Strickland. Presented by Mossy Oak Properties.

SPEAKER_12

Well, this one's from David Gill. He said, My dad stands out because of what he did back in 1977. My grandfather who lived in Missouri was stricken with lung cancer. They didn't think he would survive surgery, but to everyone's surprise, he did. This is when my mother, who went to Missouri to be with the family, decided she wasn't coming back home. Long story short, my dad fought for his three sons, was awarded custody, and raised those three boys by himself. Those three boys all became productive and respected citizens thanks to the dad, who refused to turn away from the responsibilities of being mom and dad to my two brothers and myself. We didn't have much, but we had each other. I want my dad to know how much I appreciate and love him for being the best role model three teenage sons could ever have asked for. Thanks, Dad, for always being there for your boys. You're always our hero. Three those three boys are now age sixty-two, sixty-four, and sixty-six. Dad is now a spry eighty-nine. He did the best he could for his boys. Love you, Dad. I'm glad I got that one. You'd have cried through that one, too. I'm telling you, man, there's just awesome, awesome people all over the place. And personally, I love sharing this stuff. And I know they're always your favorite ones when we get people to write in. Because I mean that we're not making this stuff up. We're not going to AI saying giving me 30 great comments about your day. People are sending this stuff in.

SPEAKER_03

They're so good. Well, and like I'll recognize names too from interactions and comments and other things we've done. And it's like you just, it's like getting to know our people a little bit more.

SPEAKER_12

Well, I'm going to let you pick the two people in here who get a brand new old timer knife.

SPEAKER_03

I'm going to do it randomly. Randomly. It wants to be random.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah, because uh all of them's making you cry, and they're all great comments. But here uh in the next day or two, we're gonna randomly, I'm gonna let her random, we'll put all these in a stack, and I'm just gonna make her close her eyes and pull two sheets out with comments, and then uh we'll PM you and get your address and send you an old timer knife. And if your dad's alive, you can give it to him, and if it's not, you can save it for one of your kids.

SPEAKER_03

I love that. That's so cool. Okay, here's one from Jeff Birdwell. My dad, Tom, was a remarkable person. He was raised in the mountains of Tennessee, and at the mature age of 16, he talked his dad into allowing him to join the Marines. Pearl Harbor had just been bombed and two of his brothers were there when it happened. Having surviving his serves, jumping from island to island, he tried his luck as a professional boxer. At some point in his career, Dad fought a soon-to-be champion and replayed the fight like this. I heard the opening bell and then I heard the referee shouting, eight, nine, ten. Dad settled down as an electrician and raised us five boys. He was a strict disciplinarian and only told you once to behave. But he loves us all. He worked so hard to provide us with the necessities. I remember his car broke down and he walked slash hitchhiked back and forth to work until he could save up enough for the repairs. There's a great tale about my dad being ran out of Chicago in the 50s after severely beating up a mobster in a bar. Dad was a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a great grandfather. He loved bulldogs and couldn't stomach a lazy or dishonest person. He passed at 82 years of age and his lazy boy watching gunsmoke. Dad was content and loved by all who knew him. World War II, the greatest generation. I fully agree with that.

SPEAKER_12

Wow. Man. Don't mess with him.

SPEAKER_03

What a character, too. I love the boxing story.

SPEAKER_12

Do you know your my my dad, your papa, he was a he was a boxing judge.

SPEAKER_03

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_12

Yeah, he boxed a little bit in the Army and they had a golden they started a golden glove chapter in Natchez, Mississippi, and I was little.

SPEAKER_14

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_12

Seven, eight, nine years old. And uh I used to go down there the gym and work out and all that kind of stuff. I didn't say workout. You didn't have workouts at the end. I'd hit the bags and all that kind of stuff. Right. And uh I never did get in a a boxing match because I mean them were some big scary dudes.

SPEAKER_14

Right.

SPEAKER_12

But I learned some skills and we had a big softball cookout one time. And back then, and we had the best guys on our softball team, and I forgot what we weren't out in the country, we were cooking. I remember we we barbecued chicken and we had uh a bunch of stuff going on because we nobody had money to go to the lake, nobody had a lake house. We were doing our own thing. And somebody brought boxing gloves. Oh, somebody was into it. You know, we had Jimmy and Carl Fuque and Stick and all them. Had uh I can't remember Gary's last name, he was a brute, and nobody nobody wanted to box him. But you remember JC Cotton? JC Cotton was kin to the Fuqueways.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_12

And he worked like double shifts and all, and he couldn't always play because he was working all the time. But and he wasn't that big of a guy. But uh anyways, somebody was boxing and all of them, and then and uh we we finally nobody would get they finally drew some names out, and I drew JC and what JC Cotton, and he was an older guy, but anyway, I got in there to box him and it was the same thing. Yeah, I could remember somebody would go ding ding like that. And the next thing I remembered when I kind of got my eyes back together is I was fixing to throw up. I had just eaten that barbecued chicken and it was right in the bottom of my throat. And I said, I gotta get these gloves off and out of it. He hit me so hard it made me sick to my stomach.

SPEAKER_13

Oh no.

SPEAKER_12

That's why I love watching that UFC and boxing. People got no idea how good them people are. Until you get hit in the mouth a couple of times, you can't appreciate getting hit in the mouth.

SPEAKER_03

Man.

SPEAKER_12

And uh, I guess I was a big boy and he didn't hold back. Boy, he KO'd.

SPEAKER_03

He said I'm gonna get one good lick in first.

SPEAKER_12

And he did. But anyway, that just came to mind when he's talking about. That's a good story. Uh this is from Brent Harrell. My dad, Mr. John, was a loving father, husband, dad, papa, and a great papa. He was always there for me, encouraged and guided and loved me. He was a lieutenant in the Navy, and in the initial invasion of Okinawa and Palawan invasions in World War II across the equator six different times. He was in the Halsey's typhoon and sailed to Japan just after the war. However, you would not know he did all that because his sweet and kind nature, he wouldn't talk about it. He was a very good man. He was my greatest it was my greatest honor to care for him in the last year of his life before he passed, he was almost a hundred years old.

SPEAKER_03

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_12

How awesome is that.

SPEAKER_03

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_12

And you know, you can say what you want to about that World War II generation, which my dad and uncles and all were the greatest, greatest generation ever. I don't care what you say. I'm gonna go ahead and read this one because I think I think I got more than you did. Okay. This is from Jeff Ground. It says, Cousin Lauren, I love the podcast and listen to it almost every day while I'm driving down the road. I grew up without a father in my life. However, I was blessed to have several great men step up and influence me along the way. What we've been talking about.

SPEAKER_14

Important.

SPEAKER_12

They helped mold me into the man husband and father I am today, and for that I am truly grateful. The first is Coach Steve DeGroot from West Vigo High School, my basketball coach. He taught me the value of hard work, accountability, and that life is what you make of it. His influence reached far beyond the basketball court. The second is Tom Rothrock, R-O-T-H R-O-C-K, owner of our local archery shop. Tom ignited a passion for the outdoors that still burns today. Through his stories, knowledge, and love for hunting, he helped shape my appreciation for the outdoors and the tradition and the traditions that come with it. Neither neither of these men had to invest their time in me, but they did. Their impact is still felt in my life every day. While I may not have a father in my home, God placed great role models in my path, and I will always be thankful for that. Happy Father's Day to all the dads and father figures who make a difference in the lives of others.

SPEAKER_03

Be a great man.

SPEAKER_12

And I promise you those his basketball coach and the guy that owned the archer shop were just being themselves.

SPEAKER_03

Good men.

SPEAKER_12

They didn't want him to write a letter to get read on a podcast. They were just being good men.

SPEAKER_03

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_12

You know, my dad, and I hate to keep coming back, but we're celebrating five. Him and his buddies. And I've I've probably talked about this. If I have, it hadn't been much. And his buddies were just trust me, as rough as he was. Bull Cameron, who was the fire chief. He was about 6'3, 300 pounds. He was just a b he was a literally a bull of a man.

SPEAKER_13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

Percy May, Logan Sewell, there was seven six or seven of them. And this would have been 54. This would have been in 19, probably 60, I don't know, 62 or 3, somewhere in there. I was eight, eight, nine, ten years old. Started a thing in Natchez called the Junior Sportsman's Club, and it was for kids who wanted to go hunting and fishing that didn't have a dad. And it wasn't we didn't have social media. He had a column. He was the sports editor. And he wrote that column on Sundays and he would put in there, hey, we're gonna meet out at Liberty Ballpark. And anybody that wants to come out there, we're gonna go fishing out at uh Colonel Stowers' pond. We've got all the rods and really it's like I I've often wondered, you know, I wished I would have been old enough to keep up with who came through there to see if it had any kind of impact on them. But I mean Man, people or something.

SPEAKER_03

Yep. I love that. This one's from Randy Wilson. And he said, Dad was a great father and a great man. He always made sure we were at church every Sunday and taught us about hunting and always get to work before time to start work and to do the job right and always respect the old and the older guys at the barber shop and stores around our hometown. I miss him every day, and one of these days we will see him again in heaven. Thanks for this Father's Day gift, letting everyone tell you about our dads. I love this show. God bless y'all.

SPEAKER_12

Randy comments all the time. God bless you too, Randy.

SPEAKER_03

We appreciate that.

SPEAKER_12

We appreciate you. Got a few more left. This one's from Billy Ward. My dad was a hard working man who raised me and my two brothers on a small farm in North Alabama. He instilled in me a work ethic that has stayed with me throughout my 75 years. He was a frugal man, and I have a bunch of of that in me also. And although it's hard to be that in our spoiled life of plenty, he carried me hunting and fishing from a young age, and the love of the outdoors has only grown in me over the years. I see him in me every time I look in the mirror, and I am proud. Nothing wrong with being frugal.

SPEAKER_14

No.

SPEAKER_12

Living below your means. If people more people did that, it would be a better world. You wouldn't have all the credit card debt and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's good advice right there. This one's from Scott Peters. My dad was the one to get me outdoors hunting and fishing. He was always quarterback for both teams, all-time pitcher, and always would be playing basketball with the neighborhood kids. He is also an awesome grandpa to my two kids and my sister's daughter. I hope I'm the dad he is. I love him dearly. If you're wanting that and wishing for that, you probably are.

SPEAKER_12

I saved this one to last. It's from Clint Brantley, and he was on the podcast three or four weeks ago. He's the one that called me about his grandfather and who was such a big fan. I went and took him hunting, but he he sent a little comment and his dad's fighting serious health issue right now, and he says, it's really hard to put into words, but all I can say is I feel like I'm the luckiest man alive. My father's my hero. He wasn't just good to me either. He was good to friends, siblings, cousins, you name it. He's there for you. Taught me to shoot a gun and how to hunt, taught me to drive with one foot. Thank God. But the main thing is he taught me was how to be a good father and how to love the Lord. My dad is battling cancer right now. Actually in in the hospital as we speak. But he's there for me and my family so he can live. He fights on. Love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day.

SPEAKER_14

Happy Father's Day.

SPEAKER_12

Man, you never know what people are going through. That's true. That's why, you know, when you you see people and I I don't know where they find all this stuff on social media, people losing their minds at an airline counter at the check station or at the grocery store, whatever it is, but it's like, golly, you know, it's like I look at people all the time and I and and I always I often wonder, I say, I wonder what they're going through. 'Cause you never know.

SPEAKER_03

Hurt people. That's right.

SPEAKER_12

And it's as far as being a dad, you know, you you don't have to be uh an Xboxer or a World War II veteran or uh a Navy SEAL or anything. It's what it to me, what it takes to be a good dad is just being present. And if you ain't the best baseball player in the world, so be it. You know, just just be there for him.

SPEAKER_03

Presence is a big deal.

SPEAKER_12

And be be encouraging. And uh that that's that to me, that's a big deal. That's like when my dad changed the date only thing, go act like you're fifteen, get the job.

SPEAKER_03

Him having that confidence in you made it easier for you to have that confidence in you.

SPEAKER_12

That's right.

SPEAKER_03

You were big on telling people not to be a sheep because I was bad to well, they were gonna do this and they were saying that, and we want to stay out this and you were like, they, they, they, quit being a sheep. And I'm like, oh.

SPEAKER_12

Well, you needed a strong father.

SPEAKER_03

I did.

SPEAKER_12

Lauren was a little bit rebellious, and I ain't saying she was a bad kid, but she was headstrong, got that from her mom. But anyway, uh you you needed a father figure.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

And uh they say that's one of the most important relationships there is as father-daughter, but they're all important. Father, son, grandpa, papa, people.

SPEAKER_03

They're all special.

SPEAKER_12

They're all important. And you can't pick your family, so try to get along with them. And you know, if that's any if that's any just a sample of what we got in and what's out there, we are we are all so blessed.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. We were at Mississippi State doing orientation stuff, and it was a lot of school and here's what to expect, you know, just real by the book. And then just kind of out of the blue, the girls basketball coach, Coach Sam Percell. I mean I'm not sure where he's from, but it's not the South. You can tell when he speaks. And he was talking about Southern hospitality and how good a this campus is, and he's like, I'm talking to the boys, I'm talking to you men open the door and say hello. Like he was giving them just good life advice. And I was like, that was so out of the blue, because everything else was like your schedule this and time and that, and your professors meet here and this. And he was just telling them make good decisions. We got the best campus and the best people on the planet. Keep it that way, have a good attitude. And I'm like, I like this guy, I want to go to the girls' basketball game.

SPEAKER_12

You gotta stand for something or you'll fall for anything. And I I've never been one to tolerate rude behavior good, and it's I've had some issues with that. And uh I'll never forget Yeah, I I think about people all the time. Um, we did a whole podcast about Alan Brown.

SPEAKER_03

Right.

SPEAKER_12

Who I worked for for years, and he was a first round draft choice out of Ole Miss, played for Green Bay, has a Super Bowl one ring. Think of that anywhere.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

And we were at a I worked for him at a place called Riverside Central Services. And probably shouldn't even tell this story. But anyway, it he and his wife Margaret and me and your mom, Pam, we went across River to eat uh catfish at the sandbar, which was a bar. Big deal. Man, they had the best catfish ever. Ricky Rowland.

SPEAKER_14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_12

He owned that thing.

SPEAKER_14

But anyway and the best coal slip.

SPEAKER_12

And we were celebrating something. I don't even remember what it was, but we had hit our number. We worked at that warehouse. He was the boss. I was his number two guy. Anyway, we get over there and there's this guy, and I think he was at the I don't know if they had a bar, but anyway, he was clearly had been intoxicated a little bit. Me and Pam, Alan and Margaret sat down. This guy is talking really loud. And Alan, he was just so old school. Y'all gonna think this is a lie. It's not. Anyway, the guy he said something really vulgar. And I've had this happen to me. I saw Margaret reach over there and grab his leg because he was scooting away from the table, and she grabbed his leg and gave him that look. Don't embarrass me.

SPEAKER_03

Don't start.

SPEAKER_12

And he just closed his eyes for a minute, slid back up, and uh and it wasn't two or three minutes. He just dropped the loudest, most vulgar curse words you can imagine, talking about something. Well, she didn't even grab his leg this time. He wiped his mouth with his napkin, set it down, pushed the chair out, and went over there and started pointing to the guy. And you know, I could I could hear most of it. I got my wife, I got my friend's wife over here. I'm not gonna tolerate that and all that. And Alan was like 6'6, 285. He had hands like a bowling ball, never worked a day in it or worked out in the gym or nothing, but he was a man's man. And the guy just kind of looked at him with his mouth open and didn't say anything. I went, whoo!

SPEAKER_03

Whew, dodge the bullet.

SPEAKER_12

Dodge the bullet. So Alan starts walking back. So it's back's now to the guy, and the guy moves around closer to Margaret and just says, blank you really, really loud. And Alan turned around, and this is a true story. It's eight o'clock at night, 8:30, something like that. He hit that guy and he flew back. They had these big six or eight foot wooden posts. They were decorative, but they were structural too. That guy flew back, and when he hit that post, he slithered down it. He looked like a roadrunner commercial. You know how they slide down. And when he hit that post, the lights flickered in the restaurant. And I said, I told Bam, I said, that dude has officially had the blank knocked out of him. Alan got back over there, got his napkin, put it back in his his lap, and we finished eating and got up and left. I'm like, that's how you handle rude behavior.

SPEAKER_03

You knocked their lights out.

SPEAKER_12

Oh man, I'm taught by a masterful leg. I love it. And uh never forget that. But it did. It shook the lights at the sandbar, and I will I'll never forget that. But you know, sometimes that's just what dads do, and boy, he was a good one. Man, man, his kids talk about him all the time. We did a podcast about him, and they all sent me notes and all. You know, Tim's a preacher, and Burks is very successful, and the daughter, they they're just a great family, but they had that father in there. So anyway, that's uh a trip down memory lane. Did all this to honor you, some of you dads out there. We can't honor everybody, but we picked out some who sent some great comments. And uh since next Sunday, I think, is Father's Day, uh, maybe this will put you in the right mood, do something good for your dad. So, and uh your sister, Amy, made a nice comment, and I didn't read it. I just felt like that was too boastful. Thank you for sending that comment, Amy. I love y'all both. So from me and Laureen out at the Camo Cave North from Moss Hill, Mossy Oak Properties, God bless each and every one of you.

SPEAKER_03

Happy Father's Day, and we'll see you in seven days.