00:00:05 Speaker 1: Welcome to this country life. 00:00:06 Speaker 2: I'm your host, Brent Reeves from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living. 00:00:12 Speaker 1: I want you to stay. 00:00:13 Speaker 2: Awhile as I share my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcast. 00:00:25 Speaker 1: The airwaves have to offer. 00:00:27 Speaker 2: All right, friends, grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some stories to share, picking beans and sewing up coons. The things we say and how we say them speak a lot about who we are and from where we come. Dialects and accents can sometimes be as accurate as dropping the ONEX pen to our homes. Now, what passes for everyday native speech to a particular group of people can be misunderstood or completely undecipherable to those living just a few hours away. Idioms are a prime example. And if you don't know what an idiom is now, you will before we're done. 00:01:13 Speaker 1: Y'all get ready, We're gonna jump right into this one. 00:01:23 Speaker 2: I was at an online meeting recently with two of my colleagues that meet either. 00:01:27 Speaker 1: They were in their offices in Bozeman. One is from Iowa and one from New York. Now during the course of the meeting, and actually throughout most of our conversations, they snicker and sometimes laugh out loud at the analogies and phrases I used during normal conversation. I used to ask them what's so funny, and they would repeat something I just said that I say or hear down here on the daily. That's something that they've lived into their adulthood, only to hear me say it for the first time. I was sitting in the eye doctor's office the other day, right after one of those meetings, and a John Prime song came on the waiting room speakers that wasn't sung by John Prime, but I recognized it as being written by him. Y'all, hang on just for a minute, I promised, This is going somewhere, and it may even give a glimpse into how my brain works or doesn't work, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, there I was waiting for what seemed like forever. When Bonnie Rach started singing John's song. I started thinking about another John Prime song that was cleverly written using phrases that was, according to him, inspired by a crossword puzzle and things he'd heard his grandmother say, which in turn led me to thinking about our meeting in Reva and Krinn laughing at the idioms I was flippantly using during our conversation. Idioms are phrases that say something that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject of your conversation, but having a expressive or descriptive tie into your subject. For example, if you and I were planning to go fishing and we had yet to set a date and time to go, and a third person asked when we were leaving, we could say, it's still up in the air. Now immediately they would know that we haven't yet decided on the time. That's an idiom just from the description that we said it's still up in the air. It's got nothing to do with fishing. We ain't fishing in the air. But we could say that also if we didn't want them to know, but that'd be a lie, not. 00:03:33 Speaker 2: An idiom, regardless, you get the idea. I started reviewing some of the ones in my head that I use most often, and that seems second nature to me that they and others have found to be at least mildly entertaining, thought. 00:03:47 Speaker 1: Provoking, and some of them just downright bizarre. 00:03:51 Speaker 2: Now, I haven't lived a sheltered life by any means, but the use of these things in the community in which I live make them a permanent part of the vernacular, or at least my party. Anyway, not until I got out of my circle did I see how differently folks interpreted my speech. Now, even those in my circle find some of them humors, even if they've never heard it before, because they have an instant identifier to the phrase, having been raised in a similar environment. Here's a prime example. Got beat like a rented mule. Now, I have heard this say in all my life, but taking it face value by someone not familiar with why you would rent a mule in the first place, or be forced to hit one, that idiom would make no sense. The first time I used that phrase somewhere, it wasn't recognized. Was it fort seal? It was during my Army advanced training and my friend Merritt Bradshaw and I were side by side doing endless pushups along with the rest of our platoon because of another soldier's in fraction. Now that wasn't unusual. Drill sergeists looked for some to punish you for. Is a lesson, and they used negative reinforcement both as a reminder and exercise. 00:05:07 Speaker 1: But if the same guy. 00:05:08 Speaker 2: Made the same mistake twice or did something someone else had just previously done that caused us to get punished, our feelings of empathy for the offender lessened dramatically with each push up. It was during one of these sessions that I mistakenly uttered that phrase, which only caused us more pain by my friend's unfamiliarity with what I said. It was somewhere around push up one hundred when Marriott whispered to me, if Smith does that again, the drill sergeant is gonna kill us, I whispered back, if he does that again, I'm gonna beat him like a rended mule. 00:05:50 Speaker 1: Now. 00:05:50 Speaker 2: I am not sure what caused my friend from North Carolina to bust out laughing like he was anywhere but where he was, but I knew immediately that we were doomed, and I regretted saying it, even though I couldn't imagine why he responded like he did to the most overused Southeast Arkansas idiom ever quoted. I'd heard that nearly every day of my life, usually in reference to what was going to happen to me if my mama caught me skipping school or chewing the back of again. 00:06:20 Speaker 1: Elementary school was a tough time for me. But in Private Bradshaw's defense, he was from North Carolina and we were in Oklahoma under a ton of stress, which exacerbated even the slightest crack and his ability not to laugh. It was a pressure relief valve for him, and I had triggered it. 00:06:41 Speaker 2: My friend collapsed into a fiddle laughter and in a pool of sweat that had dripped off his face onto the concrete, I saw my life flash before my eyes as I looked up to see that campaign had aimed at the two of us and growing bigger with each step. As drift Sergeant Franks ran toward us, stepping on the backs of soldiers in his rush to kill us. 00:07:01 Speaker 1: Both his eyes wide with. 00:07:04 Speaker 2: Unbelievable delight, while the veins in his forehead bulged out past his eyebrows. And what happened next is more like a foggy night mary of push ups, grass, drill, sweat, and an endless tirade of profanity driven insults that encouraged the both of us to reconsider the directions of our lives should he choose at that moment to allow us to keep one. There was one person, though, that was thankful that I'd made Merrit laugh, bringing the whole of our drill sergeant's attention upon the two of us and away from him. That was Private Smith from Illinois, the original offender and the sole reason we were in that predicament to begin with. You're welcome Smitty. Now that was thirty eight years ago. Smitty probably retired at General. But beat him like a red and mule. Allowed me to explain, the phrase gives the idea that someone would treat a rented mule rougher than one you owned. Beat could be replaced with worked road, or any descriptor that aligned with what you were talking about. Like I said, I've heard that phrase all my life and used in a jillion different ways. Way before I used it in the most inopportune time imaginable in the fall of nineteen eighty seven. But when I hear it now, I always think about the day when I thought saying it was going to turn me into the mute. Now, for another example, check this out. Clay and I were talking a few years ago about someone in regard to their perceived intelligence. I have no idea who it was we were talking about now, but we were both in agreement that they were smart. Clay said that dude as sharp as attack on an idiom that I've heard all over in every form of media, print, radio, on television, everywhere, including. 00:09:07 Speaker 1: On this channel. From March of twenty twenty two, Reva's going to reach way back in the Bear Grease vault for a sound bite right now. When Clay was talking to Steve, who, among others, was guests hosting on a Render episode number forty seven entitled Steve Ranella on Jerry Klower from the first season of Bear Grease, Clay was telling Steve and the others who were setting in for the regulars to do their best because the regular Render crew would be judging their performance when it aired the following week. Steve had the following to say, play the drop, Reva. 00:09:46 Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you guys, though, I've got to warn you that you will be scrutinized heavily by the original Bear Grease crew. Okay, so my wife, Misty Nukem, Brent Reeves, Josh Lambridge, spilmmaker Gary Believer, Nukelem. 00:10:05 Speaker 1: That Brent Reeves is sharp. Yeah, man, he's sharp. Yeah. I think that speaks for itself. The term sharp isn't defined by borders or relegated to a specific area or people due to its context like the rented mule line. Everyone knows that sharp is an immediate positive reference in recognizing someone's intelligence when used in that in that reference. Now, during Mina Clay's conversation, after he had made his bid about the person's intelligence being sharp, I made the statement that I'd go a step further and say he's sharp as a rat pill. That drew a slightly confused look from Clay Bow and he said, did you say rat pill? Yeah? I said rat pill? He said, like like rat droppings. Yep. 00:10:53 Speaker 2: I said, I don't get it. I said, you ever seen one? He said yeah. I told him a rat pill idly sharp on both ends. That makes it twice as sharp. Now he knew exactly what I was talking about once he pictured it in his mind and was more than amused at the thought. Now I have to confess that that variation of sharp is attributed to my father, as I have never heard it anywhere else other than from him. I have a good feeling that had it been more popular in the lexicon of Michigan, that Steve would have used that one instead of repeating Brent Reeves as sharp, he's sharp, when he could have just said Brent Reeves as sharp as a red hill. Now, whether my dad said it first, I don't know. But if you know the origin of that one, or have ever been described in such a manner, congratulations, you're in good company. 00:11:50 Speaker 1: Now. 00:11:50 Speaker 2: I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the one that Steve himself came up with that wound up being on the meat eater T shirt. And that one is A fresh set of eyes finds more beans I met. 00:12:03 Speaker 1: When I first heard it, I didn't give it much thought. It didn't sing to me. 00:12:07 Speaker 2: But like rabbits soaking in buttermilk, the longer it marinated, the better I liked it. A fresh set of eyes will find more beans. It's the reason there are editors who read books and make the stories better. There's so many of these things that as I sat in the waiting room and started making a list of the ones I've used and heard that when the nurse walked out and called my name, she had to call it twice because I was busy as a one armed paperhanger making notes for this episode. 00:12:37 Speaker 1: You see what I mean. 00:12:39 Speaker 2: There's one for everything. There are endless numbers of idioms. You can search up a list up on the Google machine and have a list of one hundred before Catkin lickers behind. I read them all and that last one wasn't known there. So that's one hundred and one and one of my all time favorites. That was so funny to me when I was a kid and still is. Is also attributed to my dad. There's quite a visual reference in your head when you hear it, and after you do, you may never get it out of there. 00:13:11 Speaker 1: There's a lot. 00:13:12 Speaker 2: Going on, and there are several levels of understanding that go into getting the mental picture and the humor of the phrase. But one time he bought an old disc to use with our tractor and breaking ground for the garden. He bought it from one of the farms he traveled to and his job as a poultry industry serviceman, a job I've described in great detail on several episodes. The diskey bought was an old six foot massive ferguson that had it been listed in a for sale ad. As used it would have been misleading. A better description would have been well used. It was pretty rough now. 00:13:50 Speaker 1: My dad offered the man a fair price and he gladly accepted. 00:13:53 Speaker 2: I think the farmer would have let Dad have it just to get it off his farm, since he recently got himself a new one. It was a good deal for both parties, and there were several issues that required some welding, and we had a welder, and my dad, who I've described on here before, is frugal about anything that didn't pertain to hunt dogs, horses and ground and shotguns. I was going to give this disc the old fixer upper treatment that I was going to be as health. 00:14:23 Speaker 1: The farmer loaded it on our trailer and home it went. We backed it into the barn, and the following morning we were up bright and early, him ready to weld and me ready to be in the way. It was how we worked best. 00:14:37 Speaker 2: My job was to take a wire brush and remove the rust and if there was any paint left where he was going to weld. I spent a lot of elbow grease on that project, scrubbing away the years of neglecting rush so my dad could fix it, fusing the pieces back together with a weld of molten steel. 00:14:56 Speaker 1: I scrubbed and he welded, and before it was all over, I got the burner rod, myself wearing the hood and his big old leather gloves. 00:15:05 Speaker 2: Now once completed, we stood back and looked at the wells he'd made, returning the pieces back to one that had been given up as too far gone to fix. To me, it looked as good as a Picasso or Rembrandt, having watched and helped to a certain degree in the monumental task of making it whole again. I was feeling good about it, and someone snapped a picture of the two of us standing side by side admiring our handiwork. You'd have seen an expression of confidence and satisfaction on my face and one of slightly less than enthusiastic on my father's. 00:15:40 Speaker 1: What you think, Dad, what do you think? I said? Look? 00:15:46 Speaker 2: He stared at that disk, his eyes going from well to well, checking his work inch by inch, never looking at me. Only the repairs we've done in an already I sore piece of farming equipment. 00:16:00 Speaker 1: Hated breath. I waited for his answer, ever so slightly. He shook his head and, with a voice bordering on disgust. He said, it looks like a coon's butt that's been sown shut with a grape vine. Yeah, in the NATO second. 00:16:17 Speaker 2: It took me to process the image of a coon's exhaust flight that I'd seen countless times as we skinned them, and to picture it sown shut like a hole in the toe of a sock with a grapevine. 00:16:29 Speaker 1: Of all things. 00:16:30 Speaker 2: I went into convulsions of laughter, the kind of infectious laughter that makes everyone else laugh within here it even though they have no idea what's so funny? And for days and weeks, and I guess decades, I still laughed at his description of our consulted efforts to fix that disc. 00:16:53 Speaker 1: Oh Man. 00:16:54 Speaker 2: On a side note, for anyone that's interested, that disc is still churning dirt every spring and fall. When my brother Tim fires up Dad's tractor and gets his garden and food plaut Treddy. Now there's an idiom somewhere in that story. And don't judge a book by its cover, it quickly comes to mind. But I just didn't sing for me. How about a coon's butt? So on is a garden grown? 00:17:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, that sins I'm gone. 00:17:25 Speaker 2: I'm gonna put it to a vote on my Instagram page as a which one you like the best, mine or Steve's and let y'all be the judge. 00:17:35 Speaker 1: Thank you so much for listening. 00:17:36 Speaker 2: Y'all, get over to the media or YouTube channel and check out my buddy Clay and his mountain goat hunt in Alaska and the History channel for Steve's newest episode of Hunting History until next week. 00:17:49 Speaker 1: This is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful 00:18:02 Speaker 3: In