Rabbit ‘gums, etc
by Jeannie Travis
Have a little time so will ramble on a bit about those springs we used to love to drink from…If the water was clear and cold it was judged safe to drink … Remember when we were that innocent ? ….One place we lived had a sorta small pond, and one summer it just about dried up ….Not only was this the main water supply for all the critters, but was used to swell up the wooden wheels on the old wagon when Daddy was planning to go to town to Mule Day/First Monday…trading day….Of course there were iron rims on the wood, but the wood had dried out over the years…Daddy would roll the wagon into the pond and by morning when he was ready to head to town the rims were nice and tight. I remember when we traded if off for a better one, so maybe all this was just prior to the trade….
Back to the spring ! …Daddy wasn’t about to dig another pond as we were sharecropping and getting ready to move up to a better place….He was always very resourceful, so looked the area over and found a little runoff down at the bottom of Red Hill….It wasn’t in the best place in the world…being on the shady bank beside the road, but Dad dug out a
nice round hole there….guessing about 4 or 5 feet across….Seems like the bottom was white sand..The water ran crystal clear and cold, filling up the little pool and overflowing into the side ditch. There was an old tin can hanging nearby in case anyone got thirsty as they passed…
The tops of the trees met over the little dirt road, so it was a nice shady walk from our big log house with the dog trot hall to Ma’s….I can’t remember seeing any critter tracks around that spring, but I bet they appreciated the dependable supply of drinking water …Probably thought Dad was a nice feller to fix it for them, huh ? When he was working in the fields around the Big Ditch he probably watered them at what we called the Swimming hole. Got some mighty fond memories of that place, too! but I can remember seeing him lead the horses down the road to get a drink at the spring after working them all day. He may have taken them by there more than once a day, but after 60 years my memory is a mite dim on that part…..go figure ! Jeannie T…Wishing I could belly down on the ferny moss by that little spring for a drink of that fine cold water !
This is a Rabbit Gum
As I recall Rabbit gums …and I have no idea where that name came from…were made of scrap lumber about 8 to 10 inches wide…They were slightly taller than wide….About 2 feet long or so. It was set up with bait inside and there was a trigger deal that the rabbit tripped when going inside to get the corn , cabbage leaf or whatever and a trap door
slid down behind a little bar. You would set it up along a fence row or somewhere that had a trail beaten down in the grass….When you ‘ran’ your lines you could see if the trap had caught anything because the door would be down….Sometimes the critter was lucky and got away and sometimes you caught a skunk, squirrel or pussy cat. Anything you caught would be mad at you, as you can imagine…..
I remember one morning when we were walking to school…4 and a half miles or so…and we saw a rabbit setting under the roots of a tree on the side of the road….Rain had washed the dirt away and made a little cave deal….Sometimes they will just freeze in place, hoping you won’t see them…Well, we surrounded that bugger and caught him, then hated to turn him loose. When nobody else would do it I volunteered to tote him back home, about a mile into our trip…I guess Mama saw me coming because she came out on the porch…I handed her the rabbit, turned around and walked to school by myself….I was 8 or 9 years old and very scrawny…..I don’t remember her saying anything….just looked at me strangely….That unlucky rabbit tasted mighty good that night…fried up a golden brown……We toted a possum home from school one day….it’s tail curled around a stick the whole way…..Two of us at a time took turns, and when he decided to stop sulling up we would tap him with a little stick and he would play dead again….We thought this was hilarious….Yep, kids today are a mite different