Sundown ‘Possum
(As told to the author by Ola Maupin, Lillie Westmoreland, Maud Vincent and reiterated by Jack Maupin.)
by
Mary Bursell Maupin
**Reprinted with permission from the Journal of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, Vol. IXXX, July 2002, pp. 28-29.
On cold winter mornings, the older men of the Austin Springs, Tennessee community hovered around the pot-bellied stove at Johnson Brothers’ General Store. Depending on who had a radio, they would often discuss current news. Most it was bad, as these were the days of the Great Depression. However, while it ranged throughout the United States, the Austin Springs area did not suffer nearly as badly as other parts did. Even though farm prices had hit rock bottom, there was still food in most of the pantries. Neighbors helped neighbors. At hog killing time, neighbors would show up at a farmer’s house and help him butcher enough hogs to feed his family for a year. The next cold day, they would arrive at another farmer’s house and do the same thing over again until all the families had enough meat for the winter.
For a change in the diet, some of the men took to the woods and hunted rabbits or squirrels in the daytime when they were not working. Those who had dogs, and most did, hunted opossums and raccoons at night after a long day at the saw mill or driving a wagon load of timber to the mill.
Wes Maupin had a couple of ‘possum hounds. Every night after supper, he and his wife’s twin brother Ollie McClain, who lived across the field, would pick up the lanterns, reach for the rifles and head for the woods, following the dogs. Game was plentiful, and it wasn’t long before the dogs had picked up the scent of a raccoon or opossum. Next morning, on their way to the mill with a load of logs, Wes and Ollie would stop at Johnson’s Store to get warm and related the events of the previous night.
One such morning, Corbett Rickman, who lived on the hill between the McClain farm and Wes Maupin’s house, said that he and his wife hadn’t had “a ‘possum in quite a spell.” He asked the young men if they would bring him one. He would fix a place for it near the chicken coop.
They both agreed to bring him one on the next hunt. The next night Wes’ dogs treed an opossum that weighed about eight pound. Ollie punched it out of a tree while Wes held his dogs. They didn’t want the dogs to kill it before Corbett had a chance to feed it out and eat it. After it landed on the ground, Ollie put it in the tow sack he was carrying just for that purpose. They headed for the Rickman house. Finding the lights out, they put it in the pen which Corbett had said he would fix for it, and each went his separate way home. They felt it had been a good night’s work.
The next morning Corbett was delighted about the eight pounder and told everyone at the store how big it was and how he and his wife were going to eat it one of these days as soon as he had fed it out.
During the next several weeks, he and his wife fed it morning and night. They took the scraps from the table and all the clabbered milk they could spare. They figured it would be ready to eat in about two weeks, and Corbett could hardly wait.
A few nights later, Wes’s dogs treed another opossum. However, this one was not quite as big as the one they had caught before. Ollie punched him out while Wes held the dogs. By nine o’clock, the boys were shaking out of their tow sack the opossum they had just caught. It replaced the cone in Corbett’s pen.
This exchange of critters went on for over a week. Always the one exchanged was a littler smaller than the one they took from the pen. During this time the boys didn’t go near the store, even though they would have liked getting warm and visiting with friends. They were uncertain whether Corbett might confront them about they hunts they were going on.
Over two weeks had passed before that chilly morning Wes and Ollie climbed down off the top of their lumber wagon and sauntered into Johnson’s Store. They could face any rage Corbett might discharge on them that cold morning.
Surveying the room, they spied Corbett leaning back on two legs of his favorite cane-bottom chair. Upon seeing Wes and Ollie, he let the chair down on all fours and exchanged pleasantries as the two men crowded in around the stove, shaking hands and greeting everyone. After all, it had been over two weeks since Wes and Ollie had seen their friends at the store.
After a while it was time for Wes and Ollie to get the loaded lumber wagon on down the road toward the mill. They pushed back their chairs and bid all good day. But as they started for the door, Ollie turned toward Corbett Rickman and asked, “Corbett, guess you and the Missus is about ready for the ’possum and sweet taters, ain’t ya’?”
Corbett replied, Ya’ know fellers. That’s thar’s the durndest thing. The more we fed that critter the littler he got. This morning he weren’t no bigger than my hand so I set him loose.”
