<\/big>Sundown ‘Possum
(As told to the author by Ola Maupin, Lillie Westmoreland, Maud Vincent and reiterated by Jack Maupin.)<\/small>
by
Mary Bursell Maupin
<\/big><\/big>**Reprinted with permission from the Journal of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, Vol. IXXX, July 2002, pp. 28-29.<\/small><\/big><\/big>
<\/big><\/big>On cold winter mornings, the older men of the Austin Springs, Tennessee community hovered around the pot-bellied stove at Johnson Brothers\u2019 General Store.\u00a0 Depending on who had a radio, they would often discuss current news.\u00a0 Most it was bad, as these were the days of the Great Depression.\u00a0 However, while it ranged throughout the United States, the Austin Springs area did not suffer nearly as badly as other parts did.\u00a0 Even though farm prices had hit rock bottom, there was still food in most of the pantries.\u00a0 Neighbors helped neighbors.\u00a0 At hog killing time, neighbors would show up at a farmer\u2019s house and help him butcher enough hogs to feed his family for a year.\u00a0 The next cold day, they would arrive at another farmer\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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 \u2018possum hounds.\u00a0 Every night after supper, he and his wife\u2019s 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\u2019t long before the dogs had picked up the scent of a raccoon or opossum.\u00a0 Next morning, on their way to the mill with a load of logs, Wes and Ollie would stop at Johnson\u2019s 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\u2019s house, said that he and his wife hadn\u2019t had \u201ca \u2018possum in quite a spell.\u201d\u00a0 He asked the young men if they would bring him one.\u00a0 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\u2019 dogs treed an opossum that weighed about eight pound.\u00a0 Ollie punched it out of a tree while Wes held his dogs.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t want the dogs to kill it before Corbett had a chance to feed it out and eat it.\u00a0 After it landed on the ground, Ollie put it in the tow sack he was carrying just for that purpose.\u00a0 They headed for the Rickman house.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They felt it had been a good night\u2019s 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.\u00a0 They took the scraps from the table and all the clabbered milk they could spare.\u00a0 They figured it would be ready to eat in about two weeks, and Corbett could hardly wait.
A few nights later, Wes\u2019s dogs treed another opossum.\u00a0 However, this one was not quite as big as the one they had caught before.\u00a0 Ollie punched him out while Wes held the dogs.\u00a0 By nine o\u2019clock, the boys were shaking out of their tow sack the opossum they had just caught.\u00a0 It replaced the cone in Corbett\u2019s pen.
This exchange of critters went on for over a week.\u00a0 Always the one exchanged was a littler smaller than the one they took from the pen.\u00a0 During this time the boys didn\u2019t go near the store, even though they would have liked getting warm and visiting with friends.\u00a0 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\u2019s Store.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They pushed back their chairs and bid all good day. But as they started for the door, Ollie turned toward Corbett Rickman and asked, \u201cCorbett, guess you and the Missus is about ready for the \u2019possum and sweet taters, ain\u2019t ya\u2019?\u201d
Corbett replied, Ya\u2019 know fellers.\u00a0 That\u2019s thar\u2019s the durndest thing.\u00a0 The more we fed that critter the littler he got.\u00a0 This morning he weren\u2019t no bigger than my hand so I set him loose.\u201d
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