Appalachian Story of Learning how to Hunt growing up in the mountains

This is a story of learning how to hunt growing up in the Appalachias. This is a way of life. This is the way it's been for a generation and a generation and it's just being passed on down today. Now this is beautiful East Tennessee but there's five other states that border these Appalachias in the south and they're all look the same beautiful country and full of game and wildlife and we try to preserve them. It's so beautiful in these deep woods so full of life of all kinds and the older you get the more appreciative you are of the wildlife in these ridges. Now there's gray squirrel, fox squirrel, raccoon, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, the possum, striped skunk, the groundhog, the fox, black bear, the bobcat and the grouse. These are all their homes and here's the most dreaded predator of all of them in the last few decades that move into these mountains the coyote. Now here in the state of Tennessee and other states have the same thing just under a different name but they do the same thing as this agency does. This is a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in Tennessee and they do a good job taking care of the game wildlife and seeing what they need and regulating it and all the hunting seasons and fishing too and they do a really great job. Keep in mind this is not paid by no taxpayers and no government agency. This is strictly funded by the people that hunt and fish by their license fee. This is how it's operated and they do a really great job. Well that being said, this game and a lot of more animals made their home here in these Appalachian mountains and it's going to be hard to believe for some of you people but a lot of people lived off all these animals. They hunted them to put meat on the table and you don't understand why. I'm going to show you why and make you explain. Now this is the way it was in these mountains. It's been for hundreds of years. Now it's not so bad now because people get all kinds of subsidies and food stamps and all this but this is way before anybody had any social programs. So you either made a living or you starved to death you and your family. So I'm going to show you here just what all this heritage and these mountains is all about. Now back in the day when they first settled this country and the settlers started moving in, most of them lived in little homesteads, little cabins. Some were just starting farms and they started hunting this land way back when they first come in here. This is how they put meat on the table, a lot of them. They was trying to raise livestock getting started and they still loved to eat this wild game. Now some of the young people had weapons that they was using that was larger than they was, old pitchers. Some of them really started young in these mountains, really started young but that was the way of life in these mountains. It's the way it's been for a long time and in 29 the depression started. The stock market crashed, a lot of people out of work, a lot of people going hungry. This is before any social programs, social security or anything and if you were a lucky one you lived on farms and you didn't know the difference because you never had no money no way. The land you were living, the livestock, the crops, a lot of people raised their own crops and they worked hard in these fields year after year and they shared the bounty with their neighbors and they put them up for hard times. They canned everything in these mountains. If it could be canned it was put in a can. Well it's really a jar but it's just called can. That's the way it was in these mountains and it still goes on today. Now you growed up fast in here. You growed your own chickens, your own eggs. That's the way it was on these little farms. You pride yourself in growing some good hogs where you could trade and feed yourself in the winter months. Here you slaughter your own hogs and you'd trade with the neighbors down the road at the store for your goods and you smoked your own meat. Everybody had a smokehouse out back where they hung their meat and this really helped them in the off season in the winter months. They made their own lard from the hogs and keel rendered it, their own soap. They made everything. If they couldn't make it or repair it they'd trade for it because these mountain people they was used to doing without all the time. Even down at the stores. Yeah you could get a few things down to stores but they didn't have meat like you do on a farm or something. You'd trade what you had for what they had and you'd done some trading for things you couldn't make. And when you was in these mountains you growed up hard as a kid. You started young doing chores and the girls always started out just helping out with the little ones taking care of them and helping the elder women around the house learning how to be a woman. Learn how to cook from your mommy and your grandma. They started out young and the boys they worked the farm just like their dads and grandpas did working these farms these fields. They started out young a lot to learn and the family was a real was everything. They took care of each other. Everybody depended on each other and that was the way it was back in these mountains and still is today. Now they started out hunting young in these mountains. Your dad taught you all about the tricks of hunting and how to hunt the game and how to put food on the table when you didn't have nothing. And most people lived out in these rural areas in the Appalachian mountains. Places like this all across these Appalachian little communities and a lot of people didn't have farms and you tried to take care of your elderly people like people as widowed old people they're not able to get out and get much so you take care of them all you can. They loved the wild game when you give it to them and you'd always take care of your neighbors. Nothing ever went to waste. They appreciated everything you give them and like I said you growed older you learned to hunt with your elders and they teach you all they could. I can remember back years ago when I started hunting we'd get up on them real foggy mornings especially after a night of rain before it would be real good in these mountains you could slip through them and we'd walk way back in these mountains and I didn't even think there was no game when I was little. We'd barely see a bird and you know why? Because everybody was starving back in them days they would eat anything they could get a hold of and we'd walk way back in them old mountains before we'd even see a squirrel and on a good day we'd get two or three squirrels and we was grateful to get that. Now I remember Ma used to get up and fire that stove up when we'd get in squirrel hunting and oh man she'd fry them squirrels up after we cleaned them and everything and really you could smell them. A pan of fried taters wasn't nothing better than that. A bowl of soup beans with some bacon grease over them my goodness and some good old pan of corn bread with some cow butter oh man that's just some good eating with that fried squirrel and later you got to go hunting fishing with your uncles when the fish was running in the spring in these lakes and rivers we'd do a lot of fishing and we'd eat fish instead of wild game. Now as I got older and all these other boys in these mountains you learn to hunt more on by yourself more and more until you had your own kids and you passed it on down to them. Now that's why you ever watch any of my metal detecting videos I find all these old shotgun shells in the woods. These Tennessee ridges are full of them. This is back in history of shows where these hunters have been to feed their family. The woods is full of these things and I love to find them some of them are 130. So that's why you always say what's all them shotgun shells you find in any woods what are they doing there well that's why they're there people this is how they put meat on the table back in the day there you go on that now I know there's a lot of people watching this video that's just going to dislike it because all we're hurting animals and all that stuff no we're preserving the animals if it wasn't for the hunters paying the license and the fees they'd be no agency they'd be diseased and these animals they would just it just wouldn't work there wouldn't be no animals so they're well regulated and took care of and the hunters see that they are because we love the game and we love the wildlife and we want to preserve it but this is just our heritage our way of life so if you're out of these mountains you'll never understand so I thought this helped you a little bit so I want to thank you for watching and I'll see you next time.