Bear Grease - Ep. 295: This Country Life - Picking Beans and Sewing Up Coons

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

This is a different one but we think you'll like it. Brent's talking about idioms this week and sharing some of his favorites. If that term doesn't sound familiar, you'll learn exactly what it means "faster than quick can get ready.” You see what we did there? That's a prime example of an idiom. You'll hear how using them at the wrong time can be costly and the origin story of one that's still plowing the ground today. We promise, it's all gonna make sense after you listen to this week's "This Country Life" podcast. Subscribe to the MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Connect with Brent and MeatEater MeatEater on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and Youtube Clips MeatEater Podcast Network on YouTube Shop This Country Life Merch Shop Bear Grease MerchSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Welcome to this country life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves. From coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living, I want you to stay a while as I share my experiences and life lessons. This country life is presented by Case Nives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you the best outdoor podcasts the Airways have to offer. 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 an onyx pen to our homes. 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. Y'all get ready. We're going to jump right into this one. I was in an online meeting recently with two of my colleagues at Meat Eater.

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 threw out most of our conversations, they snicker and sometimes laugh out loud at the analogies and phrases I use 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.

But I was sitting in the eye doctor's office the other day right after one of those meetings, and a John Prine 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 promise 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 Rates started singing John's song.

I started thinking about another John Prine 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 and Riva and Corinne 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 have an 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 can't fish it in the air. But we could say that also if we didn't want them to know, but that'd be a lie, not 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-provoked, and some of them just downright bizarre. 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 part 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 humorous, 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 saying 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 at Fort Sill. It was during my Army advanced training and my friend Merritt Bradshaw and I were side by side doing endless push-ups along with the rest of our platoon because of another soldier's infraction. Now that wasn't unusual. Drill sergeants looked for something to punish you for is a lesson and they used negative reinforcement both as a reminder and exercise. But if the same guy 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 100 when Merritt whispered to me, If Smith does that again, the drill sergeant is going to kill us.

I whispered back. If he does that again, I'm going to beat him like a rented mule. Now, I'm 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'd responded like he did to the most over-year. used 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 tobacco again.

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 in his ability not to laugh. if it was a pressure relief bowled for him, and I had triggered it. My friend collapsed into a fit of 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 hat aimed at the two of us and growing bigger with each step, as Drill Sergeant Franks ran toward us stepping on the backs of soldiers in his rush to kill us both. His eyes wide with unbelievable delight

While the veins in his forehead bulged out past his eyebrows And what happened next is more like a foggy nightmare of push-ups, Grastrial 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 Merritt laugh bringing the whole of our drill sergeant's attention upon the two of us and away from him. Now, 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 38 years ago. Smitty probably retired a general. But beat him like a rented mule allow me to explain. The phrase gives the idea that someone would 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 1987. 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. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag.

And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. where he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper, from cold case files to whispered suspicions,

from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers.

Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 is sharp as attack. A variation on an idiot.

that I've heard all over in every form of media, print, radio, and television everywhere, including on this channel from March of 2022. Riva'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 guest hosting on a render episode number 47 entitled Steve Ronella on Jerry Clower from the first season of Bear Grease. Clay was telling Steve and the others who were sitting 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.

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 Newcomb, Brent Ruech, Reeves, Josh Lambridge spillmaker, Gary, believer, Newcomb. Brent, 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 reference. Now, during Minor 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 Claybow, and he said, did you say rat peel? Yeah, I said rat pill.

He said, like rat droppings? Yep. Clay said, I don't get it. I said, do you ever seen one? He said, yeah? I told him a rat pill is 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 is sharp. He's sharp when he could have just said Brent Reeves is sharp as a rat pill. 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. Now, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the one that Steve himself came up with that wound up being on a meat eater t-shirt, and that one is a fresh set of eyes finds more beans.

I admit when I first heard it, I didn't give it much thought. It didn't sing to me. 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 sit in the waiting room and started making a list of the ones I've used and heard, then when the nurse walked out and called my name, she had to call it twice because I was busy as a one-armed paper hanger

making notes for this episode. Hmm, you see what I mean? 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 100 before a cat can lick us behind. I read them all, and that last one wasn't on there, so that's 101. Now, 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. There's a lot going on, and there are several levels of understanding that going to get in the mental picture and the humor of the phrase. But one time he bought an old disc to use with our tractor in 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 disc he 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, my dad offered the man a fair price and he gladly accepted. I think the farmer would let dad have it just to get it off his farm since he recently gotten himself a new one. But it was a good deal for both parties. There were several issues that required some welding and we had a welder and my dad who I've described on here before as frugal about anything that didn't pertain to hunt dogs, horses and ground and shotguns was going to give this this the old fixer upper treatment and I was going to be as healthy. The farmer loaded it on our tree. 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. 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 neglect and rush so my dad could fix it, fusing the pieces back together with a weld of molten,

stiff. I scrubbed and he welded. And before it was all over, I got to burn a rod myself wearing the hood and his big old leather gloves. Now, once completed, we stood back and looked at the welds 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. I was feeling good about it. about it and someone snatched 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.

What you think, Dad? Hmm? What you think? How's it look? He stared at that disc, his eyes going from weld to weld, checking his work inch by inch, never looking at me, only the repairs we do. in an already eyesore piece of farming equipment. With bated 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 sewn shut with a grapevine. In the nanosecond it took me to process the image of a coon's exhaust pipe that I'd seen countless times as we scanned them and to picture it sewn shut like a hole in the toe of the air. a sock with a grapevine of all things, I went into convulsions of laughter. The kind of infectious laughter that makes everyone else laugh with inherent, even though

they have no idea what's so funny. And for days and weeks and I guess decades, I still laugh at his description of our concerted efforts to fix that disc. And 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 plots ready. Now there's an idiom somewhere in that story. And don't judge a book by its cover. It quickly comes to mind, but that just doesn't sing for me.

How about a coon's butt sown is a garden grown? Yeah, that seems. I'm going to put it to a vote on my Instagram page that's a wish. which one you like the best. Mine are Steve's and let y'all be the judge. Thank you so much for listening. Y'all get over to the Meteeter 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, this is Brent Reeves, signing off. Y'all be careful. Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps game calls and building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you, I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go, I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen.

But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut, and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at Phelps Game Calls.com. I think you'll be glad you did, and you'll find out that the Steve Ronella cut is an easy-to-use cut for beginning callers

who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting action.