Terrorist Treatment: Kill The Snakes !

Terrorism Treatment: Kill The Snakes

by Samuel E. Warren Jr.

A southwest Missouri farmer, in the 1960s, knew you didn’t want to find a nest of snakes on your farm.

If a copperhead’s snakebite venom didn’t kill your milk cow, the poison could swell her udder and make the milk useless for the old cow to nurse her calf. You couldn’t use the milk to drink or make butter.

King snakes, black snakes, bull snakes, coach whips, blue racers and copperheads that got in your hen house would kill and consume the rooster, old hens, baby chicks and eat the eggs.

Cottonmouths and water moccasins in ponds quickly consume trout and bass that had been stocked in the farm ponds. Both snakes are poisonous, so no one would go into the water to swim.

Usually large old snakes will lie out under the wood pile and wait for a farmer to come and chop wood for the cook stove for supper. The wood pile protects the old snake from the heat of the day. When the farmer arrives a smart old snake slither away – like Osama bin Laden, the terrorist did for more than a decade) A stupid snake coils and strikes. The chopping ax falls true and the snake’s severed head flies off into the wood pile.

Al-Qaeda Anacondas

Global terrorists are, in essence, poisonous snakes, because like snakes, they kill people, destroy livelihoods and property. Snakes and terrorists leave only death and destruction in their trails.

Global terrorists in the 1960s and 1970s outwitted global governments, who tried to deal with the terrorists as though they were criminals, who wanted money. The governments didn’t realize the terrorists were simply dealing with vipers, whose poison brings only death.

Snakes are snakes. Terrorist are snakes. There is only one way to deal with a snake – you kill it.

Osama bin Laden, the terrorist, was a snake, who kept slithering from hole to hole to avoid the sunlight of law enforcement. He spread his venom to destroy thousands of lives for about 15 years. Now, that old terrorist snake is dead – his nest is still alive and slithering. Al-Qaeda is slithering in a World Of Farmers, who should remember how to deal with snakes.

Momma's Missouri Chopping Ax - Opal M. DeLong Warren used this ax in the 1960s to clear sprouts off of ten acres of land, near Galena, Missouri - until she bought "hair" goats to control the sprouts. At dusk, one day in 1962, Grandma Martha L. DeLong went out to the hen house to gather eggs. She screamed and Uncle Richard DeLong and I rushed to the chicken coup. He grabbed a pitchfork and ran inside to snatch up a six foot long black snake out of a hen's nest. Plopping the sneaky serpent down on the nearby wood pile and snatching up his ax - like the one in the photo- his aim rang true. The severed snake's head flew into the wood pile and we watched the wiggling tail die. Photo by Samuel E. Warren Jr.

A southwest Missouri farmer, in the 1960s, would carry a double barrel shotgun, a pistol, or a chopping ax to go out into one of his fields that he thought might have a snake’s nest. Shotguns and chopping axes are effective tools to kill snakes.

A five gallon can of gasoline and a box of kitchen matches were priceless in destroying all the snakes in their nest, in fields, on the property.

Missouri has more than 200 different types of snakes. Rattle snakes began arriving in southwest Missouri in the 1970s. Snakes like terrorists are hard to control. Some snakes can have up to 20 young hatch from eggs – like terrorists- snakes breed quickly and spread

Chadwick Church Copperheads

In Missouri, in the late 1960s or early 1970s, around Chadwick, Missouri, churchgoers one Sunday morning were in the midst of a service. The local story claimed that when the organist started playing the hymns, worshipers sitting in the pews, felt a swishing by their feet. They looked down and noticed “the floor moving.” A nest of copperheads had been under the old churches wooden floor boards. The music woke up the poisonous snakes, which slithered up through the wooden floor boards.

The Chadwick church copperhead snakes story quickly grabbed local, state, national and international headlines.

For years, Chadwick, Missouri sponsored the Annual Copperhead Roundup And Barbeque, where people would go out into the woods, carefully catch the snakes and put them in burlap tow sacks to be taken back and barbequed.

After years of rounding up the poisonous snakes the annual event stopped because there were no more copperheads to hunt, according to reports.

Survivalists Snakes

“Survivalism” was a popular movement in the Midwest in the 1960s and 1970s. People were paranoia about the Cold War and nuclear weapons. The persistent fear that either the Soviet Union or the Red Chinese would launch their nuclear weapons and start World War III caused some people to go out and live in the woods and stockpile food and weapons to try and be a “survivor.”

Some of the survivalists went “off the deep end” and formed their militias that taught “perverted fanatical religious views” of an impending, inevitable Armageddon and these people became “domestic terrorists.”

Like snakes, some of the domestic terrorists in the 1970s, slithered into southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas. At least one of the nest of the nut job domestic terrorists called themselves something like Arm of the Lord Sword of the Covenant. After the terrorists killed a Missouri state trooper, during a routine traffic stop, law enforcement swung into action. Soon, the domestic terrorism snakes’ nest was stamped out in southwest Missouri.

Slithering Past The U.S. Constitution

America operates on “The Rule Of Law” and The Constitution Of The United States Of America is considered “The Supreme Law Of The Land,” which explains why America presidents and federal employees down to a “slick sleeve” airman basic in the U.S. Air Force raises their hand and swears an oath to “protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” – “against all enemies, foreign and domestic”.

Sometimes America presidents do a lousy job of protecting and defending the Constitution.

America’s King Cobra ?

“Tricky Dick” Nixon, a former American president, during the Watergate Affair, proved he was “Above The Law,” when the investigation got too close to the front doors of the White House, rather than face impeachment Nixon slipped away.

1. Nixon fired the Attorney General of the United States of America, John N. Mitchell – who by virtue of his office was “The Ranking Lawyer In America” and “The Chief Law Enforcement Officer In America” – “America’s Top Cop.” Nixon may have had a “legal right” since he, technically, hired Mitchell – but what better way to stop an investigation than to fire the lawyer and cop in charge?
2. Nixon claimed “Executive Privilege” – he took the “plea bargain” and left office. While Nixon claimed that he had done nothing wrong his vice president became president and offered “Tricky Dick” a pardon. If Richard Milhous Nixon had done nothing wrong; why would he take “A Presidential Pardon?”

The Watergate Affair really made a mockery of the U.S. Constitution, The concept of The Rule Of Law and the whole concept of Justice In America, where the theory is – No One Is Above The Law. The global terrorism issue really pushes the concept of justice and individual civil rights: How Can Anyone Feel Safe in their home or person if they surrender all their civil rights to the government? Thus, We The People all become “subjects, serfs, and slaves instead of citizens.”

Perhaps, global terrorists should be viewed in a different legal light. If their actions are global, then, a global terrorist’s suspect would have No Citizenship – A Man or Woman Without A Country. With No Citizenship, then, they would have no legal rights on the planet, thus, they could be treated like a creature and a creature would not even be given the civility accorded to pets or livestock.

Should someone like Osama bin Laden or the Mastermind of the Lockerbee Scotland Flight Bombing be considered human and given protection under the law ?

A post Civil War criminal – i.e., “Domestic Terrorism” issue in Missouri reminds us that sometimes Justice can have an extremely creative outcome.

Head On A Pole

Alf Bolin earned numerous labels: guerrilla, bushwhacker, carpetbagger, criminal, and outlaw – among others. Caught in the crossfire of the Civil War, he took advantage of being caught in the middle to inflict robbery and murder on everyone from “Union Blue Bellies” to “Johnny Reba” to poor dirt farmers and their families. Like bin Laden and Al-Qaeda, Alf Bolin seemed to enjoy killing just for the sheer fun of killing.

His numerous psychotic crimes terrorized people in the Ozarks, even to the tiny town of Ponce de Leon, Missouri. The most popular story credits The Governor of Missouri calling upon the Union Army for assistance. A young “butter bar”, “still wet behind the ears” Yankee lieutenant was sent undercover to try and bring Alf Bolin and his thugs to justice.

Fortunately. The young officer got the drop on Bolin and shot him dead. Even, then, the young officer faced the problem of “evidence” to prove the domestic terrorist had been dispatched to meet his maker. Before he “headed” to the authorities, the young man “took Bolin’s head” as “proof” of death (or justice). The severed head ended up placed on a pole before a rural Missouri courthouse. The slowly rotting “buzzard bait” head of Alf Bolin allowed local children and citizens to throw rotten tomatoes, vegetable at other garbage at Alf’s final remain. While the official authorities were trying to decide what to do with the decaying public head – Nature acted.

Farmers routinely allowed their livestock to graze or root – past the rural courthouse – one day the head fell off the pole in the midst of some hogs. The Alf Bolin story claims that some citizens watched as the hungry hogs fought over and devoured the head.

Missouri’s approach to “domestic terrorism” in the late 1800s is obviously different than the terrorism issues of 2011. Leave it to the legal scholars to debate if Osama bin Laden got “justice.” Global terrorism should remind us all that you can classify snakes as “good snakes” or “bad snakes” – but, a snake is still a snake.

History and Society can decide if a controversial person like Yasser Arafat is not a terrorist and decide that his reported “viper” actions of his life were like those of a . . . King Snake useful to get rid of mice and other rodents, but a snake is still a snake – no matter how colorful or how many times it sheds it’s skin.

A dead old cobra like Osama bin Laden, will have to rely on his supporters to try and prostitute history and society into viewing him as a happy, harmless garden snake. Still, a snake is still a snake. Some environmentalists might be wrong – perhaps – sometimes the global eco system is better off without a species. Humanity has done pretty well without dinosaurs.

Perhaps, it will take governments decades to decide on the type of justice for international terrorists, but to feel sorry for a dead terrorist and not celebrate his death is a greater “Injustice” to the victims and humanity as a whole.

Lethal Legacy

Global terrorists. Like bin Laden and Al-Qaeda are snakes – and, a snake is still a snake. Sometimes Fate intervenes and a snake gets crushed to death in a hay bailer, smashed to smithereens by a tractor tire lumbering through the field or squashed by speeding motorists on the highway – I don’t know any Missouri farmers, who grieve or even care about the sudden demise of the serpentine “buzzard bait.”

The old cobra, bin Laden is dead, but, global governments can’t afford to quit hunting the terrorists. Terrorists like snakes, breed, thrive and spread. Global governments need to keep their shotguns, chopping axes, gas cans and matches at the ready to deal with the terrorists, wherever they rear their poisonous heads.

Missouri has never had a shortage of snakes. Snakes always come back. The wise goal for snakes and terrorists remains – Extinction.

TOP SECRET – STONE COUNTY

EDITOR’S NOTE:

This article is my observations of growing up in Stone County, Missouri in the 1960s. Stone County is a rural southwest Missouri county that neighbors Taney County, which is usually most famous for being the home of Branson, Missouri.

Stone County is a rural conservative county. Politics centers around a “fanatical”, i.e., “die hard” support of the Republican party. There are more than 150 churches in Stone County, which usually has the Baptists ranking above the other Protestant religions. Usually, the Pentecostals rank a close second. In terms of economics: Stone County at the end of the 20th Century would be considered a poor county, even in a depressed U.S. economy.

Galena, Crane, Reeds Spring, Cape Fair, Kimberling City, Abesville and the majority of Stone County towns are the classic Sinclair Lewis and Norman Rockwell “small town American towns.”

This is the county, I grew up in.

In 2010, Stone County really hasn’t changed that much, except the Stone County Sheriff’s Department now has more than 20 deputies.

The article is my observations and analysis. I hope you enjoy the article.

Junior Warren
Editor,Writer, Photographer, and Stone County, Missouri Old Timer

A Stone County Old Timer Editorial

Top Secret – Stone County, Missouri

by Junior Warren

Step up to the cipher lock of the massive steel doors and punch in the numbers.

Slowly, the six-inch thick steel doors part and open outward. The rotating red beacons, beside the doors, comes to life and tosses out their rays of crimson light.

You step through the doors.

Once inside, you continue into the secure subterranean area. Technology transforms nature’s large cave into a complex secure government facility miles down inside the earth. You stroll along the asphalt path lit by the uniformly spaced overhead recessed cavern lights. The massive underground bunker doors halt. The twin doors sensors scan the entrance. The concealed infra red beams scan the opening. The motion sensors and surveillance cameras confirm no unrecognized heat signatures.

The massive twin steel doors move and swing close. You hear the metallic thunder click of the massive steel vault locks in the doors seal behind you.

“Welcome to Stone County, Missouri.”

You’ve just stepped into Stone County, Missouri in the 1960s.

Stone County, Missouri of the 1960s
really isn’t that different from
Stone County, Missouri in 2010.

Area 51 – Midwest

Long before background checks or America’s Gated Communities of the 1980s became fashionable, Stone County, Missouri was essentially an Area 51 in the Midwestern United States.

People are familiar with the “Southern Hospitality” of the southern states and their cities; “Ozark’s Hospitality” can be ever bit as friendly, but, has to be earned over time. You don’t just show up and 24 hours later expect to be treated like a long lost friend. People in the Ozarks have to get to know you and “warm up” to you.

Growing up in the Ozarks in the 1960s was a lot like living inside a secure enormous government facility. You felt protected from the Outside World. The terrain of Arkansas’ Boston Mountains could be considered the southern most boundary. The usual belief is the northern most limits of the Ozarks imaginary boundary stops a few miles south of Jefferson City, Missouri, the state capitol. The natural terrain of the Ozarks area in the 1960s always gave the residents a sense of maximum security.

In the years before cell phones and computers, the height of technology was black and white televisions tuned to any one of the two local stations Channel 3 – KYTV, or Channel 10, KOLR. Both stations usually signed off at midnight, Monday through Friday.

Party Line

You got on a waiting list to get telephone service. When you finally did get a telephone, it would be a Party Line. Thus, when your phone rang it meant at least three other people on the phone line would hear their phones “jingle.” People on the party line knew you were getting a phone call because their telephones made a muffled rumbling sound like a phone trying to ring under a pillow. In those days, eavesdropping tended to be a major pastime for some people. It was obvious because some of the information that you and the caller talked about would usually become public knowledge from Abesville to Galena a day or two later.

Keep Watching The Ozarks

There were three popular local radio stations KWTO – “Keep Watching The Ozarks, “in Springfield, 40 miles away from Stone County, Missouri and KTTS, also in Springfield. Some people would tune in to KSWM in Aurora, Missouri, also about 40 miles away. These were the three local radio stations that were usually listened to in the 1960s in Stone County, Missouri.

The Springfield newspaper

The two major newspapers were The Stone County Republican and the Springfield Leader and Press, which was usually just called the Springfield Newspaper. If you lived in Crane, Missouri, you might subscribe to the Crane Chronicle, but, in the early 1960s, that newspaper usually didn’t circulate to far outside the Crane city limits.

People didn’t lock their doors day or night. They left the keys to their cars and pickups in the ignitions.

The nearest hospitals, in the 1960s, were about 40 miles away. You would drive north 40 miles to Springfield or south, “as the crow flies” to Aurora. The Skating hospital was being built in Branson in the 1960s.

The geography and infrastructure of southwest Missouri in the 1960s, essentially kept Stone County, Missouri as isolated and as mystical America’s legendary “Area 51.”

Stone County’s Top Secret Security Measures

Stone County’s Greatest Security Measure in the 1960s were the people.

Visitors were usually uncomfortable on their first visits to Stone County. Time and again, the comments were, “people in Stone County are stand off-is” It was true. All non residents were simply “Strangers.”

No amount of background checks, security clearances, security badges mattered to the residents of the time. If you lived outside of Stone County, Missouri you were a “Stranger.” Whether you were the President of the United States of America or the Governor of Missouri; it did not matter. If you didn’t live in Stone County; you were a “Stranger.”

All strangers had to earn the trust of the local citizens. It was a slow process. Most visitors didn’t understand it.

While most visitors in the 1960s came to Stone County expecting to find a “Beverly Hillbillies Hospitality;” they were disappointed. True, some men wore overalls and grandmothers worn nondescript cotton dresses. No one was jumping up and down to invite you to their house for “possum vittles” on the fancy dining table with the six pool pockets.

Twilight Zone Address ?

A visitor or stranger to Stone County in the 1960s might feel as though he or she had actually arrived at a “Twilight Zone” address or wound up on the set of the science fiction television series “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.” Stone County citizens simply had to “warm up” and get accustom to being around a new visitor or stranger.

Stone County citizens had a different approach to visitors and strangers than neighboring Taney County.

The Reverend Harold Bell Wright’s “Shepherd Of The Hills” novel had put Forsyth, Hollister and Branson, Missouri in the national spotlight and Taney County, Missouri had become a household word in the 1960s. Meanwhile, next door, Stone County remained a mystery to most Americans.

National Political Obscurity

Stone County, Missouri, had Dewey Short, Galena’s favorite son, and the United States 7th Congressional District congressman. But, if you weren’t into national or state politics in the 1960s, then, you probably had never heard of Stone County, Missouri or Galena.

Hunters and fisherman were familiar with Stone County, Missouri.

Folklorist Vance Randolph’s stories had drawn hunters and fishermen to Stone County. Bill Rogers, a local fisherman and hunter, acted as a local guide and operated the Bill Roger’s Motel, on the banks of the James River, beside the Y Bridge.

Galena, Missouri – Float Fishing Capitol Of The World

The large painted bass on the billboard on the corner of the square bragged: Galena, Missouri – Float Fishing Capital of the World. People did come from throughout the United States to float fish the James River. Usually, they would put their canoes in at “Horse Creek” and float down the James River to the boat dock, near the Bill Roger’s Motel.

Buttermilk Springs

One reported stop along the way was a place called, “Buttermilk Springs.” Loretta Gordon told me why the stop was called Buttermilk Springs. In those days people drank buttermilk. When fisherman came to float the James River, some of the local citizens would put jars of buttermilk in the cold water to chill until the visitors in the canoes arrived. They would buy jars of buttermilk to take back home with them, before continuing their float trip on to Galena. Loretta had worked as a waitress at the Bill Rogers Motel, so I remembered her account.

Moonshine Stills Along James River

One urban legend is that Buttermilk Springs might have been a location where visitors could buy local moonshine. In Stone County, Missouri, in the 1960s, the soil allowed you to grow hay, tomatoes and corn, in relative ease. Corn is a principal ingredient in moonshine. Throughout, my childhood in the 1960s, Stone County, Missouri had a notorious reputation as a location for the production of “moonshine.”

By the late 1970s. Federal, state and local authorities were roaming the hillsides searching for marijuana plants. Still as late as the late 1980s, there were rumors of hidden “and still producing ‘moonshine stills’ in Stone County, Missouri.’”

Stone County’s Area 51 Mystique

The Area 51 Mystique Of Stone County, Missouri continues in 2010 because the overall psychology has not changed. A Stranger is still a stranger.

To become comfortable and accepted in Stone County, Missouri, there is only one thing you can do: You must live here.

“The Stone County, Missouri difference”

Living in Stone County, Missouri is unlike living any other place on the planet. I’ve lived on military bases. I lived on base in Okinawa and off base in Misawa, Japan. I lived off base in Angeles City, Philippines and off base in Bossier City, Louisiana – to name a few places. Overtime, you usually feel at home and feel as though you can blend in. Stone County, Missouri is different.

Most places I’ve lived in around the world you could choose to immerse yourself in the culture or to sit on the sidelines and be an observer. I believe to live in Stone County, Missouri, you really have to become a part of the culture.

To feel at home in Stone County, Missouri, you simply have to live here. The feeling will not come in six months or a year. It probably will be closer to 29 years before you wake up in the morning and actually feel like you belong.

If you move to Stone County, Missouri, it helps to know or have some proof that a great-grandfather or great-grandmother lived here at one time. Still, that link to the past doesn’t make you “welcome” by traditional standards.

“Newcomers”

People who move into Stone County, Missouri are called, “Newcomers.” When I was a child, in the 1960s, the only way that a “Newcomer” would be accepted is to live in Stone County 20 years. The “Old Timers” of the day referred to anyone and everyone, who moved into Stone County as a “Newcomer” until they had lived here 20 years.

That is the magick number – 20 years to be considered a “citizen of Stone County” by the “Old Timers.” Nothing under 20 mattered. If you lived in Stone County, Missouri, 19 years and 364 days and then moved, if you moved back into the county later, then, you would be called a “Newcomer.”

Find The Ancestors

Alex Haley’s book, “Roots,” had everyone tracing their ancestors in the 1970s. People talked about their ancestors. You had people trying to find their ancestors, who had served in the Civil War, on either side, In the years before computers, people took great efforts to try to trace their ancestors back to the Daughters of the American Revolution or the Mayflower.

Meanwhile, in Stone County, Missouri, the only heraldry, lineage or coat of arms that meant anything to local citizens were your grandparents. You could have been a direct descendant of General George Washington or General Robert E. Lee and Stone County citizens would of smiled and said, “That’s nice.”

The next question would have been, “Who is your grandpa ?”

Respectable Grandparents

Stone County Heraldry and Lineage in the 1960s focused on your grandparents. If your grandparents were well thought of and respected in Stone County, then, a complete “stranger” got the benefit of the doubt and it didn’t take local citizens as long to “warm up” to that person and accept the individual as a friend.

If either grandparent had been considered less than honorable in Stone County, then, the grandchild was simply considered a “newcomer.”

None of the rules were written down, but they were understood. Grandparents and Old Timers in Stone County carried weight that would be the envy of the chair people of the Democratic National Committee and the Republican National Committee.

The Old Timers Of Stone County

The Old Timers Of Stone County were simply elderly men and women who had lived most if not all of their lives in the county. When they told you something it was almost always based on their lifetime experiences.

The Old Timers Game

In the 1960s, college graduates who moved into the county and decided to become farmers like to try and prove to the Old Timers that they were “wiser” and “smarter” because they had college educations. Usually, the Old Timers just shrugged off the bragging of the younger college educated farmers. Sometimes the youth went to far in bragging about their college educations from the University of Missouri, Southwest Missouri State University or the School of the Ozarks.

Then, the Old Timers would play their game. They would tell the youth something that they had observed all their lives. The Old Timers knew that human nature being what it is, most if not all, of the young farmers would ignore their lifetime wisdom and experience. The end result is The Old Timers would have the last laugh. The most certain information in the 1960s was the Memorial Day Hay information.

Memorial Day Hay

Old Timers would tell Newcomer farmers time and again: “cut, bale and get your hay out of the field before Memorial Day – May 30.” Usually, the newcomer farmers would tune into the radio, TV or read the newspaper weather report and make their decision. Through the years a lot of Stone County hay rot in the fields.

Newcomers didn’t always listen and they would almost always lose some if not all of the hay. Perhaps, it is just a freakish weather occurrence, but, even in 2010, if you have hay cut and lying in the field waiting to be baled, there is a good chance it will get rained on during the May 30 Memorial Day Weekend.

Old Timer’s Stories

An Old Timer might not know you, but, if you told him or her your grandfather or grandmother’s name, then, they would smile and start in with the stories about your grandparents. Having lived in the county all his or her life, the Old Timer would of known your grandpa probably all the way back to his grandpa or grandma. Old Timer’s in Stone County, “didn’t pull punches” in their storytelling. They would tell you their accounts and “let the chips fall where they may.” There was no political correctness, especially among the Old Timers, in Stone County in the 1960s. They were great sources of information because they would tell you stories that some families had tried for years to hide as though the event never happened. The Old Timers had long and clear memories.

Little Hoss Jennings

In my childhood, one of my favorite “Old Timers” was “Little Hoss Jennings.” A short man, about five foot two inches, who wore railroad pin stripe overalls and would sit on one of the benches underneath the large trees on the courthouse lawn. He also worked part-time as a dispatcher in the Stone County Sheriff’s Office, when it was in the courthouse I’d listen as he would tell people stories of bygone days of Stone County.

Back To Square One

Grand kids, nieces, nephews, and long long cousins, who came for the summer didn’t figure into the Stone County citizenship equation. It may have made them feel good to have spent time roaming the hills in the summer, but, if they came back years later to visit or live, then, they would be considered “Newcomers.” Basically, the person would go back to square one because “summer vacations” weren’t considered “living in Stone County.” And if none of the Old Timers remembered you, then, you were a “newcomer.”

Disownment

There are references in American history where a parent refused to acknowledge a child. Growing up in Stone County in the 1960s, there were times when you would hear of a parent or grandparent that refused to recognize a child or grandchild. Usually, the policy to “disown” a child came out of an act like a child being born out of wedlock. The family that “disowned” the child would not speak their name, nor, would they admit any type of connection to the disowned child.

Even in the 1960s, in Stone County, there were family members that could be considered “Black Sheep” because they didn’t fit into the overall family pattern. Family members considered “Black Sheep” were recognized; but, a “disowned” person simply didn’t exists by Stone County standards.

DNA’s discovery in the 1970s served to prove legal and medical issues of heritage, but, if a grandparent or grandparents had “disowned” a child, it would be the decision of later family members to admit or deny that person’s connection to the family, after the grandparent’s deaths.

Natives of Stone County

In 2010, a person can claim to be “a native of Stone County.” In the 1960s, to be “A Native Of Stone County” was like being a recipient of the Congressional Medal Of Honor. In the 1960s, if an Old Timer overheard someone making the claim of being “a native of Stone County; it wasn’t unusual for the Old Timer to call the person’s bluff on the spot/ Remarks like, “You haven’t live here that long.”

By the Old Timer’s definition: Natives of Stone County, Missouri are those people who can trace there family back at least two generations and usually three. Once, you’ve lived in Stone County for 20 years, then, you begin the process, but, by the Old Timers standards, you have to live here and raise your kids and watch your grand kids start to grow up before you could be called or considered, “a native.”

Green Horns, Tenderfoots, Tin Horns

In the 1960s, Newcomers to Stone County, Missouri were seldom taken seriously. People would move into the county with ideas. Usually in two or three years the disappointed “newcomer” would move to another city or state. Green Horns, Tenderfoots and tin horns were the names usually given to people who came to Stone County with ideas of how to change the county.

In the 1960s, Stone County was definitely a farm county. Farmers milked Holstein, Guernsey and Jersey cows. They raised Angus and Polled Hereford beef cattle. Hog farming was in it’s heyday with farmers raising Hampshire and Duroc pigs. Tomatoes, corn and hay were the crops.

Ozarks Hillbilly Stereotype

“The Beverly Hillbillies” TV show went on the air in the 1960s, The daily publication of Al Capp’s “Lil Abner” comic strip in newspapers contributed to America’s stereotype of the “hillbilly.” The recently opened “Silver Dollar City” and “Shepherd of the Hills attractions had people coming to Taney County like the Oklahoma Land Rush. The popularity of “The Baldknobbers” music show sprouted like corn, especially when “Hee Haw” filled the nation’s air waves. It seemed everyone wanted to see the stereotypical “hillbillies” in their native surroundings.

People who showed up with business opportunities in the 1960s, usually left frustrated. Basically, if the ideas didn’t relate to agriculture; people weren’t interested.

In the 1960s, most people farmed. Some wives worked at the garment factories in Reeds Spring or Crane. Some wives worked in the shoe factory in Marionville or the casket factory in Crane. A few people worked at the courthouse. The Stone County Sheriff’s Department from the 1960s through the early 1970s had one sheriff and usually two deputies for daily law enforcement throughout the county. There was at one point a Stone County Sheriff’s Posse, but, in the 1960s, it was usually local citizens who rode their horses in local parades.

Central Intelligence Agency World View

Neighboring Taney County always seemed to have a “Cosmopolitan View” of visitors; Stone County, Missouri had the “Central Intelligence Agency World View.”

In the 1960s, the Central Intelligence Agency was the ultimate super secret agency shrouded in secrecy. Ian Fleming’s James Bond made a “spy” and the “secret agent” popular in the American culture. Despite the critics, in my lifetime, the CIA has always been known as the government agency that keeps “secrets” and gets the job done, on behalf of all Americans.

Like the CIA, Stone County, Missouri citizens “keep their secrets,” “mind their own business,” and go about their daily lives.

Basically, you live in Stone County, Missouri and over time, then, you will be accepted.

People in Stone County were always friendly, but, they never did the “Welcome Wagon” routine. You might actually live in the county several days or weeks before a local resident welcomed you to the county because the standard Ozarks mentality was people didn’t “butt in” and everyone minded “their own business.”

Moving into Stone County, Missouri didn’t mean that you were anonymous. Whether it was a single man, woman or a family; within a few days, usually a few hours, people would know your complete background and history.

Stone County Grapevine

The Stone County Grapevine of the 1960s went beyond anything Uncle Sam could come up with in the age before computers. You might not know your new neighbors, but, they would know your background and family history, within days of you moving into the county.

It didn’t matter if you moved into or near Galena, Abesville, Ponce de Leon, Crane, Cape Fair, Kimberling City, Reeds Spring,Bass Holler or a remote area in the county, within hours of your move into the county, people would know about you or would know “of you,” which meant that although they had never met you, they had already heard “stories about you.”

Your Reputation

Within days of moving into Stone County, Missouri, a newcomer would have a “reputation” based on the stories about the person that circulated around the county about the person. Whether the “reputation” was true or not did not matter, Once a person’s “reputation” got around the county; all the “newcomer” could do was either “live up to it” or try and “live it down.”

Always an unspoken factor in your reputation was that of “your parent’s reputation” and “your grandparent’s reputation.” If either of your parents or grandparents weren’t liked or thought “well of,” then, that was always a consideration in a person’s reputation.

Slow To Accept Visitors

In my lifetime, Stone County, Missouri is unique because the local culture has always been slow to accept “visitors.” The natural geography is still an obvious factor. The hills and bluffs of the countryside suggest s sense of fortification from the outside world.

The technology of the day probably contributed to the slow acceptance of visitors and strangers. The slow growth of infrastructure, no doubt, provides the continuing sense of security. In 2010, it is still basically 40 miles in any direction to the nearest hospital. However, Greene County hospitals in Springfield are accustomed to emergency medical helicopter flights into and out of Stone County, Missouri.

‘A’ Bomb Scare

When I began going to Abesville Grade School in 1960, “the A Bomb scare” was a part of life. You went to bed at night and hoped that the “Soviet Union” would not launch their nuclear missiles or that Soviet bombers would not violate U.S. airspace and drop the dreaded “Atomic Bomb.”

By the third grade, I had found the address of the U.S. Superintendent of Documents and had wrote off to request the advertised plans to “build your own underground bomb shelter” I spent the next nine years pleading and begging with my mother to build a bomb shelter.

In 1969, Momma built a pole barn for the livestock. In 1978, I joined the U.S. Air Force. I never did get my “bomb shelter.”

The “Cold War” and the whole “United States versus the Communist” psychology was a real concern in the 1960s and 1970s.

20th Century Election Night Festivities

In the 1960s and 1970s, someone would park their pickup on the street in front of the courthouse. A big chalkboard would be in the pickup bed and someone would write the incoming vote tallies on the board for everyone to see. People either crowded around the pickup or would sit across the street in Gene Hick’s Cafe and Drugstore and stare out the large glass windows as the election eve results were being written on the chalkboard. Everyone waited to see who “Would Be The Next Sheriff Of Stone County.”

Crowds of people would fill the street and move around the pickup waiting to see who the next sheriff and president would be. Once the announcement was made and the vote tallies were written on the board, then, people would head home.

No one ever cared about who would be a Stone County commissioner or county clerk in the 1960s. In the 1960s, the “Power of Stone County” was known to rest in the Sheriff’s Office.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the only elections that really mattered were “The Sheriff Of Stone County” and “The President Of The United States.” Galena was the native home of Congressman Dewey Short, until he retired in the late 1970s. Thus, in the 1960s and 1970s, it didn’t really seem to matter who would be either of Missouri’s U.S. Senators.

Perhaps, Jefferson City, the state capitol, was considered too far away at the time to worry about. I don’t remember anyone really caring about who got elected governor or any of the senators or representatives who got elected to the Missouri General Assembly.

Of course in the 21st Century, Stone County residents seem more concerned with the election results, even if the ceremony in front of the courthouse no longer occurs on election night. Jefferson City isn’t that far away after all.

Cleared for Stone County

In 2010, in Stone County, Missouri, people use their cell phones, computers, send email and have their Facebook, My Space, and Twitter accounts, which they update while watching Direct TV or Dish Network television. The cities don’t look much different than any small towns in America. And, Galena, Missouri, the county seat, is one of the eight towns in the United States known as Galena.

You simply enter and leave the county by crossing any of the shared county lines from Barry, Christian, Taney or Lawrence counties Satellites circle the globe and broadcast their radio, TV and cell phone signals into and out of Stone County.

Area 51 Mentality

Secrecy occurs naturally in Stone County, Missouri. The traditional concept of “minding your own business” is a part of the county’s natural psychology. Outgoing and friendly people might feel like they are on a Hollywood movie set for a science fiction movie on their first visit to Stone County because the local people do seem distant.

In my lifetime it has always been this way. People meet you slowly and get to know you over time. The intent is not to make anyone feel like they are in the middle of an “X Files” episode or movie.

Stone County, Missouri is not located a mile below the earth with an impressive Cheyenne Mountain type of entrance. Nor, is Stone County, Missouri located in a parallel time and space dimension that will require you to have precise mathematical calculations or mystical, magickal incantations to open or close any kind of portal.

Perhaps, the best way for a “newcomer” to ever feel at home like “a native” is to try and understand Stone County’s “Area 51 Mentality.” You live in an area of the United States where the weather is as stable as a politician’s promises – frequently changing. Stone is an accurate description of the soil. Change of all kinds: political, religious, economic, social and technological – are slow process that occurs at a snail’s pace over time in Stone County, Missouri.

Junior Warren
Writer, Photographer, Stone County, Missouri Old Timer

Stone County, Missouri US Gen Web http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mostone/stone.htm