Turtle Soup II

The Nankipooh Enquirer

"Covers the South like Sorghum Syrup"

bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net  

"Turtle Soup"

It seems that some of my cousins, who are Great Grandchildren, or even Great, Great, Grandchildren of Bascomb Biggers are reading these articles on "I grew up in Nankipooh", so I am re-posting a story, which is a true story about Bascomb Biggers.  This story was told to me by my Grandpa, James Norman Biggers, who was the son of Bascomb Biggers, but most of you know him as the Mr. Biggers who owned the Biggers Grocery in Nankipooh.

RE: "Turtle Soup"

One Sunday we was all sitting around the dinner table, and Mama was bringing out some homemade heaven from the kitchen. There was fried chicken and mashed potatoes, and collard greens, and black-eyed peas with ham hocks, fresh sliced tomatoes, and cat's paw biscuits. The last thing she brought out was a big old tureen of homemade soup, which she served to Daddy first. We was all lapping it down and thought it was really great, when Bascomb said, Hon, bring me another bowl of that chicken soup."

Well Mama knew that Daddy would never eat any turtle no matter how it was fixed, and she knew that this was not chicken soup, but turtle soup. So she looked him right in the eye, and said, "Bascomb, this ain't chicken soup, its turtle soup, and I see that you liked it." Well the dining room got real quiet, and then Daddy stood up and said, "Woman I told you never to cook turtle for me!", And with that he walked over and picked up that tureen, which had come from Grandma's mother, and he carried it to the open window and heaved that turtle soup, tureen and all, right out into the yard.  We never had any turtle to eat in our house ever again, and no one ever mentioned turtle soup, or Grandma's soup tureen ever again either.

Now I learned a few things from that which I still think about today. First, no matter how much someone likes something, it might not make any difference, if it ain't what they think it is. Second, if someone you care about asks you not to do something, and you do it anyway, you might lose something precious. And third, I still ain't never eat any turtle in my whole life ever again, and I don't think I’m any worse off for it!

Some of them folks up in DC might just think a little bit, before they start offering up something which ain't what you think it is.  So watch out for some Skunk or Polecat trying to get you to eat turtle, when they want you to think its chicken!

"Now that's just the way I see it, and you can tell'em I said so." 

Bascomb Biggers

https://www.facebook.com/bascombbiggers

bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net

This article can be viewed at the blogsite :

http://scoopbiggers.blogspot.com/ - or

http://thenankipoohenquirer.blogspot.com/

online at:

http://cumminghome.com/ 

The Nankipooh Enquirer also can be found on AOL Patch sites in:Dunwoody, Oconee and others;

 http://oconeepatch.com 

 

Bascomb Biggers for President

Make "Real Value" the National Objective!                     

PLATFORM PLANK #9-Make Fried Catfish the National Dinner

"Farm Boys and Gun Control"

The Nankipooh Enquirer

"Covers the South like Sorghum Syrup"

P. O. Box 1849

Nankipooh, Georgia 

Editor in Chief: Colonel Bascomb Biggers 

Ace Reporter : Scoop Biggers 

bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net

"Gun Control and Farm Boys" I grew up out in the country on my grandparent's old farm.  In those days folks in the country always had loaded guns in the house, cause there was always the need to shoot a varmint or a snake,and it was good to have something handy for self defense in case of need.  Most people had shotguns or rifles, but we never gave it a second thought about having a loaded weapon in the house.  My grandfather kept his 12 gage Winchester automatic loaded with five shells, leaned up in the corner against the wall next to his bed.                I got my first shotgun when I was fifteen years old, but I had cousins who got their first shotgun at twelve or thirteen years old.  Just about everybody hunted either dove or quail, or rabbits and squirrels.  When I got my old 16 gage Mossberg, I asked Grandpa if I could keep it loaded next to my bed, like he did.  He said that would not be necessary, since one loaded gun was enough, and everybody in the house knew where it was and how to use it.  I had fired my first shotgun when I was five years old, and when the recoil knocked me to the ground, I got my first lesson in gun control and safety.  By the time I was fifteen, I had ten years of gun training and experience under my belt.                Now to a farmer, a shotgun is just another tool like an axe or a hoe.  We preferred to use a long handled hoe to kill snakes around the hen house, but the shotgun was more useful for foxes or raccoons trying to steal your eggs.  I was taught to use it like any other tool on the farm, and when we hunted, it was for food, even though I did enjoy the sport of the hunt.                When I was in high school, and the school bully was out to beat me up , it never occurred to me to get my shotgun, I just did my best to avoid him, and finally the threat passed away.  The fact is I was taught to respect both the power of a gun, and its danger, but I was also instilled with a respect for the value of a life.  Even when hunting there should be respect for killing an animal or a bird whose life is given to us for food.                The debate we are having in our country over guns and violence, should be focused on how to teach our young the value of life and respect for anything which has the power to take life, rather than passing laws which tell us which tools we can use in the leading of our lives.  There is no more reason to ban guns, than there is to ban long handled hoes, and we already have enough laws to punish those who take lives. .  I know that this is the same way that Bascomb feels about these things, which is just another reason to vote for him in the next election for President of the Good Old USA! "Now that's just the way I see it, and you can tell'em that I said so," Scoop Biggers https://www.facebook.com/bascombbiggers bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net This article can be viewed at the blogsites : http://scoopbiggers.blogspot.com/ http://thenankipoohenquirer.blogspot.com/   online at: http://cumminghome.com/  The Nankipooh Enquirer also can be found on AOL Patch sites in:Dunwoody, Oconee and others; http://oconeepatch.com    Bascomb Biggers for President Make "Real Value" the National Objective!                        PLATFORM PLANK #9-Make Fried Catfish the National Dinner

"Just the Facts Mam"

The Nankipooh Enquirer

"Covers the South like Sorghum Syrup"

P. O. Box 1849

Nankipooh, Georgia

Editor in Chief: Colonel Bascomb Biggers

Ace Reporter : Scoop Biggers  

bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net  

 

"Just the facts, Mam"

 

Just in case you didn't know...

I am not running for President of the United States of America.

My name is Norman Biggers Bentley

My father's name was James Henry Bentley

His father's name was James Harrison Bentley

My mother's name was Elizabeth Biggers Bentley

Her father's name was James Norman Biggers

His father's name was Bascomb Biggers

My Great Grandfather, Bascomb Biggers of Nankipooh, Georgia is running for President of the United States of America.

 

Thank you,

Norman Biggers Bentley

 

(My cousin Scoop Biggers, of The Nankipooh Enquirer is running Bascomb's campaign, and below is some information about Bascomb)

 

from Bascomb...

 

"During my lifetime I saw a lot of American history, including the Civil War, which was about as bad as it ever got in this country.  It looks like now though, that we are in some pretty hard times again, and I just can't hold my tongue any longer.

 

Here are a few things that remind me that no matter how hard times get, we are still lucky, and mighty beholden to the good Lord for looking out for us.  When people ask me how I am, I say, "Better than I deserve, but not as good as I wanna be!" Which a reminder to me that we all owe everything to the good Lord!  But here are a few of those good things that I mentioned.

 

1. Hearing the bell ring to come in for dinner, after being out in the field since sun up.

2. A cold dipper full of well water, after six hours out in the hot July Georgia sun.

3. The sound of caddie-dids up in the trees at sundown.

4. Watching the lightening bugs after dark.

5. Hearing that old bull frog down by the mill pond late in the evening.

6. Waking up in the morning when the rooster crows, and knowing there are fresh eggs, and homemade biscuits for breakfast.

7. Walking out to the fields with the fresh scent of Georgia pine in my nose.

 

Something I ain't never liked is a politician standing on a tree stump and making promise for votes that you know he ain't never going to keep.

          

Vote for me, I promise not to steal or lie, near as much as the other guy!

 

Here is a little piece I wrote awhile back about what I think about the state of politics in the good old USA today.

 

"Well  a lot of folks have been asking me what the difference is between the Skunks (Republicans) and the Polecats ( Democrats), and I can tell you that about the only difference is the way they want to spend the money that they steal from you,  Other than that, they both stink, and all they want to do is argue with one another, and the never get anything done.

 

It reminds me of a fishing trip I took a few years ago, when me and Clem Patterson was fishing up on the Standing Boy Creek near Mulberry Grove.  Well you see me and Clem had a bet going as to who was going to catch the most fish that day, with the winner getting a bucket of beer from the other one.  By five o'clock I had done caught seventeen Bluegill to his four, but he just wouldn't give up.  So he says, "I will go you double or noting, that I catch a bigger fish than you before six o'clock".  Well right after that I caught a Bluegill that must have weighed a pound and a half, which was a really big one for that little creek.  But old Clem he just wouldn't give up, and then about five minutes till six, he got a bite that just about pulled his cane pole right out of his hands.  "I got you now Bascomb', he says as he struggles to land that mighty fish.  Well, he finally drug it up on the bank, and it turns out that it wasn't a fish at all, but instead it was a big old three or four pound snapping turtle.  Of course, Clem claimed that it counted even though it wasn't a fish, and I argued that we was fishing, not turtling, and so nobody got any beer that day, and me and old Clem have been arguing about that day ever since.

 

That's kinda what the next election seems to be all about, with nobody being able to agree as to what the contest is really about, except they all want to win, and get a taste of your money.  The truth is though, that the election should be about fixing what's broke about our country, and most of the money should go towards that, and that's just what old Bascomb wants to do  We got some serious business to take care of, so we better get to doing it, instead of arguing about who gets to count the money!  

 

Bascomb  Biggers

https://www.facebook.com/bascombbiggers

bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net

 

This article can be viewed at the blogsites :

http://scoopbiggers.blogspot.com/

http://thenankipoohenquirer.blogspot.com/

 

online at: http://cumminghome.com/

 

 

The Nankipooh Enquirer also can be found on AOL Patch sites in:Dunwoody, Oconee and others;

 http://oconeepatch.com 

Bascomb Biggers for President  "Make "Real Value" the National Objective!"                     

 

PLATFORM PLANK #9-Make Fried Catfish the National Dinner

Grandma's Homemade Apple Turnovers

The Nankipooh Enquirer

"Covers the South like Sorghum Syrup"

P. O. Box 1849

Nankipooh, Georgia 

Editor in Chief: Colonel Bascomb Biggers 

Ace Reporter : Scoop Biggers 

bascombbiggers@bellsouth.net

"Grandma's Homemade Apple Turnovers"   My Grandma made the best apple turnovers in all of Nankipooh, and for that matter, Muscogee County and the whole dad gummed state as well!  Now as the old-time famous actor Walter Brennen used to say, "no brag, just fact".  Bessie Lee Livingston was born in 1887 in Nankipooh, Georgia in her father's house on the Livingston farm located on the east side of the road which traveled north from Columbus to Hamilton, and beyond to Atlanta.  Known as the Hamilton Road, it closely followed the tracks of the Central of Georgia Railroad between Columbus and Atlanta. To the south of the Livingston farm was the Adams farm, and on the west side of the road, were the farms belonging to the Moon and the Biggers families.  Most of these properties dated back to the period before the Civil War, and a couple were established around the time of the beginning of Columbus in1824.  Bessie Lee was born two years after the birth of a son across the road at the Biggers farm, whose father, Bascom Biggers, named James Norman.  Eighteen years later, these two babies would become man and wife.  Bascomb liked the name James ,since his father's name was James Joseph Walton Biggers.  As a matter of fact, Bascomb liked the name James so much, that he later named his fourth son James Walton Biggers, who would be the last and youngest of his children.   Nankipooh was about five miles north of Columbus, which was a little bit of a ride in a wagon pulled by a team of mules, so it is understandable that if was its own little community. The Livingstons and the Biggers knew each other quite well with four boys and four girls at the Biggers farm, and four girls and three boys at the Livingston farm across the road.  It was no surprise when twenty year old Norman, and eighteen year old Bessie Lee were married in 1905.  They would be married for nearly seventy years.   Farm life was hard in those days, and farm families had to do most things for themselves, which including raising crops for sale, as well as for food for their own table.  The Bigger's farm in addition to the field crops, also had a peach tree, several plum trees, a pear tree, a fig tree, several pecan trees, and my most favorite, two apple trees.  Those were my favorite because closely tied to those apple trees were my Grandma's homemade apple turnovers.  Grandma baked her turnovers in the oven and they came out soft and slightly browned, and had the sweet of smell brown sugar and cinnamon.   One fall we began to notice that we weren't getting as many apples as usual, and couldn't figure out why, until one day Grandpa Biggers walked out on the back porch and saw three young boys up in one of the apple trees stuffing their pockets full of apples.  He went back in the house and got his shotgun, and came out again and stepped out into the backyard.  The apple trees were about fifty yards away from the house and the boys saw him coming, and started scrambling down out of the tree.  He hollered at them and they began to running, so he fired two shots up in the air, and they are probably still running yet.  And, you know what?  We always had plenty of apples after that, and I had plenty of Grandma's apple turnovers.     Scoop Biggers https://www.facebook.com/bascombbiggers This article can be viewed at the blogsite : http://thenankipoohenquirer.blogspot.com/ Online at: http://cumminghome.com/        The Nankipooh Enquirer also can be found on AOL Patch sites: Dunwoody and Oconee and others   http://oconeepatch.com     (If you like these articles, forward them along to others.  The Nankipooh Enquirer needs all the coverage it can get!)   BASCOMB BIGGERS FOR PRESIDENT ! PLATFORM PLANK #9-Make Fried Catfish the National Dinner MAKE "REAL VALUE" THE NATIONAL OBJECTIVE !