Hound Dog Network - GTTD Revisited: Larry Meeks

0:00This episode of the sportsman's empire is brought to you by interstate batteries. Since 1952, interstate batteries has been evoking compassion and a trustworthy spirit into the surrounding communities. Interstate batteries is a mission driven company fueled by purpose and guided by their values. If you need help locating a specific battery, stop into your local interstate batteries retail store and speak with a battery specialist. They even offer cell phone repairs. Interstate batteries, outrageously dependable. Welcome my friends to the Gone to the Dog's podcast, this is your host D. Fielder, coming at you today from the beautiful Gulf of America in West Central Florida.

1:06It is an overcast day today, Chamber of Commerce is not too happy, but our temperatures are on the rise again, we've gone through some cold snaps but up around 70 or so today so just a good day. I'm going to do a rerun this week and as you notice this is an episode that aired way back in May of 2022 but this guy has been on my heart a lot lately, you know in life we meet people that just kind of make an extra impression on us and the fellow that is the guest this week on this podcast that I felt so led really, I don't know that it's a spiritual thing but I do feel like I should run the rerun of the episode with former PKCCO and owner

2:10Larry Meeks, as many of you know Larry has passed on and left a void in many of our lives. I saw a picture the other day that Chris Allen had posted on social media of he and Alan Wilson who also recently passed and they're very, very famous Dreamwalker Freeman female milk freak Molly at the boat in Lula, Mississippi where Molly had won the truck and then the photo was Alan and Chris and Chip Coser who is the father of Chip Coser now with the elite nutrition but Chip was operating joy dog food at that time and then that photo was Mike Harper who was a representative for joy dog food. A guy that many of you will remember the long tall guy with the

3:16bald head and always had a joke of some kind but on the far right in that photo was the gentleman that we're going to hear from today my former boss the president of PKC Larry we miss you very, very much. Today as by way of introduction I want to tell you a little bit set this up for you just a little bit you know I was thinking here before we started recording most guys the last person on earth they'd want to have a conversation with and talk to would be their former boss you know it's when people get into a boss and employee relationship sometimes it's good and sometimes

4:16it's not so good but I can tell you for a fact that the fellow that I'm going to bring to Mike here just a minute I was my boss for about I think about seven years altogether and you're going to really enjoy my visit today with with the man the former CEO of professional kennel club Larry Meeks how you doing Larry? Doing good for an old bad guy. Well I tell you what man I talk about that scale and the the eyes that I ever have and in fact I don't even like to go near the thing. Well I get on the scale anymore at those one at a time. I heard a good joke about that as the guy said his wife told him she wanted something to go from zero to two hundred in three seconds you know and she looked on Christmas morning looked out the window the driveway and there was a bathroom scale. Yeah man Larry it's great to catch up with you it's hard for me to

5:24believe that it's been as many years as it has it was 2004 that I made some could say a questionable decision to leave PKC and and chase the last six or seven years of my career with AKC but and you told me at that time are you asked me you said are you sure you're going to like that corporate life and some days I did but a lot of days I did that's for sure. I understand all that yeah yeah well Larry but it was a good move for you I think Steve I really do I think it worked out well well in terms in some ways it was for sure but I will go on record right now before my listeners here that my years at PKC were the most fun and enjoyable years of my entire 33 year career there's no question about that no question that's great to hear well listen Larry most people know

6:29you as the the guy that was at the helm of PKC and this is a Kuhn Hunter's podcast for sure but I wanted to talk to you a little bit about your background and all now I know your day job through those years we were at PKC and I continue today is at the helm of your trucking company tell us a little bit about Gibko and and what you do for our living Larry well I have been involved in the trucking business for 54 years I started driving the truck hauling load for my uncle and my dad I've just always been around trucks then after doing some other things I went back into trucking seemed to enjoy it the most then the two guys that were was working for

7:30to time they were killed in a plane crash that I was supposed to be on and had to cancel oddly enough because I had a truck broke down as I'm away to the airport and they got me on the radio we didn't have cell phones back in those days this was in 1975 so we didn't have cell phones but they got me on the radio and said I had a truck broke down and Winslow Indiana so I called the airport and told Steve that ran the airport just tell Ron and John to go ahead and we were going to a pre-job conference in Mount Vernon Indiana and flying down to it and I was going to run that job and it was just a pre-job conference but anyhow I canceled and they were killed coming back to the airport after the meeting and I stayed on with the fella who bought it then later I got in in 1982 I went to black beauty trucking which was just recently formed then in 1984 we bought

8:37the Gibson companies out of terror hope and it just expanded from there but I've done everything with truck worked on them I've probably changed the thousand tires of my life and broke down twice as many as but just don't know anything else about truck I've just always been around them and now my son Jeremy is my partner and we just recently closed on another truck in company that we purchased in February of this year well that's great well Jeremy was my pilot I know what I went to work for BKC Jeremy would fly up here to Michigan and pick me I say up here I'm not in Michigan now but pick me up and and take me around to to some of the events and all and that first time they ever wrote in the helicopter was with you and we were out rocking it trucks somewhere I think I can remember we'd be going somewhere to a hunt going down

9:44the road you say well I'm gonna stop in here and you'd be crawling back into a trailer or checking it out yeah well it just gets in your blood but I don't drive much anymore once in a while I will just just to be where I can drive if I need to they don't let me drive much anymore I'll be 74 in November well they've kind of taken a wheel out of my hand time checks anymore yeah well that's great it's a great company and I wanted to get back into the well let's just mention this I know at one time you showed me a list or something that you guys were in a top ranking commodity haulers in the in the US is that still something you're involved in we still do a lot of bulk commodity hauling not near what we used to with some of the recent administrations and their dislike

10:51for what we hauled at time we've had to diversify so we have diversified into a lot of air we haul everything now from cold to bread for loose bakery so we're in a little bit of everything I got you we run about oh 150 trucks yet I guess at one time that number was close to 400 trucks that we ran yeah yeah but now it's down to about 150 and trying to hard driveers these days is a little tougher and the government seems to that too well I'm sure that's the case well let's talk about your background Larry I think it's very interesting and a lot of the times that we were driving up and down the road together or out to dinner together at one of the events we there were just a lot of stories about you as you growing up I will interject right here some of those

11:55adventures we got into we're something else and I hope to touch on a little bit when we get that when we start talking about the PKC and all but uh what where were you born Larry I was born in Paris Illinois November of 1948 okay so you're just about two years and a month or so younger than I am so okay and so that's just am I right is that north or south of tearfoats north west just about 21 miles okay okay well tell me what it was like growing up it you know you and I went by the house where you uh one of I I don't know if that was a place that you grew up but it was a place that you had had lived at one time there in tearhoat what was it like as a kid growing up in tearhoat well yeah we were very poor you saw the old shot young house we lived in

13:00we moved there when I was nine years old from Paris to tearhoat and shortly thereafter my little brother he was a year younger me we came off from school one day and my mom was gone my dad drove the truck but he was gone for two weeks at a time and my mom was gone I didn't know where she was went down to local grocery store and a little mom and pop store and ask if they'd seen her and they hadn't seen her but we had cold stoves cold stove in the front room and a cold stove in the kitchen and I knew how to build a bank of fire but it didn't how to cook so I knew I had to take care of my little brother yeah I put a can of pork and beans on a gas stove and heated it up and

14:00I didn't know yet open the can the can blew up the beans burned my back oh man I still got some scars for that but I kept me in him for two three days till my dad got home and then it was just me and my dad and my little brother for about I'll say a month I don't remember how long but then we ended up in the courthouse one day and then my little brother sitting on the back row and that was the next time I saw my mom and the last time till I got out of high school and they were up there arguing around a little bit finally the judge said well what about these two boys my mom said I'll take care of the young one he can live with me and nobody said anything about the crap I'm going to orphan them you know man that he came to me he can go home with me and that's the way it was so from the time I was nine to I left home when I was 15 there wasn't anybody home

15:02through the week but me I got a paper out and I started working and been working ever since still work every day I don't know any different than work but it all worked out we all got close at the end and I was blessed to where when they got sick I could help them and when they died I could help with that and do that but now I was blessed later and just I grew up very bitter but got over it it took some time but I got over well I think that's a lesson for all of us right there I think time has a way of healing things sometimes but but that you told me that story before Larry and it always moved me very much I mean thinking about what does it get at that age thing you know well a lot of people that go through that sex and people had it much worse than me I mean there's folks that have some real horror stories I was fine I made it and you don't have to go

16:06on Oprah and Blanger parents and you got to live with it they did the best thing you have and it all went away yeah well let's talk about a little bit I know some of your activities you you got in athletics quite a bit and I remember you told me that you boxed in golden gloves and all what about you sports growing up I started going to the boys club in Toronto a lot it was a place to go but then body home but me so I really didn't have a curfew and I back then the boys club cost five dollars a year for membership but I didn't have five dollars so the director of the boys club in Toronto Ted Moore paid my membership if I would sleep the gym and empty the trash and all that but I got in a more than a few fights but I got in a fight behind the boys club out in Allie and he was getting tired of that. In fact he pulled me off a guy grabbed me and pulled

17:06me off and said you're gonna fight around here we're gonna put gloves on here and I got into bitty boxing and that graduated into golden gloves I boxed golden gloves until I was probably 19 or so yeah but I enjoyed it back then but I played ball all through high school I played baseball basketball ran track and even ran cross country one year to get a letter and that wasn't for me that distance isn't for me but did a little everything just play sports. You wouldn't like that who not today what these guys got these dogs they don't even think about slowing down to their at least a mile in there you know that would be a whole new world to me I wouldn't even know how to do that anymore yeah I wouldn't know well we're we're in the same boat there well you talked to me

18:07already about how you got involved in the trucking industry and and and all and that's been quite a success story it always I told you one time I said Larry I always enjoy being around successful people and you you stroke me a little bit you said well you're successful I said no no you're on a whole different level that on that scale but well none of that would be possible none of my success would be impossible without having good people around you there's no way D.K.C. was no different than the trucking company we've got employees that have been with us over 30 years some longer yeah it's Chuck's still there the Chuck retard oh D.K.C. okay and was a great employee our listeners should know we're talking excuse me our listeners should know we're talking about Chuck Clyburn well known couldn't

19:09Hunter from there in southern Indiana and also a mechanic right sure was yeah he was he was a good mechanic and a very very likeable guy oh yeah sure but we've had several good employees like that and D.K.C. was no different you were one of them I mean we had some good all we did good to do it yeah you just couldn't do it yeah I think that was the easier Ridge Lane but that that worked out well we had some great employees well we're going to talk about P.K.C. quite a bit I hope okay but let me lay a little foundation here on your Larry Meeks the Kuhn Hunter what's your earliest memory of going Kuhn Hunting well my dad had hands that early on my job was just to feed him a real early on four or five years old I was feeding dogs and taking care dogs all he was going obviously my uncle had hands he is they both had black

20:13and tans I started with black and tan I didn't hunt for walker dogs for many years I still kind of parcel to the black dogs but started with black and tans and my uncle and I went to Illinois governor's cup do you remember those governor oh yeah and whenever we got there I'd been hunt this old dog probably most most probably more than he had been whenever he entered he said the boy's going to handle him and I was a nervous wreck I had never done that they said you know the rules just calling for what he does we end up placing in that governor so I was one of my fondest memories early on I was so proud of that but when you went back to school and told kids you want a governor's cup they didn't have clue what you were talking about right no idea well that was my my thing too you know I tell him I went to we didn't go to school together we went to church

21:18together when we were just teenagers but I said did you know did I ever talk to you about my hunting back then and she said no I had no idea you had dogs or did this this kind of thing and I don't know I guess Larry whether I don't know whether it was I thought it was a stigma to it maybe I didn't want my friends to know or that I just you know didn't think that they'd understand so well and you know and when you told somebody you were a coon hunter back then they were it was like you were a second class citizen or something why are you doing that shoot back two nights back then we're bucks seventy five two dollars that was serious money the main oh yeah yeah yeah yeah but I trapped I'm and shoot probably like you see we grew up on rabbit squirrel and quail without without hunting I think would have starved to death well I was kind of now my dad had that lifestyle for sure growing up and in Tennessee on the farm I was a

22:24city boy he grew up in the edge of a little town there in West Virginia and I could walk across the highway and be in the woods so you know I kind of had the best of both worlds there but I didn't get that but I sure got the stories from my dad you know he's growing up during the depression there in Tennessee and hunt with curdolves you know well do you remember you say you hunted with your diet was there other other hunters there that that you remember from the when I entered my sophomore year of high school we moved to Clay County east of Brazil in the end and a good friend of mine in my class Jimmy Thompson his brother Alfred Thompson that you probably remember eight yeah yeah matter of fact he just died last year and he was very instrumental and he had a black dog he had

23:26a black dog that I thought a lot of and I hunted with them a lot but Jimmy and I hunted every night we every night we could we hunted we had a blast doing it that's where I got to guiding the hunts uh Alfred made a guy that's what he was either a guy to get not put on your head that's what we we guided hunts but those those guys were good dear friends and and still are the ones that are living now that's great I heard another podcast the other day uh with uh Jeff Wood from up there around Harris yes you know no yeah yeah yeah Christopher yeah he's sheriff up there yeah he sure is and and a great guy and he was talking about his black dogs and all I enjoyed hunting up that way you know we had a plot well when I was with you Casey um well even probably when I was with

24:30pkc we I would go to plot days and they had it a few times at Marshall yelling or sure and uh then uh uh you know and of course Brazil went to hunt at Brazil and and then of course later on with pkc down at Sullivan that's not all that far uh so yeah that's some good hunting along that wall back to river in there in oh yeah and and at one time I bought 300 acres off of JC Ellis um in Sullivan County that I just bought to hunt on and I hunted with you there time or two yeah you did yeah we took some merit pack we took some super stakes cast for that property there was a lot of cune on that property right on the river that river was by West property line and it was a good plot I really well well um what about you mentioned the black and tans did and it was it was a black dog that you won that uh that governor's cup or or

25:35placed in that governor's cup with it was an old black and tan cold smoke um and that was oh shoot I don't remember how old I was maybe 11 or 12 I don't remember how I that's pretty up yeah but I was it like I said I was a nervous right well back in those days yeah back in those days we didn't have youth hunts and stuff they threw us out there with the lions oh yeah oh sure yeah I figured these guys know they're a dog better and I do but some of them didn't have a clue what that dog was doing yeah they're still out there um I'm afraid of the dark that's right that's for sure well okay I know that you when I met you and the little story little tiny back story here I am down at the Kentucky Houndsman Association meeting they I'm with the UKC they've asked the editors of the various magazines

26:43come down speak and I was with Kunhaan bloodlines at that time and Terry Walker uh with American tuner asked me could he speak to me I couldn't would I like to meet him down the lounge he had something to talk to me about and that's when he mentioned the prospect uh he had talked to you about me going to PKC so that's how you and I got together uh I remember yeah yeah I'm for you and I read and I grow up to meet you and challenge them that's right that's right we spent about three hours I think in that restaurant it was a long watch yeah yeah well that was a tough decision for me it's simply because I did I had been with UKC so long but I didn't really know anything about hunting for money you know I didn't really didn't know how to build a chart of awards or anything else and you say well you want to start doing bench shows uh and all and so it was a pretty quick learning curve that uh we jumped right in my first hunt with he was the

27:48national championship at Flora that's right and that's when I met I came there and stayed at your house and I met Roger Dale and uh yeah Roger had just had one did I think the year before or he just won something with a black and tan named Sally that he's gotten him on the cover of pro hunt I think but man yeah that's so many fun memories there but this is not about me this is about I remember me and Roy coming up hunting with you a time or two I remember we lost three pair of gloves oh yeah we did and I really appreciate the fact that you guys coming up and hunting with me and it had some pretty good hunting up there me she can dinner I've still got the tune that you had tanned for me hanging in my office uh one of the biggest things I ever killed you and I hunt together and Roy went with us that's right that was the second time I think that

28:49you came up or maybe the first time that was the time I believe when we got the the bad news about Mike Harper that's exactly right you were at my house at that time yeah that that broke my heart oh what a friend he was to me awesome guy and listeners uh that don't know who Mike was he worked for joy he was a beaker guy there in West Tennessee I tell you one of the best pork chops I ever ate my life we ate there at Mike's house one night he didn't know that he was a super super guy he and I kind of went to the same barber you know he had that slick but yeah growing three or two right but now you and Roy coming up and we did I had a pretty good little female at that time I called her yeah any but she got so independent I couldn't stand her she she didn't want anything to do with another dog and even got to the point that she'd leave

29:55a tree it's a dog coverer so I couldn't live with that but he had those who did times for sure and you were hunting a good walker dog on that that Joe dog I believe he called him wasn't he? yeah oh Joe I got him off of Chuck Clybury okay and the first time I think I might have brought hustler up I'm not sure I'm not sure I'm not a hustler or hairy the old all can't hairy dog one of the other but I've been blessed with some good hands if I like or really have well I remember uh walker days at the coin hell annoy and we were there of course the whole crew working that event what a big bustling event it was in those days maybe still is but I don't know if they get the crowds like we did there but they're at the fairgrounds and had some downtime and you had your dogs with you now I believe that was hustler and hairy but I took your two dogs out and found a place to cut them loose and they got through there got through the country and got treated and all

31:01tell us a little bit about that you kind of had a special thing for the Pac-Man bread dogs did he? I did a lot of people well and the bloodline to me was just a good solid bloodline they were good tree dog um one of the dogs I bought had been abused um but once he realized he wasn't gonna get beat every time he did something wrong he was a much better auntie but I like a dog that handles and they handles good they were just good dogs uh they were for sure I'm still partial to them I got you I figured you were one of the best dogs I ever have thought of a family river chief uh dog named Sid and I don't know I don't follow the bloodlines like I used to obviously but the old family river bread dogs are pretty good dogs do they?

32:05well I've said there's still a following for those dogs for sure and uh people like to go back to my fur dough chief and and I've done some writing for for American tuner about the walker dogs and about Shetler Sonny Boy I got to meet John Shetler that was a real thrill for me at walker days and all but uh yeah yeah for sure and that bloodline is still still there you know we had John Manoe on the podcast here all a few months back and of course uh he was known far wide for the family river dogs and uh after he bought uh old chief and uh anyway yep those those were the some good lines of dogs well or what if he had the name one what would have been your favorite dog down two years

33:06oh Sid that was out of filler river chief he was a direct son out of chief and I bought him off of Harold Hollingsworth yeah you remember Harold I do uh his brother had the dog and I bought him off of him he was a one-year-old and you I broke the dog off of everything but running rabbits I just got him to where he wouldn't open on rabbits but if you didn't hear him for a while he was out circling someplace and you get a light on him and he was like one in cartoons and just kind of lock it up and try to back out of there no one I shouldn't be here then he would go to get good but he was my buddy he was he was the best for sure well I think because of your work the you and I were a whole lot of like in the way that we kept our dogs we didn't keep a lot of dogs uh you know I with the way I was working and all I couldn't leave a bunch of dogs at home for someone that was to care for and all

34:09I know when I uh was there uh you always had uh seemed like a couple of dogs and that's about what I kept but they were nice dogs and like you say they handled well and on I know that you spend a lot of time with them uh and I think that makes a big difference in a dog do you I think when you've got too big a kennel you can't focus on what a dog really needs and the fewer dogs you got you know you can give a dog a break or you don't have to hunt them night in and night out and maybe have a couple three around but if you get much more than that to me unless you've got handlers working them for you or people hunt like for you I think it's hard to give a dog the attention in each of months uh dog wants to be 100 when you drop that tailgate they want to all go it's just you want to burn them out and I never was big on burning out of dog or beat on dogs I don't like that I like dogs burn I do most people I do more people well being in business

35:18for the many years as you have that's totally understandable yeah you know for the most part though these kennel hunters have been pretty good people and that's been my you know my my clientele so to speak over all the years that I worked you know a lot of Thursday mornings I didn't want to climb in that motor home or climb into truck or get on a plane and go to a hunt I just I'd resist stay home my family and so forth but I always felt when I got to the hunt and got there with the crowded and all and and you know I can't say enough about that feeling of a comradery that we had at PKC and that's what I want to jump into for our next topics here Larry but man we we had a great group of people seemed like everybody knew what their job was they just jumped in and did it that you know from taking the entries or whatever it happened to be you know we worked hard

36:26those 10 days at the tennis center I want to talk about that just meant it but I've got to get in the head of myself but we talked about your early involvement I guess with PKC was unsitting up the sitting panels and doing things like that at the clubs is that right that's right Jarvis asked me one year well he was before I was on the executive at his sub getting ahead of myself but he asked me one year if I would if he could pick a couple guys to sit with me on panels at the world hunt for the 10 days and at that time I wanted to hunt too so I got one of my friends Mike Smith underdog for me and I agreed to sit on the panel and met some great people doing that and Steve I the biggest blessing that I had when I bought PKC and during that 12 or 13 year tenure was all of the friends I made with PKC now don't

37:32get me wrong I made some enemy I was never much on putting up with some of the stuff but the greatest I still stay in touch with a lot of these guys that's great we're friends on Facebook I'm not on Facebook a lot but I met some great folks at PKC that I would not have met without it so I didn't mean to interrupt you no no that's exactly what I'm just sitting here thinking you know and we we and we lose some you know and it hurts I noticed you know not long ago we lost Jim Smith oh yeah and Jim was a guy that I don't know why but he and old Jack Cannon they just kind of took a liking to me and you know when I went into PKC I was a UKC guy a lot of those guys kind of gave me that sideways look you know what I remember yeah you ain't one of us boy what are you

38:35doing but you you were soon accepted see I mean that that went away that they've been well I sure hope so and I did meet some fantastic people and I think about him I think he's fishing a lot now or what I see that he's white post on Facebook but burn Newland we used to go out to deal with him and candy you know yeah no anytime we go up to the to the spring classic up around your sirens up there whatever those are just examples and I'm going to get in trouble for not mentioning everybody I'm sure but you're exactly right the great great people and you know what it makes me too was the fact that most of these people were Kuhn Hunter they knew what a Kuhn dog was it was an organization of Kuhn Hunter and and a lot of people early on didn't like

39:40some of the changes we made but eventually and a lot of those people came back to me and and thanked me for making the changes but we had to make some changes that were a pretty bitter pill for some people to swallow but we just needed to do some things different and and we did and I believed me I'm not being critical of the of Jarvis or anything they did in the past Jarvis was doing that without a lot of help and we read and I were fortunate enough read a put some great programs in place of PKC that are still in use today that Angie my daughter-in-law she's still the office manager for Roger and they still have some of those in place and Angie's improved on some of them even I'm sure I know that that's Angie one of those special people as was read a read having been in your home you know learned the little things mean a lot and when I would come

40:41down and you would be great you and read it graciously allow me to stay there with you know you had that nice little apartment downstairs and you know get read I always went the extra mile those little touches not over the board but hey you know on some ice cream Steve you need it you need the glass of water we go down you know take down with you before bedtime I mean that little things of what matter the most in life to me yeah well I always felt very welcome there and not a lot of people can say they can go into the boss's home and feel at home but I sure did well and you've said that two or three times but I was never your boss we worked together that's the way three employees but we worked together I don't ever forget on you about anything no no no we big on that we we got along great and it was and I said it was one of the best times of my career

41:46sure absolutely back to the panels the first time that we said on that it was myself and Woody McCorkle from Georgia and Jimmy Ferguson from Texas hmm there's two old timers well three of well Woody started I was the young here of the bunch but I wasn't very young yeah but but we ran into some interesting situation you know I'll never forget one panel that and I won't name names here I'll just keep it out of the way but I believed this man now I believed his story even though it all did just exactly fit I believed his story and the other two said are we sure are we sure yeah well I think so but we did the best we could with it and I think it ended up for everybody but right after hearing the panel hearing this individual gets up

42:50and goes over and gets in a poker game and he doesn't know I'm stuck behind him and he says well they bought that one and I told him we'll never do it again it was a very very embarrassed hunter for sure and he followed me around trying to find it's okay I'm not mad at you I'm just not going to believe you anymore but I did that for two or three years for Jarvis for Jarvis asked me to sit on his executive committee which at that time was made up of JC Ellis Dale Bolding and Nick the Jackamo there's a guy that I thought the world up right there Nick on Nick was my I went to Oklahoma I went next several times yeah and Nick that stayed in my home also he was a great help to me when I came to PKC he would call me and just talk and tell me and

43:52see this in a way you know this works networks and all that he was like a mentor to me that and I didn't ask him for that he just you know open free will of course I know you remember the time we went out to the Little Dixie jamboree and and with Nick and Eloise and and what a great time we all had would Jeremy froze me to death I stayed with Jeremy hey you told me you can hang me in his room well he's right man that temperature had to be about minus 30 Jeremy still tells that story he does oh man I never seen a guy get a room that cold to sleep in but man he seemed to be just fine with me yeah I told him in snow camp North Carolina one time got him sleeping

44:57in the truck I woke up three in the morning I can see my breath oh yeah man the thing so many stories do you remember us our stakeout that we had that night out in my van I do I feel like I said man I signed the one to be yeah feel rep here or whatever I said here I am out here on the stakeout I don't know how crazy this is going to get well I did that a lot when you get reports for people that would tell you I think these guys are pulling dogs off trees whatever I spent a lot of nights in the woods myself sometimes and Steve Vance can tell you a story about that I scared Steve one night he didn't know I was around when his dog dreamy he came in the house over and he got his dog and I came out and scared Steve to death I didn't even have a

46:02life he didn't know I was around yeah yeah well yeah that was that was the good days for sure yeah well well at what point can you get can we kind of move into from those days and sit in the panels and and working with Jarvis and all to when you made the decision that you wanted to buy the registry and all how they come about Jarvis and I were going to Bucharest to the big hunt up in Bizarre so high on screen classes right and he picked me up and I rode with him we talked about it on the way Jarvis at that time had started the light and the box company and he was having some issues financial issues and asked me if I'd be interested and I told him I wanted to think about it I had a lot going on with trucking and

47:07but ultimately made the decision to do it and that was in the spring and by the world hunt of that year in October we had finalized the deal and we announced that at the world hunt in 97 right and I took over in January of 98 and I joined reading I had it for reading I had it for 13 years I guess yeah well I remember I came aboard in June June 98 so wasn't that long after oh you guys had taken oh I didn't know who Larry Meeks was quite honestly I didn't know yeah I saw the news you know people talking about this new guy PKC and then I think you know with that meeting you mentioned an arrestment there in Michigan but so so 13 years all together

48:0813 years you know when I've talked to people about PKC and all and I you know we I'll include myself in this but I was kind of a newbie you know and and learning my way at that time of course Roy was there and Roger was there my cranny was there and I don't remember who else but you increased the membership of PKC by 50% in the first year you went from 80 our from 8,000 members to 12,000 members that first year well you mentioned Terry Walker a bit ago yeah and one of the first things we did after purchasing it was I got with Terry I read it I met with him and we knew we wanted a better publication than what had been there and and it was a home run in my opinion Terry did a wonderful job with prohound still does

49:17but that helped a bunch the other thing was that well even you you know you had some following at UK when you came on board some other people okay there were folks changed over I started traveling to all the hunt I was early on I was wearing two pickup trucks a year and we we I say we germina I had a small airplane and we bought a 210 and yeah I was at a hunt somewhere every weekend I thought it was very important to meet the people see what was going on listen to their problems and try to fix their problems you couldn't obviously fix all of them but we did what we could to try to clean up some fears people may have had where there might have been some favoritism there might have been some cheating hair whatever that you would hear you would try to fix and I think that went a long way toward it I think traveling and being there with those guys and meet them went a long

50:18way shoot I went to New York State I went to tell I went everywhere that's where you met Jeremy Thomas that's exactly right I stayed well I didn't stay at his home but a hundred I was fluttered it's Jeremy still around do you have any contact with Jeremy I don't I haven't talked to him in a long time I don't know maybe my listeners do but great I don't I'm shame say I don't know but Jeremy did stay at my home him and I forget his name but they both stayed at my home they came to my place in Indiana after I went up there I see yeah and we hunted together but yeah I even hunted one of Jeremy's dogs one night they didn't have enough to make a cast and told Jeremy if you've got a dog around here if you ain't hunting and we can hang a hot dog in a Harry Barca timer too I'll take you about hunting and we did we had fun but you meet a lot of people that away and I think that

51:20meeting those people one-on-one and letting them know what you your desire was to make PKC a good place to hunt and get a fair shot I think it went a long way oh no that could be wrong could be wrong but I think no no you're absolutely right it has an amazing impact and you know that's kind of funny it gives me a little bit of a day to be that's how I met Fred Miller which worked for UKC he was a try had just bought the registry that year and was traveling around all the breed days to meet the people you know and that was my first introduction to him well you know I told people over the years Larry one of the greatest experiences of my con hunting life was the center around the tennis center that can make a stake park in in Aurora Kentucky

52:2310 days it was something that you dreaded like a toothache but you wouldn't have missed it for the world it is a way out of that that's exactly tiresome days because you're up all night trying to sleep in the morning yeah but I normally I would say if you remember I stayed at the tennis center most of the time absolutely yeah I think that was important too to be there when people come in you know one thing in our sport and people deserve the recognition when they went and yep it's kind of like going to basketball game being the only one in the gym you don't you don't want that for anybody so I think that was very important too yeah well you're responsible for me losing not a lot of sleep I lost it with you but yeah that's true because not only you know I was you know back in the you can't see days man we had a master of hands and when the entries were

53:29all called out the cast were called we headed for the restaurant forgot about the hunt to the next morning not that way with PKC I learned right away man these guys stay up all night every night and then when I was back home even if I wasn't in at the end that phone was ringing at 3 o'clock in the morning somebody hey we got three guys out here huddled around cell phone we got a place to get up but it was it was a totally different experience for me but it was something I really loved I used to crack me up at the tennis center when we were there we had all those food vendors out there along the street yeah and used to say I got to go out here and solve on these weeny wars I remember there's no response and you know you did it kind of first time for serving if they had it the cream was here yeah kind of held it for me as I told you they didn't

54:33want it but that didn't seem to be good enough for some of me it got pretty competitive but if you think about how many people were in that county you know there's 4,000 people a day in that county and you couldn't get a room anywhere but the vendors were a big deal for them that 10 days was very important oh yeah yeah you have ever ever some arguments well I've I've told so many stories on my podcast about things that happened at the tennis center you know and things and that's where I learned how to do panels you know we didn't do panels in UKC back in those days and sitting and watching those panels was extremely interesting to me and to a lot of people you know we were kind of I came out of the this old uh uh custom of well you tell your question to state your questions and master hands and he goes back and confers and private whatever and gives

55:37you you know you don't get to look at the score cards that was another thing you know and so all of this was a whole new way of doing things for me but it all made sense you know and and that was that was a Jarvis creation the panels and I think it was a good one Jarvis I'm so many good ideas he did no doubt he really did and and we laughed you know about something like this man very kid he should have been a lawyer you know listen him away he presented his question to those panels and and all of that and the crowd would just gather around just you know that was one of the biggest attractions of the hunt there were some there were some panel artists for sure and I remember all the good the bad and the ugly let's talk about it I remember one night you had to go get a guy off a motel room but apparently he got upset and slashed him by his tires don't you remember that

56:40I do the fella who ended up being sheriff in that county was a deputy then and he and I and my carper uh went up to the room and knocked on the door and when he he told the the deputy asked if he'd come outside when he saw me he said oh I did it so it was important that we worked with and we they didn't they didn't arrest him but the funny part of that night is my carper was in the back seat of the sheriff's car and I didn't realize he couldn't open the door and he's sitting in the back seat pounding on the window one after I had forgot him to cover well you you mentioned our friend Jarvis of course now you can't talk about PKC without mentioning Jarvis what an innovator he was really changed the whole sport of coon hunting there's no question about no no doubt about it tell my listeners the story about the night somebody stole Jarvis's pickup

57:46you remember that story I do and at his service I was telling some folks about that oh okay I didn't get to make that right after we closed on PKC Jarvis went out and bought a real nice Ford pickup a diesel I mean a real Sunday truck this is a nice truck and everything honored all the bells and whistles and the lone star hunt in January in Texas is getting ready to happen Jarvis takes his new pickup and picks up his hunting buddy down below Memphis and they hunt those bottoms there on west Memphis side and Jarvis is going to meet Dale Bowling at a truck stop for someplace I don't remember where they're gonna travel to Texas together but he he tells James Kirkland his buddy I better get going I gotta meet Dale so he goes to this first truck stop

58:51pulls in and thought they had diesel fuel but they did and the next one did and it's in kind of a bad end of town where he pulled in he goes fuels up his truck goes inside goes to the bathroom gets his wet clothes off come outside but now I better go to bathroom one more time when he comes out pays the gal goes outside his truck's gone he comes back in and they asked the girl said did you say anybody take off in my new truck and she said no sir I didn't and she said he said well you better call the police they've sold my truck and got his dog in it it's closed everything's gone so she calls the police and Jarvis talks to him gives him the scripts of the truck and best he can remember the life and plate and he's standing around her kicking boxes waiting on the cops to come and the girl said certain you feel on pump three and he said I don't know the pump number symbol ain't that your truck right out there and he'd went out the wrong side of the building

59:56and he couldn't wait to tell me that one we got the fact that I wouldn't tell the soul but yeah he said I he told me said I started to get in and just take off I said well Jarvis you would've got five miles down the road that it pulled you over but you have it oh yeah that was a great great story I never forgot that one for sure and I probably told it or repeated it on Jarvis oh yeah you know later you know I laughed about it a lot right my friend Nuban Moore who was a rep fuel rep for UKC we met in and since I've retired and he has to he lived around me for a long time and you mentioned James Kirkland and Jarvis and he and Nuban's a black and tan guy and they always had that reunion over their sweats camp over on the white river and of course JC Alice you know had property over that way too right but you know just mention in those

1:01:02you know kind of got sidetracked here I was going to tell you one story and I'm gotten off on two three more I'm really bad about chasing rabbits you know but anyway those stories you know of those hunts back in the day and with those guys oh I know exactly where I was going Nuban and I go to the white river every year and hunt for about seven or eight days you know right after Thanksgiving and we were out there this year and this last November and the phone rang in the truck I was driving we'd be going down to DeWitt to get I don't know groceries or whatever and it was Jarvis and he was calling to tell Nuban that he had missed had seen Nuban had called him and I think Nuban had called him maybe to wish him happy birthday or something or maybe he'd been in the hospital whatever so I got to talk to Jarvis he put him on speakerphone we

1:02:04talked for a good while and it couldn't have been more than a week after that or so that I heard the news you know that he had passed and we had talked about doing a podcast just like you and I are doing today and man I was grateful for the opportunity to know him you know and at the 10th of center when we started to Joe Brooks started having the church services there and that's something else you know the conundrum for Christ was something that you supported very much and always appreciated that but I'd sit with Jarvis and the church service you know he always called me brother Steve I don't know you brother Larry always yeah and I enjoyed those church services too Joe was a damn to eat I went out Texas I'm with Joe at times oh yeah well Joe I made the mistake of rooming with Joe one time at one of the hunts it was quite an experience but

1:03:13Joe was he was a great guy had a lot of good stories too you know I'd love to tell him oh my goodness yeah well we couldn't talk very much about PKC without mentioning Roy Tramble and I know that you know when Roy was I don't have to tell listeners this but Roy was very instrumental I think in the building of PKC and the success of PKC and you know he was the guy that worked with the hunters and he could get a guy to judge when Judge and was the last thing on the gas mine I remember sneaking up behind me and putting that hand on your shoulders start massaging your shoulders and Steve get your boots on I need you tonight you know and all but what are your memories of Mr. Roy I know you made him PKC president which I know I know met an awful lot

1:04:20to him well early on I met with Roy and Roger Dale before I closed the deal with Jarvis I knew that I wanted both of them involved or I didn't want any part of it I knew I could not at that time I couldn't dedicate all the time to PKC that it needed even though I tried to put in as much time as I could I needed both of those they both played a key role without those two guys I'm not sure I would have ever taken PKC I don't I don't think I would have done the deal and I knew I had to add that they both needed some help which we tried to get in yourself and Billy Vincent and James McCormick and some other folks right right we needed we needed people in the field to try to work with the hunters to make sure they're getting as good a shot as they can get but Roy was a good problem-solve he would call me three in the morning I just got

1:05:29off the phone with so and so and this or this or whatever happened what do you think and we'd work through it and and a lot of times you get Roger involved also Roger got a pretty sharp mind with the route and oh yeah there's times early on that the three of us would work through him and try to come up with a spare solution as you could I would never tell you that even though the clubs had panels that the panel came back with the correct decision and there's times you just had to get with each of those cast members individually and try to work with them like I told you or maybe I didn't tell you I was fortunate enough that Rita and I never didn't have to draw salary out of PKC I never it was never about money with me with PKC I believed in it I still do and it was another venue for people to hunt that wasn't there at the time and it just

1:06:31it just needed to be there yep and I could see it melting down a little bit so that's why we made some changes but those both of those guys and and Roy was the primary contact for a lot of these hunters because he knew people I didn't know until I met it'd been around forever but Roy blessed his heart was he was just the guy I mean he was the guy to do it he loved doing it it was his whole life I know I don't I don't know that without PKC Roy would have lived as long as he did I really know but I miss Roy oh yeah I don't miss the three o'clock in the morning phone call no not at all I got one one night and we're not going to go into that but I got one one night about midnight Roy that blew my mind and and it was about it was after I'd gone to AKC you know but

1:07:37Roy was you know he was just that way you know he I had started working with Roy back in the UK C days when you know was running that program he would always hold an RQE there at Merna Kentucky in his club so I'd correspond with him and I remember when Roy and you rebelled lost her son in the car wrecking and all of that and you know Roy was just a real good guy that I really liked didn't always agree with Roy but I really respected the way he could work with the man with the hunters and I've heard him many times you know the guys have questioned to be resolved and somebody wouldn't be happy about it boy just look at him and say boy she just need to go cook and hunt you know and he just kind of walked him to the door now that was Roy you know he was good at that he was he and and I think Roy was

1:08:43has probably respected with anyone that's ever been involved with PKC as much as any I think there is Roy still there always was always will be yeah yeah yeah and it was say he didn't write every time but I think he did his best oh I absolutely I don't agree with you there he did what he taught was best for the organization and and he had this thing about he wanted if a dog treated him he wanted that dog to get credit for treating that good if there's any way in working this question and everything else you know with it we want to give those dogs credit you know we want to score that con for him if we can if he deserves it you know and that's something I learned and you told me something one time that stuck with me too back in the early days at PKC when you said Steve that success of this organization depends on good dogs what did you mean by that Larry well the super stage program at some point began driving the bus

1:09:49it really changed the way people bred dogs registered dogs but if if you had a dog in the super stage program that was not a producer it it hurt and dogs had to be a producer as well as be a good coon have themselves you couldn't rely on the slick enlers winning hunts for you every time but it just it just doesn't work that way it came to back to the dog and you know in your dog knowing what you're doing it's still about dog competition coon hunting in my opinion should be as close to pleasure hunting as you could get and it's not and and it's changing dramatically I got told you while I go I couldn't hunt with all these new guests I wouldn't know how to do it you know me in computer so I wouldn't have a clue what a dog's doing looking at a screen but

1:10:54yeah yeah I think that's what it's all about I don't know if you agree or not but I think that's what it's all about it it should be as close to pleasure hunting as it could be it's got to be fun or you're not going to do it and the odds of somebody making a whole lot of money in coon is slim I'm now the with the big money I should maybe but years ago it wasn't when you and I started doing this it wasn't that way you know you win a few bucks if you could kind of help pay for your hobby great that's what it was all about oh yeah for sure well you know kind of what I took away from what you said and I never forgot that is number one the guys if they don't have a good hand they're not going to come back you know they're going to get their eyes beat up to a three top and they'll say hey I better take up something else this isn't fun you know yeah good a good friend of mine told me he was in a slump and I said well when did you win a cast last he said been about a year and a half but yeah you might want to look at a dog that's right you might want to talk what you're up in there but I haven't really thought about that but the production

1:11:58the end of it too you know applies to that he got to have dogs are good dogs are producing more good dogs you know and and I think that you're your prophecy there if that's what we can call it this kind of come to fruition when you look at prohound today and you see these top lists of male leader female leader pup leader all those things they're they're not all side by the same dog that it's all over the board I mean there's there's just you know in fact it's kind of rare to see more than two dogs or three maybe on on at least a long list that we're side by the same now so that tells me we're we're producing a lot better dogs now they now they may not be the kind of dogs that you and I would want to back in the day you know but but they are producing winners for sure yeah and the sports changed

1:12:58and like I said I probably couldn't keep up today but it's changed I I still I still miss turn on a handling I don't do it much anymore so we'll get into that in a minute I'm sure but I just do I miss it I'll tell you that for sure well you know Ellen I have conversations quite regularly about things and I this is a little bit of three confessions you know I think about at 75 years of age naturally I cannot visit I can walk the dog I'm pleasure not have a good time but I can't go I was watching a cast on TV on my phone last night and these guys had to walk almost a mile to a dog and they got it under the rules of this the pro sport organization they got all stayed together so they got to walk a mile to this dog and then they got another one

1:14:04treat back the other way my they got to walk the him and then another one gets treated and they get a walk to that dog well hey I can't do that I can't do that physical so this thing of podcasting and what writing that I do for Larry for Terry Walker it's just my way of kind of keeping my hand into something that I've loved on my life sure you know I can't get support yeah and I'm leaving in Florida now the worst place in the world it could not but you know it's visions pretty darn good out of here I don't play golf like you do but there's a lot of golf courses a lot of things for guys my age to do down here you know to enjoy life but I still I can't shake this cool thing I I guess I did I've done it all my life and I've always wanted to be a part of it and I guess that's why but we have the conversation you know well should I just give this stuff up

1:15:04and she right back she says well this is what this is who you are are you sure you can do that and I haven't really come up with the answers to that one yet well and you probably won't I think you're I think you're doing what you're good at so and you always have been I mean you're a good speaker and a good writer so you're you're doing what you're good at well I think you and I've enjoyed it this podcasting thing has been has provided an avenue you know that I never expected or thought about you know years ago I used to think about a cute honey radio show would be cool you know on Sunday night everybody could tune in and get all the results from around the country and have guests call in and all this stuff but how would you do that you know it take a ton of money and syndication and sponsors and all that stuff then it all comes this the internet I jokingly credited to Al Gore you know he said he invented the internet

1:16:12but joke yeah I think you and I are on the same page on that but I don't know well let's talk about what you're oh no we got a couple questions within that answer yet but you know I think you've kind of already talked about what it's like to be at the helm of a growing registry like the answer there were there were a lot of day-to-day activities but anything particular that you remember about your days at BKC that that stick out to you as high points or or low points or whatever well I get like you said about Aurora and Aurora to me the tennis center and the hunting grounds around there was the perfect place to have the world hunt at one time now the storms took care of that but I used to dread it I thought I got on the phone with trucks while I'm

1:17:14down here I can't be young but pulling in to that community every year was just a memory I'll never forget you see all the pickups all the dog boxes all the hunters you start greeting folks it I do miss those days I want to say pretty good dinners of haddies of ground oh boy man I'll never forget you're probably laughing about this and we're our relationship Larry and I do want to publicly thank you for what you know making that part part of my life so enjoyable and you and Rita did for sure and it was at haddies when I you scribbled out on a little piece of paper because we were talking back and forth but yeah I was leaving the Michigan and that was kind of you know that's a good little waste from heaven still Indiana and back and forth and all the traveling that I was doing and all that you gave me a little scrap of paper I'll never forget it

1:18:19it said pass free pass to work from anywhere do you remember giving me that no you did you wrote it on a little scrap you tore off a piece of the place matter something and you wrote it on there and I said I'm gonna keep that just in case he makes me move to heaven's wheel I would have never backed up but I remember you were talking about going back down in Tennessee where your folks were yeah and that might have had some bearing that probably wasn't it yeah it could have been I there was a cabin down there that my my grandmother fielder sister that Lena and Uncle Myles lived in it was well over a hundred years old they called it little creek and went up through their possum hollow and that land was sold but I found out that there was fifty acres available and that old cabin was still standing on it and I thought man that's where I want to die right

1:19:22there but it was just too many too many variables there it was land was landlocked and have to get an easement in there the old cabin the bones were good but man it would have I could probably built a new one if I just bought those that one you know for less money but anyway those are those are decisions we make in life but yeah I do miss that I like I said I enters days that I do miss the kc and being involved yeah and I don't miss the three o'clock in the morning phone call right yeah you just get up and try to do the best little bit I'm one of them folks if you're up you're up so I'm not going back to bed and I'm up oh yeah yeah and that's that's something that I think if someone has never worked in a registry doesn't understand you're in a sound sleep in that own rings and now all of a sudden you're supposed to be

1:20:24hearing all these sides to this question and and trying to you know pull from your knowledge of the rules what's the right answer or maybe deciding whether or not there should be an appeal that's when I got to call you or Roy or somebody and say hey we got this guy he wants it he didn't like that he didn't like the third first three he wants three more he's willing to pay a hundred dollars for it and then but I know you used always say we're not going to grant these appeals on that basis you know it's going to have solid grounds you know yeah he was never about the money no no no no well let's let's talk a little bit about uh what why did you ultimately decide to sell it we were in a period with the trucking company and a political administration that was about to break us and like I said they we at that time

1:21:29we hold a lot of coal and you know the feelings of coal today in the world oh yeah but I knew that the time that I was dedicating to PKC I was gonna have to focus on trucking self trucking do something else and I had never bought PKC to make a living so I had to go with that and Roger was D prime candidate to sell it to there were other people that had talked to me about selling it or buying it and offered me more money than I took for but I sold it for just what I paid for I the money's not important and I think it was a good decision I've not regretted the decision and that's not totally true I have there's days I still wish I hadn't yeah I'm sure but it it was

1:22:39time I didn't really any worked out from the trucking standpoint at that time Rita was my partner in trucking and was heavily involved and she now does her own things she has her own businesses Jeremy's not my partner he ended up with her ownership and he and I worked together to well or well together yeah it was just time to do it but if I had to do over maybe not you know but it was it was politics and trucking well if it makes you feel any better and I don't know if it does or not but I hear it all the time people miss you not that they don't like Roger but they miss you they miss the good old days I think they miss the days in the tennis center and we could talk about that you know Salem the coon hunting I guess with the main reason to move

1:23:40to Salem Illinois and it is good around there and all but that atmosphere of the tennis center everything around the roar on those days were were stamped indelibly in the minds of an awful lot of conunders and they look back on those days upon this and they look back at the days of visiting with you and with Rita and Grant Black and Danny Hamby and all those guys sitting around behind the desk there and and if I'm going to paint a little picture of Basel over there with life stuff scattered all over the table and then how I in the world he ever figured out how to do anything with all that but man what a great guy he was and with JC standing sitting over there shuffling through scorecard see which dog he wanted to buy next and I miss JC a bunch we all do for sure he I went I went to see him two days before he died and he was down

1:24:44to where he'd eat a banana a day all mine and you know me I I try to make light the most thing but I told JC you need to get up you've been in that bed long enough it's time let's do a turn a couple of dogs with you he said Larry I'll never get out as bed again and he never did and I hated that but I'm glad I got to see him oh yeah yeah you know I hunted together years and years ago yep yep well he used to talk to me you know originally or way back he had plot dogs and he told me he said I never could get any recognition out of the plot people so I switched the walkers well he was hunting plot dogs on the first time I hunted with him yeah pretty good old plot down too I bet I bet I have funny thing I remember about JC he used to love like to kid me about stuff and one night there it was you know late at night cast we're all out we're back there somewhere around the tables and that guy named Steve and I can't think of his name he played harmonica he had a

1:25:48whole case full of harmonica I don't know if you ever remember that guy or not but somebody asked you're right about Steve but I can't come up with the last one yeah and somebody I think had a guitar or something we all got back there jamming and singing you know and stuffing oh JC he came up to me afterwards and he said well I knew the hillbilly had to come out of you sooner or later you pick pretty good too you pick one night of my house on my guitar you pick pretty good well I used to a little bit the old arthritis man it hurts make E-cord anymore man it's hard it's hard but yeah those were the days Larry such great days well now I see you on Facebook now I see pictures of Larry meek says a bunch of kids rap what what about the how many kids you got and how many grandkids you got now well between read and I we have seven kids nine grandkids and two great

1:26:52grandkids well that's quite a crime and two of the grandkids stayed on night with us last night they left close Jesse's two or youngest daughters two and they loved the cows they got out back and they like to get on the tractors they're just my buddies oh well you know Jess was just a little fun and when I was at PKC and Valerie she was a big sister yeah and but she wasn't very old either no great kids and so now they do they both have children of their own no Valerie has never been married okay she has dogs those are her kids I got you yeah Valerie read and I and in June we'll be married 33 years so Valerie's 34 or 32 I'm sorry 32 yeah I went wrong way yeah but she was 32

1:27:55in April I see yeah April she was 30 does she live nearby she does she was on the heaven's bill and she stays that I own will property up in French Lake okay I've got a deer camp up there and she likes to stay at deer camp I got a trailer in a cabin up there and she likes to stay up there that's a brown Larry bird country yeah yeah I used to play a lot of golf again yeah I know you have quite quite an extensive contact list of people there I like working for PKC you you had good perks man I we went to the to the Indianapolis race one time when you provided some tickets for that still have access to them if you need it but that was the only time I'd be and I've been to some NASCAR races but that one well now you and and read and moved out to a farm didn't you

1:28:58yeah yeah so what yeah we've got 55 acres of work Danny I'm pretty close to the Newberg Indiana yeah yeah and I've got two horses two donkeys with about 30 triadic cattle okay that's it I was in a hate field yesterday and rain drove us out yeah well how do you like that farmer role is that that kind of suit you it's peaceful it's quiet it's good I like the cows kind of my buddy and then oddly enough we've got 55 acres also up at Orange County on my French lake like I stand as I wait up at 55 55 but yeah what is it about cows you know when I was a kid I used to go to my uncle's farm who actually says his father knows farm but they lived there they had it they were in the cold business in Heyside Virginia but they had that Mr. Castle had this

1:30:02big farm and I'd go down in the summer and stay with my aunt uncle my cousin and I absolutely loved being around every evening Mr. Castle would say come on with me Steve after suffering so let's go check on the cows getting a pickup we drive around all over had pretty big farm had beef cattle and stuff on one side of the road and had a dairy farm on the other side always love cows always said I wish I had property you know what is it about that I don't know there's something peaceful about watching cattle graze I can't tell you what it is but there's just something peaceful about doing it yeah getting the bottle of water just going back watching them graze or just jumping on a gator and going back and and watching them graze this I'm still about I don't know I agree I hung on on some ranges down here in Florida in wintertime and there's

1:31:03still quite a few active cattle ranges down here and anytime I get around them you know I get that feeling yeah yeah well that didn't have much to do with kuhn hunting right there but that's just some of the things that make life good yeah we get over we do different things yeah well that's for sure well Larry we've been at this here just a few seconds less than an hour and a half and that's what I told you we probably do have we missed anything that we that you want to talk about or mention as before we shut this thing down no I would only hope that maybe some of the younger folks that hear this thing would pick up on some of our old ways that got us where we are and not for at least for not forget about them but you know when we started it was just you know carbide like yeah chewed them out with a shotgun yeah that's exactly right and it's just a different world

1:32:10today and but the old ways is still what got us here if people don't forget where they come from I think it's very important yeah I think they don't say and dance with the one that burrung yeah you know kind of applies if we look at this sport it wouldn't be you know the young people have a tendency nowadays to rely on their electronics and I don't know where the disrespect for older people and they are maybe it may be not overtly disrespecting older people but they it's an underlying thing you know that that'll gotten the ways talking about you know we got all the answers well that we may not have all the answers but we got a lot of answers and I just wish they would listen a little more yeah they would know things to me that I wouldn't know today I oh yeah they are a lot more intelligent than that I was yeah for sure they they've got it but

1:33:15it's it still comes back to treating people like you want to be treated and winning isn't the most important thing it's just not go out and compete as hard as you can and do the best you can and call your dog for what he does well we had a guy on just last week on this podcast J.R. Gray who won the UKC tournament champions that's their $50,000 we talked about that a little bit and J.R. was quick to say you know when he won the UKC World Hunt there was no cash prize the next year they started off from $10,000 to the World Hunt with her and someone said to man wouldn't it done that buggy if you didn't win any money he said no it wasn't about the money for me you know it was about the accomplishment and if we could instill that in the younger hunters I think it'd be it to their credit and

1:34:21but we'll go keep keep trying and you said that a lot better than I could that's exactly right you said it a better than I could that's great Larry it's been an absolute pleasure to talk to not only you know did we work together as you say we were team members I know whose name was on that check and I appreciated it every couple weeks or month or whatever it was you you know supported my family for about seven years altogether and I'll eternally be grateful for that but it was the friendship those nights out there on stake out and then the tennis center behind the desk and on the phone and all that that I remember mostly and I appreciate Facebook because I do get to keep up with you a little bit so that I do want to thank you really from down deep for coming on the podcast today and sharing some some great memories with me and and our listeners

1:35:22it's been a real pleasure for me and I've enjoyed it and I feel privileged to be able to do so well anytime you're welcome anytime I'll take you out and show you some old cows and maybe we'll even turn the dogs loose or something well I'll borrow a dog Johnny still let me borrow a dog oh as John still have dogs yeah no doubt no doubt he does that's another story for another day well at least promise me you'll come back on and we'll talk we'll tell some more stories because I know the listeners are going to be wanting to hear myself I would feel on I pray all right we'll give my best to Rita and to the family and to Jeremy my my former pilot he made me feel special I'll do it I'll do it okay Larry thank you so much and as I always say at the close of every podcast if you look at for me I'll tell you where I'll be I'm going to the dogs well it's time on the podcast to

1:36:25check in with my friend Fred Moran over in the hills Pennsylvania Fred are you on the line yes I am you're always on the line man yeah I got clothes on the line that's why but well how you been since we talked and I've been going a good bet we've had a lot of rain over here I'm this tonight so on kind of the rain just too miserable to go out and fight it man Patty went out all about I'm say two weeks ago we run a track in the state game lands this is five thousand acres open to the public to hunt and so for it too many people hunt it and they seem to think season never closes on cune and they shoot to me there ain't to cune in there there should be you'll still trigger cune but not like like you want to but the main reason to going it's safe there's everything in there as far as game

1:37:31uh fisher with a lot of states don't have we've got black bear there and so for not a not a lot but there are some there well we was there on a Friday and we run a track and I mean I thought it was a bobcat I had both of my dogs she had one dog a young blue dog she got and they run that thing pretty darn good across the only road in that place I grabbed my one red dog there ain't no traffic to speak of I probably could left it go but I had a chance to grab them and I grabbed the young dog not to them in the dog box Patty's blue dog and my red dog kept on going and anyhow they finally freed up on the hill and there's only one house in that whole place and they don't come out they don't bother nobody but we treated not far from their house we go back in there I mean

1:38:36those three and like they're looking at it I figured they got a bobcat for sure we get up there we search that town wish I could tell you I seen ten cune there I couldn't find nothing not even a possum we didn't see a thing I looked at all the trees around it and if it's here nine times out of ten find it either I'll brag on myself on that not too many beat me find them but anyhow couldn't find nothing so we just chalked it up as an experience and talked about on the way home and next night she called me she said you're going again I said yep and I'm going right back where we were last night I'm going to treat that track and it's going to be game in it so she says all right what time you want me to ask come about eight thirty she came down we went back here turn loose in the same place and believe her or not they struck not too much further

1:39:42than what they did the night before and I'm hoping for we have the same three dogs I'm hoping they do something better than what they did the night before now my dogs mess up just like everybody's else is you're not any better than Joe Smith's down the road but I figure they're going to treat us well they run it same same thing again I'm the young dog I grabbed him on the road again I thought man it's going to be a similar to last night well they went up there and for some reason other patties don't quit I don't know why she never done before but she quit and come back to us so any um my buster dog which is the oldest dog in the crowd he's five he went over the hill and he tweaked three hundred fifty yards away well our heels ain't like these little nose and

1:40:46oh high answer for these are hills you think you're in West Virginia and that's the reason I don't have much of a word for Virginia put your head on your heart when you say yeah I did I did and I have a good friend on their journey course he took me to one of his places where they have a bear camp and they got feeders all over West Virginia we did tree some goo there but we was able to drive to trees and everything I like to use on me he had some good hunting but he he's you want to put all them coons in there or never bother killing any but anyhow getting back to my story the buster dog's tree and on he's no show off just a steady tree dog and I would the woods were beautiful nice and open big trees and but it was real steep what do we run

1:41:49across but a bear trap that the game commission set in there it was knocked off so nothing could go in it but it's full of doughnuts and that's our favorite food that they use on the game weren't it they get them for nothing and they put them in their bear traps well I know the game were real good for that area in fact he used to rent off of me but I thought why did he knock that door off on the trap why didn't he leave it set I figured he made caught a coon in there and just let it go and then shut the door so nothing gets in there well his brothers a game were in also and the one that set the trap I later called I called him and never got an answer didn't expect to I called his brother and I said hey how come Gumby has a trap set on

1:42:49a game land and it's knocked off and the door is locked and he can't reset the door he says well it's Mother's Day probably he didn't want to have to go out there on Mother's Day and check the trap I says hey you're like a trooper you're on duty 24-7 he's just left he says I'll see so I told him where we treat the bear well anyhow Patty says I'm going down there I said you know I could call that dog back and save a trip I just don't feel like climbing this hill he's she says well I'm going down there see what he got I just go ahead I walked within a hundred yards of the trap and I stayed up on the hill she kept going she shined in one spot all the time where she shined everywhere at first but then one spot usually that means the person saw the coon or something finally she comes up she says all I could tell you it's extra big and it's black

1:43:57and the eyes are far apart so we I'm thinking that's what he got a bear now I didn't see it the bear but but like I say that's what she said we went from there so I honestly didn't see him but the way she's talking she saw it we went from that game lands to another place it's more popular than that but believe it or not they have my big truck stop and they killed a bear the year before with a rifle bear season it was legal care well we've turned loose and I felt sure we hit a coon there and as a swamp in there and all of a sudden it run all over there there's a lot of woodshare though but it's populated and they run it all through there back down back up well they run it across a little road they don't go nowhere and I'm looking on the ground on the

1:45:02semen and there's bear tracks right with the dog tracks we get on two bear most don't get one bear in a year we got on two in one night well there's a crick going up through a 500 acre field and there's trees all along that crick I figured it was hot as they run that surely going to tree that we uh I said we better get in a truck and drive up the end of the field so they don't get on the main road I was ready to do that and they made a U-turn come back straight toward us I separated from her I wanted to see that bear crossing the road I think I'll catch him with the light but I'm telling you he had a better lead on the dogs and I thought because he already got across the road and the dogs came the same way went straight down over it's rough it's all cliff rocks and everything but they ended up in a big light cave down there well

1:46:07petty she's all games she crawled down there and got the dogs out of the cave and uh like I say we know what that was I told I told a couple people by the bear hunt I said you sit there to first day in season whenever it comes in you shouldn't get shooting if you got the patient to wait all day yeah but I know bear hunter I killed bear I also been your apart man you might remember this guy Joe Polly for Michigan oh yeah I mean well Joe has gone through some real challenges with his health in the last uh a few months a little out of the year but he has kind of he's very resilient he bounces back and I did get to see Joe down at the American Protest Association breathing and Greenville Tennessee back in well I guess that was probably in March so yeah yeah

1:47:09no Joe Joe Polly I met him by accident and uh anyhow he invited me to help her peninsula bear hunt it was in September I'm saying about 19 oh I'm guessing it's in the 50s I know that the latter part of the 50s because we went from there to Kenton and uh we got signed there Polly that I know now you might have meant uh met his dad Ernest Polly uh maybe it wasn't it wasn't Joe is a younger man yeah I'll tell you what this guy was tough listen to this we're hunting and it's it got cold up here he's hunting him swamps in spades shoes I'll be doing if I'd never be doing that I mean spades shoes and then he slept in the back of the truck with no covers

1:48:10or nothing and there was frost on his body the next morning what kind of I should they make him plot guys tough I said that's redbone guys need a moat down the bed so well very easy had a good time we we got five bear up there the the bunch did I didn't get one my boy I took with me got one in fact he got the first one and uh we had a good time it was shutting different and uh I trived three that year here in Pennsylvania about a hundred mile north uh while could not know with my own dogs and uh I found out uh that though you put them in there they'll go with a couple started and they caught right on did okay oh yeah well there's a lot of guys at hunt bear with red bones what kind of shoes was he wearing spades shoes they they don't even make him

1:49:12anymore it looks like a spade shovel and that's what kind of shoes he was wearing that's their dress shoes well I gathered maybe that's what you were talking about but I didn't have a clue because I've never heard of him and I'll tell you why my uncle was with me he wasn't much of a hunter but he went along for the he said guys tough he certainly was well you remember the woodpecker dog the red dog pardon me you remember the red bone uh named woodpecker yeah well you did you know the guy down there in Indiana that hunted him before he's that he was sold to Milton's yeah he's dead now I'll take his name he was in my cash in the uh a c-h-a world on big uh I know his name I'm gonna say I can't think his name and yeah we got to talking and he picked up a kid hitchhiking they used to work for me years ago

1:50:20and he was telling me this story when he told me uh by just guy being in law spades when he had a gamble problem and when I'd pay him if he blew all his money instead of coming back to work and working to make money he got lost figures with nothing in his pocket make it a living somehow and it come back when he felt like it uh I'm trying to think I can tell you his name he was running a dog for a guy from Florida he was in my cash I'd know the dogs name even if I heard it well are you having trouble hearing me friend no no okay well the guy's name was Ted Rainey that's it that's it and the thing about that reminded me of Ted was you talking about that guy hunting in dress shoes Ted Rainey always hunted in tennis shoes yeah I remember that

1:51:21Russell Miller used to do it all the time I think they and they were good buddies I think that's what one picked it up off the other way yeah Ted he was originally from Kentucky I believe used to come in the UKC office and we'd visit every once in a while but yeah yeah he had he's another one of those hunters that's passed on but he was the guy responsible I guess for really putting that woodpecker dog on the map right and uh my buddy own woodpecker Claude Miller he bought that dog and I heard you and uh anyhow um I so caught a real good theme I often thought I should never go for her she was good dog and I asked him one time I said how'd you ever get hooked up with Ted Rainey I said I wouldn't even think you knew somebody I he said he got in touch

1:52:21with me he hunted with the dog one night I only hunted with woodpecker two nights in uh quite a tell you the same thing uh the dog had a bad night both nights far as I was concerned didn't show with the dog I said to Ted I said Ted how'd you do so good with that dog he didn't show me nothing when I went on but this was dogs he said Fred the night I brought him home I took him on at 10 o'clock a night and treat seven coupons with him he says he's click for me right off the bat but that's typical dog story hey might work for you but don't work for me and might be a heck of a dog for you but nothing for me but I'm sure he was good but Claude had trouble you know the dog just never had him a real good dog moment and it's how you work him and who you are and everything you know but Ted got a lot out of him as far as it's clicking for him

1:53:28well you mentioned Claude Miller and that was the Miller persona style you'll ever meet a real yeah and didn't he have a school for training uh coupons or something he and his brother or something what what's that didn't he have what uh a training school for coupons or something no you're thinking you're thinking of Miller brothers from Arkansas oh okay you should do a lot of training from Birdony oh okay yes so they weren't redbone men then no no they they kept thinking they stole same as Bert Berton and were a very good friend and they worked at that great place and still in business uh Darren Arkansas I can't it's welches greats where they worked that well that brings back memories to me because I used to hunt in the vineyards there in Michigan and the farmers there sold their grapes to a welches grape uh great

1:54:33juice factory and a little town of rotten Michigan so oh Fred it's been a great visit I'm glad to hear that you're still hunting and kicking and feeling good and uh you got to watch out for those big black bears though those things oh hey hey you're seeing them uh we're starting to get them where we never had them before a good friend of mine he he's got the most beautiful house I'd ever seen uh for a hunter and that out in the woods he's surrounded by five thousand acres of water wow it's West Morning County's water supply now you're not allowed to hunt a fish here and every time your line hits water you've got to fish and you would know that he's looking over his shoulder all the time but my buddy owns about 350 acres are joined in that he said Fred you ought to see the bear up here anymore they moved in I don't know where they come from but every night

1:55:33my dogs are tree and bear instead of them yeah the black bear has really the population has really exploded and and on that subject you guys in Pennsylvania can't hunt them with dogs okay no I tell you what if we did if they opened it up for dogs I guarantee the first day of season there'd be 10,000 guys with West Virginia plates here that's a fact because they go for it never leave go down there what they absolutely that's a big thing for them yeah well maybe we'll have another discussion about the bear hunting Fred thanks so much for uh coming on there talking to our audience again we always enjoy visiting with you wish you the best have a good hunt tonight we'll talk to you soon I see you okay that's the great Fred Moran the red bone man and he's gone hunting I'm sure I really enjoy the feedback that we get from these podcasts so

1:56:41feel free to get on Facebook and leave I have the uh gone to the dogs podcast group page you can join the group we'll welcome you in you can uh post on my personal page even S-D-E-P-H-E-N-F-Fielder you can post there you can post in the coon hunting conversations group that's a group that I started and worked my uh work with my friend Alan Bridges on and I will just take just a moment before we close to remind you that I do have copies first edition copies I'll sign it for you the book gone to the dogs a coon hunter's journey 200 pages 23 chapters all about coon hunting and related subjects if you'd like to have a copy of that you can go to stevefielderbooks.com and till next time if somebody asks

1:57:44it were stevefielder just tell him he's gone to the dogs