Newspapers: Wisdom Commotion-Rev.10-04, Part II; LaSalle Parish, La. Submitted by Jack Willis Date: 16 Oct 2004 Source: From the Jena Times - Olla Tullos Signal, Grass Roots and Cockleburrs Date: 04 Oct 2004 ************************************************ Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** *********************************************** Grass Roots and Cockleburs-Rev.10-04 (original publication date: 04 July 2001) Wisdom Commotion-Rev.10-04 Part II Wisdom commotion is just a "thirteen dollar " word for "horse sense" and is defined by Mr. Eli Plummer as the ability to "add up things" in their true perspective and come to logical, workable conclusions in a quality of mind that is inherent in every individual at birth. He maintained that education broadens one's horizons, but adds not one whit to his original fountain of intelligence. There is an almost insurmountable gulf that lies between "learning" and "wisdom". One of the most able instructors to help develop young Eli's own raw horse sense potential was "Uncle George" Hebron, who resided in the Nebo area. Uncle George was one of those people that it was impossible to determine their age and it was as if they had lived forever. He always had a logical, workable answer to any question ever posed to him by young Plummer, but he also knew and understood the languages of the birds of the air and the beasts of the fields. Killing a mess of squirrels on days when they didn't want to leave the den tree was no problem to Uncle George. He would creep through a "scosh" of hard wood timber looking for den trees, and when he had about three different den trees he could watch simultaneously, he'd squat down and lean back against a comfortable brace tree and start making a series of squeaks like a mouse. The squirrels couldn't stand the mouse sounds and they would teat out of their holes to investigate. Uncle George had his little single shot Winchester .22 rifle ready and he'd wait till they stopped to listen and he'd just shoot them in the head. He maintained that by head shooting you didn't tear up the meat, and all parts of the squirrel would be edible. That is unless you're one who eats squirrel brains, and then you were out of luck. Uncle George's chance to shine was when he was saving some widow woman's poultry flock from a hawk or barn owl. He didn't go out and hunt them as such, but rather he tolled the predators into coming to him in a pre-selected site of his choosing. He would sit down against a "brace" tree and make the sounds of a rabbit in distress. This weird scream would even bring foxes and bob cats right up to him to be slaughtered by the unerring aim of him and the little .22 rifle. Some of the local residents offered an opinion that Uncle George had at one time in his boy hood, if he ever had one, spent a hitch in the U.S. Navy. Young Eli would be visiting with him, soaking up the wisdom of his words when Uncle George would take a piece of string out of the treasure trove of "stuff" he kept in the voluminous folds of his jumper coat. He would begin to tie knots of all types, slipknots, bowlines, square knots and half hitches. His fingers would fairly fly, so fast that the knot was fashioned before you knew it. It was rumored, though never proven, that the constabulary of a neighboring Parish had summoned him to fashion a noose with 13 wraps to be used in a hanging of a convicted murderer in that Parish. Uncle George would frequently disappear and be gone for indeterminate lengths of time. Some people said he was searching for the elusive Natchez treasure but this was another supposition never proven. One day he told young Eli he was going to cross Catahoula Lake, to "look around" was the way he termed it, and asked him if he wanted to go along? He told him to go ask his Pa. Well, nothing could have made him happier that go on a trip with his hero. They rowed across the lake, where Uncle George acquired a pair of horses with saddles from a friend of his and they pointed the horse's heads south into the Saline-Larto country. The land was flat and poorly drained with numerous bayous and sloughs to be forded. Finally, Uncle George spotted what he'd been looking for all along. Eli could see rising out of the swamp a mound of good size. The horses clamored up the side of the mound and were breathing hard by they got to the top. To the amazement of young Eli, sitting up in the saddle, he was looking out over the treetops of the surrounding timber. This Mound and two others next to it were at least 15 to 20 feet higher in elevation than the surrounding countryside. They dismounted and Uncle George dropped the reins on his horse so he could crop grass. Eli followed suit. They began to explore the periphery of the Mound. Eli was amazed to look down, and there were flint flakes, arrowheads and an occasional tomahawk head lying everywhere. He picked up what he could for a while and then Uncle George signaled that was enough. He promised that they would come back. When asked about the Mounds, he said they were places of refuge whenever other tribes attacked the Natchez Indians, or when the French were after them many years earlier. Uncle George and young Eli left but never came back. Uncle George was equally at home in a palmetto covered brake hunting deer or a panther or perched up on a hickory covered ridge hunting squirrels, just off of Indian Creek. It made no difference; Uncle George was content in his circumstances. After all, what is the meaning of being "well informed?" Uncle George would have been as ignorant as a goat in the halls of a college or university. But on the other hand, wouldn't the typical learned college professor have been just as disadvantaged in Uncle George's classroom? Most people are too prone to judge intelligence or "smartness" by accepted rules that "THEY" made up. Willie Nelson, the co-leader of the "Outlaw movement", along with Waylon Jennings, in Country and Western music, is supposed to have said one time, "I wish I knew who "THEY" were; I'd like to kick their tail!