SC EP:1127 I Have Never Minded the Loneliness

Rick writes "When I was younger I lived in Mississippi in a very little town called Poplar Creek. Its very remote and there is nothing there but open farm land. I now live in Asheville, NC I sometimes go back to MS to see family from time to time.

When I do go back I always drive past where I use to live and where I first saw a creature. My family had about 80 acres of land most of it was woodland and swamp area. I never saw the creature until I was older at the age of 15. All of my life my Grandfather use to tell me and my brothers about a wild man and woman that lived in the area and was known to have been living in the area many years. I do know that land we had was very old my Grandfathers Grandparents owned the land and it was passed on over the years. If there were any activity going on over the years when I was younger I had no knowledge of any happenings. Everything changed the summer I turned 13.

It was late June and summer vacation was in full effect. Living in this area everyone has a garden of some type. My family's garden was kind of big because we grew most of our food along with hunting. My Mom and Dad went out of town for a the weekend to visit some of my Dads family. During this time I staid at my Uncles house who also lived on the land we had. That Monday afternoon when my Dad came back home he took a walk in the garden and some plants were torn out of the ground and watermelons were busted open and just left in place but were eaten.

Other veggies were also picked and parts were on the ground not fully eaten also. My Dad was pissed! He called me and my Cousins over to the garden and questioned us about it. We told him no it was not us and that we did not do any of this. My Grandfather saw my Dad getting on to us about this so he came over and saw everything that had happen. I will never forget my Granddaddy face as he said " It was not the kids. I know who did this". My Granddaddy told us kids to go play as he explained to my Dad about what had happen. My mom and Uncle grew up on the land so I believe they knew but refused to say anything. Come to find out years before my Granddaddy had problems with the wild man and wild woman getting into his chicken coop until it got to the point he quit raising chickens. My Mom and Dad got married when i was 4 or 5 so he missed out on that time and had no idea that even happened.

After my Dad heard the story he was in shock but did not believe it until the next morning when more watermelons and other fruits were completely gone. Our two apple trees were picked bare and branches were broken along with our peach trees with peaches that were half eaten or were stepped on. My Dad noticed that our black-eyed peas were being picked and eaten as he would find half eaten hulls or just the hulls on the ground.

That night my Dad called his 3 brothers and they came to our house along with my Granddaddy and uncle and they had a meeting in our Livingroom and we the kids had to go play in our rooms. Wes I'm not joking with this my Uncles were locked and loaded Mississippi rednecks were in full effect. LOL.. My Granddad and uncle ( his son) were in the loft of our barn.

Two of my Dads brothers got on top of my Dads work shop and my Dad and his other brother were posted up in the field in the back of his old truck. I do not know what time it was but it was late and guns were going off. I jumped up out of bed and ran to a window to see what was going on. After a bit my Mom was pacing back and forth wondering what had happen. The family walked in and each one was shook up. I think because they saw IT.. They told me to go to bed and don't come back out. I could hear them talking and one of my Uncles saying This is not true There is no way that is real I cant believe it .. They staid the night and in the morning everyone went into the woods looking for what they may have seen the night before. around 11 am the men came back with a lot of questions on their face. None of them talked about it and I was told to not talk about this ever to no one. From then on there were no more encounters until the spring of 1993.

I was riding the school bus home and was sitting at the back of the bus on the right hand side and my friend Joe was sitting across from me on the left hand side. We passed a bridge that had a small open field on the side of it. This field met the edge of the land my family owned . There it was squatted down drinking water from his hand and in the split 3 seconds Joe and I saw the creature we both turned to each other asking DID YOU SEE THAT! I said what the Hell was that and Joe straight out said Bigfoot!!! a few moments later i was off the bus and was running into tell my Mom. At this time my Dad and Grand Dad had both passed so now this news really shook up my Mom. It was not until a few months later my mother sold the land and we moved away."

We will wrap up with Timothy Renner to discuss his new book, I Have Never Minded the Loneliness: Hermits and Their Stories.

What compels a person to leave behind society, forsaking family, friends, and the comforts of modern life to live in solitude? The hermits of the 19th and early 20th Centuries are as fascinating as they are mysterious. These enigmatic figures often became the focus of public interest, with newspaper stories turning them into local legends, folk heroes, and symbols of a life apart.

Within these pages, you'll discover the extraordinary lives of hermits who defied convention: John Stink, rumored to have died and risen again–more than once; William Woodruff, whose long vow of silence followed a broken heart; Brusher Mills, the serpent-hunter who sold his own snake-oil remedies; and Truman "Commodore" Downs, who claimed Mars as his homeland. Meet Adolphe-Julian Fouré, the reclusive priest who carved strange tales into Brittany's coastal rocks, and Alice Grace, who made her home in an old bacon box, telling fortunes. From William Pester, the desert-dweller who may have inspired Nat King Cole's Nature Boy, to the Old Leather Man, a wandering enigma clad in patchwork leather, and O.B. Joyful, the hermit some call America's first hippie–these stories, and many more, reveal the complex lives of individuals who chose to live apart from the world.

Link to: I Have Never Minded the Loneliness: Hermits and Their Stories