Crawfish Hole

The term, “Crawfish Hole” is used and understood by most people of the southern portion of the United States. They know exactly what the term means and where you will find a crawfish hole. 

The location of a crawfish hole is usually located several feet from a source of water, a lake, river or a ditch that has standing water. The hole is about eighteen to twenty four inches deep, three inches wide with marble size (1/4”) round balls of dirt around the top of the hole. In the bottom of the hole are one or two crawfish about the size of a small lobster. I imagine this is a hole for mating during the reproduction cycle. Boys with small arms would put their hand down the hole, feel the tail portion of the crawfish and pull it out  and place it in a two gallon  bucket then reach in again to feel for a second crawfish. We were always careful to avoid the front of the crawfish, knowing that the pinching claws operated from that end. 

I remember as a small boy at age seven my friends Bubba, Leroy and I would fill our buckets with crawfish in about one hour along the river bank.  The next thing we would do is boil the lobster size crawfish, placing a bit of salt in the water to give a good taste flavor and eat the freshly cooked crawfish almost as fast as we retrieved them from the hot water. 

A true treat from my reservoir of pleasant boyhood history about the large crawfish. The regular crawfish found in today’s stores are usually farm grown type and are minimum in size and taste.

Turtle eggs for breakfast

Months after the annual spring floods the creatures of the rivers and lake water such as, frogs, crawfish, turtles and other start their regenerating process.

Each of the forementioned is a food source for humans, to include the eggs of the turtle. I looked forward as a young country boy to those few days of the week when turtles deposited their eggs in the soft soil of the levee near my residence. Over the years the older people of the plantation taught the younger children the habits of various animals and the best time to catch them as food or how to locate their nest for eggs. This oral history hit its mark when the younger students were successful in their first attempts. I became an expert fast on tracing the turtle and its habit. Turtles leave the water near the midnight hour, slowly sliding up the levee to the soft spot to dig a hole in the soil. Once the hole is the right depth, the turtle deposit it eggs in the hole, cover the eggs with the soft soil.  The sunlight would strikes these mounds where the eggs were deposited for maximum effect toward the hatching process. It was usually around daybreak when the turtle finished the laying process and started its slide back to the water. That is the time the young boys arrive and retrace the turtle path back to the nest. BINGO, a nest with a dozen or more eggs.

The boys often time would locate several other nests in the area. The next action is to return home, then, Turtle Eggs for Breakfast.

Fragging of Captain Smitz

I learned the meaning of the term fragging in 1966 while serving in Vietnam. It means when one pulls the pen on a hand grenade then throws it at a target. The result is an explosion ten seconds releasing many small fragments traveling at high speed. The grenade is designed to cause great body damage or multiple deaths in a small radius of several yards - a perfect weapon to destroy the enemy in an open formation, fox hole or a machine gun nest.

Why was Captain Smitz the subject of near fragging? The history of Captain Smitz and I emanated in Europe in 1958. He had a problem addressing me as a part of the integrated armed forces. This problem carried by Captain Smitz over the years into the Vietnam war. He was relieved of his duty as a Company Commander in Vietnam and assigned to Vong Chow Mountain near Qui Nhon,Vietnam as an out of sight assignment until his rotation to the United States. I was the Area Communication Chief on Von Chow Mountain with 94 men operating various communication systems.  I was drawing on my graduate training at The Southeastern Signal School at Fort Gordon, Georgia in operating systems from Vong Chow mountain such as HF radio (high- frequency radio), UHF radio and VHF radio Carrier Systems, microwave systems, wire system, Vietnam first TV station, 13 sites in various part of Vietnam and all other communication for the military to include satellite systems.

Captain Smitz had very sensitive radio equipment moved out of one of the many vans into a moisture prone tent, exposing the sensitive radio equipment to guaranteed destruction within one or two days.  He freed the van to use as his sleeping quarters. I did not like Captain Smitz action and reported it to higher Headquarters. This resulted in Captain Smitz getting another bad efficiency report.  My troops did not like the way Captain Smitz treated me and three of them planned to frag him when he sacked out in the van. One Team Chief informed me of the planned action. The plan was to use a sock-size opening on the van to roll a hand-grenade under Captain Smirz bunk when he was sleeping. I was alarmed and gratified at the same time. Knowing my troops thought of me in such a high regards as to commit a crime to protect me was gratifying, but I had to stop this act immediately in a manner that higher headquarters did not hear about it, because all of us would be court marshaled for planning this crime. I met with the three men and directed them not to carry out the plan and be quiet about their thoughts. Forty five quiet years have passed and now the true story can be told. At age 84, I cannot remember the three soldier’s names, but I do remember that the year 1966 was a very stressful time later causing PTSD (post –traumatic stress disorder).