Connie Found a Gun

Connie Found A Gun

Connie was a bit slower than Clyde which placed him in the position of constantly being manipulated into some very unpleasant situations. One day Connie was swimming in the creek, near the road bridge when his foot touched something smooth, cold and metallic. He reached down and brought up a .38 caliber pistol. It had been in the creek a while, but was not completely rusted out.

He and Clyde speculated on its origin. Maybe the infamous Bonnie and Clyde (actually Dad had a sister named Bonnie!) threw it in the creek to hide evidence of some ghastly murder. Maybe Al Capone came through here and tossed it out the window for much the same reason. The endless speculation was a big part of the value of this golden treasure. During the Great Depression in Tennessee, you had to be fairly well off to own such a prize.

Connie soon announced that he was going to clean and oil his trophy so that he could fire off a few cartridges. Clyde felt that this might be lots of fun, but that he also might lose a brother. He tried to talk Connie out of such a perilous course of action. Connie would hear none of it. He imagined that Clyde wanted to be the first one to fire the weapon and was, again, using his fiendishly devious mental powers on his little brother. Clyde could see that there was no talking Connie out of this. For the first time in their lives, he was genuinely worried about his brother's well being.

All of this was hidden from their parents, Amos and Ina Reid. Connie knew that his father would probably clean and oil his prize in preparation for selling it. They were as poor as everyone else during these hard times. Connie also realized that the entire family could benefit from this boon, but it was HIS treasure and he was not interested in sharing it. Maybe after he had fired a few rounds through it…this could be a rare moment of recognition for Connie. It was always Clyde who was so smart, such a good boy and the obvious favorite of their father. Now it would be his moment in the spotlight.

Connie begged, borrowed and stole to gather the necessary cleaning equipment and a few precious cartridges of the proper caliber. He showed Clyde his handiwork. Even Clyde could not possibly find fault with all his hard work. He waited until his brother had opened the cylinder, turned it carefully and looked down the barrel. Clyde looked him in the eye and said, "Connie, if you fire this pistol it will explode and kill you." Connie was visibly startled, but regained his balance and stuck to his theory that his brother was just jealous and wanted all the glory, as usual.

For reasons known only to Connie Reid, he re-enacted this scene numerous times. Maybe he thought this would trip his brother up and he would accidentally admit that Connie had done everything right and would be hero for a day. But Clyde stuck to his assessment of the situation and gave the same dire warning, "Connie, if you fire this pistol it will explode and kill you." He concluded that Clyde was a hard nut to crack.

The great day finally arrived. Timing was important. Amos Reid was off to work at the local sawmill and Ina had taken the girls to the General Store in town. She dare not take the boys. Connie carefully set up a tin can target and walked about 15 paces back to a tree stump. He sat as close as possible and braced his back against the old stump.

He asked his brother to join him. Clyde declined the invitation with a comment about one of them needing to survive this day. Connie was now becoming more than a bit nervous about his brother's gloomy prediction. He considered waiting a while longer and doing a bit more cleaning on the weapon. Then he loaded the three bullets into the cylinder, closed it, cocked the hammer, drew a bead on the tin can and pulled the trigger.

Everything seemed to happen at once. At the very moment the pistol fired, a well aimed rock hit Connie square in the back of the head. How a bullet could ricochet in such a manner as to come back around and hit one in the back of his head was not his immediate concern. He tossed the pistol into the air, grabbed his head with both hands, rolled around on the ground while screaming at the top of his lungs.

He instantly went from horror and panic into rage when he noticed that Clyde was rolling around on the ground laughing so hard he was having trouble breathing. Connie looked at his hands and could find no blood, although a lump was beginning to swell on the back of his head. Then the chase began.

If Connie had been a thinking man, he might have picked up the gun and fired a couple of shots in his brother's general direction. But, he didn't think of that until they were about a mile from their ramshackle home. By the time they worked their way back around to the house, all they could do was collapse and try to catch their breath.

Score another one for Clyde.

The Suitcase

The Suitcase On The Side Of The Road

Young Clyde Reid's running buddies found a suitcase on the side of the road, at the bottom of a ditch. They cleaned the outside, but had to trash the contents. They may have gotten a comb or something as a reward, but then their imagination kicked into high gear. They were very accomplished trappers. I remember my Dad explaining how to trap a raccoon without any sort of cage.

One of the boys had recently trapped a wild bobcat. It was a ferocious animal and the boy had scars to show for his effort. There was no taming this wildcat for a pet, so they decided to stuff it into the suitcase.

That was a story in itself. Every one of the boys had scars to show their part in this dangerous undertaking. If it had been made of canvas it would not have held the animal. It would simply have ripped the sides to shreds and run back to the woods. But this had, at one time, been a very nice suitcase constructed of thick leather with a metal frame. It proved to be a temporary match for the bobcat's teeth and claws.

The suitcase looked good on the outside, so the boys set it on the side of the road and hid in nearby brush to watch the show. They talked for a while and then heard the sound of an automobile coming down the pike. The car slowed down as it drew close to the suitcase, but continued to roll past it. Seeing no one around, the driver ground the gearbox into reverse and began to back up. My Dad said that a door opened and they could see that the car was filled to brimming with people.

One of them grabbed the suitcase, jumped back into the car and slammed the door. The car lurched forward about 20 or 30 feet when suddenly all four doors flew open and people, too numerous to count, ran screaming in every direction. The boys swear that the bobcat did several laps inside the upholstered roof of the vehicle before shooting like a bullet out one of the doors and into the woods.

The boys wisely felt that the occupants of the car would not appreciate the humor of the situation. They quietly cut a path through the woods and found their way home.