Runnels: The tumbler

I’ve got a couple of them big heavy glasses or mugs that I’ve always called tumblers. I got them because they remind me of my Grandpa Runnels. He always ate cornbread and milk out of one.

I can still see the milk on his white mustache. He liked buttermilk with his cornbread—Ug! I’ve never liked buttermilk.

Anyhow, to me it was a great treat to set at the table while Grandpa was breakin’ bread. He had so many grandkids I doubt if he even knew I was in the world, but I sure knew he was around.

My mom always said he was a good man but the ugliest feller she ever looked at, and then in the same breath, said I looked just like him.

I guess there are a lot of things I should remember better than an ol’ glass cornbread mug, like his ol’ one lung gasoline engine he had on his wood saw. It would throw the governors and run away with itself. Boy, did he boogie around to cut the gas off before it started throwin’ pieces.

I can remember just like yesterday how he would walk up them ol’ creek banks with a cane pole after a long wait for the fish to bite.

Uncle Bill sent him a new fly rod and fish reel from Colorado. He needed that like he needed leprosy. That was trout tackle—he wanted fish fit to eat (catfish).

I loved Grandpa’s barn—it always seemed so neat with the big pine box and that ol’ corn sheller. I think I’ve got it in my archives someplace.

He had a few pigeons but he kept them ate down to just a few.

He could see more game sign and read a track better than anyone I ever met. I’ll bet it didn’t take him all day to figure out what threw his box trap with little brogan shoe marks all around it.

His ol’ fur shed with the steel traps and game pouch hangin’ on the wall never lost its skunk odor. I guess that’s why, until this day, I don’t mind smellin’ a skunk.

A few times, but very few, he set on the front porch and told me huntin’ stories. I guess the one I liked best was the one when he killed the big rattlesnake, but not before it had killed his two huntin’ dogs.

Yep, there are many things I can remember about Grandpa Runnels. He caught the long train when I was about thirteen or fourteen, but the cornbread tumbler hangs in my head the heaviest.

Courtesy of Tom Runnels Publications. Copyrighted and Registered by Tom Runnels and Saundra Runnels Revocable Trust. Printed in The Banner Press: September 15, 1988.