Frog Gigging
Pop took us boys frog gigging several times. Mother went at least once. We gigged in ponds that abounded in the area. Most of the time the ponds were in some woods. The woods were scary, for they were infested with snakes and insects, and the Spanish moss hung down all around us, looking as spooky as death itself. From the trees and Spanish moss little worms hung down on single strands of silk, and they would get in our hair and fall down the necks of our shirts. They squished slick stuff when you slapped them. I still shudder when I think about it.
Arriving at a pond, some of us would shine flashlights at the water until we spotted a big bullfrog. The light would blind the frog and another person would cock his gig and reach out to the frog. Upon contact, the trigger on the gig would spring and claws would capture the frog. The stick on a frog gig was about the length of a mop handle, so it was fairly easy to reach out quite a distance to a frog.
Upon capturing a frog, we would disengage him from the gig and put him into a “tow sack.” Sometimes we would get fifty or more frogs in one night. Cleaning them was simple. Just cut them in two at the waist and skin the lower part. The legs were all we were after. Mother would fry them up for a very good meal. They tasted a lot like fried chicken. It always bothered Mother to cook them, for as they fried, the legs kicked in the skillet. She never quite got over that, but loved to eat them, as much as the rest of us.
We always had a gun along for the trip. One time we heard the ghostly hooting of an owl from up in the trees. Shortly thereafter we saw a silver fox slinking away into the darkness. As we continued to walk through the woods, Bobby was behind me, carrying the gun. The gun went off and shot exactly where I was about to step. I spun around to clobber Bobby when he said excitedly, “Look!” …and he pointed at the ground. I looked, and though he had shot from the hip, he had killed a coral snake. I would have stepped on the snake in another fraction of a second.