Memories of Charlton County - by Gibson and Mays Back to Table of Contents 30. WHEN JOHN JUMPED OFF THE TRAIN (Pp 57-59) My cousin, John S. Gibson, was
the son of Uncle Owen and Aunt Julia Gibson. John had bought an old worn-out, half-starved, slow-moving mule to pull his wagon, which was needed in his new job. He had the contract to put up the telephone lines between the Paxton Place and Folkston and his mule pulled the wagon full of poles as he worked. The mule was also used sometimes when John went to the square dances held regularly around the county, and I went with him many times for we both loved to dance. John and
I took in all the square dances from Uptonville to Moniac, about 41 miles apart. Many times we'd take the mule and buggy to the dance, get there about nine o'clock, put the mule in the stable, dance till daylight, go to bed and wake up at dinner time, eat and then go home. We really loved to dance. Another friend who enjoyed dancing was Newt Murray, but he was married and had a family and didn't get to attend as many dances as John and I did. John and I had gone to a dance
on an awfully cold night and were on our way home in his buggy, pulled by that slow-moving mule and as we got close to Newt's house, John said "Let's tease old Newt!" Now for those who don't remember John, it must be said here that he had the biggest mouth of anyone in the county. He was always the loudest one in the crowd, no matter how many were there. We came closer to Newt's house and John hailed him and Newt answered by coming to the door in that icy cold
night time and said "Who is it?" Instead of telling him who it was, John hollered "You got plenty of firewood?" and then tried to get that slow old mule to pick up some speed so Newt wouldn't know who it was that got him out of a warm bed. Newt knew that someone was just joshing him and said some words a Sunday School teacher wouldn't approve of. Meanwhile John made that mule move on and tried to keep from laughing too loud. A couple of days later Newt
asked John if that wasn't him that made him go to the door on that cold night and John assured him it wasn't. But Newt apologized to him anyway for not being a good sport for he knew it was John because he couldn't disguise that loud voice. When we were teenagers John, his brother Owen, and I made our spending money by hunting coons, possums and polecats, then selling the hides. We shipped them by train to D. Strickland in Savannah and got $3.00 for coon and possum hides
and $7.00 for skunks. Sometimes the dogs caught and killed a polecat and when this happened they were a sick bunch of smelly dogs. Before we could sell the hide we had to get the awful odor out of it. We made a fire of lightard knots and put green pine limbs on it to smother it and make a white smoke. Then we cut a long cane from a nearby bush and tied the dead polecat in the middle of it. Two of us held the cane over the lightard knots and in about five minutes the pine smoke took the odor
out of the fur. We knew how to have good harmless fun back when I was young and debating was a popular way of passing the time. I remember one moonlit night when Owen, John and I were walking through the woods coming home from hunting and we decided to have a debate. We went inside a little unlocked one-room school house and John stood on one side at the front of the room and Owen stood on the other while I sat at a desk in the back. They had a loud debate with one another
discussing opposite sides of an issue and I was the judge and gave points to the one who made the best argument. I often wondered years later if these debates we enjoyed had influenced John in his choice of an occupation. He became a trial lawyer and debated many cases in courtrooms in south Georgia. I was real sorry for John one night. It was yearly meeting time at Sardis Church and everyone in the country was there. There were just hundreds of people
who never even went in the church house. Sardis yearly meeting and Christmas were two days we all looked forward to. John and I took two girls from Hickox to the meeting and they had spent the night at Uncle Owen's house. When it came time for them to go home, we took them to the depot and got them seated in the coach. Now I had been around trains more than John had and knew when I felt the coach move that I had to leave. It began moving and I made for the door. I also
knew how to get off a moving train by holding on the hand rail and running with it as it went down the tracks. John had a little more to tell those girls and when he got off the train it was picking up a good bit of speed. Since he had no experience in getting off a moving train, he just jumped right straight out. He hit the ditch and turned head over heels a couple of times. It was dark but I didn't have any trouble finding him several blocks down the track. You could have
heard him in the next county yelling "I think my back is broke!" He wasn't hurt but he learned in one lesson how not to get off a moving train! | 
