Uncle Obed and the Possum

My great uncle was James Obed Baker, DDS. He had been a Ag teacher for 15 years, while working his way through West Texas State Teacher's College (now WTAM). He loved to hunt and fish all his life. He lived a very exciting, from pranks with his brothers on the farm to meeting Al Capone. He liked to share the stories of his life with us, going to and from the farm he grew up on in Central Texas. 

During these trips, Uncle Obed got to where he would repeat his stories near the end of his 97 years on this Earth. But, he always told at least one story that he had never told before. That includes the following story, on his last outing with us. A week later, he was was hospitalized for the first time in his life. Two weeks after that, he was dead.

All of my life, I wondered why Uncle Obed’s nose looked the way it was. It was formed normal, but seemed to be mostly scar tissue. My dad and I were in the pickup with him, on our way to the farm to fix some fence. Uncle Obed related the following story. Had he not lived so long, we would never have known the story he told.

Growing up back on the Baker Family Farm, the boys would go possum or coon hunting several times per week. Since they had no shoes, they would walk barefooted with their dogs, Old Dewey and Old Bulger, both excellent coon & possum hunting dogs. One afternoon, they caught a possum.  That hunt included brothers Obed, Bry, and John Ollen, ages 6-12, with Obed the oldest. They brought the possum back to the house & typical of the times, they staged a friendly dog-possum fight, but well controlled. John Ollen was holding the dog as Bry was holdng the possum. They would tease & let the animals spar at each other. Obed was standing behind Bry & the possum. Well, the possum got a hold of the dog’s nose & would not let go. Bry, as he tried to pull the possum loose, yanked the possum by both hind legs, ripping its teeth loose from the dog. He did so with such force, that his arm & the possum swung backwards & up, & the possum got a new hold on Obed’s nose, unknown to Bry. Well, as he pulled the possum back forward, the teeth shredded Obed’s nose something awful.

Obed went into the house and his momma took some ashes from the fire place & mixed it with kerosene (coal oil) and made a poultice. With her fingers, she “formed” Obed’s nose as best she could, then placed the poultice on the nose. She then wrapped a rag with kerosene around Obed’s head & face to hold the poultice in place. After 3 weeks, she removed it & the nose was healed, without infection. But the scar tissue affected the looks of the nose forever after.


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