Ouachita
Well-known member
We've all had a few characters in our lives who have influenced us, or at least made a marking remembrance for some reason or another. Mr. Castleberry and his wife moved here in 1970 and built a house on 80 acres that borders by granddads place. When I was a kid, me and my brothers and friends were careful to avoid the Castleberry's because they were mean. He shot at me and a friend when we took a shortcut across his property. I didn't know it at the time, but one day I would be his neighbor.
It's interesting how perceptions of people are influenced upon us from others, especially as a child. Turns out that old man Castleberry wasn't a mean man. He just didn't care to be around people, which I can relate to. His wife died about fifteen years ago, and the RVFD has missed her persimmon pies at the annual fundraiser ever since. I checked up on the old man often after she died and learned a thing or two about him, and life.
I started building a perimeter fence around my place in 2018. My south border is his north border. He hadn't had cattle for several years and the existing fence was near useless. I didn't expect him to share expenses with me, but I did communicate with him that I was building a new fence, and the recent survey gave him about six more feet of property. He offered to help but I knew he wasn't able, physically or financially, and told him I'd collect my part by fishing in his pond that he shot me away from 40 years earlier. He smiled.
During the fence building along our shared border, I found a jar with a rusty lid half full of what I thought was water. I found a lot of other stuff too, stuff you might expect to come across on old places. Then I found another mason jar, and another, and then a real life jug (the kind with the finger hole that you see in the movies, with the moonshiners pulling a slug with it propped on their arm). I took my collection to the old man and he made a halfway grin right before he lowered his head a bit and said he used to have a problem, but he quit when his wife got sick with the cancer.
Mr. Castleberry had a personal use distillery next to his barn on his north 40, which is close to my place. His wife didn't know about and she didn't want him drinking. He would occasionally take a sabbatical and howl at the moon. He outlasted my Dad and Granddad and all of his neighbors that thought he was a contrary man, so I had no one to go to and tell them that Fred wasn't a contrary old fart. He was a very private man that didn't want any unsolicited intrusions into his life and that's why he moved here and became somewhat of a hermit.
He was 90 something but I didn't know he would die unexpectedly, so it was just luck that prompted me a few weeks before his death, to give him back the two mallard decoys that I stole from his pond 40 years earlier. That was an act of revenge for him blasting the scatter shot at me and my buddy for taking the shortcut across his place. We both laughed, and laughed some more, then had a pull or three of Makers Mark and his eyes got bright. He told me to keep the ducks and then gave me the gun. I wish I would have taken the time to get to know him much earlier. I have many regrets, most are not for things I have done but rather for things I didn't do.
What characters have you met in your life?
EDIT- Dang, I'm getting old enough to miss my years. Fred died in 2015. I might be thinking of when I had the dozer out clearing the land next to his. I've gotta be right though, with the fence building in 2018. At least I'll keep telling myself so.
He doesn't look like an emotionally constipated old man in this photo.
https://mypulsenews.com/fred-benjamin-castleberry-jr/
It's interesting how perceptions of people are influenced upon us from others, especially as a child. Turns out that old man Castleberry wasn't a mean man. He just didn't care to be around people, which I can relate to. His wife died about fifteen years ago, and the RVFD has missed her persimmon pies at the annual fundraiser ever since. I checked up on the old man often after she died and learned a thing or two about him, and life.
I started building a perimeter fence around my place in 2018. My south border is his north border. He hadn't had cattle for several years and the existing fence was near useless. I didn't expect him to share expenses with me, but I did communicate with him that I was building a new fence, and the recent survey gave him about six more feet of property. He offered to help but I knew he wasn't able, physically or financially, and told him I'd collect my part by fishing in his pond that he shot me away from 40 years earlier. He smiled.
During the fence building along our shared border, I found a jar with a rusty lid half full of what I thought was water. I found a lot of other stuff too, stuff you might expect to come across on old places. Then I found another mason jar, and another, and then a real life jug (the kind with the finger hole that you see in the movies, with the moonshiners pulling a slug with it propped on their arm). I took my collection to the old man and he made a halfway grin right before he lowered his head a bit and said he used to have a problem, but he quit when his wife got sick with the cancer.
Mr. Castleberry had a personal use distillery next to his barn on his north 40, which is close to my place. His wife didn't know about and she didn't want him drinking. He would occasionally take a sabbatical and howl at the moon. He outlasted my Dad and Granddad and all of his neighbors that thought he was a contrary man, so I had no one to go to and tell them that Fred wasn't a contrary old fart. He was a very private man that didn't want any unsolicited intrusions into his life and that's why he moved here and became somewhat of a hermit.
He was 90 something but I didn't know he would die unexpectedly, so it was just luck that prompted me a few weeks before his death, to give him back the two mallard decoys that I stole from his pond 40 years earlier. That was an act of revenge for him blasting the scatter shot at me and my buddy for taking the shortcut across his place. We both laughed, and laughed some more, then had a pull or three of Makers Mark and his eyes got bright. He told me to keep the ducks and then gave me the gun. I wish I would have taken the time to get to know him much earlier. I have many regrets, most are not for things I have done but rather for things I didn't do.
What characters have you met in your life?
EDIT- Dang, I'm getting old enough to miss my years. Fred died in 2015. I might be thinking of when I had the dozer out clearing the land next to his. I've gotta be right though, with the fence building in 2018. At least I'll keep telling myself so.
He doesn't look like an emotionally constipated old man in this photo.
https://mypulsenews.com/fred-benjamin-castleberry-jr/
Last edited:
