Where’s Big John when you need him?
Back in my country newspaper days, there were a few country correspondents who could really spin a yarn. Not sure where we inherited them but they seem to come with the territory.
Mrs. Arthur Hunt wrote the social news from Lexington. She’d write it out on a Big Chief tablet and we’d pick it up from her home every week. We flipped a coin over who got to decipher her handwriting and set the column in type.
She wrote about out-of-town visits, hospital stays, new babies and the preacher’s topic that week. It was a slice of Americana that we wouldn’t dare leave out. (Sometimes, we had to cut it off not for space but because she got paid by the word and the budget was tight).
Then there was John McNatt, a giant of a man from Slaughterville. He was a steel worker until a serious injury sidelined him. He went by the pen name “Big John.”
He didn’t pull any punches in writing about the goings on in Slaughterville. It was the urban frontier and every acreage and farm had a pickup and every pickup had a rifle rack. John’s column described the town hall meetings where John’s wife, Willie Mae, was a trustee. She served as mayor for a while. Nonetheless, he referred to her as “Squaw” in his columns.
The town’s biggest news came from the volunteer fire department. When he got the pen going, he could make a half-acre grass fire as dramatic as a triple homicide. Eye witness accounts. Names of pets displaced. Fences ruined. Who brought pie and coffee to the firefighters.
According to John, the town meetings were better than anything on television any night of the week.
Although they’re not writing any more, Big John and Willie Mae still live in an old house in Slaughterville. I thought of them this morning when all the news began breaking about the Extreme Home Makeover television show beginning its taping in Slaughterville.
According to my best sources, the home will be built by Ideal Homes and hundreds of volunteers on 120th Avenue Southeast just north of York Road. The family lives on Highway 39 and 120th Avenue SE now and will be moved out while the new build takes place.
What a field day Big John would have with those television folks. He would get the inside scoop and let folks know the real story of what goes on behind those trailer doors. I’m glad we didn’t pay him by the word.
Andy Rieger
kenestral
Hannah Rieger
D, W
stdavis
February 4th, 2010 at 3:32 pm
You hit it on the head. My dad used to have TV repair service about a half mile from the McNatt place for a short while in the mid-80’s. I used to remember a local weekly where Big John and Squaw had an article. Slaughterville was a wonderful place back then. Ober Shobert, the Vaughns and the Bryants were all local dignitaries in the area. I haven’t thought much of the area for awhile, until a tear welled up in my eye’s when I read of Squaw’s passing. Although I am greatly saddened at the loss and of one more piece of Americana gone, I am happy for the memories I do have of that time. With a hat over my heart, thanks Big John and Squaw.