OK,
What’s the old saying
The older I get, the better I wuz!
Well, it seems the older I get my repertoire of stories is getting smaller and smaller.
So, here is the story of how I came by my first "Menefee Made" knife.
Some folks here have probably heard a version of this one, but perhaps they will indulge an old fart.
But first…….
Seems there was a fellow, Leroy. He was a powerful sinner. Always getting drunk, fighting, hanging with disreputable folk and such.
Now Leroy’s cousin was a bible-thumpin’ evangelist. He was always trying to get Leroy to come to church meetings, so the holy ghost could save his soul.
One summer night Leroy was catting around town, “big pimpin” and he jus’ happened to cruise by where his cousin was holding a tent revival meeting.
Well, this was the south in July. It was hot and humid under that tent. No wind a blowin’, and not a leaf stirring. Leroy sneaks in at the back and sits down.
Well cousin Melvin was preachin’ up a storm. People were getting caught up in the spirit, left and right. Next thing ya’ know they would come on down to the alter to confess their sins’ out loud, unburden their souls.
Well after a spell, all of a sudden, Leroy gets caught up in the spirit. By this time everyone that was gonna’ confess had pretty much done so.
When Leroy starts heading down the aisle, folks took notice, and how.
So Leroy gets to the alter and Bro’ Melvin exhorts him “tell it all brother, lay your sins at the alter, tell it all to Jesus”
So Leroy does. He faces the congregation, gets down on his knees and confesses for close to an hour. Babies are crying, women are fainting, even men start to faint. Leroy gets it all off his chest and then gets up beaming, then gets up and faces the congregation.
By this time Melvin is in shock, using the alter for support, bathed in sweat and as white as a “Monday” can get. He looks at Leroy, and sez’
“Leroy I don’t know if I’d told all that!”
So with that in mind……….
I think It was around 2012 or 2014 that I get a PM here on 24hour. The guy that sent the PM mentioned that he liked my pictures and stories, and would like to make me a knife. I’d never heard of the guy. He said his name was Ricky Bob Menefee and he was a knife-maker. IIRC he PM’D me a picture of some of his knives.
We palavered’ a bit, and a day or so later I took a few pix of two knives I had and liked, along with how I gripped a knife and dimensions of my palm and PM’d him back
Randall Model 28 Woodsman, Lone Wolf Knives copy of a David Yellowhorse Loveless.
Memory fails me at this point, but in the space of time, Rick sends me my first Menefee.
I don’t know how many of you have ever fished for bass using a Texas Rigged artificial worm.
It has a lead slip sinker at the end of your line just before where the hook is tied with a knot. A plastic worm is threaded onto a hook, then turned over and the hook is embedded in the worm. That makes it where when you drag it over the bottom, the hook don’t catch on the detritus along the bottom.
What you do is throw your bait out a ways and let it sink. You wait for a spell then you give your reel a crank and give the tip of your rod a flick so as to make it look to Mr. Bass like dinner. After you give it a crank, you let is sit for just a bit. Then you do the cycle once more. It works particularly well over or near nests.
Anywho, Mr/Mrs. Bass sees this worm and either gets mad or thinks its dinner and mouths the worm. Now folks that are new to this game automatically jerk the rod to set the hook, but they miss. The key is to let the fish run just a bit with the bait in his mouth before you set the hook.
Little did I know at the time, but just like Mr. Bass, I was hooked!
This is the first knife, he made for me.
That’s how it all started.
It's not for sale!
Nein!
GWB