Now you guys know why I miss East Texas so much

[Big Ugly Tall Texan]

And you guys wonder why I get homesick for East Texas

It was raining marijuana
in rural East Texas
CADDO MILLS, Texas-It was raining marijuana in a rural area of east Texas.
Hunt County Undersheriff Joe Knight says rural homeowners near Greenville reported hearing duffel bags filled with what appeared to be marijuana thud onto their roofs early Monday.

Knight said his department was advised about 5:30 a.m. Monday to watch for a low-flying aircraft. A single-engine plane was found abandoned in a field beside a runway at Caddo Mills Municipal Airport about two hours later.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_155514...ce=most_viewed

One of my favorite stories in my 30-year combined LEO and newspaper careers comes from Caddo Mills.

Back in the 70s (I think) a DPS trooper and small town police chief in that area started robbing banks.

They had a pretty good deal going.

They would wait until it was just the two of them on duty. One of them would mask up and rob the bank.

The other one would be the first responder.

His buddy would lose his disguise and then back him up.

Sometimes they would get in the same car and ride around together looking for "robbers" and laughing their butts off.

After the dust had settled, they would divvy up the take.

They hit several banks like that until they made the mistake of robbing the bank in Caddo Mills.

Caddo Mills didn't have a lot of law officers, but had a lot of black diret farmers with shotguns and hunting rifles.

They had gotten in tinto the same car, but this time one of the farmers figured out what was going on. He got on the CB and told his buddies and the fun got good. The robbers found four or five pick up trucks full of armed and pissed off farmers after them.

The two law wnforcement guys hadn't gone fully bad. One of the rules they had was that no civilian would be harmed during one of their robberies.

So when they hit the bank in Caddo Mills and those farmers started chasing them, they refused to shoot at them

The farmers had no such restrictions. They were slinging REAL lead, and a lot of it.

Problem two. Our LEO bank robberers were in a standar four-door sedan.

The farmers worked everyday in that blacl gumbo soil - some of the richest and gooiest land you ever say.

They had four-wheel drive trucks with wide tires.

The robbers wound up going off road to try to elude their pursuers. It was long befre tey were differential deeo in that north Texas prairie and not longer after that before they were in custory and on the way to jail.

I always figured they were damned lucky they didn't catch a .270 slug.

[Smokewagon]

Even comes down in handy carrying bags.

[winter]

you texans are a scream gotta love texas

[Jake3501]

Hell, BUTT, I thought you were missing the Chiggers!

[Big Ugly Tall Texan]

Hell, BUTT, I thought you were missing the Chiggers!

My main problems were with those dog ticks that would latch on between your toes or under your testicles or in other particulary touchy, blood-filled areas.

On dogs, they would get so full of blood they stretched out to the size of raisins and turned gray.

It makes me itch just to think about it.

[winter]

gees dude under your jewels thats gross

[El Toro]

BUTT. You can BS these flatlanders. I am in Waco now. But. I was raised in the Piney woods around Crockett. All my folks are still there and I go over there bout every 2 weeks. Dog ticks,grey ticks, are not to worry bout getting on people. The one to look out for is that speck back tick,also called Lone Star tick. They can carry Lyme disease. Are small and can really dig in before being discovered. If they get in to deep. Light a match blow it out and stick the hot end to their butt. That will make them back out. So, you can pull em out and not break the head off. Got a lot of ticks on me as kid cause I spent a lot of time in the woods. But, never a dog tick. You playing with them coonhounds too much?? Sure as hell never had a duffel bag of weed fall on my head. Dammit.

[ncfarmer]

It's been a bad year for ticks in North Carolina as well. About a month ago
me I was showing a friend around the little family farm where I grew up in
Wake County. We went into the woods for about ten minutes. When we got
out, between us, we found about fourty ticks crawling on our clothes and
a couple had even attached themselves. The veterinarian that I take my dogs
to had told me it was a bad year for ticks. I guess she knew what she was talking
about. A couple of them were the spotted ticks y'all mentioned earlier.

What is the fire ant situation like in Texas? Here in N.C. we see them now all
over the eastern half of our state. Growing up, I never saw any, its been during
the past ten years that they have started showing up. They can give a nasty
little sting when they bite.

[Big Ugly Tall Texan]

... Got a lot of ticks on me as kid cause I spent a lot of time in the woods. But, never a dog tick. You playing with them coonhounds too much?? Sure as hell never had a duffel bag of weed fall on my head. Dammit.

We never heard of Lyme Disease when I was a kid. And the ticks were big dog ticks.

Never used that match trick. We just grabbed them and pulled them out. I guess I was just real lucky I didn't leave a head in me.

And the dogs weren't coonhounds, they were deer dogs. If a dog chased anything but a whitetail we knocked it in the head with hammer.

My brother took up coon hunting after he was grown with kids. I went with him a couple of times to shoot the coon out of the tree during fur season, or to shoot the limb out from under them during warmer weather.