November 10, 2019

I married Hugh Lee in 1961.  We didn't have reality TV in those days.  But I didn't need TV!  The reality was, I had married a rough, tough woodsman who had grown up hunting and fishing.  His first gun was a double barrel four/ten shotgun he received on his 7th birthday.  Hugh grew up in the marshes and ricefields of our coastal South Carolina.  His first spending money was from selling animal hides.  That included mink, racoon, and alligators.

The first week or two after we were married, Hugh suddenly stopped the car, snatched his thirty-thirty rifle out from under the seat, ran to the edge of the marsh which came right up to the edge of the road. He fired one shot; then stepped out of his shoes, stripped to the waist, and went overboard.
He vanished under water.  When he came to the top again, he was holding an alligator about five feet long by the snout!  He pulled it out of the water and threw it in the trunk of the car.  He dried himself off with a towel from the backseat and we drove home to skin the alligator.

I found out later Hugh was well known for wrestling alligators! After that first time , I learned to sit quietly and wait.  Sometimes the alligator was not dead. If that was the case, I would watch the water; I'd see the alligator thrashing and my husband rolling around with a wounded 'gator. I'd see 'gator; then I'd see Hugh.  Then they were both under water.  Hugh would emerge, alligator in tow and a pocket knife working between the eyes to make sure the gator was dead.

Then it was my job  to hold the feet tight while Hugh skinned out the hide.  I learned to take it to town to the "hide man", our friendly Jewish retailer, Mr. Benny. He would meet me in the ally behind his store and stretch out the hides where he would examine them carefully for blemishes. If they were good hides, we got a good price.  If the alligator may have been fighting and there were scars on the hides, we might have to take a reduction in the going rate per foot.

In the early 1960's there were no laws protecting the alligators. They were fair game and lucrative spending money. Of course, there were laws against night hunting and trespassing, but "good 'ole boys" didn't pay much attention to those laws.

My painting shows the night hunter with his light.  When the  light hit a gator in the night, the eyes shined bright ruby red.  This painting is for sale at The Colleton County Museum.

Today alligators are on the endangered species list.  They have been protected long enough that they have grown to great lengths.  The thing to remember is that they only eat things smaller than they are, so if they have grown past five or six feet, well....guess who's fair game now?

Last year television news featured a fifteen foot alligator ambling across a Myrtle Beach golf course with tourist running in the background with their cameras!  Not me!  I'll keep my distance from the dinosaurs!

My paintings can be seen at The Charleston Artist Guild Gallery , 160 East Bay Street in Charleston and at Sunset River Market Place , Calabash, N.C.  Also, Colleton County Museum.