My favorite outdoor humor writer was Pat McManus. People find his stories far fetched and outrageous but anyone who grew up in the country back when would find that they did things just as goofy and sometimes dangerous. In Pat’s books there is a Backwoods character named Rancid Crabtree who taught the boys things they should not know.

Steve and I had our own personal Rancid in the form of our Uncle Gale who I called Gingo when I was younger for unknown reasons. He lived roughly 50 yards from us so was a handy font of improper knowledge. We only had a shower in the house so on Sundays we were allowed to go to Gale’s for a bath. He would sometimes teach us songs or jokes we didn’t understand at the time. If we repeated these at home we would be swatted and Mom would head out the door hollering “Gale!” Hopefully for his sake he had a head start.