My father, Virgil Pace was born in 1925 in the mountains of Eastern, KY. He has told me the following story many times and it is too good a story not to share. He swears to it's truthfulness. His family was very poor and when my dad was about 10 yrs old, his father died, making times even more difficult. After my grandfather's death, the livestock was eventually all used up, being either sold or eaten. My grandmother and her family of 7 boys and 1 girl lived in an old log house with cracks everywhere, especially between the floor boards. My father, not knowing where their next meal was going to come from, spotted one of the neighbor's roosters under their house one day. Being quite inventive, as all our Paces are, he and his brother Ernest hatched out a plan to capture the old bird. They dropped a kernel of corn threaded upon a fishhook and line down between the boards of the old house. The old rooster spotted the corn, gulped it in, and shortly thereafter was a hooked bird. While Ernest held the line, my father crawled under the house and captured the fowl-hooked bird, intending to make some dumplings out of him for supper. He was quite proud of his resourcefulness when a different idea popped into his head which might increase his good fortune. He and Ernest put the rooster into a crate and headed off for town. After arriving in town, they immediately made their way over to the local tavern where a bunch of loafers were hanging around outside just shooting the breeze and whittling. Dad and his brother trudged halfway up the mountain behind the tavern to a bare spot in the side of the hill and tied one of the rooster's legs to a small bush. Everyone in that part of Kentucky carried a gun at that time, no matter where they went, so finding armed participants for the plan was easy. The young boys began to sell shots at the rooster to the tipsy loafers. The rooster was tied several hundred yards off and could barely be seen from where they were, so an extremely hard shot it was; but increasingly difficult because of the alcohol consumption of the men. As the shooting match advanced, the crowd outside the tavern became larger and larger, while the crowd inside the tavern disappeared. However, no one could manage a kill shot to the tough old bird which would not have made a good meal anyway. The tavern owner, after a time of watching his own prosperity disappear, became quite irritated at the increasing prosperity of the Pace boys. He suddenly appeared outside the tavern with a Tommy sub-machine gun which were quite popular at the time, and without paying for his shots, sprayed a volley of bullets at the rooster, while the crowd of onlookers were very quickly sobered up. However, as the luck of the Paces would have it that day, the rooster managed to survive the rage of the tavern owner. He then offered the boys $10 to remove the rooster from the hillside so he could regain the business he had lost. They were happy to do so, since they had made an amazing $40 profit by that time, and they still had their rooster. The boys immediately returned home with the $40 fortune to give to their mother, also returning the nervous rooster to the neighbor's barnyard. Dad says the neighbor's chicken production showed a noticeable population decrease, for a time, after that day. John Pace

That's a wonderful story, John. Thanks for sharing! Virginia Mylius [descendant of Silas Pace of Abbeville, SC] ----- Original Message ----- From: "John" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 2:31 PM Subject: [PACE] Virgil Pace & the rooster > My father, Virgil Pace was born in 1925 in the mountains of Eastern, KY. > He has told me the following story many times and it is too good a story > not to share. He swears to it's truthfulness. His family was very poor and > when my dad was about 10 yrs old, his father died, making times even more > difficult. After my grandfather's death, the livestock was eventually all > used up, being either sold or eaten. My grandmother and her family of 7 > boys and 1 girl lived in an old log house with cracks everywhere, > especially between the floor boards. My father, not knowing where their > next meal was going to come from, spotted one of the neighbor's roosters > under their house one day. Being quite inventive, as all our Paces are, > he and his brother Ernest hatched out a plan to capture the old bird. They > dropped a kernel of corn threaded upon a fishhook and line down between > the boards of the old house. The old rooster spotted the corn, gulped it > in, and shortly thereafter was a hooked bir! > d. While Ernest held the line, my father crawled under the house and > captured the fowl-hooked bird, intending to make some dumplings out of him > for supper. He was quite proud of his resourcefulness when a different > idea popped into his head which might increase his good fortune. He and > Ernest put the rooster into a crate and headed off for town. After > arriving in town, they immediately made their way over to the local tavern > where a bunch of loafers were hanging around outside just shooting the > breeze and whittling. Dad and his brother trudged halfway up the mountain > behind the tavern to a bare spot in the side of the hill and tied one of > the rooster's legs to a small bush. Everyone in that part of Kentucky > carried a gun at that time, no matter where they went, so finding armed > participants for the plan was easy. The young boys began to sell shots at > the rooster to the tipsy loafers. The rooster was tied several hundred > yards off and could barely be seen from where they w! > ere, so an extremely hard shot it was; but increasingly difficult bec > ause of the alcohol consumption of the men. As the shooting match > advanced, the crowd outside the tavern became larger and larger, while the > crowd inside the tavern disappeared. However, no one could manage a kill > shot to the tough old bird which would not have made a good meal anyway. > The tavern owner, after a time of watching his own prosperity disappear, > became quite irritated at the increasing prosperity of the Pace boys. He > suddenly appeared outside the tavern with a Tommy sub-machine gun which > were quite popular at the time, and without paying for his shots, sprayed > a volley of bullets at the rooster, while the crowd of onlookers were very > quickly sobered up. However, as the luck of the Paces would have it that > day, the rooster managed to survive the rage of the tavern owner. He then > offered the boys $10 to remove the rooster from the hillside so he could > regain the business he had lost. They were happy to do so, since they had > made an amazing $40 profit by that time! > , and they still had their rooster. The boys immediately returned home > with the $40 fortune to give to their mother, also returning the nervous > rooster to the neighbor's barnyard. Dad says the neighbor's chicken > production showed a noticeable population decrease, for a time, after that > day. > > John Pace > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes > in the subject and the body of the message