Curt Iles - Deep Roots

Stories That Really Matter

Published by Kyle Johnston at

Smashwords

Copyright 2011 Curt Iles

To order copies or contact the author:

Creekbank Stories

PO Box 332

Dry Creek, LA 70637

Toll free 1.866.520.1947

For corrections, input, andsuggestions, email us at curtiles@aol.com

www.creekbank.net.

Join us at Face book and Twitter

Curt is represented by Terry Burns ofHartline Agency.

www. www.hartlineliterary.com

Titles by the author:

Deep Roots

A Good Place

The Wayfaring Stranger

The Mockingbirds Song

Hearts across the Water

Wind in the Pines

The Old House

Stories from the Creekbank

Available on audio CD:

Hearts across the Water

Wind in the Pines

Front Porch Stories

Acknowledgements

This book is a result of the encouragement ofso many folks. At the risk of omitting names, Id like to severalwho played key roles in bringing Deep Roots to print.

First, I thank my wife DeDe for her life-longsupport, love, and commitment.

My assistant Judi Reeves has been a breath offresh air with her hard work, humor, and careful eye.

Sherry Perkins, Joy Reeves Pitre, JulieJohnson, Colleen Glaser,were great help on preparing thismanuscript.

Marty Bee has once again proven himself amaster with the beautiful interior design. Thanks guys for being mypartners!

Chad Smith of The Touch Studios is a creativeand talented artist who designed the cover of Deep Roots.His mother, Ruby Weldon Smith, gave the idea for the back coverdesign.

Im grateful for the encouragement of Johnvan Diest who prodded me to prepare this book.

1. Deep Roots

2. The Landmark Pine

3. Burned, yet Blessed, by the Fire

4. The Door

5. The Pine Knot Pile

6. Tough or Hard

7. Branded

8. The Evening Holler

9. Across the Pea Patch

10. A Pair for Life

11. Leaning Trees

12. Trespassing

13. Measure Twice, Cut Once

14. The Friendship Lane

15. Youre the Man

16. Brother Hodges Best Sermon

17. Whippoorwill Day

18. The Miller Oak

19. A Prophet has no Honor

20. The Thirty-Year-Old Photo

21. The Ripple Effect

22. Keep on Playing

23. A Bright Light

24. Belum

25. The Mockingbirds Song

26. Perfect Love

27. The Sign Phantom

28. A Fathers Love

29. Best Seat in the House

30. Christmas Jelly

31. Two MenOne Word

32. Henry

33. A Homeless Lady

34. Suzie Q

35. Stuck on Devils Tower

36. 92 Dry Holes

37. Perseverance! By Mary V. Iles Hudson

38. Running Through the Lobby

39. Le Petit Baton Rouge

40. Wings and Roots

41. Dead End

Epilogue: Why I Write

Come to the woods, for here is rest.

-John Muir

The things that matter arent reallythings.

Its because the things that matter in lifeare often unseen. They cannot be measured or placed in a bankaccount. Sometimes, theyre even difficult to describe.

Like the deep roots of the tall trees of mybeloved Louisiana woods, the things that matter are often deep andunseen. Yet, they give a lasting silent strength.

I recall a long ago trip to one of myfavorite trees while hunting with my youngest son Terry. Leavingour deer stand in Crooked Bayou swamp, we made a detour to thisspecial spot.

We arrived at a huge beech tree, surroundedby fallen dead limbs. This old tree was dying, as evidenced by itsbare trunk and remaining leafless limbs. This was my first visitthis hunting season, and I was shocked at how the treedeteriorated. I wondered if this was the mighty trees finalyear.

I pointed out to Terry what made this beechtree so special. Carved about four feet high was:

F.I.

L.I.

10/9/21

F.I. was my great-grandfather, Frank Iles,and L.I. was my grandfather, Lloyd Iles. On a hunting trip oftheir own over seventy-six years ago, they had carved theirinitials on this tree. On that Friday in 1921, my great-grandfatherwas thirty-six, his son was ten, and the tree was already old. Itwas the queen of the swamp.

However, soon it will be gone.

On this day, my son and I were close to therespective ages of my beloved ancestors. A sense of deep rootsoverwhelmed me. It was a special moment with my son as we stood onland that had been in our family since the nineteenth century.

Another emotion also overwhelmed methefeeling of how quickly life comes and goes. Each time Ive stood atthis tree, Im reminded of the certainty of life passing rightbefore our eyes.

Yes, time passes by so quicklyand lifeslimbs fall to the ground as sure as the cold November wind blows.What precious gifts we have been giventhis gift of life, thewonderful gift of familyboth past and present, and for me, thegift of an old beech tree deep in Crooked Bayou swamp. A familytree with deep roots.

A reminder of the things that reallymatter.

So come into the woods with me for thesestories.

Stories of family, faith, and friends.

Stories from the woods, as well asstories of the woods.

Stories of the deep-rooted things that reallymatter.

Curt Iles

Dry Creek, Louisiana

November 2010

Its the lone pine tree featured on the frontcover of this book. Its a landmark tree, a special type of treetied to the history of our area.

The early pioneers used these trees aswaypoints for wagon trains and travelers.

The landmark pine on the cover of DeepRoots is along the Longville-Dry Creek Road, commonly calledthe Gravel Pit Road. Its a winding eleven-mile track that hasonly recently been paved.

I love traveling this road because most of itis pine woods bisected by three creek crossings: Dry Creek (twice)and Barnes Creek. Due to the seclusion of the road, it is primeterritory for spotting wild turkey and deer.

Before we drive from Dry Creek to theLandmark Tree, its time for a short lesson.

The early settlers in America knew aboutlandmark trees. A good example of this is the community of LoneTree, Iowa. It derives its name from a giant elm that grew nearbyin the pioneer era; as the only tree between the Iowa and CedarRivers, it served as a prairie landmark. It served as definingpoint in that area until its death from Dutch Elm Disease in the1960s.

In Piney Woods Louisiana, the timber clearcuts of the early twentieth century left only a few pines standing.These trees naturally became useful as landmarks for travelers asin, The road turns left over thar just past that bigpine.

Traveling west from Dry Creek toward theLandmark Tree, you pass two of the finest preserved dogtrot housesin Louisiana: The Fanny Heard house, followed by the Mary JaneLindsey home place.

Just south of the Lindsey home is where myfirst Dry Creek ancestors homesteaded in 1848. Andrew JacksonWagnon and Nancy Fulton Wagnon traveled from Georgia to stake theirclaim in the No Mans Land. They homesteaded in the edge of DryCreek Swamp near a free-flowing spring.

A few years ago I walked the entire GravelPit Road. As I walked over the hill and down toward the swamp, Iwas overwhelmed that this was probably the same path A.J. Wagnonwalked when he left for the Civil War.

He never returned, dying near Opelousas,Louisiana of Typhoid Fever. His wife Nancy lived on the homesteaduntil her death nearly forty years later. The Wagnon descendantsare scattered all over the Piney Woods.