Cline and the Coon
A tribute Story written in 2010
John Stokes
Mr Cline Feagle would come into the Sears store on US90 once a month for me to change the battery or bulb out in his large, discontinued Craftsman flashlight. He was always thankful and several times, to keep the light in working order, I would repair the light gratis, scrounging for parts. Upon reading of the passing of Mr Feagle, I was saddened that we would no longer see him coming, often the wrong way on US90!, to have his flashlight fixed.
This story is fictional and is written in his honor, in the tradition of story telling he was so adept at.
Ole Cline Feagle entered the forest of his fathers, flashlight in hand, trusty hound by his side, shining for coons and other critters in the fields he loved. As ole Cline walked deeper into the woods, up ahead he heard the familiar baying of his trusty hound, and followed the sound with his light so bright.
Nearing the base of the largest oak tree he had ever seen, he calmed his hound and shined the light high into the branches above. There, out upon the highest limb, the figure of the largest coon he had ever seen was silhouetted against the starry sky. As he set down his light and aimed his gun, suddenly a blinding light shown all about and he dropped the rifle and staggered back. All grew silent when from the forest deep, a grand figure appeared and beckoned Cline, the hound and the coon to follow.
Walking for what seemed an eternity through the misty bogs, cattle trails and over fence rows, the grand figure with the strange, shining lantern stopped and motioned to follow the path down towards the valley below. With a shaky step, weary from the long journey, Ole Cline now followed his trusty companion as the hound followed the coons tracks. It wasn't long before the hound came to the base of what looked to be the very tree they had started their journey from. This time, upon looking up, he saw the ole coon sitting next to the grand figure in the tree. It was then the grand figure spoke. "Ole Cline, that light has served you well all these years, and your trusty hound too. For tonight, with the use of your light and the trust of your hound, you have been led to the tree of life from which you came so long ago." And with that, Ole Cline and the hound lay down the trusty light and accurate rifle at the base of the old oak and entered with the Coon and the Grand Figure the land where never the light grows dim.
Mr Cline Marion Feagle, 94, passed away on a Monday, May 10, 2010.
He is to this day greatly missed by many and I always look over into the fields while on the Cline Feagle Road and swear I hear the sound of a hound, the beam of a light.
