January 1, 2018 - When we were kids, we grew up with frogs. We caught them, played with them, and ate them. Three encounters with bull frogs helped me make lifetime decisions about them.
The first experience (at 9 years of age) happened when I went frog gigging at Pate’s Pond with Daddy and Uncle “Jink”. They let me hold the “frog leg sack” that night. When our carbide lights were turned on, frog eyes popped up everywhere along the water’s edge and within a short time we were on our way back to the car with a sack of frog legs. Daddy shined his light on my sack and anxiously asked, ”Son, how many do we have?” I opened the sack…and stuttered, “None, Daddy.” “ They’re …all gone.” The bottom of the sack had fallen out on our way back and I was too excited to know it had happened.
The second thing I learned about bull frogs happened in the 1960’s when Hollis Peavy, Douglas Campbell (friends in San Augustine, Texas) and I camped out on the Sabine River and gigged frogs. We gigged them, dressed them and fried them just as we had planned. The only thing we forgot was the soap we’d need to wash the rank frog smell from our hands after skinning them. With every bite of frog, we smelled it.
The third lesson I learned about frog legs came when I accepted an invitation to eat dinner with some Cajun friends from Morgan City, Louisiana. As I sat at the table, my friend brought me an unfamiliar-looking piece of “something” and put it on my plate. After tasting it, I asked what it was. “It’s coot”, he said. In a few minutes he asked, “Are you ready for some frog?” It sounded like a great idea until he laid it on my plate. It was an eight-inch-long bull frog… fried whole… looking up and staring right at me.
So, three things I learned about frogs. (1) Don’t put ‘em in a paper sack after gigging them. (2) Always wash your hands with soap and water after skinning them and (3) Never accept an invitation to eat with a Cajun before asking what’s for dinner.
