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#1
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Killin Coons in Detroit!
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090402/METRO08/904020395/To+urban+hunter++next+meal+is+scampering+by
To urban hunter, next meal is scampering by Detroit retiree, 69, supplements his income by living off the land Detroit - When selecting the best raccoon carcass for the special holiday roast, both the connoisseur and the curious should remember this simple guideline: Look for the paw. "The paw is old school," says Glemie Dean Beasley, a Detroit raccoon hunter and meat salesman. "It lets the customers know it's not a cat or dog." Beasley, a 69-year-old retired truck driver who modestly refers to himself as the Coon Man, supplements his Social Security check with the sale of raccoon carcasses that go for as much $12 and can serve up to four. The pelts, too, are good for coats and hats and fetch up to $10 a hide. Advertisement While economic times are tough across Michigan as its people slog through a difficult and protracted deindustrialization, Beasley remains upbeat. Where one man sees a vacant lot, Beasley sees a buffet. "Starvation is cheap," he says as he prepares an afternoon lunch of barbecue coon and red pop at his west side home. His little Cape Cod is an urban Appalachia of coon dogs and funny smells. The interior paint has the faded sepia tones of an old man's teeth; the wallpaper is as flaky and dry as an old woman's hand. Beasley peers out his living room window. A sushi cooking show plays on the television. The neighborhood outside is a wreck of ruined houses and weedy lots. "Today people got no skill and things is getting worse," he laments. "What people gonna do? They gonna eat each other up is what they gonna do." A licensed hunter and furrier, Beasley says he hunts coons and rabbit and squirrel for a clientele who hail mainly from the South, where the wild critters are considered something of a delicacy. Though the flesh is not USDA inspected, if it is thoroughly cooked, there is small chance of contracting rabies from the meat, and distemper and Parvo cannot be passed onto humans, experts say. Doing for yourself, eating what's natural, that was Creation's intention, Beasley believes. He says he learned that growing up in Three Creeks, Ark. "Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat. When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense." Hunting is prohibited within Detroit city limits and Beasley insists he does not do so. Still, he says that life in the city has gone so retrograde that he could easily feed himself with the wildlife in his backyard, which abuts an old cement factory. He procures the coons with the help of the hound dogs who chase the animal up a tree, where Beasley harvests them with a .22 caliber rifle. A true outdoorsman, Beasley refuses to disclose his hunting grounds. "This city is going back to the wild," he says. "That's bad for people but that's good for me. I can catch wild rabbit and pheasant and coon in my backyard." Detroit was once home to nearly 2 million people but has shrunk to a population of perhaps less than 900,000. It is estimated that a city the size of San Francisco could fit neatly within its empty lots. As nature abhors a vacuum, wildlife has moved in. A beaver was spotted recently in the Detroit River. Wild fox skulk the 15th hole at the Palmer Park golf course. There is bald eagle, hawk and falcon that roam the city skies. Wild Turkeys roam the grasses. A coyote was snared two years ago roaming the Federal Court House downtown. And Beasley keeps a gaze of skinned coon in the freezer. With the beast fresh from the oven, Beasley invites a guest to lunch. He believes coon meat tastes something like mutton or pork, but to the uneducated pallet, it has the aroma and texture of opossum. While Beasley preps his coon with simple vinegar brine and spices, there are 100 ways to cook a coon. There is roast coon with sweet potato, sausage and corn bread stuffing; raccoon cobbler and roast marinated raccoon with liver and onion. It is this reporter's opinion that the best sauce for coon may very well be hunger. The story of Glemie Dean Beasley plays like a country song. The son of a sharecropper, Beasley left school at 13 to pick cotton. He came to Detroit in 1958. His woman left him in 1970 for a man he calls Slick Willy. Someone stole his pickup truck and then someone killed his best dog. "I knowed some hard times," Beasley says. "But a man's got to know how to get hisself through them hard times. Part of that is eating right." |
#2
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OK, I can't resist...
Aint Coon Hunting a HATE CRIME???
__________________
"I have no convictions ... I blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy" Current Monika '74 450 SL BrownHilda '79 280SL FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee Krystal 2004 Volvo S60 Gone '74 Jeep CJ5 '97 Jeep ZJ Laredo Rudolf ‘86 300SDL Bruno '81 300SD Fritzi '84 BMW '92 Subaru '96 Impala SS '71 Buick GS conv '67 GTO conv '63 Corvair conv '57 Nomad |
#3
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I think an upswing in the Davy Crockett hat market will help the guy out $12.00 for the meat and $10.00 for the pelts, I'm not sure if that cured or not but if anyone has attempted to stretch and cure a hide $10.00 is a weak payoff.
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#4
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That's the truth!!
__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST 1983 300SD - 305000 1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000 1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000 https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif |
#5
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Talk to some of the refugees here and they'll tell you coon is good compared to rat.
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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman |
#6
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not much of a meat eatter.
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"It's normal for these things to empty your wallet and break your heart in the process." 2012 SLK 350 1987 420 SEL |
#7
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__________________
01 Ford Excursion Powerstroke 99 E300 Turbodiesel 91 Vette with 383 motor 05 Polaris Sportsman 800 EFI 06 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI 03 SeaDoo GTX SC Red 03 SeaDoo GTX SC Yellow 04 Tailgator 21 ft Toy Hauler 11 Harley Davidson 883 SuperLow |
#8
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That guys is the coolest Coon Hunter I've ever seen!
"Coon or rabbit. God put them there to eat. When men get hold of animals he blows them up and then he blows up. Fill 'em so full of chemicals and steroids it ruins the people. It makes them sick. Like the pigs on the farm. They's 3 months old and weighing 400 pounds. They's all blowed up. And the chil'ren who eat it, they's all blowed up. Don't make no sense." He's pro Organic. This will be catching on in California soon. Part of the new green economy Obama is building around us. This is the Change we've been waiting for!
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1983 Toyota Tercel 4WD Wagon - 1984 Mercedes-Benz 300SD 4-Speed(My Car!) 2005 C230 Kompressor 6-Speed Manual
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#9
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"Wild Turkeys" roam the grasses? Maybe drinking some Wild Turkey whilst toking on the grasses!
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#10
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Quote:
Back when I was delivering papers I used to see them in the south end of Hartford in some of the overgrown/dilapidated building lots in the wee hours of the morning. I tried to...harvest...a couple when they crossed the street but they were more nimble than my minivan.
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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15 '06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod) |
#11
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Quote:
nothin' quite like a little car huntin'
__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST 1983 300SD - 305000 1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000 1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000 https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif |
#12
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The more I try the less successful I am.
__________________
1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15 '06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod) |
#13
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Buy a brand new car, then the deer will be lining up for a chance to get hit
Those turkeys though, some kinda fast. I've aimed at a number of them out here, and never even came close.(to getting the turkey that is, I have come close to driving right off the road)
__________________
On some nights I still believe that a car with the fuel gauge on empty can run about fifty more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. - HST 1983 300SD - 305000 1984 Toyota Landcruiser - 190000 1994 GMC Jimmy - 203000 https://media.giphy.com/media/X3nnss8PAj5aU/giphy.gif |
#14
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Besides getting a grin out of the taste of a racoon compared to an opossum, I had a second grin out of the writer using the word pallet instead of palate.
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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein 09 Jetta TDI 1985 300D |
#15
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i believe granny used to cook "coon" for jethro and uncle jed (and ellie mae?)
oh,...wait, wasn't that a tv show?
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"The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." |
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