"You know we were so poor where I grew up. Most people grow up with two rooms and a bath. We grew up with one room and a path! When I was just a little boy I remember my mama sent me down to the creek one time to get some water for the house. I traipsed through the woods and before long I was at the creek. I knelt down to lower my pail into the water when all of a sudden a huge alligator jumped up at me. Naturally, I screamed, dropped my pail and ran lickity split back up the trail to the house. "Mama, Mama," I yelled, "There's an alligator in that creek and he tried to eat me". My mama looked at me and with a stern voice only mamas can have she said "You get on back down to that creek so I can have some water to cook with. That alligator is probably more scared than you are." I looked up at my mama and I said, "Mama, if that alligator is as scared as me, well, that water just aint fit to drink!"
 
 

John Rex Reeves and Leo Jackson at John Rex's recording session in Nashville in the late 80s.