| Life and Times of
Loren Moore
He was a child of
the wilderness. The wilderness of the east Texas piney woods. He grew up in the 30's and
40's. Back in the dark ages. They were dark because his family didn't have electricity to
start with.
But as time went by he began to realize some of his potential for greatness. He was
allowed to roam free of adult supervision from the time he was six or seven years old. He
had roamed the piney woods wilderness for two or three miles in every direction around his
home.
When Loren was about 8 years old he roamed the woods around his home like some little wild
creature. His family lived in east Texas during the oil boom. His dad worked for cities
service pipeline company and they lived in the cities service oil company camp between
Gladewater and Longview. The camp was on 20 acres of land out in the country and had about
25 families living in it. There were lots of woods and wild places all around them.
 During
the summer time when there was no school Loren was free to do pretty much as he pleased.
He was suppose to stay inside the fence around the 20 acres of the camp, but unlike cows,
a barbed wire fence never stopped him. On the backside of the camp was a stretch of woods
for several miles. There were two small lakes in these woods and several creeks. The woods
were full of rabbits and squirrels, coons and possums, and all kinds of birds. The two
lakes were full of fish. It was a paradise for a boy with a 22 rifle, a fishing line, and
itchy feet.
When he would leave home of a morning, Loren would take a sandwich and a canteen of water
and go exploring. He would leave home early in the day with his trusty 22 rifle and be
gone all day. He was always careful to be home before his dad got home from work. He was
not sure he would have been allowed all that freedom if his dad knew what he was doing.
One day on his travels through the woods he was on a small hill over looking one of the
lakes when he found a mound about 10 feet in diameter and about 3 feet taller than the
surrounding area, it was plain it was not something natural. He decided it must be an
Indian burial mound. There was a small pin oak tree about 6 inches in diameter growing up
through one side of it. It was apparent the mound had been there a long time. He wondered
what treasures might be buried in that mound. He decided he would come back the next day
and do a dig. You know like they did in Egypt.
The next morning he was up early and started making his plans for his dig. He gathered up
what tools he thought he would need. He had a shovel, a hatchet, a ball of string, a paint
brush, and of course his 22 rifle. Just in case you know. In case of what? He didn't know
but an 8 year olds imagination can conjure up anything. He figured he better take two
sandwiches and an apple today because it looked like there was going to be some serious
labor on this safari.
Well, with all his gear either tied to his belt, stuffed in his pockets, or resting on his
shoulders, he started for the mound. It was about a two mile walk from his house. When he
had gone about a mile, he decided the hatchet was to heavy and he probably wouldn't
need it anyway. So he threw it down next to the trail he was on. After another of a
mile he decided he could do without the paint brush and ball of string. He left them
beside the trail. This left him with the shovel, his 22 rifle, his lunch, and his canteen.
After he had gone a mile and a half he thought if he went ahead and ate his lunch and
drank the water in his canteen he wouldn't have to carry them. So he sat down and ate his
two sandwiches and his apple. He drank all the water he could hold and left his canteen
there beside the trail. He intended to pick all his equipment up as he returned that
afternoon, but that's a whole nother story for a different time.
When he got to the mound he was tired and his belly was full. He sat down and leaned back
against a tree to rest. He must have rested about 3 hours, because when he woke up it was
past noon. He jumped up and grabbed the shovel. He was determined to make a good start on
his dig. He started digging about half way up on one side. As he turned over the fourth
shovel full of dirt he saw something black in the dirt. He bent over and picked it up. It
was an arrow head. An arrow head! He had found an arrow head.
He grabbed the shovel in one hand and with the arrowhead in the other he took out running
for home to show his mother his find. When he got home he showed his mother his arrowhead.
She said, "that's nice but where is your 22 rifle?" "oops!" Anyway
that's how he became a child prodigy archaeologist at the age of eight.
Loren turned professional hunting guide at the age of ten. In his travels to the wilds of
the sabine river bottoms he went into places that few others if any had ever seen. Small
game was plentiful and there were lots of wild grapes, plums, berries, chinky pens, and
other eatables when in season.
By this time Loren had started carrying a small day pack with an army surplus mess kit in
it. He had a small package of salt, matches, and other survival supplies in his pack. Of
course, he always carried his trusty 22 rifle and a couple of boxes of shells. When he
would go to the river bottom he would live off the land. He would shoot a squirrel or a
rabbit or maybe a bull frog for lunch. Some times he would carry a potato in his pack and
when he would build a fire to roast his meat he would cover the potato with red clay and
put it in the fire to cook as he cooked his meat.
He kept telling his chums back at the oil lease camp about his safaris and they all wanted
to go with him. He wasn't sure he wanted any "tag-a-longs" on these trips but
one boy was persistent. He kept saying he just had to go.
 Loren finally
gave in. Loren told the boy, they called him "sweet pea," it would cost him a
box of 22 shells to go on one of these safaris. Sweet pea agreed and they set out for the
Sabine river early the next morning. Loren was carrying his remington 22 rifle and sweet
pea carried his stevens double barrel 20 gage shotgun.
Loren had on his back pack and a canteen of water on his belt. When they got to the edge
of the woods, they both loaded their guns. Just in case you know. There might be any kind
of varmints in those woods. There might even be a left over Indian or two. But they wanted
to be prepared for any thing.
As they came to the river they saw a snake swimming in the water. Loren told his client to
shot it. Sweet pea shouldered his 20 gage and let off a shot. --- one dead snake. As they
walked along the river bank they saw a turtle sitting on a log on the other side of the
river. Again sweet pea shoulders his 20 gage and, "bam!" One dead turtle.
Then as they penetrated deeper into the wilds of the Sabine river bottom they jumped a
swamp rabbit. As the rabbit ran across in front of them Loren brought it down with one
quick shot from his 22. Sweet pea said, "wow, that was a good shot." Loren told
him professional hunting guides have to be good. "yeah I know, but just how good are
you?" Sweet pea asked. "you wouldn't believe me if I told you." Loren
answered.
"yes I would." "no you wouldn't." "yes I would." "no
you wouldn't." "yes I would. Show me." "ok" says Loren. He digs
in his pocket and comes out with a nickel. "here hold this between your thumb and
finger." Sweet pea holds the nickel between his thumb and his finger out to his side.
Loren backs up about 20 feet and raises his rifle. "bang" the nickel flies out
of sweet pea's fingers. They look around on the ground behind sweet pea until they find
the nickel. It is dented badly where the 22 bullet hit it. "wow" is all sweet
pea could say.
Loren cleaned the rabbit while sweet
pea built a fire. Then they dug some red clay out of the side of the river bank and cover
the two potatoes Loren had brought in his pack with clay. They put the potatoes in the
fire to cook while Loren stuck a forked stick in the ground on each side of the fire. Then
he tied the rabbit on a large green limb he had peeled the bark off and set the limb in
the forks with the rabbit over the fire to cook.
After they had eaten their rabbit and baked potatoes, they leaned back against a tree.
Sweet pea asked Loren if he was going to do this for a living when he was grown? If you
are can I be your partner? When Loren didn't answer sweet pea looked over to see why.
Loren was sound asleep.
By the time Loren was 12 he had made several gun trades and had bought his first pistol.
One of his dad's friends had a high standard hd military model 22 semi-auto 22 pistol one
day he said he was going to sell it. Loren being the gun trader he was, asked him how much
he wanted for it. $12, lee said. Sold Loren said.
Loren got the pistol and a holster for $12. From then on when he took a client on safari
he wore his pistol on his belt. He did a lot of practicing with his new pistol until he
was pretty good with it. One of the ways he liked to practice was to take a string of dime
store beads and hang it from a tree limb. Then he would back up about 20 feet and starting
at the bottom, shoot and break the beads one at a time. With a lot of ammo and a lot of
practice like this he became a real "pistolero." Within a week he was the best
"pistolero" in his circle of friends. Of course he was the only one of his
circle of friends that had a pistol.
 He became a
professional trapper at the age of 13. Having become the best "pistolero" in his
community he decided he could safely go into the business. He trapped and sold cottontail
rabbits, squirrels, and the ferocious opossum. One of his best accomplishments as a
professional trapper was when he was able to climb a giant cypress tree in the deadly
mosquito and snake infested swamp of upper caddo lake. Also about this time in his life he
became a professional hunting and fishing guide on caddo lake. The youngest in the history
of the Moore family. But that's a whole nother story for a different time also. Now let's
see, where was I? "o yeah," he was up to his, ah----ah, "eyeballs" in
the swamp. Well, he climbed this cypress tree and bare handed captured these two giant
owls.
He took these owls home with him and
fixed them a perch between two persimmon trees in his front yard. Seeing as how the owls
were too young to fly yet he had to feed them. Each day he would go down in the woods
behind his home and shoot two birds to feed the owls. After a couple of weeks this got old
so he traded the owls to a boy at school for two homing pigeons. He kept them in a cage on
the roof of the house for a week and one day he let them out. They flew up into the air,
circled once and left. Loren never saw them again. He figured they must have gone home. He
was tired of them anyway and never asked the boy about them.
By the age of 14 he had become such a good shot with a rifle he went on the road as an
exhibitionist. He would have his assistant hold a nickel between his thumb and finger and
he would shoot the nickel. Another trick he would do is to hang a string of beads from a
tree limb, start at the bottom and shoot the beads off the string. He got so good with his
rifle he would play golf using a rifle instead of golf clubs. Another trick was to stick
matches in the ground and shoot the head off them so they would light. He was shooting a
brick of 500 22 shells a week by then. The only reason he wasn't shooting more is because
he couldn't afford them.
By the age of 16 he had worked as an electrician for the Gladewater school district. He
found an electrical outlet in the floor of his American history classroom that did not
have a cover on it. But he had to abandon his career as an electrician when he had an
accident that almost started a fire. That accident got him expelled from school for three
days. It seems, as he was passing his buddy a piece of gum, he dropped it. There was this
outlet in the floor that didn't have a cover on it. One of the wires was bare of
insulation. When the piece of gum fell the tinfoil it was wrapped in, made contact with
the bare wire and the metal side of the outlet box. That made a loud popping sound and
sparks flew as the tinfoil made contact. Needless to say, the teacher was some amount of
upset. Miss Mcadams, the teacher yelled, "Loren, get up here. Get away from that. Sit
down. What happened? Oh, I don't know, just go to the principles office. I'll be down in a
minute, just as soon as I find out what happened." Poor Miss Mcadams. It like to have
scared her to death.
By the age of 17 he had become a top notch salesman travelling the state over making sales
and receiving awards. He sold soap to get a stevens crack shot 22 rifle. It seems as how
this soap company had this offer that if you sold so many bars of their soap they would
give you a stevens .22 cal. Single shot rifle. He sold the required amount of soap and got
this rifle. As far as the awards, his distributive education class voted him most likely
to succeed and sent him to abilene to the state convention. This was during his junior
year in high school and the first time he had ever been to a state convention of any kind.
The night before he left, he went to a neighbors orchard and picked a big bucket of big
purple plums. The next morning he had the plums in a box and put it in the trunk of his
teacher's car with his suit case. At the convention he sold the plums for two for a
nickel. Everyone wanted some of the good plums and he sold out real quick. When his
teacher found out what he had done he said, "now I know way the class voted you as
most likely to succeed.
By the age of 18 he had become a lady's man and fallen in love. All other pursuits in his
life ceased while he courted his future bride. Actually his future bride was pursuing him
but he didn't know it at the time. When he found this out he tried to escape. He moved to
college station, about 250 miles away. But it didn't do any good. She had her hooks in
him. So Johnnie and Loren were married November 14, 1951.
By the age of 19 he was married and needed to settle down and start raising a family. He
must have been in a hurry because his first daughter, Susan, was born while he was still
19. His second daughter, Angela, wasn't born until he was 23. During that time he had many
jobs. Some of them were sales clerk at a J. C. Penney's store, sales clerk at a lady's
shoe store, and truck driver for coke-a-cola bottling company. Then there was the time he
worked for R.G. La Tourneau in Longview. He started out as assembler. Then was promoted to
gang pusher, then to equipment operator. Finally he was assigned as dozer operator on a
job at Atlanta, Texas. The corp of engineers was building a dam on the sulpher river and
la tourneau had the contract to clear all the trees and brush where the lake would be.
When they finished that contract they were going to send Loren to Peru in South America
but Johnnie nixed that idea.
So Loren had to look for another job. He wound up at the general motors plant in
Arlington. He hired in as an assembler in the body shop. It wasn't long before he got a
chance to become a welder, after a while he was promoted to utility man. Then he got a
chance to go into plant protection. In a couple of years he made sergeant. Then the plant
started a new program of quality control. This sounded interesting to Loren and he
transferred to the new program. He was assigned to road test the new cars. One time he was
heard to say, "and they pay me for doing this. I would do it for nothing."
From there Loren was moved to the paint department. At first he was assigned as foreman in
the sealer loop. Then he was moved to the number one paint booth. He told the
superintendent of the paint shop, George, he didn't know anything about paint. How could
he be a foreman over a bunch of painters? George told him he didn't hire him to paint, he
hired him to supervise. The men know how to paint and you know men so just do it and stop
bellyaching. Next he was moved to the small parts painting area. Loren liked this
assignment because it was off by itself and no one bothered him. He never saw the
superintendent and only saw the general foreman once or twice a week.
Loren worked as general foreman until he had to take early medical retirement because of
multiple sclerosis. About two years after he retired he and johnnie got in their pickup
and camper and took a driving vacation. They were gone seven weeks and drove over seven
thousand miles. When they left home they told the neighbors they would be gone about a
week. They were going to Colorado to see a mountain. Neither one had been to the mountains
before. After being gone seven weeks, when they did come home the neighbors were in their
front yard as Loren and Johnnie drove into the driveway. The neighbors came running. They
said they thought Loren and Johnnie must have driven off one of those mountains and were
dead. It seems that Loren and Johnnie were having such a good time that they didn't think
of calling in.
When Loren and Johnnie left Texas they went to the mountains in Colorado. After a few days
there Loren asked Johnnie if she was ready to go home. She said how far is it to
Yellowstone national park? Loren told her it didn't make any difference, he didn't have to
be home any certain time to go to work like on past vacations, so they went to Yellowstone
national park by way of salt lake city, Utah. After Yellowstone they went to glacier
international park. Then on into Canada. When they came out of Canada they headed west for
the Pacific Ocean. When they got to Seattle, Washington they headed south on highway 101.
All this time they would make side trips to every national park or monument they saw on
the map.
When they got to the end of highway 101 they were in Tijuana, Mexico. They decided it was
time to go home. But they stopped off at Mesa, Arizona for a visit with Loren's mother and
to rest for a few days. Now that's a vacation Loren told his neighbors. No time limits and
no particular destination. If you have seven weeks and can drive seven thousand miles you
should take a vacation.
In 1980 Loren was elected president of the Arlington sportsman's club. He and Johnnie had
a good time that year. Johnnie hit Loren in the face with a pie at the April Club meeting.
But that's a whole nother story for a different time. During May Johnnie took skeet
lessons and joined a skeet league. She also took Loren's skeet gun away from him and he
had to go buy himself another one. In July Loren started the ice cream supper tradition at
the July meetings. In august he started the watermelon feed tradition at the august club
meetings. Throughout the year they both shot in many of the club matches and both won many
trophies and ribbons. It was a fun year.
 Not
having to go to work anymore Loren had lots of time to go fishing. He and Johnnie would go
to tucker's camp on caddo lake. They would stay for a week, two weeks, a month, six weeks,
or more at a time. The camp was owned and operated by a widow lady named Nana Tucker. Her
husband had been killed on the lake in a boating accident. Loren and Johnnie would work
around the camp for part of their rent. They were spending so much time down there they
started calling Mrs. Tucker 'mom.'
One summer Mrs. Tucker went to Minnesota to have surgery for cancer and Loren and Johnnie
ran the camp for her for over three months. Johnnie had some very interesting happenings
during that time. For instance when a man stepped out of the front of the little jon boat
he and his wife had rented and it caused the boat to buck up and down. This caused his
wife who was sitting in the back of the boat to somersault over backwards into the lake.
When she came up out of the water she was using words not heard in Sunday school. Johnnie
took herself elsewhere and left the woman's husband to face her wrath by himself. Mrs.
Tucker is 93 years young and has beaten cancer four times now. She still runs her camp and
Loren still goes down there to help her.
Loren's getting old enough that he does a lot of his fishing sitting on the porch of
number one cabin. But that's a whole nother story for a different time also. Anyway he
does most of his hunting and fishing in his memory now. He's starting to get a little
forgetful so he decided he would write down some of his experiences so he could remember
them when he told his great granddaughter about them. I've read these stories and I'm not
sure I believe all of them but they are entertaining. You should read them. May be he will
put them all together one of these days in a book form.
Author- Unknown
This page is created
and presented as a Birthday Gift to Loren Moore, Texas
by George J Thaliath, India
on 12th November 2001
Loren
Moore Breathed his last on 3rd February 2006
HomePage of George J Thaliath
|