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LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Time now for StoryCorps. Every autumn in the Mississippi Delta swamps, a group of witches gather. No, not the kind that cast spells. They're hunters, and they call themselves the Swamp Witches - a group of friends who share wild adventures, riding, canoeing, hunting foxes and ducks. Witches Susan Williams and Allison Crews came to StoryCorps to remember their favorite times together.
SUSAN WILLIAMS: Getting up at 4 o'clock in the morning, the moon is up, and it could be 19 degrees outside, and we're breaking ice with our paddles. Just three canoes, six witches, dogs.
ALLISON CREWS: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: And we wait for the first shooting light. Of course, a perfect day is when the ducks come swooping in.
CREWS: Yeah.
WILLIAMS: But I don't care if we shoot one duck. Just being out here with you girls.
CREWS: That's right.
WILLIAMS: And I remember the guy one time that said, where are the men? And we were like, well, this is it. Who put your decoys out? Who trained your dogs? We do. And we can vote.
CREWS: We can vote (laughter). That's right.
WILLIAMS: I'll never forget, we were fox hunting, and it was wild gallop. Those hounds ran the game into a big hole in a bank. And you are not going to let those hounds get up in that hole and tear that game to...
CREWS: No, no.
WILLIAMS: ...Pieces because...
CREWS: It's a chase sport. We don't want to hurt them.
WILLIAMS: You handed me your reins and said, hold my horse.
CREWS: (Laughter).
WILLIAMS: And there you go crawling into the hole.
CREWS: Get them out of there.
WILLIAMS: One at a time, you're grabbing the hounds. And I looked down, and I said, she is not going to have all the fun. And I crawled up in that hole with you.
CREWS: I remember. Covered in mud.
WILLIAMS: Head to toe. My husband Dougie always says, I can tell Susan had the time of her life when she comes home and she's got mud on her eyelids.
CREWS: (Laughter).
WILLIAMS: Well, one of your famous sayings is the harder the conditions, the bigger the bragging rights.
CREWS: That's exactly right. Well, you've got the best bragging rights of all because you had an accident.
WILLIAMS: Yeah. The horse catapulted me in the air, and I landed square on my head. The doctor, he said that I would probably be a quadriplegic for the rest of my life. It took me a year to recover. And today, I still gallop like the wind, and I'm not as reckless as I used to be on horseback.
CREWS: I disagree.
WILLIAMS: Oh (laughter).
CREWS: You're still pretty freaking reckless.
WILLIAMS: You know, my husband's going to be listening to this.
CREWS: Oh, sorry.
WILLIAMS: (Laughter) Well, you know, my favorite saying hangs over my toilet in my barn. And it says, it is not my intention to go to my grave in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to slide in broadside, all used up and screaming, woo-hoo...
CREWS: Whoa...
SUSAN WILLIAMS AND ALLISON CREWS: ...What a ride.
(LAUGHTER)
CREWS: Me too. Here's to that.
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FADEL: Allison Crews and Susan Williams for StoryCorps in Mississippi. They're looking forward to their next gathering celebrating their 26th year hunting together. Their conversation is archived at the Library of Congress. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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