Derogatory term: camel jockey. Used as a put down of Arabs. Bench jockey: a second rate ball player content to sit in the dugout and harass the opposition. Frog jockey: well….
Okay, as crazy as it sounds, there are frog jockeys. Joe Kitchell is one of them.
In 2005, Joe ended a jumping drought for Angel’s Camp, “riding” Roy W. to a winning leap of 19 feet, 4 inches. That’s pretty damned far for a creature the size of a grapefruit to jump.
So what is the big deal about these here amphibians? The story goes like this: Mark Twain, early on, made his mark in the literary world with a story called The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, based on some stories he had heard from local tale tellers. He adapted their tales into his now-classic short piece, in a cabin located on Jackass Hill, a few miles south of Angels Camp, California. (Jackass Hill is named for the 200 or so pack mules that used to bring supplies through the area, on the road named for them.)
So, with Twain’s career under way, and the frogs now associated with Angels Camp, and Calaveras County, it was only a matter of time before frog jumping became a big deal. A contest is held every year at the local fairgrounds, and the winners (frog AND “jockey”) get a nice plaque, Hollywood style, on the sidewalk in the historic dowbtown section of Angel’s Camp. In 1954, Roy Weimer from Angel’s Camp prodded Lucky to a then world record jump of 16 feet, 10 inches. And he was the last local winner until 2005, when Joe Kitchell took the crop to Roy W (named after Weimer) and got to enjoy the benefits of the winner’s circle. Rumors about frog steroid use in the intervening years cannot be substantiated because all of the alleged participants were tragically served up at a local Chinese Buffet one evening due to a paperwork snafu.
Still, Roy W., clean and healthy, made his 19 foot jump, and Joe Kitchell saw fame and fortune in his eyes. Briefly.
He got to appear on the TV show, “I’ve Got a Secret”, for which he was paid 1000 dollars. “That’s more than I made for winning the contest,” he says.
And that was about it. Now, Joe works for the public works department, in part cleaning the sidewalks, including the very one where the bronze plaque commemorating his glory days. He doesn’t mind though, because it affords him the opportunity to wax philosophical about “phrogs”. (sorry)
“Frogs live for only three reasons: To eat, to not get eaten, and to make baby frogs.”
I asked Joe where the contestants come from. “Lakes and ponds,” he said. “About a week before the contest my team, the Calaveras County Frog Jockeys, goes out and rounds up as many as we can find. One night we got forty five. Some are too fat, or too thin. We try to get their body temperature up because the higher it is the more active they are.”
After the contest the winners, and losers are released back into the wild.
So where is Roy W these days?, I ask.
“He is out making baby frogs somewhere,” says Joe Kitchell, with a laugh.
Does life get any better? I mean it. Does it?
Well, you know how I am so here goes. I'm going to tell U a FROG story.
ReplyDeleteMany years ago in Mississippi, frogs were legally caught with frog gigs but now only with a special built grabber designed not to harm them. U can harm them by killing them before U cook them to eat but people love laws.
I went gigging one night on Eagle lake in the Mississippi Delta.
We were gigging for frogs when we ran across some water moccasin snakes that we could sell for $3.00 a foot if we wanted to if they were 3 ft. or longer. The venom was used for helping you not to die if you got bit by one of them. (Antidote)
Their eyes are a bright orange color when U shine the light in the eyes. We ran across an alligator who's eyes shined the same color.
I saw the first eyes and began easing up to it and I thought it was the biggest frog in the world until I got close enough to it and it was a snake coiled up with it's head laying in the middle of the coil and appeared to be a big fat frog but NO IT WASN'T.
They were falling out of willow trees hanging over the edge of the lake all around us.
Now to "shorten the story", we would put the frogs in a burlap bag with an unknown hole in the bottom and frogs were hopping all over our boat before we realized the problem.
When I got to the house I dressed them and discovered that under the first thin clear layer of skin, there were worms under the thin layer. Worms are protein to but I didn't feel I needed any protein so I saw a fun trip go down the drain.
The End
A Chinese restaurant - no shit! - hope they served 'em up with broccoli!!
ReplyDeleteTo asonofgod: I love your stories as much as Jim's. Thank you for the thoughts and memories that you have resurrected during Jim's journey. In another few decades, I would like to read Jim's recounts of his walking days on another persons's blog. You two amaze me!
ReplyDeletebrushmrx, me and Jim can mix his current with my past and steer them up like a SALAD. MMM GOOD.
ReplyDeleteIt just fills in your time, that's all.
I get the good chewing part though. I'm like a piece of poison in a pot. Can U sang that?