Tony Smith: Author

These old hills they cradled me when I was but an infant. And when I was bigger they let me play in and around them. Oh yes, these old hills..Oh how I love them. And when I was older they let me hunt in them taking rabbits, squirrels, coon and sometimes a deer. Oh yes these old hills...

Most of my people left these hills to get jobs in the factories but not me. If I have to leave these hills to make it then I won’t make it. Oh these hills... The old people say if the hills could talk oh the stories they could tell.
Tony Smith , born in 1960 wrote these words during one brief time in his life while he was away from his beloved hills. He has always listened to the old people tell stories and he remembers the good times while they were happening in his life. In this collection of short stories Tony, the old people and the hills are talking and telling great stories of earlier and simpler days .Many times they had to leave the hills but they never left them behind in their thoughts, dreams and memories. Tony has stayed to tell the tales .Read along with Tony, those who grew up here will cherish the old days. Those who grew up in other places will learn how to cook ground hogs and squirrels, hunt rabbits, butcher a hog, and truly enjoy family life on a farm in the Kentucky hills.
Order "These Old Hills"
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What inspires Tony to write his stories
Well the time is 6:30 am. I have been awake for about three hours now. I sometimes wake up in the night or early morning hours with people that I used to know on my mind. I can see them all so clearly and I remember us all talking together. In my mind I can hear them and see them just as good now as I did back then. When I woke up this morning it was still dark out. As I was laying there I was thinking about some of my friends that I camped out with for weeks at a time down on the Red Bud River.
We would camp out and fish in the middle of the day and we would squirrel hunt of the morning and of the evenings. Oh, I can see all their faces so clearly and I can still hear their voices just the way they talked with me and each other. Yes, I can see them as they talk. I can see Virgil Houndshell and his brother Cecil, Art Wynn, old man Fee Spurlock and Joe Gilbert. Now they are all dead and gone and I miss them all.

Who Was William Shakespeare??

Who was William Shakespeare??

Just Who Was William Shakespeare? Pt 1

From " A Cousin and a Friend"
Nineteen year old Billy Wynn came down from Dayton, Ohio to spend a week or so visiting his seven year old cousin Tony and family in Kentucky back in 1967.

Billy asked, “Tony have they told you about old William Shakespeare yet?” I said, “No who is he?” Billy laughed a little and said, “Why, he is some old man that died before our Papaw was even born and all he did was set around and tell lies.

Billy went on to say that I would be hearing about him sooner or later. He said, “You will not like hearing about him.” About that time I went to sleep.The next night when we all got in bed, Billy asked me again, ‘Tony did they tell you about old William Shakespeare?” I said. “No they did not talk about him any.” Billy said, “Oh, they will tell you about him some day, you can bet on that. Then they will be giving you tests on that old bird.”

I asked Billy, “Well just who was William Shakespeare?” Billy said, “I already told you Tony. He was some old man that lived a long time ago and he was not from here. He was from somewheres else way off, maybe California. You know where all them heathen people live. I asked Billy, “What is heathen people?” He said, “Why Tony, don’t they learn you nothing at school? Heathen people is people that believe that they can live how ever they want to and still go to heaven when they die.” After that I went to sleep.

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_______________Shakespeare Part 2
I decided in the morning, as me and Isabelle were walking over to the store to get on the bus, I said to myself; now when I get to school today, I will ask my teacher was there a man by the name of William Shakespeare? I will see if big Billy had been lying to me or not.I remember setting in the back of the room and I wanting to ask Miss Parsons, if she ever heard of a man by the name of William Shakespeare but I also knew that I was not her pick of the litter because about a week before, she gave me a hard paddling just because she caught me cheating on an old spelling test.

Then I got to thinking, what if Big Billy lied to me and there never was anyone by that name. If I was to ask her about some one she never heard about, she might give me another paddling for asking her a stupid question. So I decided that I would just wait and ask someone elseThe teachers would always stand at the end of the playground watching all of us. I remember looking down at the end and I could see that my teacher was standing on one side of the playground and could see another teacher standing on the other side of the playground. I said to myself, I’ll go down and I’ll ask that other teacher if there was a man by the name of William Shakespeare. So what if it makes her mad. She will not paddle me because she’s not my teacher.

I began to walk through all the kids to the other end of the playground. As I got closer and closer to her, I said to my self, she is younger and prettier than my old teacher, maybe she will not get mad if I ask her about old William Shakespeare. But my legs seemed to get weaker with every step I would take. Just as I was getting up close enough to talk to her, my teacher walked up to her and began to talk with her. So I just stopped and looked down at the ground and went back to the other end of the playground.

I remember thinking as I walked back, why Big Billy probably was lying to me anyway. Who ever heard of a name like William Shakespeare anyway? I bet Big Billy just made that name up. In a little bit it was time to go back to the room. I remember all that day I wanted to ask my teacher about old William Shakespeare but I was just too afraid to ask her about him.

Shakespeare Part 3


The next night we had not been in the bed five minutes and Big Billy asked me again. He said, “Tony have they told you about old William Shakespeare.” I was already mad at myself because I did not have the nerve to ask my teacher about him so I told Billy. I said, “No they did not say anything about him and I don’t believe there ever was a William Shakespeare.” Billy laughed a little. He said, “Now Tony there was a man by the name of William Shakespeare. I would not lie to you about something like that, you just ask your teacher.”

In just in a minute or two, Billy began to snore. In a little bit I too was asleep.In the morning I remember wanting to ask my teacher, “Was there a man by the name of William Shakespeare?” But like the day before, I was just too afraid of her to ask. Like always, that day at school was as long as three or four days at home.At last the long day was over and we were on the bus and on the way home.

As I sat there I looked over in the seat just across the aisle from me and there sat one of the best looking girls on the bus. Her name was Judy Cox. She had long blonde hair and she always wore pretty dresses and she was in high school. She once gave me a lollipop for free.It just came to me, if there was ever a man by the name of William Shakespeare she would know about him. I looked over at her and said “Judy.” She looked at me and I just asked her, “Was there ever a man by the name of William Shakespeare?”

After a second or two went by she said, “Why, yes there was but I don’t believe he would be anyone that you would want to know about.” She did not say any more. But that was okay. I knew Big Billy had not been lying to me and that just made my day.

I can remember going to bed that night. I was just laying there waiting for Big Billy to ask me about old William Shakespeare. It was not long until he did. Just all at once Billy asked, “Tony did you hear about old William Shakespeare today?” I said, “Yes, today I heard about old Shakespeare.” Big Billy laughed out in a loud voice and said, “I told you that would be hearing about that old bird. They will be giving you tests on him too. You just wait and see.” Then he said, “Who told you about him, your teacher I guess.”

After Big Billy stopped talking, I said, “No it was not my teacher that told about him, I asked a high school girl if they ever was a man by the name of William Shakespeare. She said, “Yes there was,” but she said he would not be someone that I would like to hear about.

Big Billy said, “Oh” and just for a little bit Billy did not say anything. Then Billy said, “Well she is right, he’s not someone you would like to hear about, but like it or not you will be hearing a lot about him.” Then we went to sleep.

Shakespeare Part 4
The next morning just before daylight Mom came into the bedroom and told me to get up. She woke Big Billy up and said, “Billy, I am going to do the washing today so get your belongings out of your pockets and I will wash your clothes too.” Then she said, “Here is a pair of Charlie’s old overalls you can put on until yours gets dry.”

Big Billy began to get up and before I could get on my clothes Billy looked at me and said, “Well I guess you will be hearing some more about old Shakespeare today.” I said, “Well I hope not, I have already heard too much about him..”I never will forget that morning. Big Billy was setting on the bed across from me and all he had on was his underwear. He was smoking a cigarette and he was teasing me about old Shakespeare. I was putting my clothes on as fast as I could.

He could tell that I did not like hearing about Shakespeare. He was having fun out of me. But to me, it was not fun at all.I can remember big Billy telling me, “Now Tony, you got it made. You get to go to school and look at all the good-looking girls. Why, you get to go out on the playground at recess and play with the boys and girls. After all that, you get to go back in your room and study math, spelling and old Shakespeare.What about poor old me? All I get to do all day is go hunting, and kill them poor little squirrels. I have to go way out in the woods. Why, I am going to have a bad time doing all I got to do today.” I could tell Big Billy was enjoying teasing me. He knew I wanted to go hunting.

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Look up William Shakespeare and tell who he was.

Tell when he lived and the names of some of the stories he wrote.________________________________________________________