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Drones Over Dry Creek

 

(“Drones over Dry Creek” will be featured in the upcoming Curt Iles short story collection, A Love of the Land, which is scheduled for release on November 1, 2025.)

 

The recent furor over the mystery drones flying around the New Jersey skies has captivated America.

 

It made me think of another story that I’ll call “Drones Over Dry Creek.”

 

Sometimes, during the 1980s, an enterprising company found a way to make money over the skies of Dry Creek (and beyond).

Using early GPS, they flew a piper cub in grids over our community’s rural homesteads and farms, taking aerial photos of the countryside.

A few weeks later, a salesman with a Texas license plate began showing up on the porches and doorsteps of our homes. Just like the proverbial traveling salesman of old, he’d open his briefcase and hand you a glossy color photo of your land from about two thousand feet above.

 

Residents were stunned and amazed. Like all Pineywoods people, we cherish our land. We’ve walked, worked, and hunted on it for generations, but few had seen their home and land from the air.

 

This was long before Google Earth and aerial drones. Back then, our view of Dry Creek was horizontal, not vertical. Suddenly, we could see what our land looked like from above.

 

Nearly everyone in Dry Creek (including DeDe and me) bought a photo. The offer was simply irresistible, even at the hefty $20 per photo.

 

My Daddy bought Momma a unique framed photo of 622 Clayton Iles Road for Christmas. Practically every home in Dry Creek proudly displayed their picture on the mantel or table.

 

Everyone this is, except Jessie Bushnell.

 

To understand this story, I must briefly describe Jessie Bushnell. He prided himself on being gruff, always dressed in faded overalls, driving an old truck full of yapping hounds with a dragging muffler throwing sparks from underneath.

 

Jessie Bushnell lived life as he chose, beholden to no man.   Like most of the men in his family, he worked as an ironworker at the refineries in Lake Charles.

 

Folks who moved into Dry Creek were often intimidated by Jessie Bushnell. I always believed that was the persona he wished to show to the outside world.

 

But I knew better.  Anytime there was a disaster in Dry Creek: a house fire, a tree on a roof from a storm, pipes bursting in a widow-woman’s house during a January freeze, Jessie Bushnell was the first one there to help.

 

I saw behind his macho facade. 

Jessie had a heart for helping others. He didn’t make a show of it; he just did what was needed with little fanfare.

 

I call it the Dry Creek Way.

 

                                                                                                       *  *  *

 

I also knew Jessie Bushnell through his and Diane’s six children. I taught each of them in school, and they were a delight to have in science class. They were bright, fun, and, like me,  loved the outdoors. 

 

Once again, I saw past the old overalls and perpetual scowl. I saw a Dry Creek man, and I’ve always loved Dry Creek men.

 

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That brings us back to the traveling, piper cub, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase a photo of your place from the air.

 

Everyone in Dry Creek was impressed with the photos except for one man.

 

Jessie Bushnell.

 

The salesman walked onto the porch of the Bushnell home and procured the photo of his house and land.

 

Jessie studied it closely before handing it back to the salesman.

 

“Who gave you permission to fly over my house?”

 

The salesman sputtered, “But Sir, we only . . . “

 

“And who gave you permission to fly over my house and take a picture of it?”

 

The salesman was flummoxed.

 

Jessie was working himself up.  “Fellow, as far as I know, I own the land above my place as high as my .30.30 rifle will shoot.”

 

At the mention of a gun, the salesman wisely snapped his briefcase shut and backpedaled away.

 

Jessie Bushnell had one final statement to make,

 

 “And fellow, as far as I know, I own this here land all the way down to ‘Chiner.’ ”

 

                                                         *     *    *

 

I still laugh out loud when I tell this story. It is the epitome of how Pineywoods people feel about their land.

 

It’s a love of the land.

 

Yes, we sure love our land,

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Back to those mystery drones, I don’t know about what’s happening there,  but I’m sure of this: if a mystery drone (or Chinese balloon) flies low enough over Dry Creek, there’ll be a battalion of Dry Creek men (and women) determined to take it down with their deer rifles.

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Yes, we have a love of our land.

 

And In Jessie Bushnell’s eyes, that love of his land was deep, wide, and high.

 

 

“Drones over Dry Creek” will be featured in our next short story collection, A Love of the Land, scheduled for release on November 1, 2025.

 

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Here is our current 2025 publication calendar

 

Spring 2025  A Pineywoods Manifesto: Lasting Lessons for Life.   With the help of readers (like you), I’ll be compiling short snippets on things young men (or women) need to know as they step out on their own.  A Pineywoods Manifesto will be written as visits with my four teen grandsons.

 

Late Summer 2025  A Broken Cup: A Journey Through Depression. Most of my readers know about my mental health challenges and bouts of depression. I feel compelled to share this book to encourage all who’ve been broken by life. 

 

Please pray for me on this project, which will require me to be transparent and vulnerable. I’ve been meditating on the statement, “If your deep pain has given you a platform, you should share it with others.”

 

November 2025   A Love of the Land.

 

We also will sprinkle in some “surprise short books” that you’ll enjoy.

 

As always, you can keep up with us at www.creekbank.net and Amazon.com/Curt Iles.