Shooting Parkers in Disdain

[Dean Romig]

These days we don't think much about how a Parker might have been used other than for hunting or for protection but I recently finished a fascinating novel by Charles Frazier, published in 2006 titled Thirteen Moons , set in both pre and post Civil War times as well as right about up to the turn of the century, in which I came across a few paragraphs where the main character, in his old age after 'progress' had overtaken both himself and the Southern Appalachians he so loved, and he had taken to shooting his Parker as a statement of disdain.

Frazier writes:

"Now, though, I have train tracks running between my front porch and the river."

"From my front porch I can look beyond the shining rail lines and across the river and up to the big blue mountains sitting against the sky like embodied truths, like perfect beings without fear or desire."

"I have gotten the railway I once wanted. And what has it brought? The ravages of tourists and logging."

"Every day the passenger train rolls by, between ten forty-eight and ten fifty-five in the morning. After breakfast I wait on the porch. I sit tipped back in a straight chair reading "Lucretious" for the second time this year. I consult my watch. The twelve-gauge Parker rests propped against the rail of the porch... As a concession to age, I've fitted the stock of the Parker with a rubber pad inside a sleeve of leather laced tight to the stock. Altogether, it is an aesthetic that pleases me. Dark, oiled leather, worn walnut, steel with the bluing rubbed away from much handling."

"I cock my head to aim an ear toward the first low-pitched rumble from upriver. I put the book down and take up the Parker... At this moment, Pullman porters in white jackets walk the aisles - warning passengers not to be alarmed. As they approach my house, the porters go through the passenger cars closing windows on the side exposed to my front porch, and they tell the tourists that the sound of a discharging firearm should not cause concern."

"I rise and carry the Parker to the porch rail. When the locomotive approaches, the engineer blows the whistle and waves. I put the padded cup of the gun butt to my shoulder and aim rather generally. I trip one trigger. The kick steps me back. I brace myself and fire the second barrel. If the birdshot even carries as far as the tracks, it rattles off the car windows."

"I have promised to use loads no greater than birdshot and the railroad administrators and the local sheriff have promised to ignore me."

"The whistle blows two short friendly notes and the locomotive turns the curve and drags its train behind."

Thirteen Moons is a very well-written and researched novel and I found myself picking it up to read just about every spare few minutes I could find both night and day. I highly recommend it. This is the second novel by Charles Frazier - his first was Cold Mountain, a highly acclaimed historical novel.