Barber’s 3rd book shares ‘good times’ while hunting

Time was that if a family didn’t know how to live off the land, they went hungry and did without. It was a time when too many lived hand to mouth.

Gertie Barber of Muldrow remembers those days when hunting was more a necessity than a diversion.

Born along the Arkansas River in the small Redland community south of Muldrow during the Great Depression, Harvell, from an early age, saw guns being used to put food on the table. Her first gun at age 8 was a BB gun. From there she graduated to a Springfield 22-caliber rifle. When she later acquired a 410 shotgun, she hunted quail. She later progressed to a muzzleloader, but says she enjoys archery hunting the most — “archery is more of a challenge for a deer hunter.”

But it wasn’t until 1979 that she harvested her first buck.

Since then, her hunting excursions have been too numerous to count.

True and down-to-earth adventures of those hunting trips “shared with young family members, their friends and my family” are the basis for Barber’s latest book, “Hunting — Whitetails, Fuzzytails, Cottontails and Me!”

“I hope they never forget the good times we shared hunting whitetail deer, quail, ducks, squirrels, wild hogs and cottontail rabbits with Dad, T.A. (Tom) Harvell; my son, James Barber; nephews, Kirby Rogers and Lynn Harvell; and me. We taught them gun safety, respect for other hunters, sharing our bounty with each other at the end of each hunt and, mostly, we taught them to obey the wild game laws and not be wasteful of the wild animals we harvested,” Barber writes in her preface to her compilation of stories gathered during years scouring the wilderness for Sequoyah County game.

Barber will be on hand for a book signing at noon on Nov. 8 at Stanley Tubbs Memorial Library in Sallisaw.

“My dad, Tom A. Harvell, taught me how to shoot and hunt at a very young age. I have enjoyed decades of hunting with people and teaching them what I know. Each story is true, and my intent with this work is to preserve these cherished memories for many years to come,” Barber says in introducing her third book.

“I wrote this book to share stories about my family, friends and myself. The stories relate to the whitetail bucks, rabbit and squirrel hunts with my dad, son, nephews, grandsons and friends.

“When I grew up, hunting for food was fun and much appreciated on the dinner table. My dad was from a family that loved to hunt, and taught me everything he knew. Hunting whitetails was not possible until the late 1970s, and became my No. 1 sport. I enjoyed taking the younger boys and girls and seeing their happy faces when they shot their first rabbit or squirrel. Luckily for me, I always carried my camera along and shot many pictures of our hunts. I am dedicating this book in honor of my dad, who lived to be 101½ years old.”

Steve English, one of Barber’s grandchildren, knows his grandmother’s heart and how important hunting is to her.

“My grandmother, Gertie M. Barber, wrote this book to provide a glimpse into what a more self-sufficient lifestyle entails, as well as to pass down her years of experience teaching youth how to hunt game for food, the process of properly dressing it and the essentials of firearm safety,” English writes in the book’s foreword. “Of equal importance is the joy and camaraderie shared hunting whitetail deer, squirrel, cottontail and swamp rabbits. More than a mere hobby, this constitutes a way of life.”

Barber attended school in Gans, and graduated high school in May 1955. Shortly afterward, she married B.J. Barber. They are the parents of three children, Judy K., James A. and Ruth A. (deceased). They have three grandchildren — Steve English, Terra Hartman and Eric Pierce — and three great-grandchildren — Seth, Niyah and Dakota. Gertie is retired from a busy life as a designer/manufacturer of ladies’ handbags, office assistant, entrepreneur and housewife. When she’s not hunting, her hobbies are gardening, sewing and writing.

Barber’s first book, from 2005, was “The Buck Stops Here! Bullets, Broadheads, Whitetails and Me.” Each chapter of her inaugural book has the season, the year, the weight and antler point size of each deer, along with her memories of the hunt.

“I have been in tornadoes and snowstorms, I have fallen in crews and been chewed on by mosquitoes, but I have enjoyed doing all of this,” she says of her first book.

She followed her maiden foray into publishing with “Grandma Charlotte: A Family History” in 2022. It is a collection of stories about her family’s Cherokee ancestry told to Barber by her grandmother, Mary Ann Vickery Russell. The stories are about her grandmother’s family, told to Barber “when I was a young and inquisitive girl.” One particularly poignant story is about her great-grandmother, Charlotte Vickery choking a panther “wildcat” to death with her bare hands. “These true stories have been deeply embedded in my memory for many years,” Barber says.

While hunting is a reward unto itself, sharing the experience with others makes it even more special.

“I thank each young person and their parent for their interest in hunting with us,” Barber says in acknowledging the importance of support she received from her family, friends and those in the community who encourage her writing. “It was rewarding to see the excitement in the youngsters’ eyes after they shot their first rabbit, quail, squirrel or whitetail deer.”

Barber’s cousin, Jackie Riley, draws specific praise from Barber “for the outstanding job she did composing the front and back cover of this book.” Barber adds that her three grandchildren helped select the final designs.

Copies of Barber’s book are available at Rocky’s Corner, 100 W. Ray Fine Blvd. in Roland; Sooner Liquor, 908 E. Shawntel Smith Blvd. in Muldrow, near Piggly Wiggly; and Chapters on Main Bookstore & Coffeeshop, 816 Main Street, Van Buren, Ark. The books can