Daily Speculations

The Hoodoo Man

By Peter Daniels

I’ve just finished Victor’s book, “The Education of a Speculator,” which I enjoyed very much and particularly the part about the “hoodoo man.” Here is the story about the greatest hoodoo man I ever met: 

Between the ages of 8 and 10 (circa ’42 to ’44), I spent almost every sunny day with one of the greatest men that I ever met. He was over 6 feet tall, straight as a stick and by all accounts was over 100 years old. His name was Uncle Stone and every sunny day during the summer he walked from somewhere in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, across the Staunton River bridge to Campbell County in order to fish. He dressed the same way every day in a black suit, frock-tailed coat and fedora hat. He carried a cane and two bamboo fishing poles.

When I first met him, I was completely mesmerized because he could catch more catfish than one would think was humanly possible. Some days these strings of fish were only 3 feet long but on other days he could catch a string of fish at least 14 feet long. I saw him hold a string of fish (in the middle of the string) with arms extended over his head and both ends of the string touched the ground. He used the same equipment that everyone else used but his results were phenomenal. 

When I asked him how he was able to catch so many fish he replied that he had “hoodooed” the fish. 

After that I became obsessed with fishing because I wanted to catch a string of catfish that would reach from my arm, extended over my head to the ground and I wanted to learn the “secret of the hoodoo.” I started going fishing every sunny day with Uncle Stone and it took me three summers to catch that long string of fish. 

In the meantime, I listened as Uncle Stone told me many stories about his long, wonderful life, including the time when he had been a slave (I know this part is hard to believe, but it’s true). But he would never tell me the secret of the hoodoo, no matter how hard I tried to get the answer out of him.  

After I caught my long string of fish, I became uninterested in fishing and on our last day on the river bank Uncle Stone told me that he had just turned 105 years old and that he was thinking about getting married again, to a “yella gal this time” (and he did!). He also showed me a large tumor on his right side that he kept covered with his frocktailed coat, and he told me that it would never hurt him because he had “hoodooed” it. 

A few years later, the most interesting and upbeat person that I have ever met died. But I know that Uncle Stone died happy because he had beaten the stock market of life, and even George Soros hasn’t done that! A few years later, I was walking past a black cabaret one night and stopped to listen, because I loved their music. I’ll never forget the song that was playing that night. As I listened I heard the refrain over and over again. It was “Somebody Done Hoodooed the Hoodoo Man,” and I said to myself, “Nobody can hoodoo a real hoodoo man!”