The character of Jethro Bodine was based on the character of Sy Thomas, who in real life was my wonderful Uncle Jiggs (Gerald Agee).
The dead pan self deprecating riotously funny humor of the Beverly Hillbillies and the Ma and Pa series in The Index that inspired it was the sole creation of my grandmother Myrtle (Ma) Cahow Agee, 1897 - 1980.
And there really was a Bug Tussle.
A young man named Emmet Molder and his wife bought the Hamlet store from an old man named Hamlet in the twenties and changed the name to Bug Tussle.
When I was a toddler Ma Agee would take me to my back yard, and say
Could you show me Bug Tussle?
I’d point a half mile Northwest and say, There’s Bug Tussle, don’t you see it Grandma?
She’d reply I’m an old lady and all I see is a little house way over yonder.
Let’s go to the Grade A milk barn and have your Daddy tell us all, about how Bug Tussle used to be.
If I’m not a good man, it’s impossible to blame my upbringing.